2019 Champions for Life Alumni & Employers

Champions for Life was created in an effort to support the career readiness of current UNC student athletes. The event brings alumni and employer participants to engage in question-answer, and networking sessions with current students, as they work to build and expand their networks. 

View the full list of alumni and employer participants below. 

• Annie Baker | Healthy Schools Wellness Coordinator, North Colorado Health Alliance
  Annie has been at NCHA for 7 years, starting as an original member of its Community Care Corps and assessing barriers to health in communities throughout Northern Colorado. In 2016, she transitioned to the role of Healthy Schools Wellness Coordinator and now works with several rural school districts in Weld County to streamline their health and wellness work, align it with the ‘Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child Model’ and support them with wellness resources. She has served as a care manager and health coverage guide at NCHA, worked as a child advocate in the child abuse prevention field and coordinated volunteers for a wide variety of events, including Heaven Fest Music Festival. Annie is a Colorado native and enjoys engaging communities, supporting Community Champions, and building bridges to resources that make communities thrive!
• Kaylee Baker | Assistant Store Leader, Scheels
  Kaylee started as a women’s athletic specialty shop manager in Sioux City, Iowa in 2010. She has been in her current role as an assistant store leader since 2016. Some of her current responsibilities include overseeing cashiers, women's athletic clothing, hiring, and helping to lead her team’s "culture club." 
• Bri Baughman | Human Resources, Scheels
  Bri was born and raised in Montana and started her Scheels journey in the Great Falls store. She has worked in softline sales, clothing support and is currently in human resources. She says Scheels has been an amazing opportunity for her family and has provided them with many adventures!
• Karen Biser '17 | Human Resource Coordinator, SummitStone Health Partners

  No additional biographical information was provided.

• Katy Brown | Program Director, YMCA of Northern Colorado

  No additional biographical information was provided.

• Emily Bryant | Associate Program Director, YMA of Northern Colorado

  No additional biographical information was provided. 

• Cori Buggeln '99 | Probation Officer, 19th Judicial District, State of Colorado
  Cori Buggeln is a Probation Officer/Intern Coordinator for the 19th Judicial District in Weld County. Cori began her career working with DUI offenders.  She has also worked as a substance abuse therapist, taught criminal justice classes at UNC, Aims Community College and at the Aims police academy.  She most recently supervised juvenile probationers who have sexually offended and is currently taking over the position of intern coordinator.  She is a UNC alumna, having received her BA in sociology.  From there she received her Colorado POST certification from the Aims Basic Peace Officer Academy.  Cori also holds a master’s degree in criminal justice with a minor in public school law from New Mexico University.  With the belief that ongoing education and training are imperative to personal and professional growth, she has participated and presented at victim trainings, law enforcement conferences, leadership symposiums to name a few. 
• Michael Bush '93 | Senior Director of Information Systems, Colorado Rockies
  Michael Bush, senior director of Information Systems for the Colorado Rockies Baseball Club, is an accomplished senior technical leader with nearly 20 years of experience in an agile multi-discipline and multi-product environment. In his current role, Bush is responsible for the technical direction and network architecture for the Rockies at Coors Field in Denver, Colo., their Spring Training complex at Salt River Fields in Scottsdale, Ariz., as well as the Rockies’ Dominican Academy. His responsibilities encompass information security, storage and backup, telephones, CRM, desktop support, cloud migration, networking and connectivity among other areas of the organization. Previously, Bush was CTO at Integrated Business Resources for six years and led development for Microsoft in Denver for 10 years prior to that. Bush earned a Bachelor of Science Degree from the University of Northern Colorado, as well as a Master of Business Administration and a Master of Computer Information Technology from Regis University.
• Jessica Clay | Director of Talent Acquisition, YMCA of Northern Colorado
  Jessica has served as a YMCA employee for 15 years in New Hampshire, Missouri and Colorado. Her work with the YMCA focuses on employee and internship recruitment, retention, benefits and talent management. Jessica is dedicated to assisting great applicants in finding the perfect fit.
•  Brad Darby '99 | Service Manager, Cintas Corporation
  Brad Darby is the Service Manager and former General Manager for the Cintas Corporation in Greeley. He has been with Cintas for over 19 years. Brad serves on the Executive Committee as Vice Chair for the Greeley Area Chamber of Commerce. In addition, he serves on the University of Northern Colorado Alumni Board. Brad is the proud husband and father to wife Holly and son Julian.
• Zach Ducharme | Director of Sports & Recreation, Boys & Girls Club of Weld County
  Zach has more than 10 years of experience working in youth development and has been with The Boys & Girls Clubs of Weld County for nearly two years. The main objective of his job is to get youth moving in a cooperative and inclusive manner and use physical activity as a means to fight childhood obesity and improve mental and emotional health.
• Chad Eastin | Executive Vice President, Universal Forest Products Inc.
  While a student athlete and competing in three sports at UNC, Chad was also a janitor for Universal Forest Products Inc (UFP) in Windsor from 1990-1992. He joined UFP full time in 1998 as a trainee. Later that year he moved to Arizona to pursue a sales career. In 2003 he became the Sales Manager and in 2007 he became a General Manager of Operations. From 2007 until 2014, Chad managed several operations. In 2015 was promoted to Vice President of the Mountain West Region, and in 2016 he became an Executive Vice President in charge of Procurement. In 2020 his executive role will change again as the Executive Vice President of National Sales.
• Asha Elmagbari '01 | Western Talent Acquisition, Banner Health

