OUR BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Lauri Heraty has served on multiple local and regional boards, is extremely community involved and is a consummate volunteer. Lauri is currently the President of the Colorado Regional MLS of Southwest Colorado, as well as Vice Chair on the Pagosa Springs Tourism Board. Lauri and her husband Mike moved to Pagosa Springs in 1995 and opened Pagosa Source Real Estate Advisors in 1997. They have been working together 25 years which is quite an accomplishment.

However, Lauri’s proudest accomplishment are her two sons Michael and Gabriel. Gabriel is currently a Sophomore at Arizona State University on the West Campus studying Business and Entrepreneurship. He is a Seeds of Learning graduate, featured in their ads as early as 18-months old. Gabriel became the first Seeds graduate to dance in Pagosa Springs Dancing with the Stars and took home the Mirror Ball Trophy in 2020.

On the rare occasion when Lauri can sneak away from board service and work responsibilities, she loves skiing at Wolf Creek.

Bob received his B.A. in Mathematics from Kutztown University of Pennsylvania. He continued his academic studies at the University of North Dakota where he received his M.S. in Industrial Management. Finally, Bob gained his PhD in Information Technology from Louisiana Technology University.

Upon graduation from university, Bob enlisted in the United States Air Force in 1968 and was honorably discharged in 1972 as a Captain. Bob began his career in 1975 as a professor of Information Systems at the University of Texas at Arlington. During that time he was also President of Decision Support Systems, a Market Research company based in Arlington, Texas. He joined Alcon Laboratories in 1989, holding positions of increasing responsibility and in 2001 was named Vice President, Information Technology and Chief Information Officer. He retired from Alcon in January of 2007.

After retirement Bob and his wife, Robin, continued to travel extensively and also became actively involved in their community. Bob served on the Creede Repertory Board for five years before resigning in order to be more involved in the Thingamajig Theatre of Pagosa Springs. He and Robin have financially served a number of organizations in Pagosa, including Seeds of Learning. The most fun he had raising money for Seeds was as a Star in the first Dancing with the Pagosa Stars in 2018.

Bob and Robin have two children and eight grandchildren.

Martin received his BA from UCLA and his JD from Southwestern University. An active lawyer, Martin is licensed to practice law in the states of Colorado, Texas and California. He is counsel to the national firm of Frost, Brown, Todd, LLC.

Martin is the Managing member and, with his wife, Joni, an owner of the Alley House Grille and Lounge and is active locally in a number of charities in addition to Seeds of Learning.

Martin has been a Trustee of St. Edwards University, Austin, Texas, a private Holy Cross University, since 2011. In that capacity Martin has served as Vice-chair, two terms, and Chair of the Board of Trustees as well as serving on the Executive committee, Committee on Trustees and Fiduciary Committee.

Martin and Joni live full time in Pagosa Springs and are blessed with four children – Bryan, Allyson, Dennis and Jennifer, and eight grandchildren – Andrew, Sarah, Evy, Martin, Floyd, Wyatt, Miles and Daschel.

Bob Scott has been in investments and investment banking since 1987. Bob began his career as a financial analyst at Kidder, Peabody & Co., in New York City. Later he accepted a position with Alex Brown & Sons in San Francisco as a senior analyst. As an analyst he specialized in mergers and acquisitions and raising capital for companies in the public market.

In 1993, he moved to Denver and became managing principal at Rockmont Capital Partners, a private investment company that invests in and acquires public and private companies.

In February 1999, Bob and his family relocated to Pagosa Springs and opened an office for Edward Jones Investments where he became a limited partner. In February 2007, Bob formed Scott Strategic Investments, LLC.

Bob received a bachelor’s degree in business administration and international relations from the University of Southern California and an MBA from the University of Denver. Bob is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ practitioner and completed the Accredited Asset Management Specialist (AAMS) professional education program offered by the College for Financial Planning.

He has been involved in the community serving on various non-profit boards. Recently, he served a 6 year term on the Colorado Supreme Court Nominating Commission.

