Silver SPRUCE Executive Board
The Executive Board Members are responsible for implementing the organization's misson,
making strategic decisions for the non-profit, and governing the organization.
Board Chair
Jonathan Drake
Jonathan was raised in Oberlin Ohio and currently lives in Durango with his wife and four children. Three of his kids currently attend Silver SPRUCE Academy. Jonathan is a business owner and works as an online consultant.
Secretary
Monica Wagner
Monica Wagner, who is originally from the west coast, moved to the Durango area right out of high school to attend Fort Lewis College over 20 years ago. Don’t hold that against her! She has adapted and rejoiced in the Colorado way of life and has never looked back.
She lives on her family's homestead next door to her in-laws with her husband and two children. On the homestead you can find chickens and turkeys, multiple gardens, fruit trees and hay/alfalfa production. The most important things to her are family and farming. She enjoys gardening, canning, hunting and teaching her children how to be more self sufficient.
Monica holds down two jobs, aside from being a parent, wife, farmer and board member. She has worked for a local company in Durango for 21 years and is now general manager. She is also a birth doula and has enjoyed helping birthing people during pregnancy, labor and childbirth for over 5 years.
In her very limited free time Monica enjoys spending time outdoors with her camera taking landscape and nature photography, and target practice.
Board Treasurer
Rylee Meshew
Member At-Large
Open Position
Rylee was born and raised in the Bayfield Colorado area and has loved every second of it. She still happily lives in Bayfield and has no plans of leaving anytime soon! She is a former student of Silver SPRUCE Academy and is excited to still be a part of such an amazing school! Rylee works with her mom bookkeeping while also doing freelance art and website designing.
Member At-Large
Open Position
Advisor
Luri Owen
Luri Owen is the Learning Center Coordinator at Southwest Colorado Community College (PCC) in Durango, CO, and a Library Assistant at Ignacio Community Library in Ignacio, CO. She previously taught at the Pine River Community Learning Center in Ignacio and Bayfield, and she has also taught for schools in Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee and Texas. She is a firm advocate for lifelong learning. She has served on several non-profit boards and was a founding partner for a non-profit language school in Montgomery, Alabama. She lives in Bayfield, CO.
Advisor
Susan Visser
Susan has 30 years of business management experience, 10 of those in non-profits. She and her family resided in Colorado while her daughter was young, but have moved to Idaho where her daughter graduated from Boise State University. Following her father’s example, Susan believes that learning should never stop; serving on the Silver SPRUCE Academy Board of Directors gives her the opportunity to provide continuing contributions to the field of education.