CILT

Chris Gates is the first Executive Director of PACE, Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement, a new national philanthropic organization based in Denver. PACE is an affinity group of the Council on Foundations and works with national and local foundations to help them advance their work in the broad fields of democratic renewal and civic engagement. In this capacity, he works closely with leaders of foundations and speaks extensively around the country and around the world on topics including civic engagement, political reform, democratic theory and philanthropic practice.

Prior to taking his position at PACE, Gates served for eleven years as President of the National Civic League (NCL), the nation’s oldest good government organization, founded by Teddy Roosevelt in 1894. Prior to serving as President, Gates served for eight years as Vice President of NCL, helping oversee its move from New York City to Denver and to modernize the agenda of this venerable institution.

Prior to his work with the National Civic League, Gates ran an independent consulting practice that worked with both communities and corporations to help them deal with issues of change. These strategic planning efforts helped his clients better align their practice and structure with their goals and aspirations. Prior to that he served as the Communications Director of the Denver-based Piton Foundation and as a speechwriter and policy aide to then Colorado Governor Richard Lamm.

Nationally, Chris serves on the board of the California Center for Civic Renewal and is an elected Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. He previously served on the boards of the Council for the Advancement of Citizenship and INDEPENDENT SECTOR. He also served as co-chair of the board of the Civic Practices Network and co-chair of the Saguaro Seminar, a research project based at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government working to find ways to build social capital in America.

Gates is active in his home community, where he is the founder and Chair of the Colorado Institute for Leadership Training and a former board member of Leadership Denver. He is a regular instructor at the University of Colorado’s Graduate School of Public Affairs, Leadership Denver, and Leadership Roaring Fork Valley. He recently served as the Co-Chair of the Denver Host Committee, which successfully bid for the 2008 Democratic National Convention. He is also a member of the board of trustees of the Denver Zoo.

Gates has also been active in the world of electoral politics. He served as Chair of the Colorado Democratic Party from 2003 to 2005. During his term as State Chair Colorado Democrats won control of both the Colorado State Senate and the Colorado State House, as well as converting both a Congressional seat and a U.S. Senate seat to Democratic control. In 2002 and 2003 he was a key advisor to John Hickenlooper during his successful bid to become Mayor of the City and County of Denver. In addition, he has served as Colorado’s Democratic National Committeeman from 1992 to 1996, and as the Vice Chair of the Colorado Democratic Party from 1989 to 1991, and Treasurer of the Colorado Democratic Party from 1985 to 1989. While in high school he served as President of the Colorado Young Democrats and while at university, he served as Director of College Affairs for the Young Democrats of America. Gates has also served on the staffs of a variety of candidates and elected officials including former Colorado Governor Dick Lamm, former Colorado Senator Floyd Haskell, former Indiana Senator Birch Bayh, former California Governor Jerry Brown and former U.S. Senator Terry Sanford.

Chris is a Colorado native, raised in Denver and Boulder, who received an honors degree in economics from the University of Colorado at Boulder and a Master of Public Administration from Harvard University, where he studied the interaction between the public and private sectors. While an undergraduate, he also studied political economics at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England. He has also received an Honorary Doctor of Law degree from Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania.

A Connecticut native, Barbara O'Grady, adopted Colorado as her home in 1980. She is a graduate of Vassar College and earned her Master of Science in geology at Rutgers University.

Barbara’s career began in New Orleans where she worked as an exploration geologist for Amoco Production Company. She spent her first 11 years in Colorado as an "at home" mom raising four children who are now mostly grown and mostly independent. She refocused her career towards environmental science working as Environmental Protection Specialist for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment since 1990. Barbara’s work involves oversight and management of Superfund cleanups at several sites in the Denver Metro area as well as a recent focus on Brownfields Redevelopment.

Her first political involvement was while in elementary school during the 1960 presidential campaign when she worked GOTV for John Kennedy and a local town council candidate (her best friend’s father) in Huntington, Connecticut. She is a 1992 graduate of CILT and was a candidate for State Senate District 30 in 1998. Barbara’s interest in politics is rooted in her belief that participation in government is a responsibility as well as a privilege. She joined the CILT Board in 2004 because she believes strongly in CILT’s mission and loves being actively involved with the program.

Barbara is passionate about wilderness and habitat protection with special focus on the Yellowstone ecosystem. She volunteers for the National Park Service in Yellowstone as a Volunteer Professional in ethnography and paleontology and spends as much time as possible exploring and studying the park.

