An innovative land trust funding Colorado schools since 1876.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 11, 2025
Colorado State Land Board Honors Outstanding Staff, Lessees, and Partners at 2025 Awards Ceremony
Honorees exemplify leadership in managing Colorado’s trust lands for present and future generations
DENVER, CO – The Colorado State Land Board celebrated excellence in stewardship, collaboration, and dedication at its 2025 Annual Awards Ceremony today, recognizing outstanding staff members, lessees, and partners whose efforts advanced responsible management of trust lands across the state.
“Every acre we steward—and every lease or partnership we manage—matters not just for today, but for generations of Colorado students and communities to come,” said Dr. Nicole Rosmarino, Director of the State Land Board. “These awards honor those whose work goes above and beyond to fulfill our constitutional mission of generating revenue while protecting and enhancing the long-term value of trust lands.”
The State Land Board began the afternoon by recognizing a cadre of staff whose peer-nominated achievements reflect leadership, innovation, teamwork, and commitment to public service. These staff awards underscore State Land Board’s reliance on a dedicated professional team to oversee nearly three million acres of trust lands and manage the complex operations that support Colorado’s public schools.
“It is the people behind the scenes—making sound decisions, coordinating across disciplines, and staying committed to our dual mission—who truly carry this agency forward,” said Rosmarino.
2025 Staff Award Winners
Geode Award: Honors a staff member whose creativity, innovation, or problem-solving revealed new opportunities or solutions for the agency.
Winner: Mindy Gottsegen, Stewardship and Ecosystem Services Program Manager
Hot Springs Award: Honors the staff member who demonstrates exceptional efficiency, streamlining processes, and maximizing impact with available resources.
Winner: Dale Albrecht, Accounting Technician
Confluence Award: Honors the staff member who highly values building positive connections with stakeholders, lessees, beneficiaries, and the public, providing service that builds trust and strengthens relationships.
Winner: Rachel Turner, Field Operations Team Leader
Summit Award: Honors staff who have achieved the highest level of performance, setting the standard for agency excellence.
Winner: Jeri Leingang, North Central Assistant District Manager
Aspen Grove Award: Honors a team whose collaborative spirit supports one another and strengthens the entire organization, ensuring the agency thrives as one interconnected whole.
Winner: Transactions and Record Services Team
Rising Star Award: Recognizes a new staff member who has quickly become a "rising star," standing out with talent, energy, and a bright future of contributions.
Winners: Alec Sloan, Recreation Technician and Erika Carlson, Stewardship Technician
Wildflower Award: Recognizes a staff member who has invested deeply in their own growth and development, blossoming into a stronger contributor to the SLB team and mission.
Winner: Lindsey Brandt, Biodiversity Program Manager
2025 Lessee & Partner Award Winners
After celebrating staff, the State Land Board recognized its external partners and lessees — the ranchers, recreation groups, nonprofit organizations, agencies, and companies whose work extends the State Land Board’s mission across Colorado. The awards honor those whose land management, collaboration, innovation, and revenue contributions stand out among thousands of leases and partnerships statewide.
Bloom Stewardship Awards
Named after former Commissioner Mike Bloom, these awards honor exceptional stewardship. In recognition of State Land Board’s evolving approach, 2025 includes both a Partner and a Lessee category—underscoring the vital role of collaboration in achieving stewardship goals.
Partner Bloom Stewardship Award: Presented to Wildlands Restoration Volunteers (represented at the event by Morgan Crowley) for their outstanding habitat restoration work and dedication to ecological resilience on trust lands.
Lessee Bloom Stewardship Award: Presented to Hanna Ranches Inc. (represented at the event by Maggie Hanna) for exemplary land management practices, commitment to sustainable grazing, and stewardship over their lease area.
Lessee of the Year Award
Selected from among thousands of lessees statewide, the Lessee of the Year Award honors a lessee whose work exemplifies the highest standard of stewardship, operational excellence, and commitment to State Land Board’s dual mission. This year’s honoree, Southwest Colorado Cycling Association, distinguished itself through innovative land use, strong collaboration with State Land Board staff, and meaningful contributions to revenue benefiting Colorado’s public-school beneficiaries.
Partner of the Year Award
The Partner of the Year Award recognizes the organization whose dedication, creativity, and collaboration have had a transformative impact on the State Land Board’s mission. This year’s recipient, State Land Board’s Attorneys General Team (represented at the event by Ed Hamrick), has demonstrated extraordinary leadership in navigating complex land management challenges, fostering transparent cooperation, and advancing outcomes that further both stewardship and financial goals.
The 2025 Awards Ceremony reaffirmed the State Land Board’s commitment to balancing its constitutional mandate: generating reasonable and consistent revenue for Colorado’s public schools, while protecting and enhancing the long-term productivity and ecological health of trust lands. As Director Rosmarino said, “These awards are more than recognition — they are a statement of what we believe is possible when dedicated, passionate people come together to achieve a shared goal.”
Congratulations to all of this year’s award recipients.
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Contact:
Emily Barbo
Public Information Officer
Colorado State Land Board
emily.barbo@state.co.us
720-854-3330
About the Colorado State Board of Land Commissioners:
The Colorado State Land Board is a constitutionally created agency that manages a $6 billion endowment of assets for the intergenerational benefit of Colorado’s K-12 schoolchildren and public institutions. The agency is the second-largest landowner in Colorado and generates revenue on behalf of beneficiaries by leasing three million surface acres and four million subsurface acres for agriculture, grazing, recreation, commercial real estate, rights-of-way, renewable energy, oil, gas, and solid minerals. The agency is entirely self-funded and receives no tax dollars.