Board of Directors & Staff

Join our Board of Directors or a Committee

Interested in joining our Board of Directors or a Committee?  Please review our commitment requirements and complete this interest form.

We review interested individuals on an annual rolling basis and when openings occur.

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Jamie Malin, President

After juggling a fast paced career that left minimal time to play outdoors, Jamie decided to make a lifestyle change and move to the Colorado mountains full-time. He traded a suburban fenced lot for a million acres of national forest as their backyard. Jamie’s favorite rides are when he leaves his car at home and rides out his back door. He likes to go for long rides followed by a cold beverage. When he is not looking for the next VVMTA project Jamie is outside biking or skiing. Powder days and flowing singletrack are his happy place. If you want more great places to ride don’t standby and wait for someone else to make it happen, get involved.

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Kat Sedillo, Vice President & Secretary

Kathleen “ Kat” Sedillo has been calling the Vail Valley home for more than two decades. When she is not out searching for the perfect singletrack on her mountain bike or the best snow on her skis, she is busy researching her next outdoor adventure to take with her husband Guy and their puppy dog, Ajei. As an OSI certified trail crew leader, USFS trail steward, and IMBA Trail Care Crew-trained, Kat is always eager to give back to her playground. She happily blisters her hands to help build and maintain world-class trails throughout Eagle County, CO with the VVMBA. Recently, Kat was appointed to the Town of Avon, CO Trails Committee. She knows that trails don’t just happen – Trail Fairies wear boots and are real!

Casey Wyse, Treasurer

After graduating high school in Wyoming and college in South Dakota, Casey Wyse was lucky to land in Colorado with his twin brother Cody in 1996. Already an avid skier, mountain biker, hiker, and overall outdoor enthusiast upon arrival, twenty plus years in Colorado added a few more blessings. Casey got to add husband, father, trail builder and crew leader to the words that can describe him. With two budding trail builders/mountain bikers in the works(Jane & Thomas) you can be assured to see Casey with family and friends improving, building and enjoying trails in the future. Earn your dirt.

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Mark Luzar, Board Member, Director of Dirt

Mark came to the Vail Valley as “the” director of leisure time activities for his wife Pegasus and dogs, Winston and Grayson. After serving as a microelectronics mercenary for 28 years in the silicon mines of a few US cities, Muenchen, Shanghai, Beijing, Taipei, Taizhong and Kokubungi the Chips fell his way. Why Vail? Pegasus has had family living in Minturn since the early 1950’s and it’s not such a bad place to practice Mark’s new career. He is one of the initial VVMBA members and is a trail crew leader for weekly grubbing and special events. He is stoked to see the growth of the local trail systems and thanks all of those who have participated with time and/or scratch. Mark will be out there every season sustaining current, building new, and reclaiming old unsustainable trails: so go have some fun with Winston and him on the trails (Grayson is a bit too senior to participate any more)!

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Bill Hoblitzell, Board Member

Bill lives in Minturn and patiently waits each spring for the trails to open so he can ride out his back door. After learning to mountain bike in West Virginia, he still wonders where they keep all the slippery rocks, mud, and off-camber roots in Colorado. He works primarily as an environmental scientist, doing river restoration and water quality protection projects with Lotic Hydrological. He still manages to guide a few days on the region’s best whitewater with Lakota River Guides. It remains unclear if anyone else in the valley loves after-work laps on Grouse Creek Trail in fall as much as Bill does. He thinks coffee is a fine thing to drink all day until happy hour starts, and he once ate pizza for 14 of 21 meals in a week (he’s hoping to up that PR to 21 out of 21 soon). Bill thinks you should volunteer with or donate to VVMBA today… like, right now.

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Pete Seibert, Board Member

Pete Seibert Jr moved to Vail in 1962 for the first season of the fledgling ski area his father started. Three years of ski patrol in Vail lead to supervisory and management positions at Snowbasin, UT, Sun Valley, ID and Arrowhead Mountain now part of Beaver Creek. When the family grew from one child to three with a set of twins, Pete opted to stay in the valley and pursue a career in real estate. Now the fourth child is 26 and Pete has been in real estate 30 years.  Pete and his partner, Kate Allan, live in the Chamonix neighborhood in West Vail, spending their time in the mountains on skis and bikes. They love to travel to Kate’s first home in Cape Town, South Africa.  Pete volunteers with the Vail Veterans Program, sits on the Board of Directors of Access Unbound, is a member of the Minturn Economic Development Council, and member of the Town of Vail Planning & Environmental Commission.

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Brian Rodine, Board Member

Brian loves nothing more than skiing and biking with his wife and daughter. Based in Minturn, he loves alpine late season rides and rocky descents. He also runs and backpacks wilderness trails that the VVMTA maintains, because life outdoors in the mountains is great. His biggest ask is that if you support trails, write a email to your local government telling them that!

