Warner College of Natural Resources’ 2022 Distinguished Alumna, Cindy Williams, will be the inaugural speaker in the college’s new lecture series, Further Together. The Warner College Dean’s Distinguished Lecture Series shares conservation and sustainability success stories with natural resource-minded audiences around the state of Colorado.

Williams (B.S., geology, ’89; M.S., geology, ’92) has over 30 years of experience as an executive in domestic and international mining. She has served on the Dean’s Council of CSU’s Warner College of Natural Resources since 2017.

Envision Chaffee County

Upon retiring from the mining industry seven years ago, Williams moved to the mountains of Chaffee County, Colorado. Home to popular Colorado destinations such as Buena Vista and Salida, Chaffee County has seen dramatic population growth in the past several years, leading to natural resource and recreation challenges.

In a report from Colorado State Demographer, Elizabeth Garner, Chaffee County saw a 5.6% increase in population in just two years from 2015 – 2017, which was twice as fast as Colorado’s population growth.

With her extensive natural resources experience and her dedication to conservation, Williams became a co-lead for Envision Chaffee County in 2018.

With the mission of supporting all of the aspects that make Chaffee County special, Envision used a community-led approach to engage 1,500 people and 80 organizations to come together to create a shared vision for positive change.

“It’s a remarkable collaboration of local government, land management agencies, and the community that is generating results,” Williams said. “We’re tackling problems that impact the whole state at a local level.”

Envision’s programs address clean water, healthy forests, small town vibrancy, recreation, friendly people, and thriving wildlife, among many topics.  Williams partnered closely with Warner College’s Colorado Natural Heritage Program and Colorado Forest Restoration Institute, who provided fundamental assistance on wildfire preparedness and conservation planning for the Envision initiative.

Dean’s Distinguished Lecture Series

Four years after becoming a co-lead of Envision Chaffee County, Williams will be coming back to Fort Collins to share how this community-led movement not only created an action plan but is actually tackling these natural resources challenges.  Even though the work of Envision Chaffee County focuses on natural resources, the concepts of their movement can be applied more broadly.

“Envision Chaffee County is a great model for collective impact and can be used by any kind of group looking to make a change,” Williams said.

Join Williams for the second half of the lecture for a lively Q&A session.