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Board of Directors
Elaine Gantz Berman recently concluded her eighth and final term-limited year as a member of the Denver Public Schools (DPS) Board of Education, including four years as chair. During her tenure, DPS passed successful mill levy and bond elections to build fourteen new schools; twice was recognized as the most improved school district in Colorado; strengthened relationships within the community; and launched a groundbreaking pilot project to link teacher compensation to student performance. She was the Co-Chair of the DPS Commission on School Nutrition and served as Vice-Chair of the DPS Foundation. Prior to her election to the school board, she worked as a program officer at the Piton Foundation, where she helped found the Colorado Children’s Campaign, the Adoption Exchange, and Citizens for Quality Schools.
She holds a M.S. degree in Public Health from the University of North Carolina and participated in the founding class of the Women Executive Leadership Program at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.
Elaine has been a champion for Colorado’s children for more than twenty years. Her contributions have enhanced education and advocacy efforts. She has received numerous awards recognizing her exceptional community service, including the 2004 Bonfils-Stanton Foundation Award and the Outstanding Advocate for Children award by Summer Scholars.
Edward A. Dauer is Dean Emeritus and Professor of Law at the University of Denver in Denver, Colorado, and is an active mediator and arbitrator with over 25 years experience in the field of conflict resolution. Prior to joining the law faculty at Denver he held a number of other academic appointments, including from 1974 to 1985, that of Associate Professor of Law and later Deputy Dean of the Yale Law School, which he left in 1985 to assume the Deanship at Denver. From 1990 through 1997 he was a member of the national law firm of Popham Haik Schnobrich & Kaufman, concentrating in the practice of conflict prevention and dispute resolution and chairing the firm’s ADR and Preventive Law departments.
Dean Dauer was the co-founder and first President of the National Center for Preventive Law, is an Elected Member of the American Law Institute, and has served since 1996 as a Visiting Scholar at the Program on Health Care Negotiation and Conflict Resolution at the Harvard School of Public Health. In addition to his LL.B. he has undertaken postgraduate training in economics and in the social sciences, and holds the degree of MPH (concentration in Health Policy and management) from Harvard.
From 1990 to 1993 Dauer chaired the Center for Public Resources working group in health care dispute resolution. His writings include two books in the special field of health care ADR and a two-volume treatise in Dispute Resolution. His honors include the W. Quinn Jordan Award from the National Blood Foundation, and the Sanbar Lectureship from the American College of Legal Medicine.
George Dikeou attended law school at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and received his JD from Stanford University School of Law. He was in-house counsel to the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center from 1972 until 1981. After two years as partner in a Chicago law which served as general counsel for the American Hospital Association, he commenced private practice devoted exclusively to health care and hospital law.
Mr. Dikeou taught health and ethics at the University of Colorado for 23 years. In 1984 he joined COPIC, Colorado's largest medical malpractice writer, as outside general counsel. He became in-house counsel at COPIC in 1992, became Executive Vice President in 1995, and served on the COPIC Board of Directors from 1985 until his retirement in 2003. Mr. Dikeou continues to serve as COPIC's legislative consultant -- a role he has played since 1986.
Mr. Dikeou currently serves on the Boards of the Colorado Physicians Health Program, the Colorado Civil Justice League, and the Eben Ezer Lutheran Care Center and chairs the State of Colorado Uniform Credential Application Committee.
Dan Grossman is the Regional Director for Environmental Defense’s Rocky Mountain Regional Office in Boulder, Colorado. Dan leads the organization’s efforts to protect land, water and wildlife in the interior West, specifically focusing agricultural policy, water rights, endangered species and habitat conservation.
Dan joined the organization in May of 2006, after serving ten years in the Colorado General Assembly. He served six years in the Colorado House of Representatives, including two years as House Minority Leader, the youngest person in Colorado history to serve in that capacity.
