Lauren Schmidt

Executive Director

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.”

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.

AJ Wojtalik

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, communications, and business development team 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 can be found on wild adventures with her 9-year-old daughter.

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 4-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.

Anna Bishop

Development Manager

Anna Bishop joined the Colorado Outward Bound School as Development Associate in 2017, growing the department at the time from one staff to two. As Development Manager, Anna is passionate about expanding access to transformational experiences in the outdoors for all students, regardless of ability to pay. She enjoys juggling tasks and the many hats working with COBS has allowed her to wear – from events and annual giving to connecting with donors, board members and students in new ways in the field. Prior to joining COBS, Anna fell in love with fundraising as a Development Assistant for the Denver Area Council Scouts. She received her BA in Professional Writing with a minor in Nonprofit Administration from Grand Valley State University and is a proud graduate of the Institute for Leaders in Development’s Class of 2020. Called to Colorado from Michigan by a fascination for the mountains, she now calls Denver home with her partner and their four-legged family.

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.

Jason Davis

Business Development Manager