Margaret Kirkpatrick has been serving on the Board of Directors since December 2015.

Margaret joined Spring Institute’s Board of Directors in 2015 after retiring from her role as the State Director of Adult Education for the Colorado Department of Education. Prior to that, she served as Program Director of the University of California Berkeley Extension’s adult education and vocational educational credential program and directed the California Staff Development Institute serving adult educators. Ms. Kirkpatrick is the Assistant Director for NEDP, the National External Diploma Program and a CASAS (Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment System) National Trainer for their national assessment system. She also was vice president of the California Council for Adult Education (2006-09) as well as president-elect in 2010, and she served as principal writer of the 2000 adult education state plan for the California Department of Education. Ms. Kirkpatrick received the 2006 Award of Merit from the California Council for Adult Education and the 2010 Life Achievement Award from the California Adult Education Association of Administrators. In addition, she served as principal for Berkeley Adult School from 1996-2010.

Maria L. Soto has been serving on the Board of Directors since June 2018. 

Maria is an English Language Acquisition Instructor for The Learning Source and previously served as a Lead Instructor for Spring Institute for Intercultural Learning’s adult education program. Maria has an excellent eye for identifying program needs and specializes in creating customized, needs-driven curricula. She created an English as a Second Language education program to assist members of her community become legal residents through the amnesty program and she created the first medical Spanish program at The Children’s Hospital in Denver. Maria also continues to be active as a business consultant in the areas of diversity training, language interpretation and translation.

In October 2017, Maria retired from the State of Colorado. Maria worked as program assistant for the University of Colorado School of Medicine and as program manager of the Colorado Medical Board, the Colorado Pharmacy Board and the Colorado Podiatry Board at the Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA). Her responsibilities included managing administrative staff, case management, budget management and fiscal reporting, and contract management. Maria was Co-Chair of DORA’s Spanish Council.

Maria has a BS in Business Administration from the University of Phoenix. She is currently completing her Master’s in Organizational Leadership from the Colorado State University Global Campus and she has her Adult Basic Education (ABE) Authorization from the State of Colorado.

Maria enjoys theater, traveling, reading, dancing, hiking and spending time with her family and friends.

Victor Chen has been serving on the Board of Directors since March 2020.

Victor is a Finance and Research Analyst in the Local Government Services section at the Colorado Department of Local Affairs. His technical assistance and research work focus on local government issues such as finance, utilities, and taxes. In previous positions, he worked on grant administration and small business financing. In the nonprofit world, Victor was a fellow at the Orbis Institute in Denver where he helped plan community events related to critical dialogue on international issues.

Victor grew up in Colorado as a child of immigrants and graduated from Duke University in 2015 with a Bachelor’s of Science in Economics and French Studies. He speaks French and Mandarin Chinese. In his free time, he enjoys playing piano and reading world literature.

Paula Schriefer has been serving on the Board of Directors since October 2014.

Paula Schriefer joined Spring Institute for Intercultural Learning as President & CEO on October 20, 2014. She is responsible for Spring Institute’s overall financial health, strategic direction, and programmatic success to achieve the organization’s mission of empowering individuals and organizations to succeed across languages and cultures.

She came to the Spring Institute from the State Department’s Bureau of International Organization Affairs, where she was a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs. Prior to assuming this position, Ms. Schriefer was vice president for global programs at Freedom House, where she oversaw Freedom House’s global activities on freedom of expression, internet freedom, religious freedom, and advocacy efforts at the United Nations. From 2006-2011, Ms. Schriefer was Director of Advocacy for Freedom House, overseeing all of its outreach and communications activities, including foreign policy advocacy, press relations, and coordination with international organizations.

She graduated Summa Cum Laude with a B.A. degree in Russian Area Studies from the University of Denver and completed coursework for an M.A. in Russian and Eastern European Studies at George Washington University. Ms. Schriefer has also served as a member of Denver’s Workforce Development Board since 2015.

Jill Pettegrew has been serving on the Board of Directors since May 2019. 

