Karl Lavtar

Facilities Director
Karl joined RMBL as the Facilities Director in September 2026. Karl grew up in a small ski town in Western New York, his passion for skiing brought him to Colorado in the early '90s, where he attended Western State College in Gunnison and worked as a Ski Instructor at Crested Butte Mountain Resort. With a B.A. in Recreation: Outdoor Education, Leadership & Instruction, Karl transitioned into the kayak industry, working with WildWasser Sport & Prijon Kayaks in Boulder, Colorado. From there, he moved to Alaska, served as the Director of Outdoor Recreation Facilities at JBER, a joint Military Base near Anchorage, and later worked as the Risk & Safety Manager at Schweitzer Ski Resort in North Idaho. Karl’s dream came true when his spouse took a position for the town of Mt. CB, bringing them back home to this incredible mountain community. Outside of work, he enjoys exploring the outdoors with his wife Maeve and their English Springer Spaniel, Revy.

Christie Hicks

Chief Operating Officer
Christie has called Crested Butte home since 2010 and joined RMBL as the Chief Operating Officer in 2026. Her career has spanned science, education, outdoor leadership, and nonprofit management, with a common thread of connecting people to the natural world and building organizations that support meaningful work. Before joining RMBL, Christie served as the Executive Director of Crested Butte Nordic and previously led outdoor education programs at Western Colorado University and Canyonlands Field Institute. She holds a B.A. in Molecular Biology from Pomona College and an M.S. in Environmental Education from Lesley University. When she's not at RMBL, Christie enjoys exploring the mountains and rivers around Crested Butte with her family by ski, boat, bike, or even on foot.

Mallory Wright

365 Manager
Mallory Wright first fell in love with the mountains during childhood trips to Estes Park, inspiring her to leave Texas and make Colorado home after graduating college from Tarleton State University. She relocated to Crested Butte in 2021 from Woodland Park, Colorado, where she has since developed a strong background in hospitality management. With a lifelong passion for helping others and being outdoors, Mallory spends her free time hiking, fishing, camping, and backpacking in the summer, and skiing through the winter months. She is often accompanied by her two dogs, Oliver and Butters, who keep her busy and are the true epitome of cuteness. If Mallory is not outdoors exploring the mountains, she is trying to rally up a group to host a good round of karaoke.

Gigi Lorence

Development Manager
Gigi joined RMBL in 2026 after a long career in Strategic Marketing and Event Planning and Execution in the field of Manufacturing. She has a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science and Biology and a Masters in Technical Communication, and is excited to use this background in her role with the RMBL Development team. Gigi and her husband Jim, along with their dog Homer, came to Crested Butte to work with the Adaptive Sports Center, where they are both humbled and inspired by the participants and the organization. They love to ski, bike, hike and dabble in various artistic outlets like painting, etching, and wood carving.

Kate Maher

Kate Maher is a Professor of Earth System Science in the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability and a Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment. She also serves as a Faculty Director in Stanford’s Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (d.school), where she works at the interface of science, decision-making, and systems design. Kate’s research focuses on how natural systems regulate carbon and water, with an emphasis on translating process-based understanding into actionable climate solutions. She combines field observations, physics-based modeling, and data-driven approaches to evaluate how carbon moves through soils, watersheds, and ecosystems, and how these processes can be measured and represented in policy and emerging carbon markets. Her work spans water quality, managed aquifer recharge, soil carbon, and nature-based climate solutions, with a growing focus on how scientific measurement frameworks can support more rigorous environmental decision-making. Kate began working at RMBL in 2015, studying watershed-scale carbon cycling, water quality, and the role of high-elevation ecosystems such as fens. More recently, her work has expanded to include beaver-driven watershed restoration and its implications for hydrology and carbon dynamics across mountain landscapes. RMBL has been central to this work, providing a setting where long-term ecological observations and process-based science can inform broader questions about climate and water resilience. Kate is a recipient of the James B. Macelwane Medal, a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, and her work on the carbon cycle is featured in a permanent exhibit at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. She received her B.A. from Dartmouth College and her M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, and was a Mendenhall Postdoctoral Fellow with the U.S. Geological Survey prior to joining Stanford. Kate is a part-time resident of Crested Butte with her husband, Matt Rothe. She brings to the Board a perspective that connects long-term, place-based ecological research with emerging needs in climate policy, water resource management, and environmental markets.