  No additional biographical information was provided.

• Cody Ferraro | Founder, InXAthlete

  No additional biographical information was provided.

• Patty Harsh | Human Resources Director, Triple Crown Sports
  Patty’s passion is sports and she has been fortunate enough to spend the last 25 years of her career with a company that builds “premium, must attend, sports events.” Patty’s favorite sport is softball, which she still competitively plays across the country. She also has a passion for “giving back” and is lucky to be involved with such great organizations as UNC Softball Alumni, The Colorado Women’s Sports Fund Association, Fighting MG (Myasthenia Gravis) with JJ, and Protect the Game. Her biggest passion is her family, and she will do whatever she can to spend as much time with them as possible enjoying the simple things in life. 
•  Samson Jagoras | Chief Strategy Officer, Madwire
  Over his 11+ years in business, executive leadership and entrepreneurship, Samson has served as a professional futures and commodities broker, built a single-family rental property business, and now owns a boutique gym and serves as the Chief Strategy Officer of a fortune 500 marketing and technology company. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree from the University of Colorado in 2008, Samson made his entrance into futures trading where he managed trading accounts for customers, learned market analysis and designed trading strategies. Most notably he has been a key player on the executive leadership team at Madwire, a fortune 500 marketing and technology company located in Fort Collins. He has aided in taking Madwire’s revenue from $7 million to over $100 million and grown the company from 35 employees to 600 employees in 10 years. Having built four departments, consulted with thousands of business on marketing and business operations (hiring north of 400 employees,) and coached countless business and marketing professionals, Samson now acts as Madwire’s CSO and Growth Vue’s Asset Manager. His strengths are in business development, operational leadership and technical analysis.
• Kandis LaPoint | Talent Acquisition Specialist, Enterprise Holdings
  Kandis has a degree in Business Supply Chain Management and Anthropology and joined Enterprise Holdings as a Management Trainee straight out of college. She has been with the company for five and a half years and has managed multiple locations in the Boulder area. Kandis was promoted to her current role in the spring and her job is to attract, hire and retain top talent to the company.
• Erin Levan | Registered Representative, Mutual of Omaha

  No additional biographical information was provided.

