Catamount Nation: Denver Edition

Granted, equating Burlington and Denver requires a significant multiplier on matters of elevation and population. But there are commonalities: cities where a love for the outdoors, particularly winter sports, is pervasive; strong cultural influence of college students and young people; and, in the case of Burlington-Boulder, even twin vibrant city centers, Church Street and Pearl Street, that share the same urban designer. No wonder Denver is a magnet for many UVM alumni who look westward after graduation. In this issue, we check in with a number of Catamounts making their lives and livings along the Front Range of the Rockies.

Principal photography by James Stukenberg

By Thomas Weaver

CHUCK OLNEY ’98 NOW: Mile High Stadium is an iconic landmark in Denver, standing tall along the west side of I25. It’s home to the NFL’s Broncos, of course, but the stadium is also a venue for many other events. As director of business development for the Denver Broncos, Chuck Olney leads the effort to drive revenue produced by hosting events, from a Rolling Stones concert to the Denver BBQ Festival to long-range work with FIFA to bring World Cup soccer to the stadium in 2026. Summing it up, Olney says, “Our business team is able to create many different experiences for audiences in Denver, while helping contribute to the bottom line for the Broncos organization.” UVM: Olney notes that his political science major shapes his approach in multiple aspects of his work. “It always kicks in when we’re determining financial and asset deal points with partners we do business with,” he says. “Political science philosophies directly translate to our business world when we settle on how much to give or take within our dealings. When my PR hat is on for work, I will often use polisci strategies to help sell and market our citywide events.” A post-graduation internship at Mad River Glen was Olney’s entrée to sports marketing, eventually leading him to Colorado and a job with Warren Miller films. DENVER LOVE: Though Metro Denver has grown immensely in Olney’s twenty-two years there, he says that for him it still has an appealing similarity to Burlington in smaller city feel and a common mindset. Skiing with friends and family, catching a show at Red Rocks, and sneaking in a round of golf when he can, are top among his favorite pursuits.

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DIANE RABA ’80 NOW: Retired from a career in education, Diane Raba remains involved in the field through leadership on the board of Firefly Autism. Across her thirteen years helping to advance the organization, Raba has helped it grow into a leading treatment center using applied behavior analysis to meet the needs of clients and families. “Our professional staff and board members are instrumental in sharing information that improves community awareness about inclusion and diversity,” she says. The new Firefly Campus Treatment Center, a not-for-profit enterprise, is headquartered in a thirty-thousandsquare-foot building in Lakewood. UVM: As an elementary education major at UVM, Raba was part of the innovative American Primary Experience Program (APEX). She credits it for laying

the groundwork for a multi-faceted career as an educator and instilling a dedication to lifelong learning. “APEX taught me how to work in a collaborative environment with other professionals and how to create a collaborative environment in classrooms. I learned how to implement hands-on learning and meet individual needs.” Raba and her husband, Todd Raba ’79, met at UVM; they’ve been married for forty years and have two daughters. A forestry major at UVM, Todd’s career as a business leader has largely been focused on the utility and smart energy industries. DENVER LOVE: After living in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Iowa, the Rabas moved to the Denver area in 2007. “We love the beautiful outdoor environment and lifestyle,” Diane says. In particular, she recommends that visitors to the Rockies check out the town Evergreen, where she and Todd live. “The

CHUCK OLNEY ’98

hiking is excellent,” she says. “There’s a gorgeous little lake near the town center, as well as a quaint shopping area and interesting restaurants.”

IAN POND ’13 G’15 NOW: As NASA’s Artemis Program aims to put astronauts back on the moon in 2024, Ian Pond takes a role through his work as a senior mechanical engineer with Lockheed Martin. The young alum leads the thermal analysis for the design of two radiators on the Ascent Element, the vehicle that will take astronauts to the lunar surface, serve as their home there, and then get them safely back to the Orion spacecraft for their return to Earth. Designing for a livable temperature for the crew is deeply challenging, Pond says: “It’s really driven home the true harshness of space outside of Earth’s atmosphere.” UVM: After earning his bachelor’s in mechanical engineering, Pond continued on for his master’s degree in thermo/fluids, working with Professor Yves Dubief. A townie from Burlington, he spent summers working for Lake Champlain Transportation Company, the ferry boats where his father, Steve Pond ’73, was a captain for decades. DENVER LOVE: Acknowledging that the exodus of traffic into the mountains on weekends can be “horrendous,” Pond adds, “the wait is worth the experiences you can have.” For him, that ranges from mountain biking in Steamboat Springs to skiing to big game hunting. Last fall, Pond says elk season took him at least a thousand miles around Colorado, Flat Top Mountains to the Grand Mesa: “Sadly, I came up empty-handed.”