Kurt Giesselman

Treasurer
Kurt has a B.S. in Early Childhood Education, a B.S. in Chemistry, an M.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Virginia, and an Executive MBA from Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania. He has worked extensively in the corporate sector with an emphasis on operations and business development, including holding the positions of Senior Director of Business Development for both Honeywell International and Siemens Energy and Environmental Solutions, as well as Vice President for Consulting and Client Services for Constellation Energy. He has extensive nonprofit experience, including serving on the development committee of the Indianapolis Zoo and the Facilities Committee for the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Kurt splits his time between Crested Butte and Florida, where he and his wife own a horse farm managed by their daughter. Kurt remains involved with several local organizations, including previously serving as President of the Gunnison-Crested Butte Tourism Association board, Board Chair of the ICELab, a local business accelerator, and Board Chair of the Mt. Crested Butte Water and Sanitation District. He helped found E3, a Gunnison Valley education non-profit. He was the first Board Chair of the RMBL board. He has owned a home in Crested Butte since 1999 and has been Chair of his HOA's Board of Trustees since its founding in 2000. Kurt brings a strong background in finance and development to the RMBL board, along with his long involvement with RMBL.

Noah Eckhouse

Noah Eckhouse is a business and technology executive turned investor, mentor, and consultant with 35 years of experience across software, hardware, and engineering. After a career spanning product development, sales, executive leadership, and mergers and acquisitions, he retired from Bentley Systems (NASDAQ: BSY) following its successful 2020 IPO. His current work focuses on the AEC (architecture, engineering, and construction) sector, the outdoor industry, and emerging orbital and deep-space technologies. Earlier in his career, Noah directed the Marine Instrumentation and Computation Laboratory in the Department of Ocean Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research included instrumentation and field programs involving America’s Cup sailboats, U.S. Navy submarines, and ship-wake detection using synthetic aperture radar. He also taught undergraduate courses and co-authored several scientific papers. Noah currently serves as Executive-in-Residence at Aurelia Foundry, an MIT Media Lab–affiliated deep-space investment fund, where he sits on the investment committee and multiple portfolio company boards. In Gunnison County, he has served as board chair of ICELab, VP of TAPP and volunteers with several local organizations, including Crested Butte Nordic and Crested Butte Search and Rescue.

Sophia Todorov

Spatial Ecology Research Technician & Winter Caretaker
Sophia is a research technician and winter caretaker at RMBL. She grew up in Corona, California, and studied biology and GIS at UCLA, first arriving at RMBL in 2020 as an undergraduate researcher studying marmot behavior. After earning her B.S. in 2022, she immediately returned to Gothic as a winter caretaker—her first time ever living in a place with snow! She has since spent three winters (and counting) in Gothic and works in Ian Breckheimer's Spatial Ecology Lab, where she has contributed to more than 20 research projects through field + drone data collection and spatial data processing. Her favorite part of working at RMBL is being part of a close-knit community of curious, passionate people who care deeply about science and the environment. Outside of work, Sophia enjoys xc skiing, klunking, watching movies, baking bread, and botanizing.

Suzanne Ennis

Communications Manager
Suzanne joined RMBL in 2026 with 25 years of experience as a writer, editor, story developer, and researcher for Houzz, National Geographic TV, and other media partners. Born and raised in New Jersey, she attended Colby College and earned a master’s degree in English from the University of Virginia. After two decades in California, Suzanne moved to Colorado in 2025 and now spends her spare time making pottery, playing in the mountains, and doting on her dogs, Ollie and Beatrix.

Jo Ann Beine

Community and Title IX Support Specialist
Jo Ann grew up in Littleton, Colorado. For many years she worked as a community college educator, serving as faculty, associate dean, and member of the Civil Rights/Title IX coordination and investigation team. Her career path and work experience also includes retail purchasing/management and healthcare. She has a Master’s degree in Global Affairs, Bachelor’s in Mass Communications and Sociology, and Associate’s in Physical Therapist Assistant. Jo Ann started at RMBL as a volunteer docent in 2022, began working in the Visitor Center in 2024, and added the Support Specialist position in 2025. Every day she learns from and is inspired by the community that is the heart of RMBL. When not at RMBL, she loves to hike and explore the awesome landscapes surrounding us. She also enjoys writing, reading, and planning her next travel adventures!