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Fritz Bratschie, Board Member

Fritz moved to the valley in the late 2000’s from Michigan. He’s been involved in the local trail and racing scene ever since when not at his day job as a Sustainability Manager or with his wife and dogs ripping turns behind his ski boat.

 

Robert Tadlock, Board Member
(Hardscrabble Trails Coalition President)

As of January 2020, Robert is the new Hardscrabble Trails Coalition President (HTC).  Robert is just a guy in town that likes to ride bikes and ski. He’s lived in Eagle a little over 5 years and loves the community. He joined HTC to help maintain trails and bring a little progressive push to new trails and riding areas. His favorite trail in town is Mike’s Night Out and he can often be found biking around Eagle and Gypsum.  The VVMTA is excited to add Robert’s knowledge, insight, and passion to our board and trails community!

Board Emeritus

Lee Rimel, Board Emeritus

A native of Pennsylvania, Lee moved to Denver in 1969 where he was the founder and co-owner of an integrated real estate company. After selling his business in 1984, he moved to Vail with his two children, Wendy & Brent, so they could enjoy the benefits of growing up in a unique mountain-town environment. Lee retired from the Real Estate business December 31, 2016 to pursue his dream of building cabins that would become a part of the 10th Mountain Division Hut Association.  Two cabins are now constructed, the Continental Divide Cabin and the Point Breeze Cabin. They occupy a unique 20 acres on the Continental Divide, 10 miles North of Leadville Colorado, the acreage completely surrounded by National Forest.

Lee has been long active in community activities. He was a founder of the Colorado Manufactured Housing Association, served as Treasurer for the Vail Board of Realtors, worked with Jimmie Heuga during the formative years of Can DO MS (formerly the Heuga Center), organized the Gore Valley Soccer Club, was on the Board of Directors of the Colorado Mountain Club, served on the Colorado State Parks Trails Committee, is co-founder of Unity of the Mountains Church and co-founded Eagle County Adopt A Trails, AAT, which coordinates with the Forest Service volunteer trail improvements & maintenance on 50 trails. The AAT Team was awarded the “Chief’s Award”, one of only 12 awarded nationally, in 2018, The award was presented in Washington, DC by the United States Forest Service.  Lee currently resides in Edwards, CO with his life partner, Gracie Campbell. When not adventuring with Gracie or playing with his Grandchildren, Keegan, Chase and Kaiya, or serving his community, Lee is found hiking, back-packing, canoeing, backcountry skiing, camping and biking in Colorado’s mountains and Utah’s Red Rock Country. Among his recreational accomplishments are climbing all 54 of Colorado’s 14,000-foot peaks, mountain biking extensively in Moab, Utah, sailing in the Caribbean and rafting the Colorado River from Grand Junction, CO to Lake Mead.

Executive Director

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Ernest Saeger, Executive Director

Ernest came to the Vail Valley in 2014 to work on events such as the GoPro Mountain Games and the 2015 Alpine World Ski Championships. Prior to that he ran so many events all over the country that he can’t even remember them all. Luckily one of those events landed him in West Virginia and North Carolina where he began to mountain bike and backpack and quickly fell in love with trails, mountains, and outdoor recreation. He currently resides in Eagle with his adventure partner Hailee.  Ernest believes that like the reward of a downhill after a long climb or setting a skin track, trail work provides that same “earn your turns” satisfaction. When you can’t find him on a trail or skis, you’ll most likely still find him on the river, and if not there then he’s in an ice rink. Ernest is also a member on Vail Mountain Rescue.  He is truly excited to help bring new and improved trails to our community for all to enjoy for many years to come. 

Programs Director

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Erinn Hoban, Programs Director

After being in the Vail Valley for 15 years, Erinn has done the “down valley scoot” and landed in Eagle. As an avid mountain biker, the opportunity to ride her bike from her front door to any trail in Eagle has become a dream come true. Erinn studied Environmental Policy at the University of Pittsburgh and is excited to have a job where her passions all collide. When Erinn isn’t working, there aren’t too many places to look. Guarantee she is either on her raft in whitewater or maybe hiking with her fur-kids but usually on 2 wheels playing in some dirt. 

Trail Operations Manager

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Sam Chipkin, Trail Operations Manager

Sammy grew up riding BMX bikes in New York City. Transitioned to racing downhill throughout college and has spent most of his time in Colorado on a trail bike. While living in Minturn, right near the new bike park, there was a pull back to his roots and the dirt jumper came out of the shed. Sam moved to the Vail Valley in 2012 and has been involved with the VVMTA as a volunteer for a lot of that time. It isn’t hard to take a great volunteer and hire them. Sam is thrilled to have an opportunity to work with our local community to maintain and improve a cherished resource in our valley, our trails.