Jill is the lead recruiter for HealthONE and has been in healthcare recruiting for over fifteen years–her entire career. She previously worked as a talent acquisition manager for the Eating Recovery Center and Centura Health. Jill leads talent acquisition strategies with internal clients and community partners to develop talent pipelines for filling critical positions in the healthcare sector. Jill has enjoyed a long partnership with Spring Institute’s Colorado Welcome Program, which helps internationally trained healthcare professions get relicensed in Colorado to resume their careers. Jill has also served as the Chapter President for the Denver Area Healthcare Recruiter’s Association (DAHCRA) 2017-2019 and has been an active member/current co-chair of the Greater Metro Denver Healthcare Partnership (GMDHP) since 2009. During the 16 years Jill has lived in Colorado, she has built a network of subject She obtained her bachelor’s degree in Mass Communication at California State University, Fullerton. She and her Daughter, Sarah, have lived in Colorado for 16 years.

Julie Selsberg has been serving on the Board of Directors since December 2019.

Julie is an attorney working at Colorado Medical-Legal Partnership at Children’s Hospital Colorado, helping patients and families with their health-harming civil legal needs.

Julie had been a career prosecutor, first as an Assistant District Attorney in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and most recently as a First Assistant Attorney General in the Colorado Attorney General’s Office.  At the AG’s Office, Julie ran a DNA exoneration program and led the exoneration of a Grand Junction man who had been wrongfully incarcerated for 17 years. Julie also established and chaired the Colorado Best Practices Committee for Prosecutors. For her work in these two areas, Julie was named an Attorney of the Year by Law Week Colorado, received the Attorney General’s Award for Exceptional Performance, and the Colorado U.S. Attorney’s Award for Excellence.

Julie also provided pro-bono immigration services for the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network.  She has taught numerous criminal justice and prosecution classes to law enforcement and undergraduate and law students, and has published articles in the National Law Journal and other criminal justice magazines.

Fulfilling the wish of her father who died in 2014 from ALS, Julie was an advocate for medical aid-in-dying legislation and a co-petitioner and spokesperson for the Colorado End-of-Life Options Act ballot initiative, which was overwhelmingly passed by Colorado voters in November of 2016.

Julie currently sits on the Committee on Aging at the Rose Community Foundation and volunteers at East High School and Manual High School. She is a graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and Washington University School of Law. Julie is married to a fellow NU alum and has two teenage children.

Katy Arreola has been serving on the Board of Directors since March 2020.

Katy Arreola, MNM, graduated from Regis University’s Master of Nonprofit Management program with honors of distinction and exemplary leadership from the Nonprofit Academic Centers Council (NACC). She also has several years of experience within the nonprofit industry and higher education systems.

Katy is currently an Operations Manager at Koloma Inc., a geologic hydrogen startup company based in Denver, where she oversees a wide range of business operations, vendor management, partnership administration, and leadership support matters. Before joining Koloma, she worked as an Executive Assistant at Savio House, leading volunteer and special events, implementing a successful contract management system, and coordinating maintenance, facility, and fleet operations, among other vital duties. Additionally, Katy has served the State of Colorado for ten years as a Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention Council youth member. She is a valued community member, advocates for those in need, and will continue serving Spring Institute for Intercultural Learning as a Board member in her second term.

Cary Baird has been serving on the Board of Directors since December 2007.

Cary Baird  is a senior communication professional whose areas of expertise include strategic communications, corporate social responsibility, stakeholder relations, media relations, employee and crisis communications, marketing and public affairs. She has worked for or with some of Colorado’s largest and most successful companies and organizations including Chevron, Coors Brewing Company and CH2M HILL, as well as public education. As a Community Engagement Representative at Chevron Corporation – Piceance Basin, Ms. Baird directs the company’s stakeholder engagement program across the Western Slope of Colorado where Chevron holds significant reserves in natural gas. She designs and manages a program to keep key audiences informed about company operations and to support community social and economic wellbeing. While at Barnhart Communications, she managed a team that served clients such as Craig Hospital, Colorado Preservation, The Nature Conservancy, and Wyoming Community Colleges. At CH2M HILL, Ms. Baird directed the restructuring of the marketing department to be a full-service, team-based organization that served the entire enterprise. In 2003, she gladly accepted a short-term assignment to create a specialized communication program for USAID in the Palestinian West Bank territories. While at Coors Brewing Company, Ms. Baird worked in the full complement of public affairs functions, including corporate communications, environmental outreach and government relations. She also co-led the company’s public relations campaign for successful expansion into New York and New Jersey. As a private consultant, she co-managed the communication campaign to launch Denver Public Schools’ new teacher compensation system, ProComp.

