Board of Directors
Robby Vaughn
President
Mr. Vaughn is the Director of Business Development and Technical Marketing for Picarro Inc, a technology firm located in Santa Clara, CA. He manages their market strategy, strategic relationships and partnerships, and their user community. He holds an MBA from the Quantic School of Business and Technology and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Geology from the University of New Orleans. He is the President (Bailli) of the Chaîne des Rôtisseurs International Gastronomic Society chapter in Denver, CO. He also holds certifications from the Society of Wine Educators (CSW) and the Wine Scholars Guild (FWS with Honors), as well as being a Certified Sommelier through the Court of Master Sommeliers. Mr. Vaughn spends his outdoor recreation time hiking, camping with his family, rock climbing, and slowly ticking off 14ers. He also loves to read, write, cook, eat amazing meals, and drink and collect fine wines.
Phil Lakin
VICE PRESIDENT
Phil Lakin, Jr., has served as CEO of Tulsa Community Foundation since 1999 and as a Tulsa City Councilor since 2011. Phil is a proud Baylor University graduate, where he earned both his BBA and MBA.
Lakin has summited every 14er in the contiguous United States, as well as Cotopaxi, the Matterhorn, and Grand Teton. He has served the mountaineering community as treasurer of the American Alpine Club and currently serves as treasurer of The Juniper Fund.
Phil and his wife, Adriane, have been married for 31 years and have three sons. He has attended the last 43 Indy 500 races, a tradition he began with his father and has since shared with his grandfather and all three of his sons.
Luke Anderson
Treasurer
Luke Anderson is the Chief Financial Officer of Colorado Enterprise Fund, a Denver-based nonprofit dedicated to accelerating community prosperity by financing and supporting entrepreneurs and small businesses. A Colorado native, Luke grew up exploring the state’s backcountry with his dad and developed a lifelong love of mountaineering. Luke has completed the Colorado 14ers, and he continues to return to them, having led more than 50 people up their very first 14er, and pursuing his own new goals for multiple ascents and also for high summits elsewhere. Luke holds an Ed.M. from Harvard University and is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and former Certified Treasury Professional. When not out on the hiking trail, Luke enjoys playing the piano, and traveling to explore the nature and history of every corner of the U.S. with his wife and three children.
Roger Huang
Secretary
Roger enjoys spending time in the mountains and appreciates each day as a Colorado resident after relocating from Chicago. With a B.S. in Biology, he spent much of his career working in research for academic institutions and big pharma companies. After moonlighting as a part-time climbing instructor for several years, Roger joined the outdoor industry full-time. He is a graduate of the Outdoor Industry Association’s Skip Yowell Future Leadership Academy, and currently manages E-commerce and Customer Service for Rab USA. During the winter, he dedicates time introducing others to his favorite winter activity by working at Bluebird Backcountry as a part-time instructor. Roger’s preferred modes of enjoyment in the mountains include climbing, mountain biking and backcountry skiing.
Sheryl Lampert
BOARD MEMBER
Sheryl Lampert is a dedicated Colorado Mountain Club volunteer, trip leader, and school director. She has been one of the most prolific instructors teaching the technical classes offered by the CMC. While not volunteering with the CMC, Sheryl loves to climb. She’s climbed around the world including Kilimanjaro, Aconcagua, & Denali. When she isn’t climbing on a rope, she’s using one to walk her dog. She’s also known for her love of cats, beer, and fun.
It’s this combination of personal intensity and approachable humility that has really made Sheryl a leader to new members of the Colorado Mountain Club. She has spearheaded transforming Alpine Climbing School (ACS) with a clear vision on how it can be useful to all aspiring climbers in Colorado with focus on building diversity and inclusion, especially for womens+ members.
Jerry Mitchell
board member
Jerry is a Colorado native and enjoys spending time in the Colorado Mountains. He has climbed 38 of the 14er’s along with other mountains in Colorado. He enjoys hiking, biking and skiing in the Colorado mountains. He has also spent time in the outdoors in Arizona, Utah, California, Wyoming and Alaska.
Jerry is a retired financial executive who held senior level financial positions for both public and private companies. Jerry graduated from Arizona State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting and is also a retired Certified Public Accountant.
Rachel Roberts
Board Member
Rachel has been an member of the Colorado Mountain Club since March 2022 which is the same time she started serving on the Board of Directors for the CMC. Rachel is an avid hiker and enjoys being outside in Colorado.
Jennifer Nelson
board member
Jennifer is a small-town Texan who found her passion for the great outdoors at an early age. In 2014, she made the move from Austin to Colorado, where she could fully embrace her love for camping, hiking with her dogs, and exploring nature. When she's not out adventuring, Jennifer keeps herself busy with a variety of hobbies, including traveling, reading, attending festivals, enjoying live music, and even taking on small home remodeling projects.
Professionally, Jennifer has dedicated much of her career to working with nonprofit organizations. Her expertise lies in planning, executing, monitoring, and evaluating a wide range of campaigns, from annual fund drives to capital campaigns and social media initiatives. With a strong understanding of budget processes, oversight, and management, she ensures that financial resources are allocated effectively. Jennifer's attention to detail extends to her comprehensive knowledge of financial statements, which allows her to make informed decisions and maintain financial stability.
Throughout her career, Jennifer has thrived in environments that require creative problem-solving and resourcefulness. She has a proven track record of working collaboratively with others, finding innovative solutions, conducting thorough research, and seeking expert advice to overcome challenges, even with limited resources. Her ability to think outside the box and her dedication to finding effective solutions have been instrumental in her success.
