Board Of Directors

Mr. Lewis has served as Co-Chairman and CEO for Arc Thrift Stores since December 2005, a Colorado nonprofit corporation whose primary lines of business include the Arc Thrift stores as well as the Vehicles for Charity program. In this capacity,  he is responsible for generating funding to support advocacy for persons with developmental disabilities in the state of Colorado for 15 Arc chapters, including Down syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, autism, and other forms of intellectual and developmental disabilities. Mr. Lewis’ role includes oversight and management of Arc’s 24 retail stores, corporate and support operations, and a staff of over 1,600 employees. Arc Thrift Stores is one of the largest employers of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in the State of Colorado. His tenure has been an employer of other significantly challenged populations as needs arise, including refugees, people from substance abuse programs, people from homeless programs, women from safe houses, etc. Under his leadership and partnership with Volunteers of America, Arc’s annual food drive is now the second largest in the state and supports Meals on Wheels and numerous soup kitchens and food pantries.

NONPROFIT BOARDS OF DIRECTORS

Mr. Lewis is the past chair of the board of the Mile High Down Syndrome Association. He also served on committees/boards including the marketing and resource committee for the Arc of the United States and the Arc of Colorado, among others. He is the father of five children, including a son with Down syndrome and another with sensory processing disorder.

COMMUNITY

At Arc, he is instrumental in forging relationships with communities of color, including Clinica Tepeyac, the Latina Safehouse, as well as other community organizations. Currently, he is president of the Atlantis Community Foundation which is redefining affordable housing for PWD.

EDUCATION

Mr. Lewis holds a Masters Degree from the University of Chicago Graduate Business School and has prior corporate experience with companies including IBM and Smith Barney. Before his arrival as the Arc, he had extensive financial experience, including serving as director of finance for a publicly traded company, and as controller and CFO for a high tech start-up company.

AWARDS

Mr. Lewis is the recipient of the 2006 Outstanding Vision & Leadership Award from the Arc Thrift Stores Board of Directors; the Arc of Pikes Peak 2007 President’s Award; and a Civil Rights Award from NewsEd Corporation for his work with challenged communities. He is also the recipient of an award as one of Denver’s “unsung heroes” in celebration of Denver’s 150th anniversary in 2009. Mr. Lewis and Arc Thrift Stores were named as a 2010 “Changemakers” for the city of Denver.

Click here to read an article on our Co-Chairman  Mr. Lloyd Lewis, Executive Edge magazine, by Lynn Bronikowski.

Ms. Mosby’s passion is helping individuals who want to work, find employment. She realized that while working is only one aspect of who we are and what we do, it was an essential part of our lives. In 1994, she lost her eyesight to a virus. Doctors were never able to determine what caused the virus to attack the optic nerves, but today she is considered legally blind. While some might think that her life was over, it was just the opposite; it was then that life began for her. She now wonders why it took a potential life-changing event like losing her sight to make her stop and appreciate life.

After training with the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR), Ms. Mosby obtained the skills and confidence to attend college and live independently. She earned her BA in Human Services from the Metropolitan State University of Denver and a Master’s Degree in Rehabilitation Counseling from New York University. She started Mosby Employment Services in 2004, a company that provides career counseling, job readiness skills, training, and job placement. Mosby Employment Services has established an environment where individuals can create a confident presentation of their talents and skills to compete successfully in the job market.

She has been the recipient of several awards including the Martin Luther King Peace Award from Metropolitan State University; the Woman of the Year from the Institute for Women’s Studies and Services; and the Giraffe Award (for sticking her neck out for others) from Metropolitan State University. She has served as the chair of the State Rehabilitation Council appointed by the Governor of Colorado and has also served as the commissioner on the Commission for People with Disabilities for the City of Denver.

Mr. Mackowick moved to Denver in 2014 from southern Illinois. He studied Finance and Economics at Illinois State University and began his career in Commercial Banking in 2011.

He currently serves as an Assistant Vice President in Commercial Lending for Citywide Banks in Denver. In addition to volunteering his time on the Board of Directors for CCDC. He volunteers for local non-profit entities that focus on
providing funding to underprivileged entrepreneurs for start-up businesses.

In his free time, he enjoys spending time outdoors playing volleyball and hiking.

