Lauren Schmidt

Executive Director

Lauren joined the staff of the Colorado Outward School in December 2019. Prior to serving as Executive Director, Lauren served on the COBS Board of Directors from 2012-2018 and as a Board Member Emeritus from 2018-2019. Lauren joined COBS after almost twenty years in the legal profession, where she served as a shareholder at the Denver-based law firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck and, most recently, as the Director of Litigation for the Denver City Attorney’s Office. Lauren is a graduate of William & Mary (1997) and the University of Michigan Law School (2000).

Lauren is an active member of the Denver community and, in addition to her board service at COBS, has served on the board of the Colorado Children’s Campaign, the Denver Dumb Friends League, the Colorado Lawyer’s Committee, and the Colorado Women’s Bar Association Foundation. She is also a member of the Colorado Access to Justice Commission.

Lauren lives in Denver with her husband, Eric; their two children and future COBS graduates, Audrey and Will; and their goldendoodle Riley, a COBS mascot and loyal rescue pup from the Denver Dumb Friends League. Lauren and her family are avid backpackers, hikers, and skiers and spend their free time adventuring in the great outdoors together.

Mackenzie Bettmann

Student Services

Mackenzie joined COBS in 2019 after graduating from Hamilton College where she studied Literature, Spanish, and Theater.  While at Hamilton, Mackenzie was involved with their outdoor program and helped lead outdoor trips that ranged from outdoor orientation trips for first year students to wellness trips through the counseling center.  At COBS, Mackenzie is a Course Advisor and works with students from the time they enroll until they go on course.  Mackenzie is an invaluable resource to make sure students feel confident about their upcoming course and to make sure each student is prepared to succeed while on course. 

Outside of work Mackenzie loves to read, hike, plan scavenger hunts, backpack, swim, and generally explore.  Mackenzie has also started doing some acting at a local murder mystery dinner theater and reading books about conflict resolution at local elementary schools.

Douglas Bridwell

Director of Finance & Administration

Doug’s career has spanned over 25 years and has led him to work for companies ranging in size from a $5 million software startup to a multi-billion dollar financial services company. He has worked as a consultant advising mutual fund boards on asset manager profitability, and previously led a project for Swallow Hill Music Association developing a forecasting and profitability tool. He has served in a variety of different roles, including managing HR, treasury, accounting, finance and facilities for Swallow Hill, as well as directing profitability analysis and planning for Janus Capital Corporation, a $2 billion mutual fund firm. Doug has experience guiding startups through their growing pains, as well as preparing forecasts for large, complex organizations, and is excited to put his mind and soul into helping Colorado Outward Bound School thrive.

Doug’s wife Stacy is a veterinarian, and when they aren’t volunteering for animal welfare causes, they love riding bikes or hiking in the Colorado foothills. The remainder of Doug’s life can be summed up by Albert Schweitzer: “There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats.”

Steve Creech

Safety Manager

Working for COBS is the best job possible – it has the best curriculum you can hope to teach - it actually matters in people's lives.  How to communicate with intention and compassion, how to lead with authority and compassion, how to learn what truly matters and sustains us in our lives, how to serve others and the world surrounding us.  

I’m so grateful that I’ve been able to have Outward Bound in my past, and I’m so grateful to have it in my present and future.  After working in the outdoor industry for nearly a decade, I landed at COBS' Southwest Program in 2008. I fell in love with the desert, its canyons, wildflower-filled mountains, endless climbing, and long river expeditions. In 2012, I stepped up and on to the Leadership Team through the early summer of 2016 as an Associate Program Director of Course Quality & Safety.  In 2016 I moved back East with my partner, got a master’s in Administration (Recreation & Parks), continued instructing and CDing for NCOBS in NC and the Everglades, honed many skills and got an alphabet soup of certifications, and spent two years as a Coordinator for Virginia Tech’s outdoor program.   In my spare time I love to do all the things that happen on COBS courses; canyoneering, rafting and canoeing, backpacking, climbing, and watching the setting sun turn into an ocean of stars.  I am thrilled that as of March 2020 I have been able to be back out on the Colorado Plateau and serving as COBS' Safety Manager to positively influence safety in the frontcountry and backcountry so that all of the challenge and discovery can take place.  

Jason Davis

Business Development Manager

Jason joined COBS in 2018 after leaving a 17-year career to go back to school to pursue a degree in Outdoor Education with an emphasis on Outdoor Business Management. Before going back to school, Jason was managing a sales portfolio of $48 million in annual sales and from that he brings a wealth of knowledge on working with organizations of all sizes. Jason has a passion for the outdoors and a drive to pass that passion on to as many people as he can by building custom courses that meet the goals and outcomes each team or group are looking for.

Jason is married, has 3 children, 2 dogs, and a cat. When not at work he can be found with his family floating a river, searching for fish at an undisclosed high alpine lake, or out exploring trails on his mountain bike.

Ben Fickett

Director of Admissions

Ben first came to the Colorado Outward Bound School as a student in 2001. He has held many different roles with Outward Bound. He was originally hired as a sea kayaking Instructor. He has worked at a variety Outward Bound Schools, both in and out of the field, over the last 10 years. Ben and his team work with both scholarship and open enrollment students as they go through the admissions and course preparation process.

