Staff
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Michelle Anderson
Circulation Staff
Michelle has the shortest commute of any of our employees – she just walks across the alley. A Vietnam veteran, she has deep family roots in Colorado and Arizona which have given her a love of the West. At work, she cheerfully helps our subscribers, and at home she works in her garden and spends time with her five kitties. Two of them, Yoda and Sweet Pea, regularly sun themselves on our back patio.
email: m.anderson at hcn.org
Gretchen Aston-Puckett
Development Director
A New Englander by birth, Gretchen earned a degree in art from the University of Rhode Island. She began her love affair with the West by trading coasts and moving to Seattle, Washington in the early 90s. Here at High Country News, since 2002, she helps bring in the money by writing grant applications and cultivating donors. She and her family enjoy gardening and photography, as well as hiking and camping around the North Fork Valley and beyond.
email: gap at hcn.org
Marty Durlin
Online Editor
Marty recently returned to her Delta County roots to manage the blog and editorial content for our website. During her long career in independent media, she spent 20 years managing KGNU in Boulder, co-founded the Grassroots Radio Conference and served on the Board of Pacifica. Other talents include writing music, singing, and playing the accordion.
email: marty at hcn.org
Ryan Foster
Director of Digital Media
A Paonia native, Ryan began working as a website design consultant with High Country News in the winter of 2007 and was brought on full-time later that year. He manages the website — look, feel, function, form and future — and makes sure that no one’s computer, or anything else with a plug, blows up. Soccer, Ultimate Frisbee, his three computers and his partner Hilary consume his free time (reverse order).
email: ryan at hcn.org
Becca Frenier
Circulation Staff
Becca has worked at High Country News since 2007, handling billing and customer service. She was born in Alaska, which is so far west that High Country News doesn’t cover it, but spent most of her youth in Hampton Roads, Virginia, which is about as far east as you can get without buying a boat. Two years ago she decided to split the difference by moving to Colorado. She has a fiancé and two dogs and is finishing her bachelor’s in environmental science at Mesa State College.
email: becca at hcn.org
Shaun Gibson
Designer/Production Assistant
Shaun works with layout of the magazine and graces the pages with clever illustrations that bring our stories to life. After dabbling briefly in the world of plumbing, he earned his B.A. in Graphic Design from Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design. In his spare time, Shaun is an active photographer and artist.
email: shaun at hcn.org
Sarah Gilman
Assistant Editor
Sarah, a former intern, now edits and writes short news for the magazine. For years before that, she bounced around the Rockies, studying white-crown sparrows, reporting at a daily newspaper and working on a trail crew. Sarah enjoys weaving, hiking, running and painting. Her favorite tool—from her days carving out trails on the slopes of Mount Massive—is the double jack.
email: sarah at hcn.org
Sandra Jarrett-Lance
Advertising Sales Manager
A Colorado native, Sandra has lived here for all but four years of her life, which she spent in Alaska working with the chief veterinarian for the Iditarod. She is married with one daughter and two dogs, one of them an Alaskan sled dog that got cut from an Iditarod team. She has been at High Country News since 2008, helping us sell the ads that make the magazine possible. She enjoys skiing, biking and camping and is working on a screenplay.
email: sandra at hcn.org
Matt Jenkins
Contributing Editor
Matt, a former High Country News intern, has written extensively about water, drought and climate change in the West. In 2006, he won the James V. Risser Prize for Western Environmental Journalism. Matt has worked as a firefighter on a Forest Service helicopter-rappel crew, and spent three years in China working with Médecins Sans Frontières, a humanitarian aid organization. He now writes from Berkeley and enjoys backpacking and skiing.
email: matt at hcn.org
JoAnn Kalenak
Marketing & Syndication Manager
JoAnn is in charge of spreading the word about High Country News and drumming up new subscribers. When she was young, her brothers would call her “Annie Oakley,” and she still considers herself a die-hard Westerner. In her free time, she runs a magazine for a local animal rescue organization and hangs out with her three cats, four dogs and five goats.
email: joann at hcn.org
Paul Larmer
Executive Director/Publisher
After completing his internship in 1984, Paul went on to hold almost every possible position at High Country News. He is now responsible for working with the board of directors, drumming up funding and generally making sure the magazine is sailing in the right direction. He holds a Master’s Degree in Natural Resource Policy and worked for years at the Sierra Club. Every summer he plants a few crops on his small ranch in Western Colorado and pretends to be a farmer.
email: plarmer at hcn.org
Betsy Marston
Writers on the Range Editor
She may have edited High Country News for 19 years – longer than anyone else in the history of the publication – but Betsy insists the experience did not make her crazy. She currently edits Writers on the Range and writes the column “Heard Around the West.” She also delights in collecting quirky photos from readers and sharing them on the back page of the magazine. She describes herself as a “volunteeraholic,” and in no particular order, loves Paonia, biking back roads, reading the Sunday New York Times, and her grandchildren Maude and Bruno.
email: betsym at hcn.org
Kathy Martinez
Circulation Manager
Kathy has ensured the safe delivery of the magazine to mailboxes everywhere since 1995. She now manages our in-house circulation staff who provide friendly support to our subscribers, and works to keep them coming back. Now that her kids are grown, she eats, sleeps and breathes High Country News, and relaxes at home with the flowers and vegetables in her garden. Originally from southern California, she’s made Paonia her home since 1992.