Program Manager

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Shawna Wood, Program Manager

Originally from Chicago, Shawna moved to Colorado in 2005 after being accepted to Colorado State University to study natural resources. Now an Eagle resident, dog mom and experienced nature lover, you can find her biking, rafting or on one of her boards — snow, split or paddle. An avid outdoor recreationist, Shawna is eager to get outside and share her love for the trails with the community. 

Development & Engagement Manager

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Nicky Asselin, Development & Engagement Manager

Back in 1998 Nicky moved to Vail to start her career in marketing with her husband Greg. They only spent two years in the valley but the love of all things Vail never left their heart. In 2014, after a brief detour to Denver, they decided they had to move back up to share this life with their two boys. The first organization she joined was the Hardscrabble Trails Coalition in Eagle and quickly fell in love with all things trails and the amazing community. She is truly excited to be a part of the VVMTA in a position that combines all of her passions, giving back to everything that she loves the most. When she’s not out biking, skiing, golfing, or hiking you can find her in Fruita, Moab, Lake Powell or surfing in California.

 

2022 Season - Trail Conservation Crew

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Tommy Malone, TCC Crew Leader

Tommy Malone, grew up in suburban Minneapolis and came out to school at Colorado State in Fort Collins. While working at Beaver Creek again this past winter, we at VVMTA caught wind the Tommy told ski shop friends that his “dream job” was posted with us. After spending recent summers living the camp life in the Adirondack mountains, Tommy stayed this summer to be part of our team improving the trails systems in our beautiful valley. 

 

 

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Hunter Askelson, TCC Crew Leader & Adopt A Trail Lead

Hunter is a born and raised Coloradan who has traveled to over 40 states with his mountain bike. He has worked a decade in the bicycle industry and we feel honored to have him settle in with VVMTA. He prides himself on his creativity and playfulness on and off the bike. He is passionate about the opportunity to promote play and health in his community. If you see Hunter on the trails, he is usually “volunteering” to go ride his bike to find or fix a trail counter.

 

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Travis Fahrney, TCC Crew Leader

Travis has been a Beaver Creek Ski Patroller for 13 years. Travis has spent his summers building trails for the resort and racing enduro around the western United States & internationally for most of those years. This year VVMTA recruited Travis because of his expert dirt shoveling skills and we appreciate that he is helping us move our program forward. On his days off you can find him doing much the same thing on his own land designing trails, tooling around in his tractor and digging in the dirt.



 

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Molly DeLaloo, TCC Crew

Although Molly grew up in the Green and White Mountains of Vermont and New Hampshire, the peaks of Colorado were calling. She has been working in education for the past few years but uses any chance she can to spend time on the trails. Molly can usually be found running up Berry Picker in Vail or springing over to Moab to get some desert riding in (and eating post-ride potato chips). She is stoked to be part of the TCC this season!


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Sam Armstrong – Champ, TCC Crew

Born and raised in New England, Sam is a nature lover by default. During his early teenage years, Sam volunteered for trail work to gain community service credits in high school, not realizing it would lead to his passion for many summers to follow. Sam loves getting out on any trail, hiking, biking, or skiing and enjoys sending time in creeks trout fishing. His goal for the summer is to bag is first 14er and go line dancing. 

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Bay Stephens – Champ, TCC Crew

Bay was born in the Vail hospital and raised on the valley’s trails. After college at Montana State University in Bozeman—and a few subsequent misadventures—his wife, Katie, landed a fellowship at Walking Mountains Science Center in Avon, bringing Bay back home. Trail crew is one of those jobs that, as a kid, he thought would be so cool to do. Now he’s really doing it! Although Bay loves biking, kayaking, and running, he’s an English major, so he delights equally in those precious afternoons spent reading in a hammock slung between aspen trees.

 

 

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Myles Mitz – Champ, TCC Crew

Myles was born and raised outside of Chicago, Il, where his parents (an aborist and a teacher) instilled in him a lifelong love of learning and the outdoors. After graduating from the University of Illinois with a degree in Sociology, he moved west to work in conservation. Since then Myles has worked in all states west of the Rockies except Hawaii. When not hard at work at VVMTA he can be found exploring the local trails with his dog Chiefer Sutherland. This summer Myles hopes to bag his second undergraduate degree in Sustainablity from Colorado Mountain College, and is currently looking at graduate programs in environmental advocacy and social justice.

 

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Clayton Burns, Eagle County Adopt a Trail Ranger

Clayton is on his second season on the Eagle-Holy Cross District on the White River National Forest and on his third season with the Forest Service.  While becoming an Eagle Scout, a passion for outdoor recreation sparked him. That passion led him to Humboldt State University, CA to receive a degree in Recreation Administration so others could enjoy the public lands as much as he does.  Clayton likes to ski during the winters and has worked at Copper Mountain the past 3 winters.  This summer he hopes to spend more time learning how to whitewater kayak and bikepack.  He is very excited to be in Colorado for this summer and can’t wait to take advantage of all of the opportunities that the area holds!

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