Over the mountains and to Grand Junction we go for the 2025 Summit for Recycling!June 2nd - 4th | Grand Junction Convention Center 2025 Summit for Recycling SpeakersA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
I am a retired psychotherapist. Part of my retirement plan is to do what I can to help with environmental issues. To that end, I recycle and compost at home. I volunteer with our local environmental organization, High Country conservation (HC3). I was on a committee for 2 years to help "convince" the Suncor oil refinery to stop polluting. And for the last 3 years I've been keeping as much styrofoam from the dump as has been possible. But I have reached the end of how much my volunteer organization can handle. That is why I am reaching out to other organizations to help with or take over the effort.
Shana is the Waste Tires Work Leader for the Hazardous Materials and Waste Management Division at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment where she is responsible for the oversight of the Waste Tire Program. She has been with CDPHE for over 20 years. She is a graduate of Colorado State University with a B.S. in Environmental Health, and she holds a master’s degree from the University of Denver in Environmental Policy and Management. Shana enjoys traveling, hiking, and working out on her Peloton bike.
Nikki Chernick is a climate and sustainability consultant with a passion for making a meaningful impact at the intersection of clean energy, regenerative agriculture, and waste management. Connect with Nikki: LinkedIn
Angela is the Recycling and Waste Reduction Supervisor for the City of Grand Junction, where she leads strategic initiatives in waste diversion, program development, and community engagement. With a strong commitment to resource stewardship, Angela works to advance the local circular economy and support a more resilient, sustainable, and economically vibrant future.
Shelly Fuller is the Hazardous Materials Program Manager for Boulder County, leading the daily operations of the hazardous materials program. Passionate about sustainability and safety, she collaborates with local businesses and community organizations to champion responsible hazardous waste management. Connect with Shelly: Website
Jon Gertsmeier is national director of enterprise sales for AMP, a provider of artificial intelligence (AI)-powered sortation at scale for the waste and recycling industry. He works with industry leaders to deploy AI-enabled retrofit and facility-scale solutions that increase productivity, overcome labor challenges, maximize purity rates, and generate more revenue for their recycling businesses. Connect with Jon: LinkedIn
Mellik Gorton has worked for Colorado’s Department of Public Health and Environment in the Hazardous Materials and Waste Management Division for the past three years. He has overseen the paint stewardship program, electronics recycling facilities and the education and outreach for the Compostables Labeling Act. More recently, as of February 2025, he has become the Producer Responsibility lead, administering the advisory board and providing oversight to the program’s implementation. In addition to his role with CDPHE, he also serves on the Board of Recycle Colorado. Before his time with the State of Colorado, he managed the City & County of Denver’s waste hauler licensing. When not working, he can be found writing songs on his guitar, riding bikes around Colorado or scoping out opportunities to submerge in a body of water. Connect with Mellik: Website
Rita directs UpRoot’s work along the Western Slope, where she has spent most of her time since 2016. She is passionate about helping to create a more just food system that contributes to the health of both people and the environment. Her deep appreciation for farmers and food stems in part from her experiences working on farms in both urban and rural areas. She has also worked as an AmeriCorps VISTA and in other capacities for nonprofit organizations aiming to increase equity in food access. Rita holds a B.A. in Environmental Studies from Wellesley College and a Sustainability Certificate from Babson, Olin, and Wellesley Colleges. Rita was a 2023 Rocky Mountain Farmers Union Fellow. In her free time, Rita enjoys hiking in the magnificent mountains around her, reading, spending time with as many dogs as she can, and delighting in cooking, eating, and sharing food.
As the Outreach and Technical Assistance Unit Work Lead for CDPHE’s Colorado Circular Communities (C3) Enterprise program, Liz is dedicated to advancing circularity initiatives that prioritize equity and sustainability. Her work focuses on stakeholder engagement, grant application assistance, and project leadership. Through this work, she also has a strong focus on fostering sustainable, statewide behavior change and inclusive communications to ensure diverse perspectives are heard. Connect with Liz: Website
Liz oversees composting, recycling, and landfill operations at the South Canyon Landfill in Glenwood Springs. Her work-related interests are circular economies, resource management, composting unusual feedstocks, and organics policy.
Rylee is the Sustainability Manager at the Auraria Sustainable Campus Program. With a background mainly in waste diversion, Rylee focuses largely on recycling programs, food waste reduction initiatives, event waste management, and enhancing the composting program at the Auraria Campus. Implementing an internal, closed-loop composting program was just a vision for Rylee in 2022, and just three years later it has become a reality. While the program is not perfect, she is proud of how it has evolved, overcome many challenges, and provided many lessons. Moving forward, Rylee hopes that the composting program will be a significant contributor to the campus reaching its goal of a 35% diversion rate in the very near future and serve as a model for other campuses to implement similar programs.