AKIRAH BRADLEY G’07 NOW: Vice chancellor of student affairs at the University of Colorado, Boulder, Akirah Bradley oversees some thirty-three departments united by the common goal of promoting student success, in and out of the classroom. Building connection among students is key to that in the best of times, especially challenging in the midst of a pandemic. Bradley expresses pride in the work of her staff over the past year to facilitate campus life that is both safe and appealing to students. Speaking more broadly of her work, she says, “What I find the most fulfilling is being on a college campus and seeing the incoming students every year who have a different way of navigating the world than the class before them. It ignites a shift and change for higher education to continue to reimagine and reinvent to best provide this new generation of students with the tools to be successful.” UVM: As a Black queer woman from Philadelphia, Bradley reflects that “Burlington, Vermont, could not have been any farther from the environment

I grew up in. The exposure to people so different than me allowed me to learn things about myself and the world around me.” As she earned her master’s in Higher Education Student Affairs, Bradley gives a great deal of credit for her development to “a brilliant, diverse cohort of fellow learners.” Among faculty, Professor Emerita Kathy Manning was instrumental in helping build her confidence professionally. “Kathy pushed me to be intellectually curious about everything, leading me down a path of being a continuous learner and educator.” DENVER LOVE: Perfect day Akirah Bradley style: brunch in Denver, wander a local farmer’s market, head to the mountains to “get lost in nature for a few hours.” She adds, “I’m happiest when I’ve worked hard to get to the highest peak of the hike and sit and take in all the views.”

AKIRAH BRADLEY G’07

LEFT: JAMES STUKENBERG; RIGHT: PATRICK CAMPBELL

RICHARD BARRETT ’66 NOW: Fitting Richard Barrett’s career into one neat box just won’t work. His diverse entrepreneurial pursuits across decades fall roughly under the umbrella of technology, computing, and engineering. But, through investments and partnerships, his impact expands far beyond those fields. Coloradans might be familiar with one aspect of Barrett’s work through his ownership of the St. Julien Hotel and Spa in Boulder, where Richard’s wife, Elaine, also joined the project team to create a look and feel that celebrates Boulder and the surrounding landscape. Richard’s role as a former principal at cycling/sports apparel company Pearl Izumi connects directly with his longtime passion for running. And philanthropy, through the family Barrett Foundation, is also a key focus: from support of higher education, including engineering internships at UVM, to improving healthcare in the United States and India.

UVM: A mechanical engineering major and Sig Ep brother during his years in Burlington, Barrett remembers lessons from the early days of computing, as he learned Fortran programming. And the outdoors were just as central to his life then in Vermont as they are now in Colorado. He was a regular on the slopes of Mad River Glen and Mt. Mansfield and shares a keen memory of the late fall day he hiked up the mountain for some early skiing and bumped into Billy Kidd doing gates, just months before he would take gold in the 1964 Winter Olympics. DENVER LOVE: “Running trails are everywhere here… and not boring ones,” Barrett says. Running the trails or skiing the slopes, he loves the abundance of outdoor options in Colorado, a place he says felt like home from the moment he moved there in 1970. These days, with both of their daughters also living in Colorado, Richard and Elaine enjoy joining up for a family hike. One can’t-miss favorite? Eldorado Canyon State Park.

