Board of Advisors
Our Guiding Support
We have an ambitious vision for the future and, to achieve that vision, we draw upon the help of a dynamic group of community leaders and mental health experts. They assist in increasing the school's visibility and expanding our impact throughout Colorado and across the globe. Learn more about each member of our Board of Advisors, and discover the ways they're helping us achieve our goal of redefining mental health.
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Anne Marie Aponte
Co-Founder & Chief Operating Officer, DUOS
Background
Anne Marie is a healthcare entrepreneur focused on building innovative solutions that improve the patient experience while combatting industry-wide challenges related to access, quality and cost.
In 2020, Anne Marie co-founded DUOS, a digital healthcare venture that empowers older adults to age independently in their homes by supporting them with everyday needs, such as food and transportation. Her prior experience includes leadership roles at DispatchHealth, a Denver-based company delivering high quality care to patient homes, and Accolade, a publicly-traded healthcare navigation firm. Anne Marie earned her MBA from the The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and her undergraduate degree in Industrial & Labor Relations from Cornell University.
Outside of work, Anne Marie is a health and wellness enthusiast who loves taking advantage of Colorado's wide ranging outdoor activities. She’s also a diehard Pittsburgh Steelers fan, dog lover, and self-proclaimed above average cook.
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Mike Cortes
Scholar in Residence, Graduate School of Social Work
University of DenverBackground
Mike Cortés is Scholar in Residence and Special Community Member at the DU Graduate School of Social Work, where he previously served on the faculty and taught graduate courses in public policy analysis and social policy advocacy.
His continuing research interests include (1) income security and care for disabled Latino elders, (2) policy analysis and advocacy by public charities, and (3) improvement of policy practice curricula in schools of social work.
Mike's previous faculty and administrative appointments have been at the University of Colorado Denver, the University of San Francisco, and the University of California, Berkeley. Today, Mike spends most of his time volunteering for nonprofit organizations. He is a member of the board of directors of the Colorado Latino Leadership, Advocacy, and Research Organization (CLLARO), where he also volunteered as executive director in 2018 through 2021. CLLARO is a non-profit organization in Denver established in 1964 to help Latinos in Colorado solve problems facing their communities. Until 2007, CLLARO was known as the Latin American Research and Service Agency (LARASA).
Mike’s past public and community service activities have included chairing the Denver Commission on Aging, serving on the AARP National Policy Council in Washington, D.C., the board of directors of the Center for Lobbying in the Public Interest in Washington, D.C., and several other boards of directors, advisory committees, and government commissions in various communities and states across the nation.
Mike began his career in 1971 as a community organizer, and later returned to school to study public policy analysis. In the 1970s, Mike was Vice-President for Research, Advocacy, and Legislation at the National Council of la Raza (now called Unidos US) in Washington, D.C. Mike led creation of La Raza's public policy program, which today advocates for Latinos in Washington, state capitols, and local communities in the areas of civic engagement, civil rights and immigration, education, workforce and the economy, health, and housing. CLLARO is one of 272 local nonprofit agencies and community development corporations affiliated with Unidos US throughout the nation.
In the early 1980s, Mike was Director of Planning, Finance, and Administration in the Corporate Community Affairs Department at Levi Strauss & Co. and the Levi Strauss Foundation in San Francisco. There, he was a founding member of Hispanics in Philanthropy, an association of staff and trustees of private foundations and corporate contributions programs, now promoting philanthropy by and for Latinos throughout the U.S.
Mike is a native of the San Francisco Bay Area. He earned the M.P.P. and Ph.D. degrees in public policy at the University of California at Berkeley, and the M.S.W. with a specialty in community practice and social action at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
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Corey Dillon
Investor | Entrepreneur | Coach
Corey Dillon is a 25-year veteran of the investment management industry turned small business owner. Blending his personal and professional interests, Corey remains active in the mutual fund industry through his service as an independent trustee to the Fiera Capital mutual funds in New York while also providing individual coaching to endurance athletes throughout the country.
Corey began his investment career with Janus Capital in Denver, where he worked primarily in the institutional and intermediary sales divisions. He went on to lead both mutual fund product and sales teams for ALPS Advisors, also based in Denver, before founding his own independent consulting firm to provide guidance to emerging asset managers.
Many years of living out of a suitcase Monday to Friday led Corey to develop a passion for endurance sports, as running became his chosen method of exploring new cities. In 2015, he turned that passion into a second career by co-founding Benefitness Partners with the aim of delivering custom wellness and group coaching programs for corporate and non-profit organizations. Today, Corey also provides individual coaching via Braveheart Coaching Colorado to runners, cyclists and triathletes who seek to challenge the perceived limits of their own abilities.
