Who is Mancos United? YOU are!
Mancos United is all about “we”. Who we are and what we do.
In Mancos, we take care of each other. In Mancos, we grow together.
Mancos United started with a recognition that things have changed and we weren’t everything we needed and aspired to be. Somehow, with everything going for us, we were still losing kids. We are pretty amazing but it was time to adapt.
In 2021, our Mancos community found itself in the tender place of shock, grief, and uncertainty. Like the rest of the world, we were reeling from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic when we were faced with two devastating youth tragedies within 12 months. These losses shook our small town and it made clear that not only our youth, but many families and members of our community were in need.
This awareness created an impassioned call for more accessible mental health, wellness, and general support. Our dedicated area care providers and organizations quickly rose up, reaching out to the Mancos School District as a potential way to connect the community and reach children and families in need. This is what led to the call for a group of community members and service providers to band together and create the vision for Mancos United.
Our Board of Directors
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Craig BenallyTim has lived in the Mancos Valley for 20 years and is a scientist by education and a builder by trade. He served on the Mancos School Board for 10 years, on the Montezuma County Planning Commission for nine years, is a 4-H Shooting Sports leader and has served on the Southwest Basin Roundtable for eight years. Tim has been involved with MVR for six years.
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Doty Shepard
Doty Shepard is the co-founder and executive director of Resilient Colorado | Cultivate Resilience, a non-profit dedicated to increasing the well-being of our communities by educating about the impacts of trauma and ways to enhance personal and community resilience. TEDx speaker, in-demand national trainer and workshop leader, Doty earned a Master of Arts degree specializing in support for youth and families and cultural transformation, then spent the next twenty years working in the field. She specializes in helping organizations infuse trauma-sensitive practices into all they do while cultivating the resilience of both staff and clientele.
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Jamie Higgins
Jamie Higgins and her family moved to Mancos Colorado from Oklahoma in 2020. She currently works for the Town of Mancos as the Town Clerk/Treasurer. Jamie served in the US Air Force where she met her husband. After her travels they eventually settled down in Oklahoma. There she was the Town Clerk/Treasurer, worked with multiple homeless shelters, and served on many booster clubs and school committees for her two children. Jamie is excited to be a part of Mancos United and hopes to help better serve her community.
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Jessica Randell
During her 8 years living in Mancos, Jessica has discovered a new pace of life; one that is balanced with outdoor adventure, time spent with loved ones (including her partner, new baby boy, and dogs), and a passion for creating positive change for kids and families in Montezuma County. Through her work with The Pinon Project Family Resource Center, and Team UP collective impact, she has learned about our community, its struggles and triumphs, and the non-profit realm. Jessica finds immense value in her time in nature: grounding, presence, wonder, and joy and is excited to share these values with the community through her work at Medicine Horse Center. She is grateful for the opportunity to support the Mancos United board and learn and grow through her participation.
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Katie Calvert
Hi! I’m Katie Calvert. I am originally from Northern Minnesota and have moved all over the western US, most recently moving here from Jackson, Wy. My husband and I have lived in Mancos for 6 years and built a house and have two crazy kids now. I love pizza, swimming, golfing, snowboarding, hiking, quiet time, cooking, eating, and……pizza.
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Lisa Stone
Advocating for children and families has been my life’s work. I pursued a degree in teaching because teachers filled in the gaps for me and instilled a love of learning. Education gave me more opportunities than I ever dreamed possible. I’ve served many organizations from public schools to the YMCA to Google to Head Start. Regardless of economic status, families from all walks of life struggle to support and raise their children. As a society, we have not valued affordable, accessible child care for working families, our teachers, paid parental leave, and other support systems. I look forward to working with Mancos United to build a stronger and more united community in Mancos with a focus on the next generation.
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Stephanie Slough
Ivy Dalley grew up in a small dairy town in Wisconsin. She now lives in Mancos with her husband and her two children. Ivy is a teacher within the Mancos School District and a local business owner. Her passions are teaching and supporting our local youth. She is excited to be on the board of Mancos United so she can make a positive influence within our community.
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Todd Cordrey
In addition to two decades as an entrepreneur, I have gained valuable experience from being a public educator. My educational experience includes earning licensure as an Elementary Educator, Secondary Teacher in Business and Marketing, Career and Tech Educator in Marketing, and School and District Administrator. My unique background in the private and public sectors has allowed me to view our educational system from economic, political, and social frames. As an educator, I feel an affirmative responsibility to ensure that every student succeeds at her highest level, regardless of resources or societal barriers. I believe in uplifting our students’ unique journeys rich in our community’s traditions and culture. In addition, I have 19 years of K-12 educational leadership experience ranging from being a sixth-grade teacher, college faculty in the Principal Licensure Program at the University of Colorado and Fort Lewis College, Board President of a large urban school district, Executive Director of a title one charter school, and most enjoyably as a Superintendent of two rural public school districts in Colorado.
Katie lives in Mancos with her husband Craig, a rope rescue trainer. Together they try to keep up with their two kids: daughter Elliot (11), son Clive (8), and 5 quirky ducks at 7,000 feet in Weber Canyon. They all enjoy learning, playing in the dirt, and connecting with family and friends.
Meet Our Executive Director: Katie McClure
You know those things that happen in your life that make you forever view the world differently? Well, one of those things for me occurred early on in my healthcare career when I received a lot of training in “process improvement”. This ruined me… I now ‘peel the onion’ wherever I look and have found that the root cause of a problem/challenge is usually far out of reach of whomever is ‘in charge’. I realized that truly improving the health of Americans was not going to happen within the current healthcare industry model and certainly not with the current insurance model.
Realizing I wasn’t alone in this thinking, I began to work with visionaries, storytellers, and amazing humans from many industries, communities, and tribes around the world drawing from neuroscience, social science, and indigenous knowledge. I realized that we’ve way overcomplicated most of our solutions. Creating conditions that make it easier for people to thrive is much easier than we think… in most cases, we just need to open our eyes to what really matters to people and then get out of the way. But when we are trained to do things one way or we only have authority / responsibility over one piece of the puzzle, it’s hard to see where we’ve over-engineered something.
I love working with people who can see the potential beyond their bottom line, beyond their market value, beyond finding a way to match a funding opportunity…. people who are humble and eager to learn from other industries and cultures and politics to create good in the world. Mancos United is full of these people and I’m grateful for the opportunity to work with all of you.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/katiehmcclure/
Mancos United Guiding Principles
Mancos United is committed to fostering, cultivating, and preserving a welcoming and respectful culture.
Our human capital is our most valuable asset. The collective sum of the individual differences, life experiences, knowledge, inventiveness, innovation, self-expression, unique capabilities, and talent that our board members, employees, and volunteers invest in their work represents a significant part of not only our culture, but our reputation and achievement of our mission as well.
We value and encourage a wide range of backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences among our board members, employees, volunteers, and affiliates.
Mancos United’s initiatives are applicable—but not limited—to our practices and policies on recruitment and selection; compensation and benefits; professional development and training; promotions; transfers; social and recreational programs; layoffs; terminations; and the ongoing development of a work environment that encourages and enforces:
- Respectful communication and cooperation between all.
- Teamwork and participation, permitting the representation of all perspectives.
- Work/life balance through flexible work schedules to accommodate varying needs.
- Contributions to the communities we serve to promote greater understanding and mutual respect.
All board members, employees, and volunteers of Mancos United have a responsibility to always treat others with dignity and respect. All are expected to exhibit conduct that reflects these values during work, at work functions on or off the work site, and at all other organization-sponsored and participative events. Any member found to have exhibited inappropriate conduct or behavior against others may be subject to removal.