Our Board of Directors are dedicated Green Women Leaders who have woven their lives and work around making a difference.
Barbara Blake, Religious Sisters of Mercy, has has worked as a high school teacher and administrator, and was the Director of a retreat center in the Chicago area. For the past 22 years, Barbara has worked as a therapist, spiritual companion and teacher at Centered Life, Education, Counseling and Spiritual Care in Colorado. She also leads creativity groups based on the book The Artist’s Way. Barbara has a B.A from St. Xavier University in Chicago and an M.A. from the University of Notre Dame.
Michelle Lankford Salazar is a retired teacher and self-employed farmer. She is a Colorado native, educated in the Denver area, but has resided in the San Luis Valley of southern Colorado for forty years. She has served on the board of the SLV Immigrant Resource Center since 2005 and became an Associate with the Sisters of Mercy in 2015. Michelle has a BS in agronomy from Colorado State University, and MA and PhD degrees in Hispanic linguistics from the University of New Mexico. She has taught many subjects at the high school level, but her great joy has been teaching Spanish to adults at UNM, Adams State University, and as a volunteer through SLV-IRC. She also volunteers at Hospice del Valle. Now retired from managing the farm office, she enjoys time in nature (hiking in the mountains, kayaking rivers, exploring beaches) with six grandchildren!
Mindy Meiering has called Durango, CO, home for the last 17 years. Mindy’s background and professional training include a Masters degree in Social Work and a 16-year history of working in hospitals supporting patients and families in both behavioral health and medical settings. She also taught and supervised graduate students for five years through Denver University’s Four Corners Graduate School of Social Work in Durango. Her work now, as a professional life coach, is primarily focused on supporting individuals to achieve their goals and dreams and live their most inspired, joyful lives. She is also a Certified Mindfulness Teacher through the Mindful Life Program and a Master Certified Retreat Coach. For the last five years she and her husband have been involved in building a yoga and meditation retreat center.
Elaine Pacheco, Religious Sisters of Mercy, is a Pueblo, Colorado native, now living in Aurora, Colorado. As a Licensed Clinical Masters Social Worker, Licensed Massage Therapist, Certified Spiritual Director, and Certified in Trauma Response care, , Elaine brings an integrated perspective to micro, mezzo and macro systems. Elaine is currently a member of South Denver’s 350.org environmental justice group and a recent Red Cross Mental Health Disaster first responder for the Colorado and Wyoming chapters. Elaine taught undergraduate and graduate Social Work at Colorado State University – Pueblo. She focused her classes through the lens of leadership/service through the new sciences: deep ecology, systems theory, chaos theory and the strengths perspective. Elaine has been a co-creator for two not for profit organizations (Project STEP in Colorado Springs, Colorado and Mountain Park Environment Center in Beulah, Colorado). These organizations have focused providing services for poor and marginalized women and children and for promoting environment literacy and justice, serving as a board member, senior consultant and clinical supervisor. “I’m very invested in Healthy Women, Healthy Earth as a movement poised to begin.”
Mitzi Pasternak is the Director of Hospitality and Booking at SunMountain Retreat Center in Manitou Springs, Colorado. She has a BA in Education, BFA in Dance, is a Certified Watsu Practitioner (1996), Waterdance Practitioner (1999), and a Watsu Therapist (2000). She was the owner of Manitou Watsu.. A mother, friend, dancer, gardener, hiker, and lifelong learner, Mitzi is currently in Thai Yoga Therapy training and ongoing Watsu trainings. She continues to grow the ways in which she brings her unique talents to the healing arts.
Diane Renee Mueller is a retired health care professional as well as a Women’s Wellness Coach from Colorado. Diane started a year-long daily blog to help her learn more about the climate crisis and then share that information with other women. Diane is a leader whom others look to for information and wisdom. Currently she is the Colorado Cherry Creek Chapter Leader of the Great Old Broads for Wilderness organization and brings women together for public lands and wilderness advocacy. “I want to attract women who are concerned about climate change impacts, desire vibrant physical and mental health in our communities, want more information on what public lands need in Colorado, and how to advocate using grassroots activism. I want the group to develop and use a collective voice to engage women both at the county and state level, using humor and fun as part of their foundation for success.”
Becky Weiss is a retired educator who has spent more than 40 years introducing her students to the fine art of paying attention to the natural world, and marveling at its beauty and design. Through slowing down, keen observation, focused play, and inquiry, Becky has ushered students of all ages into a closer relationship with our planet. She holds a BS in Natural Sciences and Education from the University of Colorado, and a MS in Environmental Administration from Antioch University, New England. Her teaching experience includes Montessori, public school classroom and resource support, as well as undergraduate mentoring of students of environmental education at Colorado College. Curriculum development and naturalist guiding peppered her time while raising her two (now adult) children. Becky is a Nonviolent Communications practitioner and a believer in curiosity as a powerful means to connection and understanding.