Corey has served on the Board of Directors for The Ability Experience, a Charlotte-based non-profit focused on supporting people with disabilities, since 2013. He grew up in an Air Force family, is a graduate of Colorado State University, bicycled across the United States in 1991, and remains to this day an avid skier, cyclist, runner, and triathlete.
Following the loss of their oldest daughter to depression in 2018, Corey and his wife Kim have become advocates for promoting kindness and acceptance toward all people, especially those who happen to be transgender. Their advocacy toward the LGBTQ+ community is their way of honoring both of their daughters, Rivena and Madison.
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Dr. Jennifer Gaudiani
Founder and Medical Director
The Gaudiani ClinicBackground
Dr. Gaudiani is an eating disorders expert physician and the Founder and Medical Director of the Gaudiani Clinic. Board Certified in Internal Medicine, she completed her undergraduate degree at Harvard, medical school at Boston University School of Medicine, and her internal medicine residency and chief residency at Yale, where she won numerous clinical awards. Dr. Gaudiani moved to Denver in 2007, choosing Colorado with her husband because its emphasis on the outdoors, the incorporation of nature into daily life, and the importance of family activity time as it offered a great way to foster work-life balance. In 2008, she was one of the founding team members of the ACUTE Center for Eating Disorders at Denver Health. After seven great years there, she left as its Medical Director to pursue her vision of outpatient care, founding the Gaudiani Clinic. During her years at ACUTE, Dr. Gaudiani became a nationally recognized internist for her work on the medical complications of eating disorders. Dr. Gaudiani’s book, Sick Enough: A Guide to the Medical Complications of Eating Disorders, was released via Routledge in October 2018.
Dr. Gaudiani has lectured nationally and internationally and is widely published in the scientific literature as well as on blogs. She is a current member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Eating Disorders and and the Academy for Eating Disorders Medical Care Standards Committee and is a former board member of iaedp (International Association of Eating Disorder Professionals). Dr. Gaudiani is one of the only outpatient internists in the US who carries the Certified Eating Disorder Specialist and Supervisor designation and has received the honorable designation of Fellow from the international organization Academy for Eating Disorders. In founding the Gaudiani Clinic, she has established a nationally unique outpatient medical setting, not dictated by restraints on visit time or insurance rules, where strong, supportive, and healing relationships with patients help them achieve wellness while remaining in their communities. Through lectures, consulting work, and her book, Sick Enough, she continues to improve the quality of medical care for patients with eating disorders in treatment programs around the country. On a personal note, Dr. Gaudiani is fluent in Spanish and speaks conversational Italian, loves hiking and spending time outdoors, is a voracious reader especially of young adult fantasy fiction, and lives with her wonderful husband and two daughters in Denver.
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Winters Heafey
Advisor
Assistant Director, Savills DenverBackground
Winters Heafey is an assistant director in Savills Denver office, with a focus on logistics and supply chains, as well as global portfolio management for industrial sector companies. Winters leads the Denver office industrial practice, advising a range of companies in the acquisition and disposition of industrial assets including manufacturing, distribution, and warehouse facilities.
Winters takes an active interest in several community and nonprofit organizations, serving on the Board of Directors for Colorado Youth for a Change and is the Board Chair of The University of Denver’s Graduate School of Professional Psychology; Sturm Military Specialty. He belongs to real estate professional association, CoreNet Colorado, serving on the Board of Directors. He also serves on the Board of Advisors for Denison University. He was a co -founder of Real Estate Careers for the Armed Forces a registered 501(c)(3), whose mission is to mobilize the real estate community to develop a sustainable program to hire veterans and their families within the commercial real estate industry.
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Mary Holm
Market President, Central Bank & Trust
Mary has been a commercial banker for 30 years in a variety of positions and is currently the Denver Market President for Central Bank & Trust.
Mary is a Denver native and feels strongly that the health and quality of any community is dependent on the involvement and contribution of each member. She is also passionate about equity in the world and increasing access to all things, including mental health services. Mary has been involved in many community-based organizations over the years, specifically that addressed affordable housing and education. She was one of the founders of The Rise School, a preschool for differently abled and typically developing children and is a founding member of IN! Pathways to Inclusive Higher Education, which is helping to create pathways to college for students with intellectual disabilities.
Mary is married with three children and lives in Wash Park. She is an abstract painter and enjoys time with friends and family outside and in the mountains, reading and learning new things.
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Ron Hoskins
Senior VP of Commercial Banking, Citywide Banks
Ron Hoskins has more than 30 years' experience in commercial banking, business development and credit authority. Since 2004, Ron has developed a large client portfolio as Senior Vice President of Commercial Banking for Citywide Banks. Previously, Ron held Vice President of Commercial Lending positions with both Union Bank and Trust (Key Bank) and Colorado National Bank (US Bank).
