Debbie King Ford | Chairman
Debbie has a passion and talent for marketing and fundraising. She has been extremely effective as the Director of Development for the Vilar Center for the Arts in Beaver Creek, Colorado; Chairman of the Vail Valley Medical Center's family Dinner Dance fundraiser; and as Director of Development for the Shaw Outreach Team in Edwards, Colorado. As her paid profession, she is a sales representative in the Rockies for Gordini Active Sports. Debbie lives in Vail, CO.

Darvin Ayre | Vice-Chairman
Darvin is president of Ayre & Associates focusing his work in the areas of strategic planning, change management, leadership development and effective teaming. He has consulted and taught in a variety of private, public and non-profit environments throughout the U.S., central Europe, Asia, and Africa.

John W. Byrd, PhD | Treasurer
John's Ph.D. in Finance and M.P.P.M. in Public Policy Analysis provide valuable skills to help evaluate dZi programs. He has received several teaching awards, including the Shell Teaching Excellend Award in 1989, and the MBA Outstanding Teacher Award in 1988, 1990, and 1992. John has taught in Nepal, India, Egypt, China, and France.

Sherry Dorward | Secretary
Sherry is a landscape architect specializing in high-altitude environments. Her avid interest in the Himalayas began when, after earning her master's degree from the University of California, Berkeley, she won a US government fellowship to work for a year in Kashmir on solutions to environmental and land-use issues. Based in Vail, Colorado for the past twenty years, she has worked on master plans and landscape designs for a variety of public- and private-sector clients throughout the western US and abroad, including ski resorts, mountain towns, schools, library and recreation districts, residential developers, and mountain homeowners. She has won numerous awards for her design and planning work and is the author of a textbook on designing in the mountains. She is a frequent guest lecturer on issues related to tourism, development and sustainability in mountain regions.

Kimberly Johnson, MD
Kimberly is an emergency physician at San Juan Regional Medical Center's Urgent Care. Her educational experience includes a fellowship in ethnomedicine at Columbia University focusing on the importation of traditional medicine practices by immigrants in NYC - specifically in Dominican and Tibetan communities. She has traveled to the Himalaya nine times; including serving as expedition physician for a Mount Everest climb in 1990, and as medical director of a remote clinic in Bandipur, Nepal. She was recently a board member for the Wilderness Medical Society. She is currently gaining experience on evaluating programs of non-profit organizations that work internationally, and is co-chairman of the Performance Evaluation Committee of the dZi Foundation. Kimberly lives in Durango, CO.

Robert Roark
Bob is a primary care family medicine physician assistant who has committed his career to working with disadvantaged populations around the world. During his 27- year career he has used his training in public health and epidemiology to improve the lives of people in Africa, Latin America and Asia. He has collaborated with colleagues in the World Health Organization to initiate practical approaches to the management of childhood illnesses. He has also spent over a decade living and working in Africa, establishing new community-based health projects.

ADVISORY BOARD

Sarah Banister | Advisory Board
Bio to come.

Gini Bradley | Advisory Board
Gini started her leadership and group facilitation training in 1979 guiding youth at risk, alcoholics, and disabled adults on outdoor adventures in Colorado. She received her Masters in Social Work in 1987 and became the Director of Summit County Youth and Family Services. During her 12 years with the Summit County Government, Gini tripled the size of Youth and Family Services. Since 2001, Gini has maintained a successful consulting business working primarily with health and human service agencies.

Buck Elliot | Advisory Board
Buck brings a strong organizational background having just completed his term as board chairmen of Gore Range Natural Science School in the Vail Valley. He was a founding director of the Vail Leadership Institute, a leadership development organization focused on inside-first principles. Buck also is a founding director of the 10th Mountain Division Hut System and is a longtime resident of Vail, CO.

Caroline Fisher, PhD | Advisory Board
Caroline serves as president of Fisher Consulting Group, a firm specializing in organizational effectiveness, group alignment, organizational direction setting, and corporate culture development. Client organizations include public, private, and not-for-profit sectors. Caroline holds a master's degree in Organizational Development and Management and a doctorate in Organizational Psychology.

Peter Hackett, MD | Advisory Board
Peter is a world-recognized authority on high-altitude medicine, and a lover of the Himalaya and its people. He has climbed Everest, lived in Nepal for 6 years, and was instrumental in starting the Himalayan Rescue Association. He now works as the ER director at the Telluride Medical Center and also staffs the Altitude Research Center at the University of Colorado School of Health Sciences in Denver.

Ace Kvale | Advisory Board
As a professional photographer, Ace has an insatiable appetite for world travel. His favorite destinations - when he's not roaming around the southwest canyon country - are the mountain regions of Asia and the Himalayas. Ace generously donates photos for dZi Foundation ads, the website, brochures, and fundraising events.

Bill Keller | Advisory Board
Bill has spent the last 33 years professionally involved in the global financial markets, managing assets for small corporations and high net-worth individuals. Bill is a full-time resident of Sausalito, California. He was chairmen of the Sausalito City Council, and is currently chairmen of the Planning Commission. I

Tony Lewis | Advisory Board
Tony is the Executive Director of the Donnell-Kay Foundation, a Denver-based foundation focused on reforming state and district policies on education. He also serves on the boards/advisory boards of Envision Schools Colorado, Facing History and Ourselves; School of Public Affairs at UCD; Get Smart Schools, Common Good Colorado and Revolution Foods Colorado. In addition to leading climbs and treks throughout the world, Tony restores old trucks, and is an active beekeeper, metal worker and gardner.

Bill Liske | Advisory Board
Bill works for Above the Clouds as a premiere trekking mountain guide. He has over 30 years experience and has led multiple trips in the Himalayan areas of Nepal, Ladakh, and Sikkim, India, and Bhutan.

Laura Love | Advisory Board
Bio to come.

Ernie Patterson | Advisory Board
Bio to come.

Caleb Sevian | Advisory Board
Caleb lives in Boulder, Colorado and brings a strong financial background to dZi. He is a portfolio manager for the University of Colorado Foundation where his responsibilities include manager selection, due diligence, asset allocation, and the development and maintenance of their risk- management program.

US Senator Mark Udall | Advisory Board
Senator Udall’s connection to dZi is his passion for the Himalaya and his personal relationships with many current dZi board members from when he was executive director of Colorado Outward Bound (1985 to 1995). An avid outdoorsmen, he has climbed all 14ers (54) in Colorado and attempted some of the most challenging peaks in the world—including Mt. Everest.