Originally from Atlanta, Georgia, Taylor Hawes was admitted to the Colorado Bar in 1997 and practices municipal, land use, environmental and water law. Ms. Hawes graduated from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1991 with a B.A. in political science. Ms. Hawes received her Juris Doctorate degree from the Vermont Law School in 1997.

Ms. Hawes served as Co-Director of Northwest Colorado Council of Governments’ Water Quality and Quantity Committee (“QQ”) from 1997-2004. QQ is an advocacy group for the six headwater counties of Colorado that lobbied in the Colorado General Assembly and other statewide forums. Ms. Hawes managed the Upper Colorado River Project (“UPCO”), which was a six-year study and solutions oriented project in Summit and Grand Counties to address impacts associated with diversions to the Front Range from the West Slope. She also served as a consultant to various towns and counties on land use and water related issues from 1998 to 2004 and acted as town attorney for Montezuma in Summit County, Colorado.

Currently, Ms. Hawes serves as Associate Counsel to the Colorado River Water Conservation District in Glenwood Springs. Her responsibilities include working on water quality, the Statewide Water Supply Investigation, environmental permitting and water rights litigation. Ms. Hawes serves on the Boards of the Colorado Foundation for Water Education, the Colorado Water Trust and the Colorado Institute for Leadership Training. Past Boards include Summit Recycling Project, American Water Resources Association and High Country Soccer.

David Fulton is a member of the CILT class of 2005, and is also a graduate of the Emerging Leaders Program of the Downtown Denver Partnership in 2005. A Denver native, Dave received his B.A. from Emory University prior to teaching high school and middle school math for four years in Denver. He earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in philosophy of education from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and then lived briefly in Belfast, Northern Ireland working on a peace project involving children and forgiveness.

Dave was recently the Assistant Director of the Denver Public Schools' Office of Character and School Culture, where he assisted DPS schools in shaping their institutional culture to promote academic achievement and character development. He worked to nurture civic engagement and leadership in students, and was involved in voter-registration and service learning efforts in the district. He is co-author of Building An Intentional School Culture: Excellence in Academics and Character (Corwin Press, 2007).

Presently, he is the assistant principal of Skyland Community High School, a DPS charter school located in the Five Points area.

He has taught at the University of Colorado-Boulder and is presently an adjunct faculty member at the University of Denver School of Education.

Dave also serves on the board of FrontRange Earth Force, an organization that supports Denver teachers in service learning. He plays tennis, ultimate frisbee, golf, and enjoys many great hikes in the Colorado mountains!

Monica Rosenbluth
Monica Rosenbluth grew up in the Denver Metro area and is a graduate of East High School, the University of Colorado at Boulder, and the University of Wyoming College of Law. She is a graduate of the CILT class of 2004, and the Bighorn Leadership class of 2006. Ms. Rosenbluth is a partner with Miller Rosenbluth, LLC, a law firm that specializes in special district and public finance law. She is married to Dan, a marketing director for Coors, and they have two young girls, Lucy and Natalie. Ms. Rosenbluth is also on the board of the Anti-Defamation League and is active in local politics.

Laura Embleton
Executive Director
Laura Embleton is a Colorado native and is in love with this state, the people, the history, and the geography. She is a graduate of the University of Colorado at Boulder and holds a BA in Music with an Emphasis in Political of Science. In addition, she received her J.D. from the University of Denver, College of Law in 1991.

Laura is in her sixith year as Executive Director for CILT, and is an alumna, graduating with the class of 2002. She is responsible for coordinating all aspects of the program including identifying and coordinating speakers, and logistics for the classes, salons, and social events. She is also responsible for fundraising, budgeting, and alumni relations. In addition to working with CILT, Laura maintains her Estate Planning Practice. She is a Bighorn Fellow with the Sustainable Communities class of 2005 where she was a member of the team that drafted 07HB-1130 regarding Pine Beetle Mitigation, and is active with campaigns in the capacity of Campaign Manager, Field Coordinator and other positions, in addition to being active with the Arapahoe County Democrats. She has chaired many community programs through the American, Colorado and Denver Bar Associations.

Laura has been married to Dale Embleton for 14 years. They have a daughter, Emily, who is seven and is a great joy to both Dale and Laura. The Embleton's live in Arapahoe County.