Ron earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Kansas State University and completed the Graduate School of Banking at the University of Colorado. He has also been active in the community, including his work as Capital Campaign Co-Chairman for the Washington Park United Methodist Church. Ron lives in Denver, Colorado with his wife Michelle and children, Ryan and Emily.
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Howard Janzen - Chair
Janzen Ventures, Inc.
Howard Janzen has served as CEO and Chairman for several communications and energy companies. He served as the Chairman of Cool Planet, a technology driven startup which CNBC ranked as a “Top 25 Disruptor of 2014” along with SpaceX and Uber.
Janzen also served as CEO of One Communications, then the country's largest privately held supplier of integrated telecommunications solutions to businesses, from March 2007 until its sale to Earthlink on April 1, 2011. From January 2004 to September 2005 he served as President of Sprint Business Solutions, the business unit serving Sprint's global business customer base with 10,000 employees and $12 billion in annual revenue. From May 2003 to January 2004, he was President of Sprint's Global Markets Group, responsible for Sprint's $8 billion long distance business for both consumer and business customers. From 1994 until October 2002, Janzen served as President and Chief Executive Officer, and Chairman from 2001, of Williams Communications Group, where he led the company in completing its $7 billion next generation fiber optics network and completed the largest IPO in the telecom industry, at that time, with peak market capitalization of $30 billion. Beginning in 1979, Janzen served in a number of leadership roles in Williams' energy and natural gas pipeline businesses.
Janzen currently serves as Chairman of CPI – The Cancer Prevention Initiative. He also serves as a board member for the Board of Directors of GTT, Vocera Communications, Bye Aerospace Colorado School of Mines Foundation, and the Denver Area Boy Scouts of America. He is Chairman Emeritus for GIIC, the Global Information Infrastructure Commission.
Janzen earned Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in metallurgical engineering from the Colorado School of Mines and is a licensed Professional Engineer. He completed the Harvard Business School Program for Management Development. Janzen was named a Colorado School of Mines Distinguished Achievement Medalist and was inducted into the University of Tulsa, College of Engineering and Natural Sciences Hall of Fame.
Janzen is an active instrument rated pilot with over 7,500 hours of flying time and serves on the TBM Owners and Pilots Association Board. He has flown his airplanes to 65 countries.
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Bud Ross
Managing Partner, Albatross Ventures
Bud Ross is the Founder and Managing Partner of Albatross Ventures, a unique venture studio that builds, invests in and acquires technology companies. One of the companies has developed a mental wellness app.
A primary goal of Bud’s is to help people, especially young people, find ways to work through mental and emotional struggles and maintain hope that their lives will, and can, improve. His current mission is to create solutions rooted in technology that will reduce global suicides by providing support to those experiencing depression or other mental illnesses, reduce the stigma around mental illness, and provide data solutions to researchers to help create effective treatments and therapies.
Bud currently serves on the boards of the Graduate School of Professional Psychology at the University of Denver, 2221 Society - Children's Hospital Colorado, Psych360, and Working Credit NFP. He also serves as an Advisor to Bold Moose and TalkBox Booth, and is Co-Founder and Partner of New Coast Ventures, as well a Mentor at Greenhouse Scholars. Past board and other service include Sink Tech Global, New Coast Foundation, The Tavern Group, and Auxiliary Board Member - Chair of BLU at Shedd Aquarium.
He is from the Greater Chicago Area and attended the University of Kansas, studying communications and leadership. After graduating, he consulted with non-government organizations in Ghana and Kenya. Upon returning home, he worked in commercial real estate consulting before eventually starting Albatross Ventures. He has been a consultant, PADI divemaster, restaurant operator, angel investor, and nonprofit founder. Some of his other hobbies include fly fishing, photography, camping, and hiking.
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Emily Spencer
Founder, former president and CEO, Premier Medical Corporation
Emily B. Spencer, businesswomen and entrepreneur, founded and served as president & CEO of Premier Medical Corporation in Denver, Colorado and founded and currently manages Premier RE Holdings, LLC, a real estate holding company. Spencer holds a JD from St. Mary's School of Law and a BBA in Finance from the University of Texas, Austin.
Spencer's initial aspirations held little to no sign of her true entrepreneurial spirit. Her early career path led her from a sales assistant in the high stakes, fast-paced securities trading world to a Senior Vice President of Operations of a regional securities firm specializing in trading government securities to institutions. When her interest turned to compliance, she decided to return to law school at age 27 and pursue a career in securities litigation. While attending law school, Spencer interned as a student law clerk with the Texas Supreme Court, a federal judge, and the Securities and Exchange Commission's legal department. Upon graduating from law school in 1992, Spencer thought she was again destined for the securities world. But, when she was presented with an idea to start a respiratory services company to provide oxygen to home care patients, Premier Medical Corporation was born.
