Karen Lee Distefano

My name is Kari Distefano. I have recently been accepted to the Environmental Planning Program at UNM Albuquerque and will start classes there next semester - spring 2016. I am one class short of an associate degree from UNM Taos. I am completing that course on-line next semester. I am involved in the Phi Theta Kappa organization at UNM Taos and am currently organizing a student book exchange at that campus. Last semester I received a Coca-Cola Leaders of Promise Scholarship. I have been a competitive runner, cyclist and skier for most of my life I was a member of the USA Mountain Running Team in 2001, 2002 and 2003. I was the USA Track and Field Mountain Runner of the year in 2001.
Prior to moving to New Mexico, I lived most of my life in Telluride Colorado where I was employed by San Miguel County as the Assistant Open Space and Recreation Program Coordinator, a job that involves planning, developing, and managing capital projects - mostly recreational facilities and trails - as well writing grant applications and various types of research. I am still working as a contractor in Telluride on a trail project for which I got a grant from Great Outdoors Colorado. During that time I worked closely with the Planning Department and developed a keen interest in their work.
I left Colorado because my husband was offered a job as the Golf Course Superintendent for the Angel Fire Resort. This gave me an opportunity to attend college to study something that I would like to use to further my career: community planning with an eye toward environmental preservation. When I first graduated from high school I worked for a number of developers, surveyors and engineers in the Telluride region as a design technician and draftsman laying out housing developments and designing infrastructure systems. Having worked for developers for many years I have become interested in what contributes to a livable community and the restrictions that geography and nature place on the development of such communities as well as what geography and nature do to enhance these communities. Environmental Planning is not only a natural choice but one of personal interest.