Ashlee Lewis is the Executive Director of The Initiative, a 32-year organization formally known as Domestic Violence Initiative for Women with Disabilities (DVI) that now has become inclusive of serving all genders with disabilities and honoring all forms of abuse that is committed to this vulnerable community.  The abusers measure their prey’s vulnerabilities and target them with all forms of abuse, and the link between crime victims and disability is staggering.  A person is not vulnerable because of their disability as much as the systemic and cultural issues that create multiple layers of discrimination that makes this community an easy target and ultimately compromises the human rights issues of this community. The Initiative was created to spread awareness within our local community of abuse being committed to persons with disabilities, and to provide accessible services for those who have been abused.  

Ashlee started out as a part-time Victim Advocate/Statistician at The Initiative and over the 6 years, she has taken over the responsibilities of grant management, volunteer coordination, financial management, community awareness presentations, and training. Ashlee focused her research and studies on Sociology with a special emphasis on ethnic studies; with always one question in mind: “Why do people suffer?” to learn that the suffering of different groups of people is the result of this oppressive culture and system that we all exist in.  The only way to prevent the suffering of groups of people is to create a cultural shift through awareness educations everywhere.

Ashlee is a longtime activist of international issue of gender-based violence and other human rights issues, and she has found her home with the Initiative and sees a vision of doing international work to protect and prevent abuse done onto persons with disabilities, and to ultimately reach a goal to help our culture to evolve to a place where everyone is safe.

Ashlee was born in South Korea and was adopted to a wonderful American couple in Boulder, Colorado at age 11 with her two biological younger brothers. Ashlee lost her birth mom at 8 and her birth father not long after. Ashlee lived in orphanages and with different families for 3 years before her adoption to America, and it wasn’t long before love and stability helped her to heal the traumatic past and understood that being adopted to America afforded her many opportunities that she would not have had as an orphan or woman, or to be poor in Korea.

As the Executive Director, she provides strategic leadership and vision to The Initiative and ensures achievement of its goals for program development, financial stability, and community engagement. Ashlee has over 25 years of extensive experience in community service, including mentoring, counseling, teaching, coordinating, group support meetings and creating programs. She has fourteen years of professional experience in presenting and training large communities within the hospitality, customer service, and sales industries.

Mrs. Maria Manriquez is the Outreach Director at The Initiative. Mrs. Manriquez is bilingual, fluent in spanish. Mother of three, parent CNA to a child with disabilities. Mrs.Manriquez is a Veteran with disabilities, graduate student of Sam Houston state university in Criminal Justice. Has been chosen above peers for Drug Enforcement administration and as a deputy probation officer. Her passion for law and justice leads her to CCDC board!

Dr. Mitchell is a board-certified emergency physician who has practiced in the Denver metro area after completing his residency at Denver Health Medical Center where he served as chief resident.  He completed medical school at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Jersey and was appointed to the Alpha Omega Alpha honor society in his third year. Dr. Mitchell has served as the medical director at Parker Adventist hospital for over a decade.  Currently serving as the VP of Medical Affairs for DispatchHealth, he has devoted his time to developing clinical treatment guidelines, creating mechanisms to provide high level, acute, and post-acute care in the home in an evidence-based and compliant manner, and educating midlevel providers in home-based acute care medicine.  In July of 2017, Dr. Mitchell delivered a TED talk at TEDx Mile High titled, “The ER Housecall for the 21st Century”

Rodrell S. Brown was born and raised in the small rural city of Hephzibah, Georgia. After attending Morris Brown College in Atlanta, Georgia he went on to receive his Doctorate of Dental Surgery from Meharry Medical College School of Dentistry in Nashville, Tennessee.  After dental school, he completed a general practice residency at Bronx Lebanon Hospital where he also served as a Chief resident.  Dr. Brown then successfully completed his residency in Advanced Education in Pediatric Dentistry at Interfaith Medical Center, where he again served as a Chief resident. It was during his residency, that he discovered his love for serving patients with special needs.

Dr.  Brown currently works at Kids Rock Pediatric Dentistry in Colorado Springs. When Dr. Brown is not spending time with his family, he enjoys playing golf and trivia.  He is a member of several organizations including the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry, American Dental Association, and Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity.