RICHARD BARRETT ’66

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CARLA MIRABELLI ’99 NOW: After working at the national level on education policy and fundraising, Carla Mirabelli wanted to see the fruits of such advocacy through direct work on the ground. That led her to Metropolitan State University of Denver, where she’s been on staff for the past twelve years. Her latest role is director of the Center for Urban Education and the TRIO Upward Bound Program, pre-collegiate initiatives serving the local community. Approximately a quarter of the MSU Denver student population is Latinx, and more than half or the undergrads are first-generation college students. Mirabelli is particularly proud that local high school students who initially connected to the university through afterschool programs are now MSU students and working as mentors in the program that mentored them. “It’s beautiful to see this pipeline, this continual system of connection, getting more kids to college,

creating more opportunity,” she says. UVM: Mirabelli was all about the Lawrence Debate Union during her UVM years, crediting the program for developing skills in making compelling arguments and advocating for others that have been critical to her career. Now, as she plans a move to Vermont this summer, Mirabelli hopes to get involved with UVM Debate again as a volunteer and contributor to support the efforts of Professor Helen Morgan-Parmett ’00, an LDU teammate from her undergrad years. DENVER LOVE: Just a block away from home, Cheesman Park is a go-to spot in the city for Mirabelli. She praises the park’s Rocky Mountain views, rich history, and vibe that reminds her of urban parks back east. During the pandemic, it was also a place to find a rare sense of community, when neighbors would gather at eight o’clock in the evening for a cathartic collective howl.

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BRANDON DYSKTERHOUSE ’88

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BRANDON DYKSTERHOUSE ’00 NOW: Years of experience as an elite alpine skier and coach helps inform Brandon Dyksterhouse’s work as CEO of TheFeed.com, the largest sports nutrition, supplement, and recovery gear store in North America. The Boulder-based company (familiar to Tour de France fans from broadcast commercials) is on the rise with 100 percent growth annually over the past three years. Dyksterhouse gave professional skiing a shot after graduation, until injuries made him shift course to coaching, still part of his life. Successes on that front include leading the University of New Mexico to the program’s lone NCAA Championship in 2004 and serving as head coach for the U.S. Ski Team across two seasons, focused on working with Mikaela Shiffrin as she won twelve straight slaloms and the 2015 World Championship. UVM: Coursework as a business major and training as a varsity athlete (1997 NCAA champ in giant slalom) was a substantial load. Dyksterhouse also piled on a number of part-time jobs—bartender to window-washer—to help make ends meet. “I didn’t have a lot of money at UVM and remember feeling cramped for time,” Dyksterhouse says. “I didn’t realize it at the time, but it really prepared me to be flexible professionally and adapt on the fly.” DENVER LOVE: Dyksterhouse grew up a military brat and has lived all over the world. He says Colorado is the first place that felt fully like home, embracing the sunshine and countless trails. Married to Natalie Biedermann, a former Colby skier, the couple welcomed their son, Dutch, in 2019. A dedicated cyclist these days, Dyksterhouse already has a long-term plan for a father-son go at the Leadville 100 mountain bike race when he turns sixty and Dutch hits seventeen.

VALERI PAPPAS ’95 NOW: As an attorney and managing partner with Davis & Ceriani law firm, a central focus of Valeri Pappas’s practice is litigating securities fraud cases for aggrieved investors. “One of the most fulfilling things about my job is the ability to resolve a case for someone who has lost a significant amount of money, sometimes their life savings,” she says. “By recovering some or all of that investment, we’re able to give them back some of their safety and security.” Also fulfilling, her management role, navigated most recently through the challenge of remote work during the pandemic. “Despite the oddities of this time, watching our associates learn and grow as they take on more responsibility in our cases is one of the best parts of my job,” Pappas says. UVM: Drawn by the environmental studies major, Pappas transferred to UVM from the University of

Michigan. She built lifelong friendships with classmates and found impactful faculty mentors, Ian Worley and Stephanie Kaza in particular. “I remember Ian for always challenging me when I spoke up in class and pushing back on my strongly held views,” she says, then adds, “I would love to be as certain now about everything as I was when I was twenty!” As an adjunct professor of law at the University of Colorado, Pappas says she strives to reach the bar her UVM mentors set for engaging and motivating students. DENVER LOVE: When she moved west for law school, Boulder was Pappas’s first Colorado home, and she found a comfort in the similarity of Church and Pearl streets. Apologizing for sounding Centennial State cliché, she says skiing (Blue Ox and China Bowl at Vail), hiking (Royal Arch in Boulder and Herman Gulch to Herman Lake in the high country), and sunshine (year-round) are key attractions. UVM

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JAMES STUKENBERG