Lisa received her BBA in Business Management at Texas A&M University in 1978. After graduation she took a job with Shell Oil Company, working in the business sector, and ended her career operating as an internal consultant for Shell’s north American businesses, implementing best practices in Supply Chain Management.

In 1995 Lisa left Shell to form Liles Peters and Associates, a consulting company, working primarily in the energy sector assisting companies in implementing process redesign, value engineering and marketing best practices.

After retiring, she led various nonprofits, specializing in increasing donors and funding. She and her husband, Dwight, spend most of their year in Pagosa Springs and less and less time in Sugar Land, Texas. They have one daughter, Lilli.

Michelle Cusick became the Executive Director at Seeds of Learning in September 2021. Michelle and her family have lived in Pagosa Springs for over 8 years and love our beautiful community. She and her husband have two amazing children.

Michelle brings a plethora of experience in education and administration. Her educational background includes a B.S. in Elementary Education specializing in Early Childhood and Special Education and a Master of Early Childhood Education with emphasis in Reading. Michelle has obtained 30 hours towards her PhD in Early Childhood Development and Education. She has 10 years of experience as a Pre-Kindergarten through Third Grade classroom teacher. Before moving to Colorado, she held a faculty position as adjunct lecturer in the Child and Family Studies department at Baylor University. In addition, she served as a full-time Instructor of Education/Early Childhood for two years at Arkansas State University-Heber Springs. Finally, the role that helped her the most both professionally and personally was that of Executive Director and owner of a private child development center that she and her husband built from the ground up.

Michelle and her husband currently own Bayfield Pharmacy and have strong ties to the Pagosa Springs community.

Dr. Linda M. Espinosa, is currently Co-PI for the Getting on Track for Early School Success: Effective Teaching in Preschool Classrooms project at the University of Chicago and former Co-PI for the Center for Early Care and Education Research—Dual Language Learners (CECER-DLL) at Frank Porter Graham CDI at the U of NC. She is Professor Emeritus of Early Childhood Education at the University of Missouri, Columbia and has served as the Co-Director of the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) at Rutgers University and Vice President at Bright Horizons Family Solutions. Her recent research and policy work has focused on effective curriculum and assessment practices for young children from low-income families who are dual language learners. Dr. Espinosa also served on the Head Start National Reporting System (NRS) Technical Advisory Group as well as the Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Head Start Research and Evaluation and was recently appointed to the National Academies Committee on Fostering School Success for English Language Learners. Recently, she has co-authored the California Early Learning Foundations, English Language Learners Chapter, the California Preschool Curriculum Frameworks English Language Development Chapter, and the Desired Results Developmental Profile, 2010, English Language Development Assessment Measures. Dr. Espinosa served as the lead consultant for the LAUSD Transitional Kindergarten program development team and is a member of the Council for Professional Development Governing Board.

Dr. Espinosa has worked extensively with low-income Hispanic/Latino children and families throughout the state of California as a school administrator and program director in San Francisco, San Jose, and Redwood City. The second edition of her latest book, Getting it RIGHT for young children from diverse backgrounds was published Jan., 2015. She developed and directed the Family Focus for School Success program in Redwood City, California, which has received state and national recognition. She has published more than 90 research articles, book chapters and training manuals on how to establish effective educational services for low-income, minority families and children who are acquiring English as a second language. More recently, she has lectured and consulted widely both nationally (California, Oklahoma, Illinois, New Jersey, Colorado, Washington, New York, North Carolina, Nebraska, New Mexico, Washington DC, Harvard University, UCLA, Texas A & M, U. of Chicago, Princeton University) and internationally (China, Canada, Australia, New Zealand).

Dr. Espinosa is the past treasurer of the NAEYC Governing Board and participated on the National Academy of Sciences Research Roundtable on Head Start. She has recently completed a secondary analysis of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K) and ECLS-Birth cohort on the school achievement patterns of language minority children. Dr. Espinosa also was a member of the National Academy of Sciences, National Research Board Committee on Early Childhood Pedagogy project and a contributing author to Eager to Learn: Educating Our Preschoolers, published by the National Academies of Science. She completed her B.A. at the University of Washington, her Ed.M. at Harvard University and her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology at the University of Chicago.