Mountain Youth announces staff changes
Mountain Youth continues to be a dynamic youth-focused organization. Over the course of the past several months, it has added to its staff as well as redefined roles and promoted staff members.
“We have had exciting movement welcoming new expertise, growing our team and shifting to leverage skills and create better alignment,” said Michelle Stecher, Mountain Youth’s executive director, in a news release. “Quarantine gave us time to reflect and realign, helping us to continue to connect with youth and trusted adults, creating resources and engaging the community in dialog.”
Mikayla Curtis, a wealth of knowledge and backbone of the organization, has been promoted to director of strategic impact. Curtis is well-known for her data analysis, strong relationship building, and grant writing. She has been with Mountain Youth for six years and has been instrumental to the organization’s growth.
Denise Kipp has been promoted to director of education. Kipp also serves as executive director to Red Ribbon Project. Over the past three years, the two organizations have worked to streamlined processes and ensure no duplication of services while educating 5,500 young people. In this new role, Kipp will use her 12 years as an educator to align school-based life skills education with family education programming, filling gaps and creating two-generation solutions.
“We are excited to merge these two program areas under Denise’s leadership so that students and families can be learning and experiencing similar themes,” Stecher said.
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Sandy Schroeder has brought passion, education experience and connectivity to her work over the past several years, through Valley’s Voice, We Hear U, Communities That Care and assorted other youth-focused projects. Her promotion to director of community engagement better reflects her overall responsibilities and workload.
Amy Baker brings her wealth of mindfulness, yoga training, educator experience, and balanced perspective to her expanded role as family education manager. As the parent to three daughters, she is excited to continue to grow this program while researching the needs and wants of trusted adults within the community.
Anabel Johnson, an alum of Mountain Youth’s programming, former Mountain Youth board member and recent Boston College graduate, has taken over as youth engagement coordinator. In this expanded role, Anabel will expand youth engagement opportunities, especially for middle school and young adult populations, through youth-led projects and a variety of pro-social opportunities. In the short time she has been in this position, Anabel has worked through quarantine with young people, providing virtual meet-ups and establishing ‘what’s next.’
Finally, Jess Christensen is Mountain Youth’s manager of safe driving efforts. Where she will build upon existing programming to encourage sober driving throughout our community, ultimately creating more pro-social opportunities. Christensen recently obtained her maasters of social work from the University of Denver.
“The past few months have been a whirlwind of new opportunities, learning how provide programming virtually and staying connected with families in our community,” Stecher said. “I am so excited to work with such a passionate group of people who will continue to elevate Mountain Youth… making sure all youth in our community thrive.”