email: kathy at hcn.org
Denise Massart-Isaacson
Business Manager
Denise has been with High Country News since 2002. She is responsible for payroll, human resources, accounts payable and receivable, and general office management.
email: denise at hcn.org
Marisa McCune
Development Associate
When Marisa is not thanking HCN’s fabulous donors or planning board meetings, she enjoys spending time with her two cats, learning guitar, eating good food and exploring red rock country. During the work day, she assists the development and executive directors, administers the "Sustainers' Club" monthly giving program and is an active member on the diversity council.
email: marisa at hcn.org
Rita Murphy
Circulation Staff
Rita has been processing checks, sending out mailings and helping our customers since 1995. Before coming to the magazine she served in the Peace Corps in Malawi and spent several years on the Zuni reservation. Over the years in Paonia, she’s raised four kids, as well as numerous sheep, horses and vegetables. These days she considers her place a “retirement farm.”
Michelle Nijhuis
Contributing Editor
Michelle began her journalism career in 1998, as a High Country News intern, and has written for High Country News ever since. Michelle has also written for Smithsonian, National Geographic and Audubon, and won several national honors including an AAAS Science Journalism Award and inclusion in the anthology Best American Science Writing. A lapsed biologist, Michelle was once paid to chase tortoises through the Sonoran Desert; the tortoises usually won. www.michellenijhuis.com
email: michelle at hcn.org
Jodi Peterson
Associate Editor
In 2004, after 16 years as a technical writer, Jodi leapt out of the corporate world to intern with High Country News. She’s now the Associate Editor, which means her duties range from editing stories and supervising the internship program to writing articles and reviewing the letters to the editor. When she's not in the office, she refuses to get within 50 feet of a computer. Instead, Jodi spends her free time backpacking, biking, gardening, reading, or rambling with her dog. Her favorite sport is extreme knitting.
email: jodi at hcn.org
Angie Riley
Advertising Sales Representative
A Michigan native, Angie has been at the magazine since the fall of 2006. She is raising her children in Paonia and holds degrees in Commercial Recreation and Outdoor Recreation from Central Michigan University. After work, she enjoys trail running, spending time outdoors and eating french fries.
email: angie at hcn.org
Ray Ring
Senior Editor
Ray has been writing about the West since 1979. He started freelancing for High Country News in 1985, did a stint as an editor in Paonia from 1994-1995, and has been back on staff since 2001, covering the Northern Rockies from his home base in Bozeman. He has won numerous awards, including the Sidney Hillman Foundation Journalism Award for his 2007 High Country News cover story “Death in the Energy Fields.” His favorite Western places include the Grand Canyon, Butte, Montana, Wyoming and any Mexican café.
email: rayring at hcn.org
Diane Sylvain
Copy Editor
Diane splits her time between painting – she’s an accomplished artist who sells her art all over Western Colorado – and making our prose sparkle. She sometimes draws illustrations for the magazine, too. She’s worked at High Country News since 1990. Her dad and brother have followed her to Paonia, where she lives in a century-old house with her exceptionally large cat, Gumbo.
email: diane at hcn.org
Jonathan Thompson
Editor
In the decade before he came to High Country News in 2006, Jonathan worked as a reporter for the Silverton, Colorado, paper, opened two bakeries, started a literary magazine, then bought and ran the Silverton paper. Perhaps it would be easier to say that he’s had a very busy life up to now. It only got busier in 2007, when he became editor in chief of our fine publication. He's married with two daughters.
email: editor at hcn.org
Cindy Wehling
Art Director
Cindy has been responsible for making the magazine look its best since 1990. She works with photographers and artists, and designs and produces most of the magazine. Cindy and her husband also work on the family farm, and are continuing to improve their Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired house.
email: cindy at hcn.org
Andrea Appleton
Intern
Andrea came to Paonia after three years in New York City, where she earned her graduate degree in journalism at Columbia University. She has been a reporter at a community newspaper, a beetle-pinner at an entomology lab and —for just one day — a school lunch lady. Andrea enjoys reading, hiking, traveling and pining after pets she can’t have.
email: andreaa at hcn.org
Rob Inglis
Intern
After graduating from Yale in the spring of 2007, Rob led a cross-country bike trip, did a stint in the metal shop at McMurdo Station, Antarctica, and lived for a few months on an island off the coast of Washington, working with scientists studying the nervous systems of marine invertebrates. Now he’s getting paid to write, which he considers pretty groovy. His favorite thing about living in Western Colorado: Super Hero sandwiches from the City Market deli in Hotchkiss.
email: robi at hcn.org
Cobun Keegan
High School Intern
Cobun will be heading off to Colorado Springs to begin his freshman year at Colorado College this fall. He hasn’t decided on a major yet, but he is interested in environmental studies, political science, international relations and linguistics. In May, he served as a delegate for Delta County at Colorado’s state Democratic Convention. Cobun is an avid magazine reader – he’s especially fond of The New Yorker – and enjoys writing, bicycling and photography.
email: cobunk at hcn.org
Emily Steinmetz
Intern
Before moving to Paonia, Emily lived for three years in New Mexico conducting research for her Ph.D. in anthropology, teaching at a community college and working on multimedia projects for museums and nonprofits. After work, she likes playing the fiddle, driving around and seeing new places, going for walks and visiting her husband and cat who still live in Albuqueruqe.
email: emilys at hcn.org
