Sarah Tory

Q & A with Dana Wood, RFL Academy 2015 Dana Wood was drawn to the valley for the sense of community and opportunities to get involved. Now based in Silt, she works for the Northwest Colorado Council of Governments managing two groups that are focusing on transportation projects in seven rural counties in Colorado. She’s currently on the Silt Planning and Zoning Commission, helping her town navigate the big challenges around growth and housing that so many Colorado communities are facing. Dana also serves on the board of directors for Highwater Farm, a local educational nonprofit regenerative farm. On top of [...]

Empathy: The Top Leadership Skill for Today’s Work Environment Recently, a large study ranked empathy as the most important leadership skill in the workplace. Empathy has been shown to drive positive business results and has numerous therapeutic effects on stressed employees. When leaders expressed empathy for their team, it increased a team’s innovation and engagement, improved customer service, and helped them balance their home and work life. British entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson said, “Understanding empathy, as well as the experiences of people from different areas of life, is a key skill for business leaders.” With similar conviction, Satya Nadella, CEO [...]

Q & A with Jennifer Smith, RFL Academy 2008 Alum Jennifer Smith has worked as an immigration lawyer in the Roaring Fork Valley for 17 years. In that time, she’s helped people navigate the U.S.’s often challenging and bewildering immigration system through her Glenwood Springs-based law firm, Smith Immigration, and through numerous free legal aid workshops and clinics she’s hosted throughout the valley. Jennifer credits RFL with helping instill many of the core values she brings to her work — empathy, understanding, and a desire to serve her community.   Roaring Fork Leadership: How did you end up in the Roaring Fork Valley practicing law?  [...]

Q & A with Jonathan Hagman, RFL Academy alum Jonathan during a recent trip to Spain. Carbondale native Jonathan Hagman has built a life and career around making things. When he was in fourth grade, his family moved to Woody Creek near Aspen, into a house designed and built by his architect father. Jonathan has gravitated to pursuits involving creativity and movement ever since — from competing at the international synchronized skiing championships (yes, it’s a real thing!), to traveling the world as a professional white water kayaking instructor, to studying ceramics in college, and then opening an artists’ [...]

Become A Better Leader In The New Year For many people, the new year equals new goals. If becoming a better leader is one of them, here are four tips to help you level up your leadership performance. #1: Learn from your past experiences "Our past is full of lessons and insights," says leadership coach Tony Martignetti, Chief Inspiration Officer of Inspired Purpose Partners. "Understanding our past allows us to recognize the patterns in our behaviors. Learn from your past mistakes but leverage your successes as well — because it's not just about looking at where we've gone wrong. It's also [...]

Q & A with Kathleen Wanatowicz, RFL Academy & Mastermind Alum When Kathleen Wanatowicz moved to the Roaring Fork Valley over 20 years ago to work for the City of Glenwood Springs, she had no idea where the challenge of being a young leader would take her. In a life full of “twists and turns,” Wanatowicz has appreciated the training and resources that RFL has provided at each stage of her career – from a twenty-something just starting out, to where she is now, owning her own strategic communications and project management firm, Project Resource Studio. A wife and mother of [...]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MEDIA CONTACT: Andrea Palm-Porter, Executive Director EMAIL /PHONE: andrea@rfleadership.org / 970.922.6035 LOCAL LEADERSHIP ORGANIZATION RECEIVES $90,000 USDA GRANT FOR ASPEN WORKFORCE TRAINING (November 2, 2023 - Aspen, CO) - Aspen business owners can take advantage of new workforce leadership training. Local non-profit Roaring Fork Leadership (RFL) secured a $90,000 Rural Business Development grant (RBDG) from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to fund the recently launched tuition-free programming. “We believe that building better communities means building better leaders,” says Roaring Fork Leadership Board President and Aspen Skiing Company Managing Director of Engagement and Development, Susan Harig. “With that mantra, Roaring Fork [...]

6 Tips for Better Problem Solving By: Wally Bock | Lead Change Problem-solving is an important part of successful leadership — and a skill we emphasize in all our RFL programs. Read on for some insights by Lead Change, written for and by top leadership and business professionals around the world, on how to be a better problem-solver. 1. Get The Story of The Problem Take notes as someone offers the story of the problem. Allow interruptions for other people to add things. Mark key events on a timeline. This process usually surfaces different viewpoints that you should investigate. It brings [...]

Q & A with Ann Abernethy, RFL Academy 2012 alum Television broadcaster, real estate broker, and author — RFL alum, Ann Abernethy, never seems to slow down. After growing up in small-town Altus, Oklahoma, she went into television after college, working at the ABC affiliate in Oklahoma City, before moving to New York City to work on the air as a television broadcaster at ABC. Then, she headed across the country to Los Angeles, where she kept working for ABC while raising two kids and remodeling and selling houses on the side. In 2012, with her kids off to college, [...]