Welcome Simon Kearns: HMI’s New Advancement Associate

Hi Simon, welcome back to HMI! Can you tell us a bit about your new role and your connection to HMI?

Thank you so much! I couldn’t be more excited to be back at HMI and in Leadville and I’m really looking forward to seeing the school from a staff perspective. My role is Advancement Associate, which means I will be focused on alumni relations, fundraising, and external communications.  I’ll be one of the main people at HMI interfacing with our wonderful group of alumni. I was a student in HMI Semester 38 in spring 2017.

What have you been up to since you were last with HMI?

Most of my time since being a student here was spent studying at CU Boulder where I graduated last spring with a bachelor’s degree in political science and a minor in leadership. Along with my time in Boulder, I also spent some time living in Montana and New Mexico, and since graduating from college I have had an incredible year of travel including a few months living in France and following my mountain running dreams!

So you’re a semi-professional runner? Tell us more.

Haha yes! Running is a huge part of my life. I was an avid runner all through high school and got into the trail and mountain running world very young. I took a few years mostly off of running during college while dealing with some injuries but I came back to the sport over the last year and a half and had a lot of success, including the running FKT (fastest known time) on Mount Hood, some solid domestic race results and capped off 2023 by spending three months living in the European Alps competing in the Skyrunner World Series (check out this video for a sense of what the series is all about) and running up and down as many peaks there as I could. Possibly my most proud running achievement is my HMI Fun Run course record (1:04:14) which I believe I still hold.