Dr. Jackson grew up in New Jersey and went to college at Rutgers University, where she graduated with a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering. She attended medical school at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, School of Osteopathic Medicine, from which she graduated a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine in 2008. After medical school, Dr. Jackson specialized in family medicine and practiced in Pueblo until 2012, when a progressive neurologic illness forced her to leave practice. She moved to Denver in 2013, and took CCDC’s basic advocacy class in 2014. Using her experience as a physician and a person with a disability, she helped to create a training on disability for medical providers and has been to over a dozen clinics around the state to facilitate training sessions. Dr. Jackson has also testified at the State Capitol on a number of bills important to the disability community. She serves on two committees for Colorado Medicaid: the Pharmacy and Therapeutics committee, and the State Medical Assistance and Services Advisory Council – to which she was appointed by Governor Hickenlooper in 2015. Dr. Jackson recently became a board member of the Phamaly theater company for people with disabilities, and has been on stage as an actress with them as well. In her spare time, she enjoys writing and teaching religious education at her church. She is grateful for the opportunities CCDC has given her to help other people with disabilities using her unique skill set.

Jo Booms was born in Pueblo, Colorado, to a mother who worked in special education and a father who worked with teens with conduct disorders. Jo grew up in close contact with people with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD) and discovered a love for working with peers with IDD at age twelve when schoolyard bullying led her mother to ask one of her school’s special education teachers if Jo could volunteer in the teacher’s classroom over the lunch hour. Jo soon began to volunteer at a local group home for adolescent girls with IDD as well and continued both volunteer activities for the rest of her middle and high school years.

Jo attended Cottey College in Nevada, Missouri, where she graduated with an A.A. in liberal arts. Though she had intended to pursue a career in chemistry and genetics in order to find a cure or treatments for Batten disease, Jo ended up having to change her major due to brain damage from her own then-undiagnosed genetic disorder. She graduated from CSU-Fort Collins with a B.A. in history and a minor in anthropology. She went on to work in Cultural Resources Management Archaeology in several midwestern and southwestern states.

Jo returned to working with people with IDD in 1997 and gained experience both in personal care work and case management. She initially worked as a personal care worker in a staffed Personal Care Alternative residential home, then went on to work as a personal care worker at a day program, where she met former CCDC Board member Jeanie Benfield. Jeanie had always wanted to help others and asked Jo to help her find a volunteer job in IDD system reform. In 2003, they discovered the Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition, became members, and began to spread Jeanie’s advocacy on the state level. Jo served as Jeanie’s speech interpreter, secretarial assistant, and community access person until Jeanie’s death in February of 2021, and is greatly honored to have been asked to continue Jeanie’s work by filling her position on the CCDC Board of Directors.

With more than twenty-five years of experience in the marketing field, Ms. Jones is a leading expert on integrated marketing strategies. Her agency, Avocet Communications, is one of the most innovative in the country, and under her leadership has represented some of the biggest brands working today. She has knowledge and experience in all aspects of marketing, advertising, PR, Internet and social programs. Where she truly shines, however, is her ability to bring each of those areas together. Her experience with national and local brands such as Big O Tires, Pentax Imaging, Papa John’s Pizza, Arc Thrift Stores, Hain Celestial, Massage Envy and Orange Glo enable her to contribute a strong understanding of the intricacies of today’s consumer and business motivators.

She has presented at numerous industry sales meetings and small business forums on topics such as “Selling on the Trade Show Floor,” “Tips on Growing a Small Business in a Down Economy,” “Marketing Small Businesses with a Small Budget,” “Whale Hunting: Sales Development Strategy,” and many others.

Her work with private, nonprofit, state and federal government organizations and her experience in the field of advertising, enable her to contribute a strong understanding of the intricacies of running a business, program, campaign, or event. She served as a director of the Business Marketing Association (BMA) for seven years, has served on the board of directors of D.A.R.E. Colorado for nine years, and is past Chairman of the D.A.R.E. program for the State of Colorado.

Mr. Henninger has worked in the nonprofit sector since 1973, as the executive director of Bayaud Enterprises, Inc. (Nee-Bayaud Industries), which has been in operation since 1969 creating jobs for thousands of persons with disabilities. Bayaud serves over 1,000 people a year and currently employs more than 180 persons with an operating budget of $8.2 million.