For her longstanding role as founder, president and CEO of Premier Medical Corporation, a healthcare industry leader in providing oxygen-related products and services to Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico hospices, nursing homes and Programs for all Inclusive Care (PACE), Spencer's business philosophy was simple: take care of patients as if they are family. Her mission to provide exceptional service and compassionate care—every patient, every customer, every time—built long-term partnerships, not customers. Her philosophy had an impact as Premier Medical was recognized by Coloradobiz magazine as one of Colorado's Top 250 Private Companies and top 100 Women Owned Businesses. Premier was also recognized as one of Denver's Top 25 Women Owned Businesses by the Denver Business Journal and was named by the DBJ as one of Denver's Fastest Growing Private Companies. Spencer was selected as a finalist for Denver Business Journal's Outstanding Women in Business Award (2011) and Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur of the Year Award (2010). Spencer also was quoted in the University of Denver's Colorado Women's College, Benchmarking Women's Leadership Study (2013) and was interviewed for and recognized in Tiffani Lennon's book, Recognizing Women's Leadership: Strategies and Best Practices for Employing Excellence (2014).
"I contribute my success to my strong belief that for a company to be successful, it has to be profitable, but you also have to make a difference in someone's life." "Now that I have sold my business after 20 years and moved into the next phase of my life, I want to continue to make a difference in someone's life."
Spencer currently serves as the Chair Emerita of the Board of Advisors for the Graduate School of Professional Psychology and is a past member of the Advisory Board for The Colorado Women's College at The University of Denver, speaks at Leadership and Entrepreneur Events, is an avid supporter of the University of Denver, Colorado Women's College, Benchmarking Women's Leadership Study and is a business consultant.
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Jeffrey (Jeff) Thompson
VP of Government & Corporate Relations, UCHealth
In January, 1993 Jeff was named Associate Director of Public Affairs for the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. In 1996, Jeff became the Director of Business Development at University of Colorado Hospital (UCH). He then directed UCH major gift fundraising from 1999 through 2004.
In January 2005, Jeff was named Director of Government and Corporate Relations at UCH and continued that role beginning March 2012 with the new health system, UCHealth.
In April 2015, Jeff was promoted to Vice President of Government and Corporate Relations for UCHealth. In this role, he oversees and coordinates government relations with local, state and federal elected officials and leaders of key governmental departments and agencies. In addition, Jeff works closely with area business organizations, including Chambers of Commerce, Economic Development Organizations and directly with many business and civic leaders.
In representing UCHealth, Jeff also serves on the boards and committees of a number of business and community organizations such as the Aurora Chamber of Commerce (Board Chairman 2012-2014; and named Business Person of the Year for 2014); the Aurora Economic Development Council; the Metro Denver Chamber of Commerce & Economic Development Corporation; Colorado Dental Lifeline Network. Jeff is also the current chairman of the Colorado Hospital Association's Legislative Council.
A Denver native, Jeff holds a Bachelors' Degree in Political Science from Fort Lewis College (1975), and a Masters' Degree in Public Administration from the University of Colorado Denver (1978). Jeff is married to Nancy (self-employed), with two wonderful children, Connor, 20, a junior at Colorado Mesa University; and Lauren, 29, employed with a Denver-based personal information security firm.
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Dr. Leah Wallerstein
Dr. Wallerstein is currently the Program Administrator for the RISE Program; a jail-based competency restoration program operated by Wellpath Recovery Solutions in Denver and Boulder.
She completed her undergraduate degree in Psychology at Lehigh University. Dr. Wallerstein then attended The University of Denver – Graduate School for Professional Psychology (GSPP) to complete her Masters Degree in Forensic Psychology (2010), followed by her Doctorate in Clinical Psychology (PsyD 2014). Dr. Wallerstein’s clinical work and interests have primarily focused on working within forensic State Hospital settings, as well as program development and operations of services for individuals with severe and persistent mental illness within the criminal justice system. Dr. Wallerstein completed her predoctoral training at Bellevue-NYU Hospital Center and Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center in New York City, and served as the Director of Clinical Services for Bridgewater State Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. In Colorado, she has contributed to the development and implementation of jail-based competency restoration services in partnership with the Office of Behavioral Health.
In addition to her clinical interests, Dr. Wallerstein has remained involved and invested in the success of her alma mater, GSPP. She is dedicated to not only supporting strong education and training for future Psychologists, but also helping to advance the important work that students and faculty at GSPP are doing within the Psychology community and beyond.
Dr. Wallerstein is married with three children and lives in Denver. She enjoys cooking and spending time outdoors.