Who We Are
Staff of the Southern Plains Land Trust
Jay Tutchton, Esq.
Interim Executive Director, Preserve Manager
Jay spends his days managing the bison herds and improving our network of protected lands for the benefit of all native wildlife species. For 27 years, Jay worked tirelessly as an attorney representing environmental organizations and individuals seeking to protect the environment. Jay also helped to start the Environmental Law Clinic at the University of Denver’s Sturm College of Law and has taught a variety of courses on Wildlife, Animal, and Environmental Law.
720.301.3843 • jay@southernplains.org.
Amy Wildgrube
Communications Director
For over 25 years, Amy has focused her Communications and Design expertise on education and conservation. She has served clients such as UNICEF, Denver Water, The Nature Conservancy, the Denver Zoo and Colorado State Parks. In 1998, Amy volunteered to design SPLT’s first edition logo. Coming full circle, Amy is now living her dream job of supporting SPLT’s commitment to preserving prairie grasslands and wildlife.
303.888.7681 • awildgrube@mac.com
SPLT is governed by an all-volunteer, hard-working board of directors.
SPLT Board & Staff at our Strategic Planning Workshop, August 2021
Front Row (left to right): Susan Crick, Taylor Jones, Misty Morehead, Lexi Schaefer, Donna Driscoll
Back Row (l-r): Ramona Gaylord, Nicole Rosmarino, Tracy Kessner, Sheree Seabury, Shannon Ryon
Donna Driscoll is SPLT’s Treasurer. Donna has tremendous experience in non-profit accounting. She served as the Chief Financial Officer and Controller of a major cultural institution, the Denver Zoological Foundation, for more than 20 years. She has worked as the Chief Financial Officer for Engineers Without Borders since 2015. Donna has a BA in Economics from Colorado College and an MS in Management from the University of Colorado at Denver. Donna has volunteered for and previously been a board member of SPLT for much of our history over the past 20 years.
Lexi Schaefer, SPLT’s Secretary, is a second-generation Colorado Native who grew up in Longmont, hiking the mountains, and developing a deep affinity for all Colorado wildlife. She graduated from University of Colorado in Boulder a Bachelor of Fine Arts, and promptly developed a sales career in the wine industry where she focused on sustainable and organic wines for 17 years. Lexi discovered SPLT while working for Fetzer Vineyards where she was immediately drawn to SPLT’s mission and ambitious goals. She supports SPLT fundraisers with her enthusiasm and passion for the cause.
Rhiannon (reeANNon) Gallagher, our newest SPLT board member, is a lifelong Coloradan and a business psychologist at Action Engineering, LLC., a woman-owned manufacturing consulting business in Golden, CO. She grew up in Colorado Springs and spent a lot of her childhood hiking and camping in southern Colorado, learning botany, geology, and history from her parents. She earned a BA and a Fulbright in human geography, studying how people connect emotionally to their places. Her passion for bringing empathy to design of places and systems led to a career in user experience and change management coaching, helping everyone from nurses to engineers to machinists work with better and more user-friendly tools. Her love of Colorado has led to an active environmental career as well. She was a People’s Delegation representative to COP 23 through ICLEI. She supports the work of Team Project 54, which provides UN SDG13 tools and training around the world. Rhiannon facilitates the online eco-anxiety support group Parents for the Planet, helping people cope with climate grief through art, inspiration, awe, positive activism, and community. She lives with her husband and son in Wheat Ridge where she gardens, hikes, plays board games, and crafts beadwork and baskets.