He obtained a master’s degree in Rehabilitation Administration from the School of Business at the University of San Francisco and pursued doctoral studies in public administration with an emphasis on nonprofit management at the University of Colorado/Denver and has served on numerous boards for nonprofit organizations, such as; the Mental Health Association of Colorado (Board Chair twice), the Legal Center (including being Board Chair), as well as, the Center for Nonprofit Excellence (including the Board Chair). He also served at the Rocky Mountain Stroke Association (including Board Chair), the Colorado Association of Nonprofit Organizations, (a.k.a CANPO), now known as the Colorado Nonprofit Association (CNA).

Additionally, Mr. Henninger sat on the board for Escuela de Guadalupe, including being one of the Founding Board Members. He served on the University Hills Rotary Club of Denver (including being Club President), The Community Resource Center (including being Board Chair), also serving as a Board Member on the Victim and Offender Reconciliation Program of Denver (VORP), and the Domestic Violence Initiative (DVI).

For the past 16 years, Mr. Henninger has been an affiliate faculty member in the Masters of Nonprofit Management Program at Regis University in Denver. He has facilitated courses in History, Theory, and Future of Nonprofit Organizations; Governance of Nonprofits/Organizational Change; Leadership; and Critical Issues in Nonprofit Organizations. He has been a featured speaker at numerous association meetings and has received numerous honors and recognition as a passionate advocate for the nonprofit sector.

RECOGNITIONS

• 1990 – “Compassion Award” presented by the Longmont Rotary Club at the Rotary 5450 District Conference.
• 1992 – Tribute Honoree presented by the Mental Health Association of Colorado.
• 1995 – The Leadership Denver Association named Henninger “Outstanding Alumni.”
• 2000 – Recognized for “Outstanding Teacher” Master of Nonprofit Management Program, Regis University.
• 2002 –
  Honored with the “William Funk Building Community Award” by the Colorado Association of Nonprofit Organizations (CANPO) for “Building Community on a State-Wide Basis.”
• 2005 – Honored with the “Judy Kaufmann Civic Entrepreneurship Award” presented by the Denver Foundation.
• 2010 – Honored with the “Management Excellence Award” presented by the National Council of Work Centers.
• 2012 – Nominated as mid-size company CEO of the Year by Colorado Business Magazine.
• 2012 – Honored with the Milt Cohen National Leadership Award presented by the AbilityOne-NISH organization at their national conference.

While only actively participating in the last six years with disability rights issues, Mr. Rosenberg has long been involved in the movement at large, owing to his father championing the cause for over forty years. He spent a great deal of his youth at board meetings. Demonstrating unfair practices, he marched, shouted, carried banners, and rode on the laps of newly deinstitutionalized wheelchair users. Surrounded by influential leaders such as Wade Blank and Ed Roberts, Mr. Rosenberg, all the while being familiar with the “medical model” not necessarily being the best paradigm for disabled Americans. Early on it was apparent to him that the fight would not be on a level playing field, as early disability rights advocates fought against established institutions and many cultural biases.

With a degree in history, Mr. Rosenberg earned his master’s in Education from Brooklyn College. While earning his degree, he taught writing to elementary students in Bushwick, a hardscrabble neighborhood in Brooklyn known for its problems with drugs and violence. The inequity and marginalization of students, based upon class and race, was another reminder that systems needed fixing and were inherently imbalanced.

Moving back to Denver in 2006, he began working at Personal Assistance Services of Colorado (PASCO), a Denver area home-health agency. Mr. Rosenber is currently PASCO’s Consumer Liaison. He has worked closely with advocacy groups and the Colorado state legislature to fight discriminatory practices. He has also worked with many consumers from southern parts of the country, where home-health services are insufficient, subsequently, helping move a handful of said consumers to Colorado.

When he’s not working, Mr. Rosenberg enjoys being a new father, spending time with his wife, Marti, hiking with his dogs, Irma and Darwin, and reading.

PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND

Mr. Fairhurst has devoted his entire legal career to representing people whose rights have been violated. He has only represented people – and never corporations or other large entities – who have been subjected to abuses of power. Mr. Fairhurst has extensive experience with issues ranging from employment discrimination to retaliation to police misconduct to prisoners’ rights to disability rights to complex questions of constitutional law, and more. Mr. Fairhurst joined Killmer, Lane & Newman as an Associate Attorney in 2013. Since then, Mr. Fairhurst has been part of the winning trial team in several major employment and civil rights cases. This includes the Marvin Booker v. City and County of Denver case, which resulted in the largest civil rights jury verdict at the time in Colorado history. Mr. Fairhurst became a Senior Associate Attorney at Killmer, Lane & Newman in 2016 and a Partner in 2018.
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EDUCATION

Mr. Fairhurst obtained his juris doctor degree from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law in 2012. Mr. Fairhurst graduated magna cum laude from Williams College in 2007.

