CYO Office Staff
If CYO were a bow . . . . (just stick with us here) . . . our office support staff would be the frame. The frame of a bow keeps all parts in balance to ensure stability.
With great support, it’s easier to hit targets with accuracy. And that, to take a metaphor too far, is what we aim for!
Fort collins Instructors Colorado Springs InstructorsCEO
Bob Hewson
Bob, with his brother Tom, established Colorado Youth Outdoors in 2001.
Favorites for Bob continue to be sharing time with his family, spending significant time outdoors with a fishing pole or firearm and catching a few sports games now and again.
Faith, family and friends are what Bob holds important in life.
“I feel very fortunate and privileged to lead this great little organization. I feel blessed to have a job I enjoy and further blessed to be surrounded by terrific people.”
Southeast Executive Director
Martin Trujillo
Martin is leading the CYO charge in Colorado Springs. He’s a 30 year military veteran and resourceful as heck. He can whip up enthusiasm for a project in the time some of us set up a tent.
After traveling the world with the Marines, he parked himself in Colorado Springs.
In addition to his full-time efforts building relationships with CYO, he sits on the boards of El Pomar International (Colorado Chapter), Colorado Springs World Affairs Council, Town of Monument Planning Commission, and is Co-Chair of the Hispanic Advisory Committee Elevating Leadership Development El Pomar. Whew!
mtrujillo@coloradoyo.org
Northeast Executive Director
Luke Brough
Luke is a Fort Collins native who grew up hunting, fishing and camping. After 15 years as a Park Ranger with Larimer County Natural Resources, he made the jump to CYO.
“So many people are never introduced to the outdoors by parents or grandparents at a young age like I was,” states Luke. “I love working to provide a place for these families to be introduced to the outdoors early and often.”
lbrough@coloradoyo.org
Program Director – Fort Collins
Courtney Strouse
Courtney was a participant in the 2nd year of CYO in 2002.
CYO was a heavy influence in why she went to CSU and earned a bachelor’s degree in Wildlife Biology. She went on to work for Larimer County Dept. of Natural Resources & the National Wildlife Research Center and spent quite a few years brewing beer at Budweiser. In an ideal world, she’d spend all her time fishing and hunting with her family.
She’s come full circle — back at CYO, advocating to get kids outdoors. Conservation and traditional outdoor recreation are a lifelong family tradition, currently being passed down to her 2 kids. Courtney is grateful to pay it forward to more families in our community.
cstrouse@coloradoyo.org
Development Director – Fort Collins
Sara Mickelson
Sara comes from a teaching and coaching background. Her passion for the youth in our community has been shown by her 6-year career as a high school physical education teacher and coach. She is thrilled to continue that passion here at CYO.
Sara is a Loveland, CO native who’s love for volleyball led her to Fort Hays State University to compete at the colligate level and complete a degree in Sport and Exercise Therapy. Upon moving back to Colorado, she met her husband Taylor and earned her master’s degree in education leadership from Western State. Sara and Taylor love to be outdoors in any capacity!
smickelson@coloradoyo.org
Program Manager – Fort Collins
Joelle Holtman
Joelle loves water. Rivers, lakes, oceans – she’ll even take it in a cup.
In her professional career, she’s been all over the place: agriculture, conservation, working with kids . . .
Is it perfect that she does all those jobs now while surrounded by 12 ponds? We’ll keep reminding her that it is!
Joelle loves watching the CYO process: relationships grow and thrive when people work together just outside their comfort zone. And sometimes that even happens near water.
jholtman@coloradoyo.org
Program Coordinator – Fort Collins
Alexis Smith
Alexis went through CORE with her dad in 2014. After volunteering and getting hired as summer staff, Alexis became our youngest Pro Staff ever in 2020.
Alexis loves wildflowers and exploring nature. She’s a certified dental assistant. It hasn’t yet come in handy at the office – but one of these days, it’s going to play out big time!
asmith@coloradoyo.org
Program Coordinator – Fort Collins
Claire Haenny
If Claire smells a little off, you might ask her about her horse (horse people don’t get offended about these things). Seven years in 4H got Claire like a lasso — she still volunteers every year at the 4H rodeo. Although she attended Montana State, this girl is all Loveland. Don’t get her started about the best kolache.
Best thing about working at CYO? On any given day, you can find her prepping for whatever fun is about to be had. Claire has two additional positions at CYO: VP of Parade Services and the committee chair of Fun Facts.
chaenny@coloradoyo.org
Facilites Manager, Fort Collins
Clay Cushman
Having a passion for the outdoors as far back as he can remember, Clay is happy he’s found a place where we all share the same goal.
Clay’s life goal is a bigger garage.
ccushman@coloradoyo.org
Facilites Coordinator, Fort Collins
Wayne Brungardt
Wayne Brungardt has spent most of his working life welding. These days, he could be anywhere on the CYO property — welding, fabricating, moving, placing, planting, cutting, digging, driving . . . . and when he heads home, he does the same stuff on his own property.
Wayne’s favorite outdoor activity is camping – but don’t think for a second he will reveal his favorite spot here.
Best part about working for CYO? The people and the mission. It makes all the work worthwhile!
Event Coordinator, Fort Collins
Jamie Davis
Jamie wears a lot of hats. Stetsons, bowlers, fedoras . . . she’s got at least one of each.
Oh, you thought we were being metephorical? Sure, she’s got a full time job in the construction industry, and after volunteering for 6 years we roped her into sidelining at CYO – coordinating our FUNraising.
When she isn’t working, she’s golfing, coaching her daughters’ sports, working on her goose call, in the river with her fly rod or poking around in the mountains for some big game.
jdavis@coloradoyo.org
Development Coordinator, Fort Collins
Laura Martinson
Fresh outta UNC Greeley, Laura received a double degree in History and Communications.
Laura loves reading and American History. When not reading, you’ll probably won’t find her — she’ll be out hiking with her dogs.
The high energy of campers and field trip kids is what Laura enjoys most about CYO. Luckily, there’s plenty of that to go around!
lmartinson@coloradoyo.org
Marketing & Communication, Fort Collins
Heidi Warren
Heidi doesn’t cast, shoot or know how to hold a bow — but has been aiming a camera for most of her life. With camera in hand and a journalism degree in there somewhere, she’s searching for CYO’s tallest fish tales (all true!)
The best thing about coming to CYO, for Heidi, is that despite deadlines, to-do lists & usually running late, the geese absolutely could not care less.
hwarren@coloradoyo.org
Grant Writer
Evan Jones
Evan is so obsessed with fly-fishing that he’ll agree to pretty much anything if there’s water involved.
Even though his background is mostly on the giving side of grantmaking, he took one look at our ponds and wanted to be our grant writer.
Now he spends his days helping to ensure that every kid in Northern Colorado can have the same opportunity he did while growing up here: to experience the joy and wonder of spending quality time on the water with the people you love.
ejones@coloradoyo.org
Thank you CYO Partners
