Jen Kovecses
Assistant Director of Programs
Jen grew up playing in lakes and streams in Canada, building a life-long interest in aquatic ecosystems and conservation. She pursued this interest in university, completing a Bachelor of Science in biology and a Master of Science in aquatic ecology at McGill University. After completing her graduate degree, she continued to work on a variety of watershed conservation projects on the shores of Lake Ontario and the coast of British Columbia. While living in California, Jen had the opportunity to work for local non-profits, offering science and policy analysis to help protect water quality and habitat in California’s beautiful coastal watersheds. Most recently, she was the executive director for Coalition for the Poudre River Watershed for over seven years.
Catie Boehmer
Assistant Director of Engagement and Operations
Catie has been with the Salazar Center since 2019 and brings more than a decade of conservation-related communications, fundraising, and engagement experience to the team. Prior to joining the Center, she managed the Colorado Water Center’s grantmaking and outreach programs. In 2017, she moved to Colorado from Chicago, where she’d worked for the Field Museum of Natural History and Friends of the Forest Preserves in roles that directly supported landscape-scale conservation, science education and research, and grassroots advocacy. She currently serves as the board vice president of Friends of Lory State Park. Catie holds a master’s degree in Human Dimensions of Natural Resources from CSU and a BA in political science from Northwestern University. She lives in Fort Collins with her husband and their three black cats and is an avid backpacker, hunter, and Rockies fan.
Emily Barbo
Senior Communications Manager
As the Center’s senior communications manager, Emily is helping to share conservation impact stories within CSU, the local Colorado community, and beyond. She moved to Colorado from Massachusetts in 2022 to utilize her expertise in nonprofit management and marketing, most recently as the assistant director of the Boston University School of Public Health Activist Lab, in order to make a positive contribution to the field of environmental conservation and justice. She earned a Social Impact MBA with a concentration in marketing from Boston University and a BA in English Literature and Composition from Loyola University Maryland. She lives in Denver and is an avid runner and often spends her free time exploring the National Park system or volunteering on the CSU Spur campus.
Adriana Ortegon
Operations, Research, and Policy Coordinator
Adriana is an environmental scientist with experience in environmental public policy and non-profit operations. Adriana is a Mexico native, and she moved to the U.S. to pursue her Masters in soil science at UC Davis after getting her BS in biology at the Autonomous University of Baja California. She’s worked previously in public policy implementation and evaluation related to toxic chemicals entering humans and the environment through consumer products and various waste streams, as a regulatory staff with the California Department of Toxic Substances Control and as a member of the California Air Resources Board’s multimedia working group. Adriana moved to Colorado from the Raleigh-Durham area, where she’d served as a volunteer teacher, volunteer coordinator, and operations assistant at the local Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition. She enjoys reading, swimming, biking, running, and art.
Shoshanna Dean
Program Associate
Shoshanna is currently a graduate student in the Masters of Conservation Leadership program at CSU. She previously attended the University of Washington, where she obtained her Bachelor’s of Science in biology with a focus on ecology and conservation. After some time doing forestry research and ski instructing, she moved to Colorado in 2018 to work for the Aspen Center of Environmental Studies as a naturalist and educator, as well as leading a team of bird of prey handlers. She is excited to join the Salazar Center to conduct research and continue her pursuit of understanding the intersectionality of social justice, policy, community resilience, and environmental science. When not studying or working, she enjoys skiing, backpacking, yoga, and cooking.