RMBL Staff

Ian Billick, PhD, Executive Director
Dr. Ian Billick first started attending the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory in 1988 as a student. He conducted his graduate work on ants in Virginia Basin, above Gothic, eventually receiving his PhD from the University of California, San Diego in 1997. He held positions at the University of Houston and Truman State University before becoming the Executive Director of the RMBL in 2000. He lives in Crested Butte South with his wife, Dr. Jennifer Reithel, and his two sons, Cormac and Giles. He mountain bikes and loves skiing with his sons. He is quite interested in the interface between science and policy.
Phone/Fax: (970) 349-7231
Email:directorATrmblDOTorg
Gesa Michel, Director of Finance & Operations
Gesa has an MBA from the University of Nuremberg in Germany and a postgraduate degree in international Environmental Management from the Erasmus University, The Netherlands. She has worked for several non-profits in the Gunnison Valley, most recently as the Executive Director of the Office for Resource Efficiency. Gesa has lived in Crested Butte for 13 years with her husband and two young sons. She grew up in Hamburg, Germany, and originally came to the US on a field hockey scholarship at the University of Iowa. Today she enjoys summer rides on her horse in our spectacular mountains, and playing on several local ice-hockey teams in the winter.
Phone/Fax: (970) 349-7231
Email: adminATrmblDOTorg

billy barr, Business Manager
Billy Barr attended Trenton High School and Rutgers University in NJ and graduated with a BS in Environmental Science. He came to RMBL in 1972 as part of a water quality study and stayed on afterwards to do an assortment of jobs including cleaning, library work, plumbing, electrical, phoneline work, and did all the dishes for 4 years as well as being on a fire fighting crew. In 1980 he became Business Manager and has been so since. He lives year-round in Gothic and does weather and avalanche work for various organizations.

Phone/Fax: (970) 349-7481
Email: bbarrATrmblDOTorg

Allison Butcher, Development Director
Allison joined the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory as the Development Director in September 2008. Allison moved from Illinois to Crested Butte in 2005 to take on the role of Development Director with Adaptive Sports Center. Prior to her move to CB she held several positions in the non-profit sector after graduating from Indiana University in 1998 with a B.A. in journalism and a Minor in Environmental Studies. Her passions include traveling, camping, fishing, hiking, Nordic skiing and boating.

Phone/Fax: (970) 349-7420
Email: allisonATrmblDOTorg

Robyn Edwards, Physical Plant Supervisor
Robyn has had lengthy experience in the planning, design, construction and management of educational facilities and was selected to participate in statewide public school facility evaluations in Idaho, New Mexico and Arizona. During ten years as a project manager she was rarely responsible for less than twenty million dollars worth of work in progress while individual projects typically ranged in value from six to twelve million dollars. She is an alumna of the University of Rochester, the University of Colorado and most recently earned a bachelors degree from Whitman College in 2007. During a term as mayor of a small community Robyn gained considerable experience in managing small water systems, public finance and grant administration. Among many interests she counts hiking, skiing and mountaineering as well as history, social commentary and activism. Robyn divides her residency between Gothic during the summer portion of the year and in the Pacific Northwest seeking sunshine in the wine country of Southeast Washington and snow among the cedars in the Idaho panhandle.
Email:plantATrmblDOTorg

Meike Meissner, Marketing & Special Events Coordinator
Meike has more than ten years experience working in development and marketing with a number of non-profit organizations including the Adaptive Sports Center, High Country Citizens’ Alliance, Colorado Outward Bound, The Trailhead Children’s Discovery Museum, and The Marine Mammal Center is Sausalito, CA. She is a graduate of the George Washington University in Washington, DC and enjoys hiking and skiing in the mountains, as well as growing and raising local food. She lives in Almont with her husband, three children, and assorted farm animals.
Phone/Fax:(970) 349-7420
Email:devATrmblDOTorg

Jennie Reithel, PhD, Science Director
Dr. Jennie Reithel first came to the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory in 1993 as a student and research assistant. She received her BA from Middlebury College in 1995 and her PhD from the University of California at Irvine in 2003. She worked at the RMBL for her graduate work, studying the evolutionary ecology of a plant-membracid-ant system at the Almont Triangle. Over the years at RMBL, she has filled a variety of roles, including winter caretaker and faculty member. In 2007 she became the Science Director. She lives with her husband, Dr. Ian Billick, and their two young boys in Crested Butte South. She enjoys gardening, Nordic skiing, and looking at bugs with her kids.
Email: sdATrmblDOTorg

Dan Jones, IT/IS Consultant and RMBLnet Project Manager
Dan has written all of the Lab’s proprietary software, worked to bring broadband connections to the Internet to Gothic and is currently the the project manager and software developer for the Weather Station project as well as an IT/IS consultant to the Lab. Dan has broad experience managing software and systems engineering teams. Dan serves on a number of local and national boards including the Gunnison County Land Preservation Board and the Comprehensive Plan Economic Development Focus Group. Dan was a founding board member and past president of the Crested Butte Land Trust and was, for seven years, a RMBL Board member. He resides in Crested Butte.