Dan also served four years in the Colorado Senate, where he was the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee and Vice Chairman of the Senate Agriculture, Natural Resources and Energy Committee.
Dan received his bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of Kansas and his law degree from the University of Denver.
Rebecca Love Kourlis served as a Justice of the Colorado Supreme Court for eleven years, resigning in January 2006 to establish and lead the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System at the University of Denver. The author of more than 200 opinions and dissents during her tenure, Kourlis also spearheaded significant reforms in the court system relating to juries, family law and attorney regulation.
After beginning her career with the law firm of Davis, Graham and Stubbs, Kourlis married Tom Kourlis, rancher, and moved to Northwest Colorado. She started a small practice and developed an expertise in natural resources, water, public lands, oil and gas and mineral law as she represented ranchers throughout the Rocky Mountain west.
In 1987, Kourlis was appointed to the trial court in Moffat, Routt and Grand Counties where she handled a general jurisdiction docket, served as Water Judge for Division 6, and later served as Chief Judge of the District. Tom’s appointment as State Commissioner of Agriculture brought the family to Denver in 1994, and Kourlis worked as an arbitrator and mediator for the Judicial Arbiter Group. She was appointed to the Colorado Supreme Court in 1995.
Kourlis has received a number of honors, including the American Association of University Women Trailblazer Award in 1998, the Colorado Women’s Bar Association Mary Lathrop Award in 2001, and the Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers Judicial Excellence Award in 2002.
Kourlis earned her BA in English from Stanford University and her JD from Stanford University Law School. She is a Colorado native, daughter of former Governor John A. Love.
Richard D. Lamm is currently a University Professor, Co-Director of the Institute for Public Policy Studies and Executive Director of the Center for Public Policy & Contemporary Issues. Gov. Lamm, who served three terms as Colorado Governor from 1975-1987, has always been in the forefront of political change.
In 1992, he was honored by the Denver Post and Historic Denver, Inc. as one of the 100 most important people in Colorado history. Gov. Lamm teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses at the University of Denver, including “Hard Choices in Public Policy” and “Medical Policy.”
A graduate of the University of Wisconsin, Gov. Lamm earned his J.D. from Boalt Hall at the University of California, Berkeley.
Dr. Jerry Wartgow recently retired as Superintendent of Denver Public Schools, a position he held from May 2001 to July 2005. During his tenure as Superintendent, Jerry oversaw the implementation of many new and innovative initiatives for improving student achievement. This resulted in Governor Owens recognizing DPS as the most improved school district in Colorado for two consecutive years, 2003 and 2004.
Immediately prior to joining DPS, Wartgow served as president and CEO of the International Training and Education Alliance, a consulting firm that specialized in the delivery of web-based educational programs to a variety of business, governmental and educational clients.
During the period 1986 - 1998, Wartgow was the founding president and chief executive officer of the Colorado Community College and Occupational Education System. From 1978 to 1986 he was executive director of the Auraria Higher Education Center, and from 1973 to 1978 he served as the deputy executive director for the Colorado Commission on Higher Education. A former university professor, Dr. Wartgow also served three years as dean of students of the International School of Bangkok in Thailand.
Dr. Wartgow holds a PhD from the University of Denver, a master of education degree from the University of Hawaii, and a bachelor of science degree from the University of Wisconsin – Superior.
Dr. John Witwer received a BA from Amherst College in 1962, an MD from Cornell University in 1966, and practiced medicine for 30 years.
Dr. Witwer served in the US Army in Vietnam. He has been on the Medical Staff at Lutheran Medical Center/Exempla Lutheran for 33 years, serving as President of the Medical Staff, Chairman of the Department of Radiology and on the LMC Board of Directors.
John served in the Colorado House of Representatives from 1999 to 2005, a member of the Joint Budget Committee, House Appropriations (Vice-Chair), Finance, HEWI, and Transportation Committees. Governor Owens appointed him Director of the Office of CBMS in 2005.
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