Council Members
The College Area Advisory Council advises the college president on the long-term educational and employment training needed in the community and serves as a liaison between the college and area employers. The council is also liaison between the college and local school boards, county commissioners, city councils, other local elected officials.
Catherine Allegra
Catherine is the global head of Markit on Demand, formerly Wall Street on Demand. She joined the company in 1991. Markit on Demand is a leading provider of services in the design, development, and hosting of financial services websites, reports, and tools. Prior to joining Wall Street on Demand, Catherine was the national executive director of Plays for Living, a nonprofit theater company in New York City. She was also a professional actress in Boston and Chicago and taught high school reading in the Chicago Public Schools. Catherine has a B.A. in history from Bryn Mawr College.
Joni Friedman
Joni Friedman is the director of the Larimer County Workforce Center (LCWC), a position she has held since 1994. Previously, she worked in a variety of roles at the LCWC, including assistant director, training counselor, and youth programs coordinator. Joni is very involved in the community and serves as board president of the Larimer County Foundation and board member for several organizations, including the Manaqua Center, the Murphy Center Homeless Day Center, and the Larimer Center for Mental Health. Joni has a B.S. in education from Northern Arizona University.
Patrick Kelly
Patrick Kelly is a senior associate at the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems (NCHEMS). He also serves as director of the NCHEMS Information Center for State Higher Education Policymaking and Analysis. Before joining NCHEMS in February 2002, Patrick worked for six years at the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education. Previously, Patrick was a research associate at the National Center for Family Literacy in Louisville, Kentucky. Patrick has a B.S. in psychology from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and an M.A. in sociology and a Ph.D. in urban and public affairs from the University of Louisville.
Kay Miller
Kay Miller became vice president/chief nursing officer at Medical Center of the Rockies in 2005. Kay began her nursing career in 1976. She joined Poudre Valley Hospital (PVH) in 1981 as a staff nurse on the orthopedics unit. She became a head nurse for the neurosciences unit in the same year, and then a department director for PVH's Regional Neurosciences Center. Kay represents PVHS on the Imaging Center Board of Directors and serves on the PVH Foundation Scholarship Selection Committee and the Medical Center of Rockies Foundation Business Relations Committee. Kay has a B.S.N. from the University of Wyoming and an M.S.N. from the University of Colorado at Denver.
Don Oest
Don is a project executive within Technical Support Services in IBM’s Global Technology Services Americas group. He has held various management positions in his more than 34 years with IBM. He has served on the boards of directors of INROADS/Colorado Inc. and Junior Achievement/Rocky Mountain Inc. He is a past board chair of the Ed & Ruth Lehman YMCA. He teaches business and corporate responsibility in the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado-Boulder. Don has an associate degree in computer science from State University of New York-Farmingdale, a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Ramapo College, and a M.B.A. in finance from Fairleigh Dickinson University.
Sandra Steiner
Sandra is the executive director of the Adams County Education Consortium (ACEC), a non-profit sister agency to Adams County Economic Development. ACEC helps students of all ages find fulfilling career opportunities that earn household living wages. Previously, Sandra was executive vice president for Adams County Economic Development. She has held several leadership positions in the publishing industry, including VP and director of marketing at Prentice Hall/Pearson and president of Prentice Hall Business Publishing. She is a graduate of Leadership Denver (2006) and the Colorado Nonprofit Leadership and Management Program (2008). Sandra has a B.S. in education from the University of South Dakota.