David Sanders
BOARD MEMBER
David has been a member of CMC since 2006 and has been a trip leader for over 10 years. He has served as a Wilderness Trekking School Instructor and has also taken several courses through CMC including Alpine Scrambling, Wilderness First Aid, Avalanche Terrain Avoidance, and Wilderness Navigation. After working for the Federal Government for over 27 years, he is now retired and besides hiking and snowshoeing enjoys playing tennis, bicycling, traveling, and playing piano.
Christiann Vaughn
BOARD MEMBER
J. Brian Fletcher
BOARD MEMBER
Brian Fletcher is a long-time resident of Golden, Colorado, and a Colorado native. While he considers Colorado home, Brian grew up in British Columbia, Canada, and has also lived in Oregon and New Mexico. He is a member of Onsager | Fletcher | Johnson | Palmer, LLC, a Denver-based law firm focused on commercial matters, including commercial insolvency.
An avid mountain biker, Brian has spent years riding—and previously racing—the trails of the Colorado mountains. He is also a passionate skier, and during the winter months, he and his family can often be found skiing throughout Colorado, both in-bounds and in the backcountry.
Brian earned his Juris Doctor from Willamette University and his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Northern Colorado. When he’s not biking or skiing, Brian enjoys playing tennis, chasing his two grown sons on skis and bikes, and traveling with his wife.
Sarah Riley
BOARD Member
Sarah, who grew up in Eugene, Oregon, has called Colorado home since 2012. Sarah has crafted her career path to align with her passions of recreating responsibly and sustainably in the outdoors. Her career in the Outdoor Industry has spanned several brands and roles, notably with Swedish outdoor brand, Fjällräven, and sister brands Royal Robbins and Hanwag. She currently works at The North Face Global Headquarters in Denver as a Buyer, where she unceasingly follows their motto, to "Never Stop Exploring".
In addition to her Board of Directors role at the CMC, Sarah is a graduate of the Outdoor Industry Association Skip Yowell Future Leadership Program. Sarah makes the most of every season in Colorado, with an array of interests including backpacking, paddling, camping, and backcountry skiing. She can reliably be found at Mary Jane ski area each Saturday in the winter, tailgating with her husband Brett and dog Millie.
Amanda Burch
BOARD Member
A Colorado native, Amanda has spent more than a decade in leadership roles at mission-driven, education-focused nonprofits. She is currently Director of Online Learning & Digital Engagement at the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS). Before that, she was the inaugural Chief of Staff at Global Online Academy, where she advised the Executive Director, led strategic planning, and partnered with the board to strengthen its governance. Trained in human-centered and learning design, she brings that lens to how educational programs are built and how people actually learn from them.
Outside her day job, Amanda was a founding board member of a health-literacy nonprofit and has served on a municipal sustainability committee. A certified personal trainer who believes in movement as medicine, she founded and leads an outdoor grief group for adults in their 30s and 40s. The group is built on the idea that moving intentionally outdoors can help people find community and work through loss.
Amanda came up through CMC’s schools in the mid-2010s. An avid hiker and newer trail runner, she has put her mountaineering training to work on peaks across Colorado and the Pacific Northwest, and is now setting her sights on bigger glaciated objectives and on giving back to the CMC schools that got her started.
Cori Preftakes
BOARD Member
Cori grew up in New Hampshire, where he fell in love with the mountains hiking in the Whites. That passion followed him west to Montana State University in Bozeman, and eventually to Denver, which he now calls home. Professionally, he has built a career in mergers and acquisitions, corporate development, and strategic finance.
Backpacking sits at the top of Cori’s list. Together with his girlfriend, Jess, and his dog, Goose, he is working his way along the Colorado Trail one section at a time and slowly ticking off the 14ers. Goose has yet to meet a summit she didn’t want to reach first. When they aren’t on the trail, they are usually out rock climbing or casting a line somewhere along a river or alpine lake.
Back home, Cori enjoyes building all of his own furniture, a craft he once turned into a custom woodworking business. He also rides an old ’70s motorcycle, though he admits he spends nearly as much time fixing it as riding it.
Claire McCullough
BOARD Member
Raised in northern Colorado, Claire's lifelong connection to the outdoors was shaped by a childhood spent skiing at Hidden Valley, hiking with her father, and engaging in 4-H activities including a season as a local rodeo queen.
A long time Western Slope resident, Claire has been actively involved in advocating for the protection of public lands. She was appointed by the Department of Interior to the Colorado Northwest Resource Advisory Council - an advisory group that provides recommendations to the BLM on public land use and policy. Currently, she serves as the Conservation Chair for the Western Slope Group of CMC.
Claire's professional path began as a probation officer before working as a legal consultant to trial attorneys. She earned a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Colorado in Boulder, as well as a Juris Doctor at Santa Clara University.
When she is not hiking, Nordic skiing or climbing, you can find Claire tending to her small flower farm
Bryan Pauze
BOARD Member
Jon Frankel
BOARD Member
Jon has 20 years of experience in outdoor recreation, experiential education, and organizational development. He has held leadership roles with REI, Outward Bound USA, Sierra Club Outings, UltraVentures, and AdventureMed, and currently works at ALSO -- an electric micromobility company where he gets people out of their cars and into the outdoors. An avid outdoor enthusiast, Jon is passionate about connecting people to the natural world, and believes in the importance of protecting access to outdoor spaces and strengthening the communities that make outdoor recreation possible.