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Commissioners & Director

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Becoming a Commissioner

Anyone may apply to join our Board. Commissioners are appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the legislature.

As noted above, there are five positions that come from different professional backgrounds and geographic regions.

Serving on this Board is voluntary and requires a significant time commitment. Commissioners must attend monthly, public meetings that are often two full days during the business week. These meetings take place at assorted locations throughout the state (i.e. over-night travel is required). Prior to each meeting, Commissioners must read the Board packet, which can be 100-500 pages of material to help Commissioners make informed decisions. Commissioners have a fiduciary duty to make decisions on behalf of Trust beneficiaries, namely Colorado public schools.  

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Our Board is made up of five citizen volunteers, chosen by the Governor and confirmed by the Colorado State Legislature. Commissioners are appointed to four-year terms, and are limited to two consecutive terms. (Pictured left to right: Commissioners Josie Heath, Erin Clark, Phillip Chavez, Christine Scanlan, and Deb Froeb.) The Colorado Constitution requires that four of our five Commissioners have substantial experience in four separate areas. However, they do not represent the interest of a particular sector, they represent the interest of the beneficiaries.

  • Public K-12 education
  • Production agriculture
  • Local government
  • Nature resources
  • Citizen-at-large

Join us!

We host monthly, public board meetings.

We strive to make our public meetings as accessible as possible and we welcome public comment. Join our Youtube Playlist so that you can stream meetings in real time. Streaming is subject to connectivity and may not be available. We also host our summer meetings in alternating locations throughout the state to make them more accessible for rural Coloradans.

Our leadership

five SLB commissioners pose in front of maps in an office settings
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Phillip Chavez, Agriculture (Otero County)

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Production agriculture has always been a part of Phillip Chavez’s life, from working in the fields to managing the family operations in Colorado.  The Chavez family has farmed in the Palo Verde Valley, Colorado River Indian Tribes, Wellton-Mohawk in Yuma, and the Arkansas Valley in Colorado.

Phillip is director of Catlin Canal Company and a Director of the Otero Ditch Company. He is also a managing partner at Diamond ‘A’ Farms, a 4,800-acre irrigated farm in Rocky Ford. Diamond ‘A’ Farms farm is a diversified grower of alfalfa, wheat, and a pioneer in growing, extracting and purifying hemp oil for cbd supplements. Additionally, Phillip is a partner at the 3800-acre irrigated Mohawk Valley Farms, which specializes in alfalfa production with the vast majority exported to Saudi Arabia and China.  Lettuce, melon and wheat crops are rotational crops for the alfalfa. 

Phillip also serves on Farm, Ranch, and Rural Communities Federal Advisory Committee (FRRCC) for the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

In addition to farming, for over 25 years, Phillip has traveled extensively through pacific-rim countries marketing North & South American fresh fruits and vegetables. He holds a bachelor’s degree in agricultural economics from Cornell University and a master’s degree from Thunderbird. 

Appointed 7/1/2021. Current term expires 2025.

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Erin Clark, Citizen-at-large (Denver and Boulder Counties)

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Erin Clark is an urban planner and real estate attorney who serves as Vice President of Master Site Development for Urban Land Conservancy, a Denver-based non-profit real estate development organization, where she leads efforts to create long term community benefits on large, multi-phased and multi-use sites throughout the Denver metro area and the greater front range, particularly in transit-oriented development areas. She brings significant experience in affordable housing, land planning, due diligence, public finance, sales and acquisitions, and commercial leasing and is committed to seeing development of thoughtful and sustainable projects that promote quality of life and community cohesion. Erin regularly presents on matters related to affordable housing, land stewardship, and equitable and inclusive development. She is the author of the article Community Land Trusts: An Essential Tool in the Affordable Real Estate Toolbox (Colorado Lawyer, April 2020).


Erin holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Brown University, a master’s degree in urban planning from the University of Southern California, and a law degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  In addition to her role as a Colorado State Land Board Commissioner, Erin also serves as Vice Chair of the Denver Planning Board, a founding working group member of the Colorado Housing Affordability Project (CHAP), and a member of Real Estate Section Council of the Colorado Bar Association. Erin earned CREW Denver’s Women of Influence Trailblazer Award in 2021.

