Megan Corrigan, a veteran Colorado activist just returning to the state after graduate school in Montana, joined the crew at the beginning of January as our new staff biologist.  Adding Megan to the team will provide some welcome relief for Erin, now our senior staff biologist, who for years has been doing the work of two or three biologists.  Megan will focus on our energy campaign as well as campaigns to secure long-term protection for the Dolores River and Dominquez Canyons areas of southwestern Colorado and Utah.  Not only is Megan a skilled and dedicated activist with years of experience protecting our region’s forests and water, but she’s also a Center for Native Ecosystems alumni, having worked as an administrative assistant in the office years ago.

We are also thrilled to welcome Melissa Haniewicz (not an easy name to pronounce!), our new development associate.  For years we’ve thought it would be cool to have someone focusing on keeping our members up to date on our work, making it easy for them to contribute to our advocacy, and growing the size of our membership.  Now we do.  Melissa, who joins us with experience in both the fundraising and funding worlds, also meets our very rigorous “do we think this person will be fun to have around” test with a resounding “yes” (a critically important quality not only for office morale but also for working with members).  Even though our office is getting pretty full now (six full-time folks and a few more part-timers) it is awesome having everyone on board.