With long-time passions of sustainability, public education and international relations, Ms. Baird is a past president of the Colorado Alliance for Environmental Education and a board member of the Sustainable Futures Society. She is a graduate and past board member of Leadership America, a national development program for women executives.

Natalia Devlin has been serving on the Board of Directors since December 2021.

Natalia Devlin immigrated to the United States from Russia in 2004 and has worked in the corporate, nonprofit and public sectors in Colorado, including adult education, hospitality, staffing, and more. Natalia first came in contact with Spring Institute in 2008 when working in Human Resources at a large hotel in downtown Denver where Spring Institute facilitated workplace English as Second Language (ESL) classes. In more recent years, Natalia worked as an ESL Instructor in Spring Institute’s Adult Education and Career Pathways Program and, later, in a new capacity as Adult Education Instructional Coordinator at Adams 14 Schools, she collaborated with Spring Institute in leadership on adult education advocacy efforts. 

Currently, Natalia works as a Russian Language Librarian for the Arapahoe Libraries District where she supports local immigrant communities of many linguistic backgrounds through language services programs and outreach. Natalia holds a Bachelors in Linguistics and Masters in Education from Novosibirsk State University in Russia and is on track to complete her Masters in Library and Information Science in the fall of 2022.

Sara joined the Spring Institute Board in June 2022. 

When Sara graduated from Tulane University in 2000, she was drawn to a career in education. She received her Master’s Degree in Education Psychology at University of Colorado and received her teaching certificate through the Stanley British Primary School Teacher Training Program. Sara was fortunate to be hired as a faculty member at Stanley BPS upon graduation. She was drawn to Stanley due to the public purpose emphasis in the mission as well as the values around diversity, equity and inclusion. 

While teaching, Sara followed the interest of her students and collaborated to start a 501-c3 addressing water related issues in Simwatachela, Zambia. While partnering with the nonprofit Simwatachela Sustainable Agricultural and Arts Program, together they were able to provide water filters and bore holes by fundraising and creating awareness. 

After spending over a decade in the classroom, Sara had the opportunity to become the Director of Admission and Summer Programs at Stanley BPS. With the values of the school in mind, Sara helped to increase the overall diversity of the school through admissions as well as create a summer camp program for refugee students, newcomers and families who could not financially afford Summer at Stanley. Over the past 8 years, Sara has grown the summer program called Stanley Scholars to serve over 60 students in the summer. She works with a number of nonprofits to enroll campers and some have joined the school during the school year.

Sara was introduced to Spring Institute five years ago and has collaborated with Ready Tots and the youth programming over this time. Most recently, Sara has served on the planning committee for the Spring Intercultural Champion Awards. Sara is excited to bring her educational connections to Spring Institute and provide educational and fundraising perspectives as a board member.

Mathieu Seton joined Spring Institute’s Board of Directors in February 2023. 

Mathieu moved to the United States from the West African nation of Benin in 2011. He has been a French language teacher for eighteen years and has worked for the last five years with the Denver Public School system. He also works as an interpreter and translator, including with The Interpreter Network by Spring Institute. 

Mathieu has served as a member of Spring Institute’s Policy Advisory Committee since it was created in November 2021 and is an alumnus of a program called Parents to Advocates, which provided training and coaching to immigrant community members interested in being more engaged in the policy decisions that impact them at all levels–from their local school district up to the state legislature. As a high school teacher, Mathieu has been especially struck by the fact that 131,000 Colorado children have a head of household who hasn’t completed high school and he has been engaged with Spring Institute’s efforts to increase state funding for adult education programs in Colorado. 

Mathieu is the father of three children and lives in Denver. When he is not teaching, he likes to share the importance of having life insurance with living benefits with his friends and community members, watch movies, and play soccer, foosball, and billiards with his family and friends.