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FRWD board members

Photo of Barrett Jensen

Barrett Jensen
Chair
Born and raised in Glenwood Springs, Barrett Jensen joined the United States Marine Corps in 2007 and completed two combat tours in Afghanistan. In 2013, Jensen accepted a position as a scale attendant at the Pitkin County Landfill in Snowmass and in 2015 completed his B.A.S. in Public Administration from Colorado Mesa University. After serving in multiple landfill operations capacities, Jensen accepted a position as the Solid Waste Division director for Mesa County in Grand Junction, where he conducted large-scale education and outreach campaigns, educating the community on solid waste activities, including landfilling, compost, and hazardous waste. Jensen has been working for Waste Connections of Colorado as the district manager of the Fountain Landfill in Fountain since 2019. Jensen serves on the Board of Directors for the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the Solid Waste Association of North America, the Colorado Motor Carriers Association, and is a member of the Pikes Peak Area Council of Governments Air Quality Technical Committee.

Photo of Laurie Johnson

Laurie Johnson
Vice chair
Laurie Johnson is the Chief Operating Officer, Recycling for 5280 Waste Solutions. 5280 is a hauling and C&D recycling company that captures C&D material and secures markets for these materials in Colorado. Previously, Laurie served as the executive director for Recycle Colorado and VP of Client Services for Recyclebank, and she owned a distribution business in Phoenix for eight years. Laurie holds a Bachelor’s degree in Urban Affairs from Cal State Northridge and an MBA in Sustainable Business from Antioch University.

Photo of Darla Arians

Darla Arians
As Division Manager for Boulder County Resource Conservation Division, Darla Arians oversees the county’s zero waste programs, which includes the Boulder County Recycling Center (BCRC), the Hazardous Materials Management Facility (HMMF), the transfer stations and drop-off centers throughout the county, the internal zero waste program, as well as the community resource conservation programs. Darla is also Section Chief of Emergency Support Function (ESF) 20 Debris Management for the Boulder Office of Emergency Management. She serves on Boulder County Resource Conservation Advisory Board (RCAB) as well as chairs the City and County of Broomfield Advisory Committee on Environmental Sustainability (ACES). She is also a member of the Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA) Colorado Chapter board of directors.
Photo of Tyler Bandemer

Tyler Bandemer
Tyler Bandemer is the Solid Waste Superintendent for the City of Loveland, where he manages the collection of trash, single-stream recycling and yard waste collections from approximately 25,000 households and manages a full-service recycling center. Tyler oversees the top residential recycling program in the state with a year-to-year average diversion of 60% and develops and executes strategies to increase recycling and increase efficiencies with sustainability in mind. Previously, he was the Solid Waste Manager for the City of Laramie, WY, overseeing collections and the landfill. While there, he introduced automated waste collection, single-stream recycling, organics collection and composting in Laramie. Tyler is a graduate from the University of Wyoming with a BS in Health Science and has been in the solid waste industry for 14 years.
Photo of Courtney Cotton

Courtney Cotton
Courtney Cotton is currently the recycling program manager for the City and County of Denver. Previously, she was the recycling and sustainability manager for the Virginia Department of Corrections; she also worked as a senior chemist for the Edgewood Chemical Biological Center in Maryland. She holds a BS in Chemistry from the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown and attended Towson University for her graduate studies in environmental science.
Photo of Steve Derus

Steve Derus
Steve Derus has over 30 years of experience as a General Manager and Engineer and has been in his current role with Republic Services since 2015. Prior to this, Steve worked with Momentum Recycling to develop a “bottle-to-bottle” glass cullet recycling processing facility. With Waste Management, he managed the Franklin St. single-stream MRF, was Director of Landfill Operations in Colorado and Utah for nine solid waste facilities, and was Sr. District Manager of the Denver Arapahoe Disposal Site (DADS Landfill) for 13 years. Steve received his BS in Environmental Engineering from Cal-Poly, San Luis Obispo in 1985 and is a registered Civil Engineer. He is a member of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of SWANA (Solid Waste Association of North America) and Recycle Colorado and is a founding board member of the FRWD enterprise.
Photo of Neil Kaufman

