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Kim Langmaid is Vail’s new mayor

Her grandfather served on town’s first council

The Vail Town Council for the next two years is, from left, Jonathan Staufer, Kevin Foley, Jen Mason, Mayor Kim Langmaid, Barry Davis, Mayor Pro Tem Travis Coggin and Pete Seibert.
Town of Vail/Courtesy photo

The Vail Town Council on Tuesday voted unanimously to appoint Kim Langmaid the town’s mayor for the next two years. Travis Coggin was named mayor pro tem, and will serve as mayor in Langmaid’s absence.

Kim Langmaid

The Town Council appoints a new mayor every two years, following every municipal election. Former Vail Mayor Dave Chapin served six years in the role. He left the council this year due to the town’s term-limit law, which limits members to no more than eight consecutive years in office.

Langmaid is in the second half of her second term in office. She was appointed mayor pro tem following the 2019 municipal election.



Before the council appointed its new leaders, Town Clerk Tammy Nagel swore in three new members and one re-elected incumbent, Coggin. The new members are Barry Davis and Pete Seibert, who were elected to four-year terms. New member Jonathan Staufer finished fourth in the Nov. 2 race and will serve a two-year term.

Langmaid had said before the election she’d like to serve as mayor. In a recent phone call, Council Member Kevin Foley said that he and Coggin had also expressed an interest in the position. But there was just one motion to appoint a mayor, and Langmaid was the nominee.

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Langmaid, who grew up in Vail, is an associate professor of Sustainability Studies at Colorado Mountain College.

Langmaid is a founder of Walking Mountains Science Center and a founding member of the Climate Action Collaborative for the Eagle County Community. She’s also a member of the Eagle County Community Wildlife Roundtable, and the National Forest Foundation and Vail Resorts’ Eagle Valley Ski Conservation Fund Advisory Committee. She was part of the team that created the Mountain IDEAL Standard for Sustainable Destinations that led to Vail becoming the first certified sustainable destination in the United States in December of 2017. She is a trainer for the Global Sustainable Tourism Council.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from Colorado State University, a master’s degree in environmental studies from Prescott College in Arizona and a Ph.D. in environmental studies from Antioch University New England.

Langmaid follows in the footsteps of her grandfather, Joe, who was elected to Vail’s first Town Council in 1966.

Langmaid is also one of four Town Council members who grew up in Vail: Staufer, Coggin and Pete Seibert.

She’s also the second woman to hold the mayor’s gavel in Vail. The first, Peggy Osterfoss, served in the early 1990s.


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