The Alumni Council is made up of alumni volunteers who represent a range of HMI programs, professions, geographic regions, and interests. The Council meets virtually three times a year and convenes in Leadville for a long weekend every spring. Alumni Council members help HMI through strategic planning, fundraising, and working to engage the HMI alumni network.
If you are interested in joining the Council, please email alumni@hminet.org for information about submitting an application.
The Alumni Council Subcommittees
The Alumni Council has four Sub-Committees, each with a different Chair. Learn more about the different committees below:
The DEI Subcommittee of the HMI Alumni Council is responsible for providing the explicit lens of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) to the Alumni Council’s actions and priorities, with a specific emphasis on racial equity and inclusion. Secondarily, the DEI Subcommittee serves a supportive role for HMI staff, especially those primarily focused on DEI initiatives at HMI. Through this work, the Subcommittee aims to support HMI students and alumni of color and hold accountable high-level decision-makers at HMI pertaining to DEI initiatives. Find out more about the DEI Subcommittee here.
- The Fundraising Subcommittee aims to support HMI’s equity and inclusion goals through ensuring outdoor, experiential education is financially accessible to students across all programs, including: the Semester School, Summer Term, and the Gap Semester. A signature focus of our work is the annual Summit Challenge—HMI’s alumni fundraiser devoted exclusively to raising funds for financial aid. In this effort, our work involves: developing content and materials for alumni volunteers; raising donations; assisting in alumni donor relations; and overseeing and supporting the Alumni Council in outreach efforts around alumni giving.
The Outreach Subcommittee works to connect the HMI Alumni Community and encourage them to stay involved with HMI. They work on planning major events and reunions and supporting HMI’s Alumni Coordinator.
The Governance Committee works to outline the Council’s expectations for membership, tenure, participation and uphold those requirements.
Meet the Council
Semester 31 Student
Andy grew up in Massachusetts, and now lives in New York City. Andrew studied Business at the University of Richmond, and is currently working in finance.
Semester 7 Student
Carissa hails from Edgartown, MA and is an RMS VII alum. After HMI, Carissa earned a Bachelor’s in Environmental Science from Colorado College and a Master’s in Foreign Service from Georgetown. She has lived in Colorado, Washington, DC, and Baltimore, MD, and she has worked in conservation, international development, data analytics, and public sector administration. In her spare time, Carissa enjoys gardening, vegetarian cooking, thrifting, and camping with her cats.
Semester 21 Student
Daniel lives in Chicago where he works as a Data Scientist in the Natural Foods industry. He was a student at HMI for Semester 21 and is an alum of both Northwestern University (BS) and the University of Chicago (MS). Daniel’s favorite places to be outdoors are canoeing in the Boundary Waters, exploring bluffs in the Driftless Area, and hiking in the Rockies near HMI (of course).
Semester 33 Student
Frances lives in Portland, OR, where she teaches upper elementary at a public Montessori school. Prior to moving to Portland, Frances spent two years in Green River, UT, a rural town of 800 people, running an after-school program at the community center and working at Epicenter, a nonprofit community design studio. She was a student of HMI in Semester 33 and is an alum of Bennington College.
Semester 34 Student
Hannah grew up partially in Denver, CO and partially in Boston, MA. She’s had a lifelong passion for skiing, backpacking, and backcountry cooking. While a student at Williams College (class of 2020), she majored in Environmental Studies and co-founded Ruggette, a sustainable women’s outdoor apparel startup. Afterwards, she pivoted to the retailer side of the outdoor industry working in business operations and strategy at Curated, and then to TikTok to help them scale their e-commerce operations. She now lives in Seattle testing out dozens of NYT Cooking recipes and exploring the beautiful PNW.
Semester 33 Student
Jordan grew up in Leadville and went to the University of Denver. Jordan now lives in Denver, Colorado
Semester 19 Student
Keith attended HMI as a Semester 19 student and now lives and works in Denver, Colorado for CFRA Research as a telecommunications analyst.