Appointed 7/1/2021. Current term expires 2025.

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Deborah Froeb, Natural Resources (Denver and Grand Counties)

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Deborah is currently a Conservation Finance Strategy Advisor at Nature United where she develops the strategies and financial mechanisms to secure diversified and durable sources of funds to support Indigenous-led conservation projects in Canada. She joined Nature United’s global parent organization, The Nature Conservancy (TNC), in 2008 as Director of Land Conservation and Finance. In that role Deborah developed financial structures to support a Colorado grassland preservation campaign.  A member of the founding team at NatureVest, TNC's impact investment unit, she developed and managed investments in regenerative agriculture across the U.S. and Latin America. 

An investment professional, Deborah previously held management roles with publicly traded institutional investors and banks for 20 years, including First Interstate Bank, Mutual of New York, and Regency Centers. She has contributed her leadership to various industry and local non-profit organizations including the National Association for Industrial and Office Parks, the Urban Land Institute, and Colorado Headwaters Land Trust. She earned a Masters in Management from Northwestern University and a BA from The Colorado College. 

Appointed 9/1/2022 (off-cycle due to a vacancy). Current term expires 2025.
 

 

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Josie Heath, Local Government (Boulder County)

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Josie has extensive experience in public service. She served more than 20 years (1995 - 2017) as CEO and President of the Community Foundation for Boulder County and was a Boulder County Commissioner (1982 - 1990). She was a founder of the Mile High Youth Corps and the former assistant to the director of the White House Office of National Service for establishment of Americorps in 1993. In the mid-1990s, she was a teaching fellow at the Kennedy School and served as a consultant for Harvard University’s Project Liberty that provided leadership programs for locally elected officials in Central and Eastern Europe. She was the Colorado Democratic 1990 and 1992 candidate for United States Senate. Josie has been the recipient of many local and national service awards, including being inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame.  

Appointed 7/1/2019, current term expires in 2023.

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Christine Scanlan, Board President, Education (Summit County)

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Christine Scanlan is President and CEO of the Keystone Policy Center, a nonprofit organization that over the past 40 years has built a portfolio of substantive work in energy, environment, education, health, and agriculture. Keystone has accomplished this work with a series of complementary approaches that reflect the diverse strategies utilized in leadership and successful issue resolution. Christine joined the Keystone Policy Center from her role as Director of Legislative Affairs and Strategic Initiatives and Senior Education Policy Advisor to Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper. Prior to her senior staff role in the Governor’s Office, Christine was a Colorado State Representative for House District 56 and served in leadership as Majority Whip. In earlier years, Christine had previously been at Keystone as Senior Vice President and COO. Christine has extensive public policy experience as a seasoned facilitator, negotiator and policy expert and is a respected leader in finding policy solutions through collaborative dialogue to complicated issues of urgency and import. Christine received both her MA Nonprofit Management and BA History from Regis University, Denver, Colorado. 


Appointed 7/1/2019, current term expires in 2023.

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Bill Ryan, Agency Director

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With the consent of the Governor, the Commissioners hire a Director and the Director hires staff to perform the administrative activities of the State Land Board. The State Land Board is housed within the Department of Natural Resources and has close cooperative relationships with many state agencies in order to help serve the State Land Board’s beneficiaries.

Bill Ryan joined the State Land Board as the Director in 2011. Prior to this public sector position, Bill’s professional background was in commercial real estate development and finance. He spent 10 years with Trammell Crow Company, a national commercial real estate and development firm, where as a Principal he developed and acquired projects, including mixed use, TOD, office, industrial, retail, and land projects. He also spent more than 12 years with the commercial real estate divisions on several national banks.

Community involvement is also an important focus for Bill. He is a past Trustee and Board Chair of The Denver Foundation, Colorado’s largest community foundation, with more than $700 million in assets. Bill also combines his interests in real estate and local community as the Board President of the Urban Land Conservancy, which acquires, develops, and preserves real estate assets in urban areas to meet community needs including affordable housing and non‐profit workspace. Bill was also a founding partner and Board Chair of Social Venture Partners Denver, a venture philanthropy partnership that invests time, money, and expertise in collaborative relationships with non‐profits.