Board Chairman

Rich and his wife Jane returned to Colorado in 2015 and live in Chaffee County just north of Buena Vista. They enjoy the year round recreational activities that the upper Arkansas valley and adjacent mountain ranges have to offer. Rich is a registered professional engineer (Retired) in Colorado and earned a B.S. degree in Civil Engineering from Colorado State University. He recently retired after a 36-year career in water resources development and geotechnical engineering with the Bureau of Reclamation in Lakewood, followed by 28 years with an employee-owned consulting engineering firm in Austin. Rich has managed large multi-disciplinary technical teams for the analysis, design and construction management of heavy civil projects throughout the U.S. He and Jane recently began their sustainable energy journey by first investing in rooftop solar, and then adding behind the meter battery storage, and in 2022 became the proud owners of their first electric vehicle. Longer term they plan to transition from natural gas to an electric heat pump water heater and replace their gas stove with a magnetic induction cooktop. Rich believes the upper Arkansas valley is ripe with opportunities to develop community microgrids using solar with large-scale battery storage to expand the use of clean, renewable energy to meet more of our electricity needs locally, improve grid resiliency and lower costs for consumers.

Board Vice-Chair

Karen L. Pate is a project management professional, with roots in environmental engineering. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering, is a former Professional Engineer, and earned a Master’s degree in Business Administration from The University of Denver. She has been a Colorado resident for nearly 30 years, the past five in Buena Vista. Her career includes environmental engineering for 10 years and information technology for the last 15 years, most recently working for a county government. She loves trail running (now mostly hiking) and being outside in nature, and snowshoeing and cross country skiing in winter. Karen installed a 10-kW free-standing solar system soon after purchasing her home outside of Buena Vista, which also leverages passive solar. Prior to being a Director for AVEF, she strongly advocated for an equitable rate restructure and assisted in the election of four forward-thinking SDCEA board members who support transparency with the co-op’s member owners. Karen looks forward to serving the AVEF organization and our community in a larger way, by leveraging her deep project management and strategy development skills.

Board Secretary

Deb Hannigan spent her career as a science and math educator, textbook writer, and educational consultant. Upon retirement, she and her husband moved to BV to build an all-electric, energy efficient solar house. Having built a passive solar cabin back in the 70s, she wanted to incorporate her knowledge of passive solar design with more modern technology, so she added photovoltaic solar panels to provide all their home’s electric needs. Deb specifically designed a modest home that could be supported completely from the abundant sun found in BV. After nearly 5 years with their house in the valley, the Hannigans are convinced that the experiment works! In the future, the Hannigans plan to take advantage of advances in battery storage and electric vehicles to extend the impact of their solar energy generation beyond their daytime use. Smart energy use and a sustainable lifestyle are important to Deb and her family, which now includes a grandson for whom they would like to leave a working planet.

Board Treasurer and Fundraising Director

Passionate about nature and sustainability. Enjoys a variety of outdoor activities in our beautiful backyard. Experienced Director in fundraising, marketing and communications for conservation nonprofits such as World Wildlife Fund. Iris led the membership effort to reconnect a generation of children with nature and the outdoors through nature-related activities. Worked with international organizations on quantifying sustainability with the methodology Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in order to improve decision making on sustainability initiatives.

AVEF has an opening for a Director position. If interested please email AVEF@arkvalleyenergyfuture.org to inquire.

AVEF has an opening for a Director position. If interested please email AVEF@arkvalleyenergyfuture.org to inquire.