Our Community

Heather Arnold-Renicker is currently an adjunct professor at the University of Denver, teaching social welfare policy. Heather began her career in a rape crisis center where her commitment to anti-oppression practice, policy assessment, and organizational development/culture solidified.  This led her to the University of Denver, where she received a Masters of Social Work with a focus on community-based program development, leadership, policy and anti-oppressive practice.  She recently moved back home to Colorado from Washington, D.C. where she spent 3 ½ years as the National Program Manager for the Center for Progressive Leadership. Heather’s passion is in challenging social justice institutions to critically analyze the ways in which they perpetuate systems of marginalization while also holding herself accountable to the ways in which her privileges contribute to systems of oppression that exist in this country and all over the world.

Davian Gagne identifies as a biracial Filipina woman from Boulder, Colorado.  She is committed to antioppression/antiviolence work in both her professional and personal life.  She received her undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Denver. She is the Director of the Mile High Connects coalition. Prior to that she was the Gender Violence Prevention and Education Coordinator for the University of Colorado at Boulder. In this capacity she provides education and training to students, faculty, and staff on the roots of gender violence, heterosexism, transphobia, consent, and bystander intervention. She also coordinated the Peers Building Justice program for Moving to End Sexual Assault in Boulder where she trained high school youth on the intersections of oppression, social justice, and ally development. When she is not busy volunteering in the community, she enjoys racing her road bike, eating, and the company of friends and family.

Eleanor Maren Dewey is the Director of Youth Organizing at the Colorado Anti-Violence Program (CAVP). As a young transwoman growing up in Denver and Aurora, Eleanor was first connected with social justice organizing after dropping out of high school and searching for LGBTQ community . At 17 Eleanor began organizing with CAVP supporting survivors of violence and working to increase the safety and inclusion of transgender people staying at local homeless shelters. In 2009 Eleanor was hired on as staff and with five other youth leaders founded the LGBTQ youth project, Branching Seedz of Resistance.  Eleanor began her work with Chinook in 2009 first as an intern, and now is the Co-Chair of the Grantmaking Committee. She is continuously grateful for the deep insights, experiences, skills and powerful friendships Chinook has given her.

I was born and raised in Denver and have lived here most of my adult life, with significant years away to Siberia and Paris. When here I worked as a volunteer fund-raiser and on the Board of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, both on staff as a development officer and as a volunteer for the Denver Public Library, and on the Board, including as president, of the ACLU of Colorado. While not the usual Chinookie's activism, these represent my commitment to public access to information and technology, a woman's right to choose and health care rights for all Colorado women and justice access for all. After years of prodding by John Hickenlooper, I started giving to Chinook, This lead to volunteer work, first on the Development Committee and in Grantmaking and led to Board membership in the 90's. I am glad to be re-jointing the Chinook Board and hope to help in many ways, not just fund raising.

Paul Stein has been the Colorado State Refugee Coordinator, within the Colorado Department of Human Services, since September 2005.  He is the President of the State Coordinators of Refugee Resettlement, and most focused on policy and integration issues.  From 1973 to 1988, in his first career as a studio artist and gallery owner, he worked in photography, sculpture, furniture and jewelry.  He left his art career to reconnect with his interests in international political affairs and human rights.  From 1988 until 2000, he worked as a national consultant to immigration attorneys on asylum applications and appeals, during which time he provided documentation and developed expert testimony concerning the home country conditions of asylum applicants.  From 1998 until 2000 he was on the Board of Directors of the Rocky Mountain Survivors Center.  From 2000 until 2005, he was the executive director of the Rocky Mountain Survivors Center in Denver, one of the approximately 40 torture treatment programs in the United States.  He was a leader in the National Consortium of Torture Treatment Programs, focusing on public policy and outcome measures. He has a particular interest in data informed program management, and developing quantitative and qualitative measurements for integration for both arriving and receiving communities.