Executive Director of Keep It Colorado Steps Down
Melissa Daruna accepts new position; will stay on until mid-March
Feb. 24, 2023 – DENVER – Melissa Daruna, Keep It Colorado’s executive director since April 2019, has announced that she will step down from her position at Keep It Colorado starting in mid-March. Daruna has accepted a new opportunity as assistant town manager for the Town of Eagle, where she resides with her family.
Suzanne Stephens, chair of the Keep It Colorado board of directors and executive director of Aspen Valley Land Trust, said, “Melissa has done an extraordinary job leading this coalition from its rebirth out of its previous existence as the Colorado Coalition of Land Trusts into the mature, trusted, inclusive, positive and responsive organization that it is today – serving land trusts, public agencies and conservation champions involved in private land conservation.
I have had the honor of working with Melissa for the last four years and have profound respect and gratitude for her brave, humane, visionary and grounded leadership. Melissa has the board’s full support and congratulations as she moves into this next phase of her career,” she added.
The board of directors will soon be launching a search for a new executive director. In the meantime, the board will fully support Daruna as she wraps up her involvement in key initiatives and prepares to transition out of the organization in March.
In the meantime, supporting the staff will be a top board priority. “Melissa has assembled an all-star staff who works tirelessly and with complete dedication to the mission of Keep It Colorado. We’ll be working with them closely to maintain continuity of programs and services, and ensure a smooth transition as we find the next stellar leader for this nonprofit that has done so much for the Colorado conservation community,” said Stephens.
Under Daruna’s leadership, Keep It Colorado has supported policy initiatives at the State Capitol, improved the state conservation easement tax credit program, launched a pilot program to develop alternative ways to value land for conservation, worked with Great Outdoors Colorado and other funders to simplify a transaction cost assistance program to make donating a conservation easement more affordable to landowners, and created a stronger and more cohesive land conservation community across Colorado.
Notably, over the past two years, she led the development of Colorado’s first statewide private land conservation plan, which will be launched in April. Daruna has been a respected voice for private land conservation and a leader for working to create a culture of diversity, equity and inclusion in conservation.
Daruna’s new position with the Town of Eagle will enable her to put her experiences and accomplishments at Keep It Colorado, combined with her prior work in the parks and recreation sector, into action in the community where she lives, with a focus on long-term community planning, sustainability initiatives and economic development.
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