Board and Staff

Our Board of Directors has a range of expertise and conservation experience, as well as a deep concern for the future of wildlands in our region. We are a working board that formulates policies and programs, and members serve on administrative or issue oriented teams. Our staff work with the Board members and conservation partners to further Wild Connections' mission
Jim Lockhart
President
Colorado Springs, Legal writer (ret.) jim@wildconnections.orgJim helps lead our backcountry hikes and has inventoried many of the Forest and BLM roadless areas as a part of the mapping team. He is active in Pikes Peak Group of Sierra Club. Backbacking in California’s Sierras and other western wildernesses are among his favorite adventures.
john stansfield
Vice-president
Monument, Storyteller/writer johnstan@wildconnections.org John's interest in wilderness includes leading our hikes, advocating for Wilderness legislation and a special fondness for Alaska’s wild backcountry. He is active in Pikes Peak Sierra Club and Coordinator of the Central Colorado Wilderness Coalition. John is noted for his historical re-enactments as frontier physician Dr. Charles Fox Gardiner and National Park pioneers Enos Mills and John Otto.
Claude Neumann
Treasurer
Denver, Civil Engineer (ret.) claude@wildconnections.orgClaude is retired from the City of Denver Building Department. He leads our hikes and has done conservation work and led hikes for many years with the Colorado Mountain Club. His special wilderness interest often leads him to Utah to explore the canyons and and support protection of the red rock lands.
Alison Gallensky
Secretary
Westminster, GIS expert alison@wildconnections.orgAlison’s extensive background in software engineering and geographic information systems have been put to use in support of Wild Connections' roadless area inventories and climate modeling. She is Rocky Mountain Wild’s Conservation Geographer Director and active in GIS in the Rockies. She likes to travel and visit far flung places across North America.
Doug Krieger
Member
Colorado Springs, Aquatic biologist doug@wildconnections.org Doug retired from Colorado Parks & Wildlife after 37 years as an aquatic biologist and wildlife program manager. He is particularly interested in the protection and restoration of Colorado’s riparian and aquatic resources. He is on the board of the Pikes Peak Chapter of Trout Unlimited and active as the Administrator of the Colorado River Fish & Wildlife Council. He enjoys fly fishing, hiking and birding in the exceptional habitats that Colorado has to offer.
Kristin Skoog
Member
Colorado Springs, Software Engineer kristin@wildconnections.orgKristin chairs our funding team and is on the planning team. She likes hiking, backpacking, skiing, and working on wildlands inventory and monitoring projects. Her background is in software development, and she lends her technical skills to help with the website and productivity tools for the team.
Jean Smith
Advisory: Founder Emerita
Colorado Springs, Non-profit Administration (ret) jean@wildconnections.org Jean organized a steering committee and volunteers to map roadless areas on the Pike-San Isabel National Forest beginning in 1995. This grew into Wild Connections where she served as Executive Director or Board Chair, and continues as a volunteer. Her background includes fund-raising and village development. She enjoys birding, gardening and caring for the native plants in her yard.
John Sztukowski
Staff: Conservation Director
Westcliffe, Program Implementation john@wildconnections.org John oversees Wild Connections' public lands work, wilderness lands inventories and educational hikes. Outreach to the public, agency staff and government offices on conservation issues and BLM or USFS activites are a large part of his job. He chairs several citizen coaltions active in conservation issues in the region and serves on BLM's Rocky Mountain Resource Advisory Council. John's background ranges from climate change to sustainable agriculture to habitat restoration, and wilderness conservation.
Wild Connections is a science-based conservation organization that works to identify, protect and restore lands of the Upper Arkansas and South Platte watersheds to ensure the survival of native species and ecological richness. We acknowledge that the Arkansas and South Platte watersheds are the ancestral lands of the Ute, Cheyenne, Jicarilla Apache, Arapaho and other indigenous peoples.
info@wildconnections.org 817-939-4239 Colorado Springs administrative office 2168 Pheasant Pl. Colorado Springs CO 80909