BAR ADMISSIONS

Mr. Fairhurst is admitted to practice law in the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, the United States District Court for the District of Colorado, and the State of Colorado.
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AWARDS
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Super Lawyers Rising Star (2018, 2017, 2016)

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ASSOCIATIONS

Colorado Plaintiff Employment Lawyers Association, Treasurer (2018)

Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition, Board Member (2017 – Present)

Colorado Plaintiff Employment Lawyers Association, Outreach Officer (2017)

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SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS

Pleading and Proving Municipal Liability Claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (July 2017)

Patrick Mahncke was born in Colorado Springs, a third generation native to Colorado. Patrick attended the University of San Diego, where he graduated with a business degree in Finance and Management. Upon graduation, he moved back to Colorado and founded USA Mobility, where he is currently serving as president and CEO. USA Mobility is a medical equipment company providing customized mobility solutions for people with disabilities. USA Mobility is Colorado’s largest independent provider of custom manual and power wheelchairs and services clients throughout the state. Patrick is a certified Assistive Technology Professional (ATP) and a Certified Complex Rehabilitation Supplier (CRTS). His responsibilities include business development, local and national legislative efforts, and community relations. Patrick also serves on several nonprofit boards including: president of the Colorado Association for Medical Equipment Services (CAMES), treasurer of the Spina Bifida Association of Colorado (SBACO), and the Colorado Medicaid DME Advisory Board.

Mr. Markham began serving the communities of Colorado back in 1990. While working for a large steel company, he began volunteering his spare time with the Colorado Mounted Patrol and received extensive training in map and compass orientation along with numerous backcountry survival and search techniques. Four years of backcountry search and rescue made him want to be a bigger and more active part of the emergency services community and he was presented with the opportunity to become a member of the Civil Air Patrol. Over the next three years, he received many certifications including his “master mission observer” rating on a search and rescue aircraft, his EMT certification, and he was ultimately promoted to the rank of Second Lieutenant. The more training he received, the more he wanted, and when he was offered the chance to become a member of a specialized team of the Civil Air Patrol, he jumped at the chance. The team was specifically trained to respond to both military and civilian aircraft incidents, mediate any hazards, and provide assistance in evacuating and attending to passengers. Mr. Markham had already taken a strong interest in providing medical care to people and the first time he entered a “working fire” during his training, he was hooked. Suddenly he became one of those people whose first instinct was to run into a fire, instead of away.

The next logical step was to pursue both passions and start the long, difficult process of becoming a paramedic, then approaching the difficult task of pursuing a career in fire service. So he gave up a lucrative career as a foreman with a steel company, enrolled in paramedic school, and took a job driving limousines. This actually permitted him not only to make ends meet but to be able to spend several hours sitting in the back of a limousine with a stack of books while his clients were having dinner, seeing a concert or whatever the case may have been. It was perfect! When he graduated he began working for a private ambulance company, ultimately working his way up to supervisor/field training officer. He aggressively continued to build on his experience, after several years and several tests came and went, he finally got the “call” in 1998 and would spend the next twelve years working as a paramedic with the fire department, as well as, performing various ancillary duties that included holding the position of team leader for Colorado’s largest hazardous materials response team. He was also very active and donated a significant amount of time to causes such as MDA, St. Baldrick’s, and Children’s Hospital.

Unfortunately, Mr. Markham was injured on the job in 2010 and suddenly found himself struggling the next few years. Like many members of CCDC, he struggled against “systems” that don’t necessarily seem to have a person’s best interest in mind. When Josh Winkler, a personal friend to Mr. Markham whom he had worked with, and personally cared for whom he had a great amount of respect for, asked him one day to become a prospective board member for CCDC, Mr. Markham didn’t hesitate. The general rule of approaching any situation in emergency services is to provide the greatest amount of good to the most amount of people.

Mr. Markham is honored to continue that belief for the members of CCDC as a member of the board. While he is now “retired” he has several interests, including his love for travel, classic cars, and his passion for competition BBQ, a “hobby” that has now become a part-time career that occupies much of his time.