Neil Kaufman
Dr. Kaufman is the President of Upriver, LLC and the Executive Director of the National Center for Craftsmanship (501c3). His education includes a Bachelor of Science in Engineering, a Master of Science in Construction Management, and a Doctorate in Education. Neil taught at Colorado State University Department of Construction Management for 5 years. His industry experience includes 30+ years in education, business, construction, and engineering as a professional craftsman, business owner, teacher, consultant, and executive. He currently lives with his family in Fort Collins, Colorado.  

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Alex Markovich
Alex Markovich started with the Colorado Small Business Development Center (SBDC) in 2010. As the deputy director of finance for the SBDC Network, he is the lead fiscal and grant/cooperative agreement monitor with primary responsibility to ensure budget control and grant, contract and program compliance. Before joining the SBDC, Markovich worked in public and private accounting for three years. He worked as an associate with KPMG in Denver, a payroll/HR coordinator for Aramark in Denali, and an internal auditor for Vail Resorts in Keystone. Markovich attended Pennsylvania State University, Smeal College of Business where he obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting with a minor in International Business. He also holds a Master’s degree in International Trade, Finance and Development with a concentration in economic development from the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics.
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Suzanne "Zan" Jones
Suzanne “Zan” Jones serves as the executive director of the Boulder County non-profit Eco-Cycle, one of the nation’s oldest non-profit recyclers dedicated to innovating, implementing, and advocating for recycling, composting and other zero waste efforts. Suzanne also recently finished eight years of public service on the Boulder City Council (2011-2019), the last four as Boulder’s mayor. Previously, Suzanne worked 16 years for The Wilderness Society, where she served as the central Rockies regional director leading coalition efforts to protect our nation’s public lands. Before moving back to Colorado, Suzanne worked in Washington, D.C. for the National Wildlife Federation and as congressional staff for the Fisheries & Wildlife Subcommittee in the U.S. House of Representatives. Suzanne has a M.S. in Resource Policy and Management from the University of Michigan’s School of Natural Resources and a B.S. in Natural Resources from Cornell University.
Photo of Rachel Nathan

Rachel Nathan
Rachel Nathan is the Sustainability Director at SustainAbility Recycling, a company that combines a passion for the environment and recycling with an understanding that every human being is unique and has something of value to offer our community and our planet. Rachel served on the Assistance Committee for the Pollution Prevention Advisory Board for eight years. She holds an MS in Environmental Policy and Management from DU and a BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Photo of Lou Perez

Lou Perez
Lou Perez is a Project Director for the Larimer County Solid Waste Department, where he oversees the county’s Infrastructure planning and landfill project development. Previously, he served as the Director of Material Recovery Facility (MRF) Operations and Operations Engineer at the Boulder County Recycling Center. Lou also brings 28 years of experience expanding Business Development, Marketing, and Project Development for several Ohio and New York firms. Lou’s degrees include a BS in Industrial Engineering, with honors, and an MBA from the New York Institute of Technology.   
Photo of David Snapp

David Snapp
David Snapp is the Solid Waste and Materials Management Program Manager at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. He has served as an environmental protection specialist in the Hazardous Materials and Waste Management Division since 2008. He has also worked as a construction inspector for Scott, Cox & Associates in Boulder and for ENGEO in San Jose, CA. David holds a BS in Environmental Management from Indiana University Bloomington.

Photo of Rachel Wilson-Roussel

Rachel Wilson-Roussel
Rachel Wilson-Roussel is the Sustainability Unit Manager at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and oversees a variety of cross-media, voluntary environmental programs including the department’s recycling grant and rebate programs. Wilson-Roussel was first appointed by Governor Hickenlooper in 2015 to represent the department on the Pollution Prevention Advisory Board. She is also a founding member of the Front Range Waste Diversion Enterprise Board of Directors.