Teaching English to South Korean children. Caring for orphans in eastern Kenya. Tending to the emergency needs of Southwest Coloradans.
That’s one way to look at the progression of the life of Colleen Johnson, who recently was named executive director for the Southwest Colorado chapter of the American Red Cross.
Johnson hails from Michigan but most recently lived in Arizona before an eight-month journey that included the Kenyan orphanage. She’s busy here making connections and learning her new role, which this weekend will include a training session in Frisco.
“I’m just trying to meet and network with people in the community,” she said in an interview Thursday. “And to target and recruit volunteers.”
Johnson, who will turn 30 in a couple weeks, so far is impressed with the friendliness of people around here. She has been in Durango since March 25 after starting her job March 17.
“I feel like I couldn’t have landed in a better place,” she said.
Bill Werner had been serving since November as the chapter’s interim executive director.
The most recent full-time director was Cindi Shank, who moved in October to Gillette, in northeast Wyoming, where her husband, Bill Shank, was hired as division chief for Campbell County Fire Department.
Cindi Shank was Southwest Colorado chapter director for 6½ years. She now is the Red Cross disaster program manager for Wyoming.
The Southwest Colorado chapter serves 11 counties: Dolores, San Juan, Montezuma, La Plata and Archuleta on the western side of the Continental Divide, and Mineral, Saguache, Rio Grande, Alamosa, Conejos and Costilla on the eastern side.
Johnson graduated from Central Michigan University, where she studied early-childhood education and outdoor and environmental recreation. She also was a college pole vaulter.
A volunteer stint during her college days with Habitat for Humanity got her interested in and passionate about humanitarian work. She has continued to do that while teaching, most recently with preschoolers in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Johnson has worked for GreaterWorks and YouthWorks, nonprofits that assist and mobilize volunteers to serve their communities through work projects.
She plans to partner with Southwest Colorado businesses, schools and faith-based organizations, as well as families. Fort Lewis College staff and students offer another possible source of help, she said.
The plan is to prepare during “blue sky” times when there is no disaster and be ready for the times the Red Cross’s services are needed, such as during wildfires that typically hit area forests and chase families from their homes in the early summer.
Johnson is not a complete stranger to the region, having lived in Alamosa one summer. She has a brother in Denver.
johnp@durangoherald.com
