GEORGE STRANAHAN, FOUNDER

May he rest in power (1931 - 2021)

George founded and served as the President Emeritus of The Manaus Fund (MANAUS) for 15 years. 1931 - 2021

George is a lifelong educator, philanthropist, serial entrepreneur, physicist, writer, publisher, and fine art photographer. Born and raised in Ohio, Stranahan earned his masters and PhD in physics from the Carnegie Institute of Technology.

After teaching at Michigan State University, he settled in the Aspen area in the early 1970s with his family. As a community activist and advocate of enduring education, he founded the Aspen Center for Physics, Aspen Community School, and Carbondale Community School. He has also served on the boards of Colorado Rocky Mountain School, Aspen Institute, Colorado Mountain College, Aspen Community Foundation, and the Needmor Fund.

A tiny sampling of Stranahan’s myriad colorful and successful ventures includes the Woody Creek Tavern, Flying Dog Brewery, Stranahan’s Whiskey and the 3rd Street Community Center in Carbondale. He started The Manaus Fund in 2005 as a way to change the donor-nonprofit dynamic, cultivate community and address social injustice in the Roaring Fork Valley.

George is also considered the founder of Valley Settlement, a spin-off of The Manaus Fund, that engages with immigrants of the Roaring Fork Valley to help improve the prospects of their lives.

ROB PEW - Board Chair MANAUS & Board Member Roaring Fork CDC

Rob is President and Board Chair of MANAUS and has served in this capacity since 2013.

Rob is Chairman of the Board of Directors of Steelcase Inc., the world’s largest office furniture manufacturer. Steelcase considers the unlocking of human potential to be its primary mission. In addition to office furniture the company produces architectural and technology products for industries such as education, health care, and retail.

These days Rob’s focus is on investing in businesses and non-profits that are working to solve societal problems through design from the bottom up. Rob served for 25 years on the board of The Institute of Design in Chicago (as board chair) and today serves on the boards of the Aspen Community Foundation (executive committee), the Steelcase Foundation, and IDEO.org.

A long-time resident of the Roaring Fork Valley, Rob embraces the Aspen Idea of healthy mind, body and spirit. When in Colorado, Rob spends as much time as possible skiing, golfing and biking. He also spends time at his home in Asheville, NC, where he also enjoys various outdoor activities. Finally, and most importantly, Rob finds inspiration from traveling the world with his wife, Susan (for the record, he finds both the travel and Susan inspirational).

Kimbo Brown-Schirato - Treasurer Manaus & Board member roaring fork cdc

Kimbo joined the MANAUS Board of Directors in May 2021. Kimbo serves as the treasurer.

Kimbo grew up in Johannesburg, South Africa, studied business & economics at the University of Cape Town. After visiting Aspen for a post‐university ski season in 2004, she is now considered a local, after being a 16‐year resident of the Roaring Fork Valley. After a few years of J‐1 & H2B visas in the hospitality industry, Kimbo received her green card and began making her mark on our community. She works for Obermeyer Wood Investment Counsel, where she helps clients navigate their complex financial lives. In addition to that full‐time career, she and her husband own and operate a small business, Aspen Custom Vans, building, renovating and renting camper-vans for clients all over the country.

She brings her entrepreneurial and risk-tolerant spirit to everything she does as she continues to make a difference in the community. In her early years living in the Valley, she engaged with various nonprofits and young professional boards (Room to Read Aspen Chapter, Springboard Aspen, etc), and more recently, is a founding member of the Aspen Next Generation Advisory Commission, which advances the policy interests of the 18‐ to 40‐year‐old demographic who either live or work in Aspen. Additionally, she helped start a young‐ professional volunteer organization that helps high school seniors apply to college by guiding them through essay and resume writing as well as serving on the board at the Aspen Community Foundation at the height of its Cradle to Career planning efforts. Kimbo, having lived through the housing-crisis of 2008/9 in Carbondale and now a resident of restricted housing in Aspen, with a toddler at home, she understands firsthand the significant issues facing families in our region today and understands the role she can play at MANAUS to apply experimental and innovative thinking to help solve them.    

Adriana Alvarez, Ph.D. - Board Member MANAUS & Roaring Fork CDC

Adriana Alvarez, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Education program at Colorado University Denver and she’s also affiliated with the Crown Institute out of Colorado University Boulder. Her current research project is based in the importance of trust and belonging between schools and families, and one of their two main research sites is Glenwood Springs Elementary.

Adriana's skillful portrayal of this research, which is deeply rooted in design thinking, pairing data with narratives to shape the story, is especially impactful due to her intimate knowledge of the subject. Adriana's personal cultural background, born and raised in Mexico, lived and worked as an educator in El Paso, Texas, before beginning her masters and Ph.D. pursuits in education at Colorado University Boulder, as well as her systems thinking mind and her dedication to collaboration, makes her an ideal thought partner and addition to MANAUS' exceptional board of directors.

Additionally, Adriana will be featured in the Equity Speaker Series summer of 2022, a partnership between MANAUS and TACAW to support access to different perspectives.

CARLOS A. HERRERA MONTERO - BOARD MEMBER MANAUS & ROARING FORK CDC

Carlos is the Adult Education Program Manager at our sister organization, Valley Settlement, teaching GED and computer literacy classes. He hails from Costa Rica and is fluent in English, Spanish and Russian with additional language skills in French, Portuguese and German. Carlos has lived and worked in the Roaring Fork Valley for over 20 years and has worn many hats, including as a Spanish language medical interpreter, adult educator, avid volunteer for our many arts & culture organizations, and as the office manager and program manager for Computers for Kids Foundation.

