Staff

Administrative Staff

Brett Bruyere
Director
Now in his sixth year at the helm, Bossman Bruyere is starting to feel like he knows what he's doing as a nature center director more often than not. As a pseudo-academic, his most recent initiative is to assess the existence of a correlation between the number of wheel barrows at a nature center, and the facility's overall health. For now, the Seattle native rejoices that in six years, the place is still standing and all of the herons haven't collectively decided to mutiny.

Nicole Timmons Stafford
Program Director
Nicole continues to be the Elmer's Glue of the ELC. Without her, the glitter just wouldn't stick to the construction paper. Nicole has her eyes set perhaps on Broadway, though we've adjusted those expectations to mean any town with a street named "Broadway" and something that will suffice as a stage (e.g., wooden pallets). In one of the shiniest moments in ELC history, what we thought was a heron turned out to be a stork, and Nicole was rushed from the ELC trails to welcome Kaija Michelle Stafford to the world five hours later.

Environmental Education Staff

Some staff have additional titles, in response to their request to have more a compelling resume.

Lori Osborne, Coordinator of Reluctant Broom Hockey Goal-Keeping Operations
Don't let the initial hestiation fool you; Lori can stop a goal with or without high volume verbal encouragement from her teammates. Though we generally veer away from conspiracy theories, we suspect Lori might be part of a plot to create a critical mass of Illinois natives on staff. We're not particularly concerned about what might happen when the critical mass is achieved (it's Illinois, after all); we just like the drama of a conspiracy theory.

Ethan Billingsley, Provider of Soul
In a similar way that Def Leppard came back for another tour that surprised many of us from that era, Ethan returned to the ELC for a second tour, and this time for graduate work. After receiving his undergraduate degree three years ago, the Saint Louis native worked in the mountains, on the seas and in completely different galaxies where he had to explain to little martian children why the accordian was ever invented.

Lindsay Paulding, Pleasantness Coordinator
After a brief-but-character-building experience sailing the high seas of Connecticut, Lindsay has returned to Fort Collins to further her knowledge and contribute to the body of science as a graduate student. We appreciate her many innovative ideas (e.g., Miss Long Loop Pageant) to diversify what we do, and look forward to our inaugural launch of the S.S. Heron.

Chris Case
Chris allegedly still works at the ELC in a way that bears still 'work' in the forest during winter. As the leader of the critical mass of Myers-Briggs INTJ personality types, Chris helps keep a close eye on making sure things aren't getting too darn emotional. We have seen a more vulnerable side to Chris recently, which comes with the territory of being both a fan of the Chicago Bears and the White Sox.

Becca Brofft, ELC Delegate to the United Nations ( as soon as we're invited)
The senior Environmental Communication major spent part of the past year near the Equator on a study abroad stint. Consequently, she returned with new found commitment to symmetry and balance. And now that she's back, we expect Becca-from-Denver to resume a most important responsibility: take the ELC to places it has never been, which oddly enough, doesn't include rototiller races, Star Wars bowling or full moon capture-the-flag.

Adam Pitchford
The junior Natural Resource Tourism major from Albuquerque brings a tremendous amount of energy to the ELC, in the same way that a lightning bolt striking a house brings a tremendous amount of energy to the blender plugged into an outlet in that house. We're happy to have him on-board and raising the bar of the ELC energy level to galactican proportions.

Joanna Harter, Queen of the Meadow
A new addition (not to be confused with the group New Edition, circa 1985) to the ELC dream team in Fall 2007, the sophomore Environmental Communication hails from.... everywhere (due to military family moves, not running from the law). Her studies and work at ELC are tempered by her earlier pursuits for the world record for most toilet-paper based shenanigans as a teenager. She came awfullllllly close.

Fumie Hiromitsu
A sophomore Environmental Communication major from Denver, Fumie's role is to restore order now and then to ELC staff meetings (a full-time job at times). They have a tendency to veer off-track, from things such as chicken impressions and table-banging songs. In a previous existence, Fumie was a princess in a large castle in the hills of Germany, and we are currently in the design stages of a moat and draw bridge to help her reconnect with that precious time in her life.

Micah Davis, Coordinator of Things that Need Coordinating
The Fort Collins native and roller-skating maniac (to the surprise of his co-workers) will come out of nowhere with a mostly-silent witty comment that only those nearby can hear. The junior Environmental Communication major had a brief stint with the circus shortly after high-school during which he was part of the Flying Micahasimov brothers trapeeze show.

George Foster, ELC Town Jester
Opting to see what life is like below 8,000 feet, the Silverton, Colorado native ventured to Fort Collins to study Environmental Communication. As the Aldo Leopold of the class born in 1988, George has the challenge of articulating an ethic toward nature that transcends boy bands and banana hair clips.

Karina Mullen
The ELC is pleased to have on staff the Smiliest Female from Denver under Five-foot-Five. Karina's outgoing-ness, Spanish-speaking ability and Looney Tunes impersonations make her well-suited to two thing: working at the ELC with small kids and repeated appearances on the Gong Show (google it, youngsters).

Garden, Maintenance and Volunteer Management Staff

Adam Schnirel, Volunteer and Handy Guy Guru
The Park and Protected Area Management graduate from Pennsylvania is master of the yellow ELC chore sheet and our designated liaison to the predators.Though we have invited the fox and coyotes to attend staff meetings for their input, they have yet to attend, and we count on Adam to speak on their behalf (though the howling at the meetings is getting tiresome).

Ben Yellin
Yet another Illinoisan slipped through the cracks of the ELC Human Resources process, and we're once again up to three from the Land of Lincoln. The senior major in Natural Resource Tourism is spending his ELC days determining just what kind of fruit tree we might plant at the ELC garden, and formulating yet another defense for his argument for why mangoes and avocadoes are not viable options.