This year, Ellen Orleans celebrates 20 years of sustainability work with the City of Boulder, first in the transportation arena, and since 2011, in zero waste and circular economy efforts.
Anna Perks is the founder and owner of Perks Deconstruction, a Colorado-based woman-owned business specializing in sustainable demolition and material reuse. With a background in circular economy and a deep commitment to climate-conscious construction practices, Anna has positioned Perks as a leader in deconstruction services across the Front Range. She is a board member of Recycle Colorado and an active participant on the Construction & Demolition (C&D) Council, where she advocates for policies and programs that promote waste diversion, material reuse, and industry innovation. Anna brings a hands-on, solutions-oriented approach to her work and is passionate about transforming the built environment through collaboration, education, and action. Connect with Anna: Website, LinkedIn, Instagram, or Facebook
Dr. Jeff Pieper has been working in horticulture on Colorado's Western slope for over 10 years. After working as a horticulturist in Eagle County Jeff moved to the Grand Valley to work on peach production systems and complete his Ph. D. in Horticulture at Colorado State University. While working at CSU's Western Colorado Research Center in Grand Junction, he worked primarily with tree fruit and wine grapes. In his current role at CSU Extension Jeff provides applied horticultural guidance to commercial growers across the Tri-River area.
Joe joined Resource Central in 2023 as the director of the popular Materials Reuse program in Boulder, CO. With his background in corporate and institutional retail operations, Joe aims to double program impact and scale Materials Reuse statewide, helping to make the reuse of building materials the first choice and consumption of new materials second.
Rachel Setzke (she/her) has been with Eco-Cycle since 2019. In her role as Senior Policy and Research Associate, she researches trends and best practices in recycling, compost, Zero Waste and circularity in order to support Eco-Cycle’s education and advocacy work. Her work has focused on providing policy and program solutions at the community and state levels as well as studying diversion access, trends and scalable solutions across Colorado. Rachel is the lead author of the annual State of Recycling and Composting in Colorado Report and an author of the Municipal Blueprint for Compost Expansion. Rachel has helped draft, advocate for and implement state laws including the Plastic Pollution Reduction Act, Producer Responsibility for Recycling and two compost bills. She is an active member of Recycle Colorado’s Board, Greater Colorado Council and Policy Committee, as well as multiple national groups working on Extended Producer Responsibility. Rachel has worked in the nonprofit sector for over 20 years. Rachel was born and raised in Colorado and, after college in Wisconsin, she returned to the Colorado where she currently resides with her husband, kids and cattle dog mutt.
Robbie Tepperberg serves as the Compost Operations Manager for the Auraria Campus, where he leads compost diversion efforts across a 150-acre campus shared by three institutions: Metropolitan State University, the University of Colorado Denver, and the Community College of Denver. He joined the Auraria Campus in the fall of 2023 to help launch their on-site composting facility utilizing an in-vessel digester and custom-built electric tricycles for organics collection. He is deeply passionate about raising awareness of composting’s many benefits, educating others, and developing scalable models that institutions can replicate to establish their own on-site processing facilities. Connect with Robbie: LinkedIn, Website, Facebook
Natalie Trecker is born and raised in Aspen, and embraced the ski culture. After many years of competitive xc ski racing, she returned to Aspen. Subsequent years in retail, landscaping and home reuse projects have led her to her dream job of working the diversion effort/ community reuse resource that is the Motherlode Mercantile, a.k.a "the dump store" at the Pitkin County Solid Waste Center in the Roaring Fork valley. She is excited to be part of the mission to reduce, reuse and recycle for our world. She spends her days out in the dirt at the Solid Waste Center helping the community to divert reusable items destined for the landfill and help create and support a reuse culture.
Alex Truelove Alex joined BPI in early 2022 to help develop and advocate for policies to increase organic waste diversion, reduce pollution, and help consumers navigate a dizzying product marketplace. He previously directed a national non-profit zero waste program and remains passionate about environmental stewardship, public policy, and working with others to incrementally solve messy problems. Connect with Alex: LinkedIn |
Shana Baker, MAS, REHS
Shelly Fuller, CHMM
Mellik Gorton
Liz Kuhn
Rylee McCone
Jeff Pieper
Joe Pitts
Natalie Trecker
