Top of the Pines, Inc. is a tax-exempt, non-profit organization, vested by Ouray County to oversee the operations and maintenance of the Top of the Pines facility.  Top of the Pines, Inc. consists of a Board of Directors and an Advisory Council of consultants and dedicated experts.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Brad Wallis, Board President

Brad Wallis is the owner and principal of BTB Construction & Consulting LLC, a small design/build firm specializing in the design and construction of super insulated homes in southwestern Colo. In addition to serving as board president at Top of the Pines, he is also the education coordinator for the Uncompahgre Watershed Partnership. Prior to moving to Ridgway, Brad owned and operated Greystone Mortgage, one of the top producing mortgage operations in Utah, and provided leadership to several national and regional organizations serving national parks and other public lands. He has traveled extensively both nationally and internationally supporting good business practices and ethical behavior in the conservation community.  

Jane Wilson

Jane has lived in Ouray County since falling in love with this beautiful mountain valley and moving here 2012. She holds a BS in Forestry with an emphasis in Ecological Restoration and began her career working as a Forester for the U.S. Forest Service in Washington State.  Because of her passion for education and love for working with children, she later decided to become a teacher. She now holds a Master’s in Natural Sciences Education and is currently working on a second Master’s in Literacy Education. Jane teaches science, social studies, and language arts at Ridgway Secondary School. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, skiing, traveling, and playing in the water with her husband and their two children.

Laura Mah, Treasurer

Laura and her husband moved to Ridgway to explore the area’s incredible mountains and to enjoy the outdoor recreation activities offered in Ouray County. As an avid photographer, Top of the Pines provides her with opportunities to capture spectacular images of the San Juan Mountains and to enjoy the challenge of photographing the Top of the Pine’s elusive bird population. Laura believes it is important to give back to the community and volunteers also to support Ridgway State Park, the Montrose Center for the Arts and the Black Canyon Audubon Society.

Jen Ballard

Jen Ballard was born and raised in Washington, D.C. Jen moved to Colorado in 1996 after college to have more access to rock climbing. After a few fun years of ice and rock climbing, Jen returned to the DC area to get a Masters Degree in Education while teaching Physics in an Alexandria, VA High School. As soon as her Masters program was over, Jen returned to Colorado in 2004 where she works as a high school science and health teacher. Jen has two children, Mackenzie and Aiden. On her free time, Jen and her family raise bees and hope to educate others to do the same.

Kay Rider, Secretary

​Kay Rider has been a resident of Ridgway for the past 16 years.  She is now a retired middle school teacher and spends her energies mountain biking, hiking, camping and dabbling in a variety of fiber arts.  The beauty of the Colorado outdoors is a daily inspiration. 

Nancy Lazenga

Nancy Lazenga was born in Chicago and raised in Wilmette, Illinois. Her family vacationed in Colorado during the summer months where she learned to love the mountains. She moved to Colorado from the Minneapolis area in 2009. She was a Human Resources professional working for several major corporations as well as non-profit organizations where she concentrated on recruiting, on-boarding, diversity, compliance and work-life balance programs. She received her B.S. from Northern Illinois University in Family Social Services. She continued her studies at the University of Iowa in their M.A. Family Studies program and then at the University of Minnesota in their M.Ed. program in Human Resource Development. She has two grown children and two grandchildren. She has been an active volunteer for many organizations that mainly focus on improving the lives of children and families as well as in the performing arts. She has served as stage manager for a pre-professional ballet school in Minneapolis and CASA’s Dancing with the Stars. She’s currently retired from HR but keeps active serving as a mentor in the Partners program and works part-time at Ridgway Secondary School. She loves the outdoors; hiking, camping, x-country skiing and traveling. She has served on the TOP board since 2019. 

Robb Austin

Robb retired as the Chief Executive Officer of the Moab Regional Hospital in April of 2015 after working 40 years in the health care industry. He received his Master of Science degree in Business & Health Fiscal Administration from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and his B.S. degree from Moorhead (MN) State University. Robb’s wife Betsy Baier is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker currently working as a private practitioner. Robb and Betsy have three children and five grand-children. In addition to serving on the TOP board, Robb is also a board member of the Ridgway Chautauqua Society, dba The Sherbino Theater and a former Ridgway Town Councilor.

Val Szwarc

Val has been a part-time resident of Ouray County since the mid 1990’s and became a full time resident as of 2014 when he retired from a career as an aerospace engineer and atmospheric scientist from a number of employers including NOAA/Boulder and NREL/Golden. Val and his wife Laura are frequent visitors to TOP year-round. In summer they enjoy a short hike or mountain bike ride and in winter they love the XC-skiing opportunities. Recently, Val has taken note of the pristine dark skies above TOP and has taken advantage of opportunities to capture those dark skies through the lens of his camera. He is currently leading an effort with TOP to become an International Dark Sky Association (IDA) designated Dark Sky Park that would complement the Town of Ridgway’s recent IDA designation as a Dark Sky Community. Val is an active member of IDA and currently serves as a Director of Colorado’s Western Region for the Colorado Chapter of IDA. Val has a BS from Penn State, and graduate degrees from the University of Colorado and the University of Pennsylvania.

Geoff Tischbein, Vice Chair

Geoff moved to Montrose in 1974 after taking a position as a public information specialist for the Colorado Division of Wildlife (now Colorado Parks and Wildlife) where he worked for 27 years covering Colorado’s West Slope. Over the last 50 years he has been involved with several local and national nonprofits and professional organizations. He remembers first skiing TOP in 1974 or1975 when it was still referred to as “The Girl Scout Camp.” He enjoys hiking, backpacking, skiings, scuba diving, birding, and “about anything you can do outside!”
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Kathy Peckham

Kathy came to this area about 20 years ago to continue her career with the U.S. Forest Service. For the first half of her career, she worked as a wildlife biologist in Oregon, Arizona and Colorado (Dolores). In 2000, Kathy switched her career focus, becoming the recreation manager for the Ouray and Norwood Ranger Districts. In that position she oversaw campgrounds, trails, outfitter-guide permits, wilderness areas, and the Telluride Ski Area permit. Since retiring in 2019, Kathy has had the time to pursue her favorite activities including birding, gardening, mountain biking, hiking, Nordic skiing and acrylic painting.

ADVISORY COUNCIL

John Clark

John has lived in Ridgway since 1982, evolving from a landscaper to a glass artist to a computer consultant & graphic artist/web designer. He has taken on the task of being TOP's webmaster, while continuing to pursue his love of the great outdoors. In 2012, he became Mayor of Ridgway as well, continuing a 30+ year span of involvement in the Town of Ridgway government.

Jake Niece 

Jake serves as TOP board liaison from the Ouray Board of County Commissioners.

Additional advisory council members include Chris Haaland, Bill Leo, Marisa Murphy, Danika Gilbert, Tim Manzagol, Liana Schmidt and Kelvin Kent.

STAFF

Ethan and Liz Stupka – Campground Hosts, Scheduling & Administration

We’re Ethan and Liz! We have lived full time in our fifth wheel RV now for 3 years. We have worked at RV parks, ranches and even tour guided Yellowstone on horseback. We have been almost everywhere in the US (minus a couple states) and hope to complete all 50 within the next couple years! We have Instagram and YouTube accounts named LifeOn8Wheels! Check us out!