• Steve Lowe '99 | Recruiter, Aurora Fire Department
  Steve has been a firefighter/paramedic with Aurora Fire Rescue since January 2015. Prior to joining Aurora Fire, Steve was a firefighter/paramedic for the Gilbert Fire Department for 12 years. Steve graduated from the University of Northern Colorado in 1999 where he obtained a bachelor’s degree in Kinesiology. Steve has been the Recruiter for Aurora Fire Rescue since October of 2019.
• Lauren Meeker '14 | Product Manager & Head of Content, Madwire
  Lauren Meeker recently took on a new role at Madwire in Fort Collins. Madwire provides world-class digital marketing software and highly skilled professional marketing services through a single, powerful platform, Marketing360. Lauren is now a Product Manager for the technology and software engineering team. Her responsibilities include articulating the business value to the development team so they understand the intent behind new products or product releases, assisting with the QA process for high-quality production, and creating commercialized content for customers to best understand new products and features. Lauren was previously the Director of the Content Marketing department at Madwire where she led 60+ team members to manage over $1 million in clients' content marketing budgets. Additionally, Lauren has been married for three years and has two young sons under two.
• Shawn Osthoff '90 | President, Bank of Colorado
  Shawn Osthoff is President of Bank of Colorado in Fort Collins and is responsible for overseeing $4 billion in assets held by the bank across their 45 branches. He is a native of Colorado and received his BS with an emphasis in finance from the University of Northern Colorado in 1990. He earned his MBA from Colorado State University in 1991. Mr. Osthoff is also a graduate of the Colorado Graduate School of Banking. His career with Bank of Colorado started in 1995 and includes extensive experience in lending, loan operations, commercial and agricultural loan portfolio management, and corporate management. Mr. Osthoff serves on the Independent Bankers of Colorado Board, Colorado Bankers Association Committee, and the CSU Real Estate Council Board. He resides in Fort Collins with his wife Crystal and their two children.
• Katie Reigel | Human Resources Manager, Cintas Corporation
  Katie started her career with Cintas three years ago as an Office Manager/HR Coordinator and is currently the Human Resource Manager for the Greeley Cintas location. Katie has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Human Resource Management from Colorado State University Global Campus. Prior to working at Cintas, Katie worked for JBS in Greeley where she was an Accounting Supervisor.
• Ron Scott '03 | Imports Brand Manager, High Country Beverage
  Ron Scott is a Northern Colorado native. He attended high school in Windsor and then enrolled at the University of Northern Colorado where he graduated with his bachelor’s degree in communications in 2003.  Ron was a member of the UNC Football program from 1998-2003 and played as the starting fullback for the Bears.  Upon graduation, Ron started his career in the sales/distribution industry working with American Eagle distribution, then US Foods and now High Country Beverage of Johnstown where he has been for 15 years. Ron started out on the truck and worked his way up into leadership roles and continues to pursue opportunities within the industry. The competitive spirit and affinity for teamwork that Ron obtained through his participation in athletics has aided in his career achievements. Ron is currently the Imports Brand Manager with High Country Beverage, a father of two young boys and enjoys volunteering his time to coach youth sports. Ron and his wife Jill continue to make their home in Greeley and love being a part of the UNC alumni family.
• Tyler Sewald | Park Manager III, Colorado Parks & Wildlife
  Tyler is the Park Manager of Jackson Lake State Park. He is originally from Nebraska and a graduate of North Platte High School. Tyler is an AmeriCorps NCCC alumnus and recipient of the President’s Student Service Award for Volunteerism. He attended college at Mid-Plains Community College before transferring to Western State College in Gunnison, Colorado where he studied Environmental Studies and Biology. He began working seasonally for the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission when he was 16-years-old and later worked for Colorado State Parks for five summers. Tyler was hired full time for Colorado Parks and Wildlife in 2008 and has had the privilege of working at Jackson Lake State Park since that time.
• Abdul Syidi '96 | Recruiter, Aurora Police Department
  Abdul Syidi has been assigned to the Recruitment Unit for the Aurora Police Department for the past three years. He has been in law enforcement for over 16 years and has worked in many areas. He has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Sociology, from the University of Northern Colorado. He is also the Muslim/Immigrant Liaison Officer and conducts extensive outreach work in the immigrant communities of the Aurora/Denver metro area.
• Michael Trotter '89 | President, Front Range Roofing System
  With almost 25 years in the Colorado commercial roofing industry, Trotter has the responsibility of overseeing operations and sales for the company as well as being an active estimator and project manager. He has a demonstrated history of working in the construction industry, in new construction, re-roofing and service department. He is driven by the fact that over 80-percent of the company’s customers are repeat or referral. Trotter currently serves on the board of the Western States Contractors Association, Chairs the ACE (Achieving Community Excellence) Board for the City of Greeley, was appointed to the Colorado Workforce Development Board for 2019, and has served on the Colorado Roofing Association and United Way of Weld County Boards. He has strong business development skills, having completed management and business training through the Kellogg School of Management in Chicago, Illinois, and earned a degree in business from the University of Northern Colorado.
• Tanya Trujillo '14 | Director of Community Health Development, North Colorado Health Alliance

  No additional biographical information was provided.

• Britainy Wilmer '07 | Controller in Sports Finance, Kroenke Sports & Entertainment
  Brittainy Wilmer is a Certified Public Accountant and the Controller, Sports Finance at Kroenke Sports & Entertainment. She came to Kroenke Sports more than 8 years ago after starting her career at BKD as an external auditor. Brittainy is responsible for all things accounting and finance for the Denver Nuggets, Colorado Rapids and Kroenke Sports Charities including monthly financial reporting, financial analysis, and developing the annual operating budget. Brittainy received her degree in Business Administration with Accounting emphasis in 2007 from the University of Northern Colorado. Outside of work, she enjoys spending time with her husband and two children, vacations on the beach, reading and visiting local breweries.  

This event was created  with a student-focused approach through a collaboration between UNC Athletics, the Center for Career Readiness, and Alumni Relations.