Alumni Highlights

Q & A with Alan Luu, RFL Academy 2020 June 11 2021Reese Henry PortraitsAspen MeadowsMatt Power Photography RFL alum, Alan Luu, first learned about Sacred Cycle through his civic project during RFL Academy 2020. Using his background as a graphic designer and marketing consultant, he, along with his team, helped the organization develop the “Healing our Community” message.  The experience evolved into a much deeper involvement as Luu realized Sacred Cycle’s mission to empower sexual assault survivors through cycling and the outdoors resonated. We chatted with Alan about how RFL helped him lean into areas of his life outside [...]

Q&A with Sarah Johnson RFL Academy alum Sarah R. Johnson is a Carbondale-based climate change and environmental educator (though you might also know her as the founder of the Carbondale Renegade Marching Band!). Through her business, Wild Rose Education, she designs and facilitates workshops, courses, and programs at the state, national, and international levels, including the award winning Youth Water Leadership Program, and Project Learning Tree Canada's Climate Change and Forests curriculum. We chatted with Sarah about how RFL gave her the confidence to leave a full-time position for a freelance career. More recently, the leadership skills she developed at [...]

Q & A with Scott Mattice, RFL Academy 2016 alum From road construction worker to ski instructor to working for local government, RFL Academy 2016 alum Scott Mattice has lived through a lifetime’s worth of career changes. Now the deputy director for the Pitkin County Public Works Department and a youth baseball coach, Mattice has drawn on the skills he learned through RFL to become a more resilient and self-aware leader. Recently, we chatted with Mattice about how RFL taught him to “show up” — both for his colleagues and the nine-year olds he coaches. Roaring Fork Leadership: How did you [...]

Q&A with Meiying Li, RFL Academy 2016 Meiying Li was born and raised in China and moved to Aspen in 1995. As a recent immigrant with no English skills, Meiying faced big barriers in the professional world, but in a matter of years, she had transitioned from working at a dry cleaner to her first job at Alpine Bank. Recently, Meiying was promoted to banking officer for Alpine Bank and remains committed to furthering her leadership training through RFL. After graduating from the Academy program in 2016, she returned to RFL this year as part of our Mastermind 9 women's [...]

What is the value of leadership training for a business? For Roaring Fork Valley-based real estate management firm, The Romero Group, leadership is more than a tidy corporate slogan; it’s built into company culture through its internal leadership team, made up of employees up and down the organization. Key to their success has been the firm's ongoing relationship with RFL — a relationship that began more than 20 years ago (long before The Romero Group existed!) when two of its founders, Jim Korpela and Dwayne Romero, went through the Academy program. When Korpela and Romero along with Shawn Gleason (RFL Academy [...]

Q & A with Scott McHale, RFL Academy 2015 Alum By the time Scott McHale joined the RFL Academy 2015 cohort, he had weathered a lot of ups and downs in his career as an architect — Sept. 11, the Great Recession, a lay-off — challenges he endured in part from the “tough guy” ethos instilled in him as a child. In between, Scott designed a ski resort in Korea and base village developments from Tahoe to Aspen Highlands, as well as building his own house in Carbondale. But he credits RFL with helping develop the emotional awareness that has [...]

Q & A with Bonnie Muhigirwa, RFL Academy and Mastermind Alum Bonnie Muhigirwa grew up in the Roaring Fork Valley and studied political science and international relations at Wheaton College in Chicago. But it was building codes that ultimately captured her interest for a career that has brought her back to the valley, working for the City of Aspen. Currently, Bonnie is an enthusiastic member of the International Code Council, the nonprofit organization that oversees building code development. Locally, she volunteers in the Roaring Fork School District where her kids, ages 8 and 12, are students. RFL spoke with Bonnie about [...]

Q & A with Marjorie Jerez, RFL Academy 2020 alum Marjorie Jerez at work in the White River National Forest. Among the many pictures from last fall’s Camp Hale National Monument designation ceremony is a photo of a young U.S. Forest Service employee shaking hands with President Biden. The employee is Marjorie Jerez, the renewable resources GIS [Geographic Information System] specialist with the White River National Forest and an RFL Academy 2020 alum. For Marjorie’s parents, who immigrated to the U.S. from Nicaragua “with nothing,” she says, the photo is an immense source of pride. For Marjorie, too, attending the Camp Hale [...]

Q & A with Josh Axler, RFL Academy 2021 Alum These days, you won’t find Josh Axler behind a desk — or even on dry land — very frequently. The RFL Academy 2021 alum spends much of his time at sea, sailing a large carbon race boat or his own, much smaller, wooden boat, Heike. "She's my baby!" he says. Axler realized the hard way that he was not suited for a conventional path through life. At school in Flagstaff, Arizona, he struggled to sit through class and stay focused and eventually got kicked out of the ninth grade (technically, [...]

Q & A with Mitzi Rapkin, RFL Academy 2013 Alumni: You might recognize longtime Roaring Fork Valley resident, Mitzi Rapkin, from her podcast, First Draft, where she interviews authors about their writing — fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and essays. She’s also a former outdoor educator, guide, public radio reporter, and most recently, an entrepreneur. We chatted with Mitzi about starting a life-coaching business and the role RFL has played in her varied career path.  RFL: First off, how long have you lived in the valley?  Mitzi Rapkin: Twenty years. Back in the summer of 1992, I was an intern for ACES [...]