Vic Kerr

Director of Safety, Education and Programs

Originally from Scotland, Vic has been involved with COBS since joining as an Assistant Instructor in 2004. In her current role as Director of Safety, Education and Programs Director she is committed to ensuring that that every student and staff experience is as safe, rewarding and rich as it can be.

Vic has climbed Denali, cycled through grizzly bear country from the Arctic Circle, guided dozens of students up glaciated peaks, run an ultra-race along the Continental Divide, skied pitches that required an abseil entry, recently took up open water swimming and teaching a 5-year-old how to ski.  After two decades involved in leading groups through the valleys and mountains of Colorado, Utah, Alaska and Ecuador, her passion remains for exploring and discovering – both in the terrain we travel through and in the discoveries we make about ourselves.

She believes adventures are adventures simply because of the uncertainty, the challenge, the unknown, and less about the pace or the “extremeness”.  She believes that every person, especially young folks should be given the chance to experience their adventure, and that Outward Bound can provide the opportunity to do so.

Jackie Kuusinen

Course Advisor

Jackie started climbing in 1995 and guiding in 2005. She has taught backpacking, climbing, and canyoneering across Alaska, Colorado, and Utah. After working as a research librarian and supporting early literacy in public libraries for twelve years, Jackie is delighted to use her background in education to help Outward Bound students connect with the transformative power of wilderness in her role as Course Advisor. As a lifelong learner herself, Jackie became the 10^th female in the United States to earn a full Rock Instructor certification with the American Mountain Guides Association in 2016, and holds Bachelor of Sociology and Master of Library and Information Science degrees. Growing up in Colorado shaped her worldview so that few things bring her more joy than being in the mountains alongside friends and family.

Darcy Lattof

Development Director

Darcy Lattof has served as the Director of Development at the Colorado Outward Bound School (COBS) since 2013.  She is committed to making sure that students from all backgrounds can discover their best selves and what a team is capable of through the challenge of the outdoors. Darcy has strengthened the school’s three basecamps through capital projects with unusual partners like the University of Colorado’s Masters in Architecture Program and Shell Oil. She has led COBS’s school and nonprofit partnerships in the Denver metro area, Lake County, and the Roaring Fork Valley. Darcy has found creative ways to progress key priorities of the school like mental health training and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion by championing the voices and vision of staff. 

Darcy is an Outward Bound alumna, having participated in two courses in Colorado and Utah prior to working at COBS, and has since helped many donors and board members journey into the field. The power of meeting students, hearing their stories firsthand, and helping others experience the program themselves is one of the best parts of her job. While she did not grow up camping or backpacking, she works to make the outdoors a space to build connections with others. She believes that all Coloradans should have safe and equitable access to the outdoors and the healing power of green space on their own terms. 

Darcy was previously the Director of Development at Starfish One by One (now MAIA Impact), a female and indigenous-led organization providing holistic educational opportunities to young Mayan women in Guatemala. She is a proud graduate of El Pomar Foundation’s two-year Nonprofit Fellowship program. The Fellowship was a formative experience where she connected with nonprofits of all sizes and missions across the state, especially in rural Colorado.

She received her MBA in 2018 from the University of Denver. She is a Spanish speaker and has studied and traveled extensively in Latin America. She received her BA in Geography and International Studies from the University of Denver. She was raised in Fort Collins, Colorado. Darcy resides in Denver with her husband, daughter, and scrappy rescue dog.

Britta Mireley

Development Coordinator

Britta joined COBS in 2021 after moving back to the Front Range from northern Idaho. She grew up in the Black Hills of South Dakota and Wyoming before attending the University of Wyoming in Laramie. In 2013 she received her Master’s in Tourism Administration from The George Washington University. Her career has varied from public lands stewardship and advocacy, to historic downtown revitalization, community development, and state-level tourism. Before joining COBS, Britta was the Deputy Executive Director of a small Wilderness advocacy non-profit in northern Idaho and northwestern Montana. 

Britta and her husband have one daughter and two cats. When she’s not working, she enjoys exploring our public lands on day hikes with her daughter and planning just how many native and xeric plants she can fit in her yard. 

Nohemi Mora

Scholarship Program Coordinator and Course Advisor

Matt Olsen

Staffing Manager

Matt has worked since 2011 for COBS mostly out of the Leadville Mountain Center as an Instructor, but for the last few years he is our Staffing Manager and schedules all of our field staff.  Some of Matt’s interests are Rock Climbing, Mountaineering, Mountain Biking, Running, going on adventures with his family, or getting nerdy about something.  This picture is of him on top of Cho Oyu – the 6th highest mountain in the world - with a COBS flag.

AJ Wojtalik

Communications & Marketing Director

AJ joined the Colorado Outward Bound School as marketing director in February of 2013 after an 8-year stint in media, preceded by marketing in the outdoor recreation industry and roaming the Western Slope of Colorado on horseback. Now overseeing the marketing and communications at COBS, she continues to fuse her professional background with her lifelong love of the outdoors and experiential learning.

She is responsible for brand messaging, partnerships, and internal and external communications, and supports the HR department and senior leadership team in developing and implementing the vision and strategy for the school. AJ graduated from Western State College (now Western State Colorado University) with a degree in English and when she’s not sprinkling marketing magic across the land, she's usually off on wild adventures with her daughter.

Bee-yonce

Comb-unications Coordinator

Cat

Assistant Scholarship Purr-ordinator

Riley

Top Dog