Carlos studied Sociology University of Costa Rica, San Jose; earned his Forestry Engineer Academic Degree from the Voronezh Forestry Technical Institute, Voronezh, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and has professional certifications in Community Leadership, Medical and Community Interpreting.

Carlos’ lived experience as an immigrant positioned him to be one of the foremost leading Latino activists for the bilingual newspaper La Mision. 2002-2006, as well as a board member of La Mision, the social justice activism organizations, The Stepstone Center, where they, with legal support from the Public Council of the Rockies, helped fight to keep a proposed INS facility from developing in our community. Carlos also served as a Board Member of Latioamericanos Unidos, supporting Latino-immigrants in the Roaring Fork Valley. We are thrilled to have Carlos’ expertise and experience support MANAUS as we continue to fight for social justice in our region.

Omar Arturo “ART” Williams - BOARD MEMBER MANAUS & ROARING FORK CDC

Art comes from a background in teaching artistry and arts administration and has held diverse
leadership roles in the arts, education and retail; the common threads throughout their career
have been listening deeply and embracing the multiple perspectives that live in any story.

Through their work with ArtistYear, AmeriCorps, and subsequent work they has practiced assessing
community assets and has worked to address deficits within different projects. For example,
when working with youth and lack of self-esteem they used creativity and the arts to instill
confidence in those students and challenged them to make work that is meaningful and
empowering.

Art’s greater interests lie in using the arts for trauma healing and intends to continue their work as
an artist as well as deepening their skill set in mental health. “What we know about trauma is that
it stifles creativity within trauma-affected individuals and much of these triggers are set off in
unbalanced power structures. If we are going to build a more equitable society and sustainable
world we need all of the creative power available to us and resilient communities that can take
care of their basic needs is fundamental.”

What Art brings to the table is a mindset which is open to risk-taking and yet logic-driven in taking in
every side of a situation. They are a perceptive interviewer and is rather skilled in getting to the
heart of a tricky issue and works well with all kinds of people: a people person if you will.

Andy Kadlec - Board Chair of Roaring Fork Cdc

Andy Kadlec is the Executive Director of the Gunnison Valley Regional Housing Authority (GVRHA). A North Dakota native, Andy began his work in affordable housing in 2015 after an earlier career in K-12 education. Before becoming GVRHA's newest ED in 2022, he worked for Thistle, a Boulder County affordable housing nonprofit. He spent much of his time there as a bilingual member of Thistle's property management team, holding various roles in the oversight of their affordable rental portfolio of 16 multi-family properties encompassing more than 650 rental units. In 2019, Andy became the first statewide Program Director for Thistle ROC, the Colorado affiliate of the ROC USA Network. In his tenure at Thistle ROC, he helped convert 6 Mobile Home Communities into resident ownership, led the founding of a $55 Million capital pool for ROC acquisitions, participated in the evolution and improvement of Colorado's MHP Opportunity to Purchase legislation, and provided statewide outreach to help educate and inform residents and local partners alike of the importance of preserving MHCs as an essential affordable housing stock.

Visit the Roaring Fork CDC website to learn more and connect with the 3-Mile Mobile Home Park Project.

Bryan Alvarez-Terrazas

Bryan Alfredo Alvarez-Terrazas is the Deputy Director of Manaus and Project Manager of the Equity Action Project.

Bryan was born in Glenwood Springs and is the son of two Mexican immigrants. After graduating from Aspen High School, Bryan went to receive his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Swarthmore College.

Equity work became much more prominent for Bryan after returning from college and realizing that there was a lot of progress to be made within the Roaring Fork Valley. Bryan is a newly appointed board member of Alpine Legal Services Bryan began volunteering with Voces Unidas de las Montanas to better represent, support, and empower the Latinx community living in the valley, especially during the times of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bryan believes that we, as individuals and organizations, can work together to create a more equitable and just community.

Brianda Cervantes

Brianda is leading our housing efforts with the Roaring Fork Community Development Corporation as the Organizer & Property Manager. She grew up in the city of Tepic, Nayarit Mexico, and graduated with a degree in law from Universidad Autonoma de Nayarit. She practiced law for four years before moving to Glenwood Springs in 2013. Brianda helped launch the first fully bilingual school in the Roaring Fork School District, the Riverview School, as a community liaison. After two years at Riverview School, she moved to the Family Resource Center of the Roaring Fork Schools where she launched a project to strengthen parent voice, leadership and advocacy using community organizing tools. She is dedicated to language justice and has worked on a Language Access Project. Brianda serves the broader valley community by serving on numerous councils and committees while providing consultation to partners.

Brianda’s community efforts don’t end with us; she sits on the board of Mountain Voices Project and YouthZone where her unique skills support the organizations in being both proactive and responsive with community.

Sydney Schalit

Sydney is the Executive Director of MANAUS, coordinating and implementing the vision of MANAUS through project development, professional and technical assistance and in supporting the projects, and their leaders, as they grow.

Sydney proudly serves as the Board Chair of Mountain Family Health Centers and is a publicly elected board member for the Carbondale & Rural Fire Protection District.

After receiving her bachelor of arts at the University of Texas in Austin, she spent the next 15 years working to help organizations and businesses better communicate and align their vision with their actions. Sydney served in the United States Peace Corps, owned and operated multiple small businesses and recently served as the Chief Executive Officer of a digital marketing firm in Carbondale that, under her guidance, shifted it’s culture to specialize in non-profit marketing.

She is, by nature, inquisitive and compassionate. Her passion for the work MANAUS does, and how they do it, runs very deep, as does her dedication to supporting the personal and professional development of those around her.

Lea Tyler

Lea Tyler is MANAUS’ Financial Assistant. She lives and works in Carbondale, Colorado, and in her free-time, is a talented ceramic artist. Her wares can be found online, at the LaunchPad in downtown Carbondale and other locations.