Ramona Gaylord is a SPLT Board Member and biology/science teaching consultant with Telluride Public School/Telluride Mountain School. She has also been a biologist consultant with Bridal Veil Living Classroom at the Telluride Institute from 2006-2015. While at the Pinhead Institute from 2002-2007, Ramona created “Biodiversity through Art.” These projects depicted the indigenous residents of the Telluride valley: the Gunnison’s prairie dogs and the Ute Indians. Her culminating display in Elks Park featured a painted tipi, bronze sculptures, acrylic range maps and life-size clay prairie dog replicas. Ramona grew up in Denver and witnessed the relentless destruction of prairie habitat and wildlife during her youth. She believes that buying prairie habitat is the best way to forever protect it. She strongly believes in SPLT’s mission. She and her husband, Kent, have two daughters, Soleil and Chambri. Soleil, Kent and Ramona have worked at SPLT’s Raven’s Nest Preserve. Soleil created 2 revegetation plots seeding them with indigenous grasses in hopes that buffalo and rice grass will spread from these plots. Ramona hopes that her daughters will be able to enjoy visits to SPLT’s reserves when they are her age!
Melinda Redenius is a current Board Member and an Associate Director of Digital Forensics and E-Discovery for ArcherHall. She is President of Craic Consulting, Inc. and currently serves on the Board of Bayly Lofts. As a Centennial State native, Melinda is truly a unicorn, born and bred in the shadow of the Flatirons in Boulder and crafted by the inspiring beauty only found in Colorado. After attending college in San Diego, CA and living in the arroyos of central New Mexico, the Rocky Mountains beckoned her home. She returned to build a successful 25-year career around litigation; first as a top tiered paralegal and then as an expert witness/analyst in the digital forensics space, working across the country, and internationally. And now as SPLT newest Board Member, the wide-open spaces of colorful Colorado have called to her once again, only this time it was to give back to the beautiful state that created her.
Nicole Rosmarino, a current Board Member, helped found the Southern Plains Land Trust and resides in Bent County, CO. Nicole received her Ph.D. from the University of Colorado at Boulder in May 2002. Her Ph.D. is in policy science/political science, and her academic focus was on biodiversity preservation. She has been actively involved in efforts to protect prairie wildlife since 1994 and treasures all native prairie species, both plant and animal.
Shannon Ryon is a SPLT Board Member. Shannon has 15 years of experience in real estate and title closings and has a strong background in organizing philanthropic events. She is a Colorado native and grew up on an organic farm and apple orchard in Golden, CO. Shannon enjoys traveling, history, skiing, and antique collecting. Shannon was first introduced to The Southern Plains Land Trust through fellow board member Ramona Gaylord and has been an enthusiastic supporter of the Southern Plains Land Trust for several years.
Sheree Seabury is a SPLT Board Member. She moved to Colorado in 1983 and lives with her husband on an Airpark in Erie, CO. She graduated with a BSBA from Columbia College in 1985 and has spent the last 37 years in the high-tech industry. Sheree joined Luscombe Engineering in 1991 as an Outside Sales Representative and became a partner in 2002 until she retired at the end of 2016. She has served on several other Board of Directors in the area. As a supporter of SPLT for many years, she believes that purchasing land to keep as a prairie wildlife reserve is the best way to help preserve the prairie grasslands and animals. Sheree loves to ski, fly, scuba dive and ride on her husband’s Harley through Colorado and other places around the world. She is an advocate for saving the endangered black-tailed prairie dog due to explosive development happening in Colorado and loves going on marine research and conservation scuba diving trips whenever possible.
Soleil Gaylord is a SPLT Jr. Board Member. She was raised in Telluride, Colorado, and is currently a junior at Dartmouth College. She is studying Government and Environmental Studies. On campus, she is a staff news reporter for The Dartmouth, the oldest college newspaper in the country, she works at the Life Sciences Center Greenhouse, and she performs research on avian bioacoustics. In her community, she hosts a radio show that highlights the biological intrigues of southwestern Colorado. She also designed and maintains a native revegetation plot on her hometown’s open space. Soleil’s interests range widely, but she particularly loves politics, mountain running, wildflowers, birds, biological illustration, and reading. She was a member of several U.S. Mountain Running Teams. When not nose-deep in a book, Soleil is listening to her favorite podcasts and running, rafting, backpacking, or hiking.
CONTACT US
Southern Plains Land Trust (SPLT)
PO Box 1016, Lamar, CO 81052
720.841.1757
splt@southernplains.org
A special thanks to the SPLT photographers!