Semester 21 Student
Kelly is a Semester 21 alum who lives in Steamboat Springs, Colorado with her husband and two active sons. Her time at HMI ignited a passion for nature, education, leadership and community service. She currently serves as a Strategy Manager at KinderCare Learning Companies and holds degrees in Political Science and History from Colorado College, as well as a Master’s from the University of Colorado Denver. Kelly is honored to support HMI’s mission and enjoys connecting with fellow alumni who share her love for the outdoors and meaningful education.
Gap Spring 2021 Student
Krain grew up in Vancouver, BC. After taking a year off from college, during which she participated in HMI’s Gap Semester, she graduated from Stanford University and now works as a product manager in San Francisco. Some of her favourite things are climbing in Yosemite (or Moab if she can get away that long), hiking in the Coast Mountains, and snowboarding in Tahoe.
Summer Term 2019, Gap 2022
Laila grew up in Weston, CT and currently calls Colorado Springs home. Since their time at HMI, Laila has continued to spend time with many other HMI Alumni in the mountains of Colorado hiking, skiing, and connecting with them. Laila is an Art major who will graduate in spring 2024 and is excited to pursue creative ways of building community and investing in meaningful ways of learning and growing.
Semester 14 Student & 2009 Summer Apprentice
Lia joined HMI as an RMS 14 student and returned as a summer apprentice in 2009, staying closely connected to the community through reunions and local events. After graduating from Colby College, she worked as a Management Consultant at IBM in Washington, D.C., before earning a graduate degree in Industrial Organizational Psychology from George Mason University. Now based in Boulder, Colorado, Lia works as a Human Capital Consultant at a small consulting firm, focusing on selection, hiring assessments, and workforce optimization. She is excited to contribute to the Alumni Committee and support HMI’s continued growth and success.
Semester 40 Student
Lia grew up in Evanston, Illinois where she ran cross country and performed in a local circus troupe. Now she lives in Colorado Springs as a student at Colorado College. At CC she works for the Crown Center for Teaching and Development. She is majoring in sociology with a hope of working in Education!
Semester 36 Student
Liza grew up in New York and attended HMI as a student in Semester 36. During her semester, she fell in love with Colorado and with exploring and playing in the outdoors—a love that’s kept her rooted in the state ever since. She studied integrated art and architecture at Colorado College (class of ’22), with a focus on design for social change. Today, she works in creative strategy and brand development at Sterling-Rice Group in Boulder, helping build brands, products, and campaigns that resonate with diverse audiences. Outside of work, she spends as much time as possible outside—skiing, hiking, fishing, mountain biking, and hanging with her dog, Goose
Semester 1 Student
Matt grew up in Maryland just outside of Washington D.C. and jumped at the chance to be a part of RMS #1. Following HMI, Matt graduated from the Landon School and attended the University of Colorado at Boulder where he graduated with a degree in Sociology. After a year skiing and selling guitars at a music store in Telluride Matt moved to New York City where he worked making feature films, television shows, and documentaries for many years. His work has appeared on HBO, Netflix, Amazon Prime, and PBS among others. Matt lives with his wife, Jee Nah and their two daughters, Lucy and Mae in South Glastonbury, CT in a farmhouse built in 1772.
Semester 33 student, Semester 45 apprentice
Madison is originally from Richmond, Virginia. Since attending HMI as a student she has made Colorado her permanent home. She graduated from Colorado College in 2020 and served as the humanities apprentice for semester 45 at HMI the following fall. After her semester wrapped, she lived in Denver for 3 years before moving to Carbondale, Colorado last June. Madison currently works for a marketing agency where she’s able to combine her love for the outdoors and working with people in an interesting new way. She lives in Carbondale with her dog Murphy.
Semester 23 Student
Rachel is originally from Boulder, Colorado and attended HMI in the fall semester of 2009. Following her time at HMI, Rachel majored in public policy and worked in the nonprofit sector. After grad school, she through-hiked the Oregon coast before moving to Los Angeles, where she worked in consulting and in higher education. She currently works as Director of Operations and Data Science at a podcasting technology startup. In her spare time, she teaches introductory data analytics classes, helps out with HMI’s database system, and is learning to play beach volleyball!