Email:dataATrmblDOTorg

Amy Ellwein, PhD, Project Manager - Bringing a Field Station into the Classroom
Dr. Amy Ellwein left a faculty position at the University of New Mexico to join the RMBL staff in June 2010. Amy has been teaching science in the classroom and field to a variety of college-level audiences since 1994, including geology majors, non-majors, and pre- and in-service K-12 teachers. She was a geomorphologist with the US Geological Survey and a geological consultant for several years before returning to University of New Mexico to work on her doctorate research in eolian and soil geomorphology (2011). Amy is a founding and active board member of the Science Education Institute of the Southwest (SEIS), which provides professional development opportunities for K-12 teachers. For RMBL, Amy is developing curriculum, contextual materials and a web-site (Digital RMBL) highlighting long-term RMBL data for use in college classrooms and helping develop a variety of science education projects. Among other things, she enjoys skiing, hiking, and teaching at Western State College down the road in Gunnison. Email:amyATrmblDOTorg

Annie Starr, Environmental Education Director
Annie has lived in CB since the summer of 1980. She has over 20 years experience directing early childhood education programs, and she has served on community education boards: the Early Childhood Council, Stepping Stones Children’s Center and the Trailhead Children’s Museum. As the Environmental Education program continues to grow, Annie’s goal is to create science education programs and opportunities for visitors, residents and schools. She enjoys teaching and sharing nature with students of all ages. When not with the kiddos at the nature camp or leading adult tours at Gothic, she spends her leisure time watercolor painting and gardening in the CB community garden! Annie is a naturalist at heart and is happy to call the mountains her home; she lives in town with her husband.
Phone/Fax: (970) 349-7231
Email:enviro-edATrmblDOTorg

Laurel Runcie, Alumni & Administrative Coordinator
Laurel studied history at Dartmouth College, graduating with a BA in 2006. After graduation, she moved to Las Vegas, NV to be a Teach For America corps member. She taught 4th grade while simultaneously earning her M Ed. in K-8 Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Since 2004 she has worked with a variety of educational non-profit organizations, including the Montshire Museum of Science, Teach For America, and World Partners in Education. Phone:(970) 349-7231
Email:laurelrmblDOTorg


Anne Marie Panetta, Exploration Experiences Leader

Anne Marie leads the RMBL’s Adult Science Program, Exploration Experiences. She is also a fourth year PhD student in ecology at the University of California, Davis. Anne Marie conducts her research in and around RMBL, where she studies the response of a local wildflower (Rock Jasmine) to natural and experimental climate change.

Lizzy Plotkin, Kids Nature Camp Leader

After spending her first summer at RMBL as a research assistant studying the immune systems of the white crowned sparrow population, Lizzy switched gears in her education at the University of Michigan towards environmental education and environmental psychology. She spent the next summer at RMBL as the KNC’s intern and after graduating from Michigan spent the following year and a half fully engaged in RMBL’s year-round environmental education program; teaching the summer camps, pre-school visits to the lab, Crested Butte Community School’s fall field trips, after-school science programs at the Old Rock Library and a Winter Nature Camp. Lizzy loves spending time in Gothic, soaking up and engaging in the discovery each summer’s scientists (young and old) bring to RMBL. When not in Gothic, Lizzy can be found playing her fiddle and mandolin and spending time in the community gardens of the Mountain Roots Food Project.

Denny Brown, Dining Hall Manager

Denny has been in the culinary field for nearly a decade, which started with training from the McDowell Culinary Arts Academy in Columbus, Indiana. Denny started working at the RMBL in 2008. This year, summer 2010, will be his first year to run the Dining Hall. Denny loves the chance for outdoor adventure that working at the Lab brings. While not at the Dining Hall, Denny can be found at the top of one of the many peaks, or sitting by a waterfall reading. He loves the chance to show off his staff and their work, so if you would like to come have a meal at the dining hall, please call 24 hours in advance for reservations!
Phone:Summer Only (970) 349-0892
Email:cookATrmblDOTorg