Kassi Smith - Colorado BHA CO-Chair 
Kassi Smith serves as Chair of the Colorado Chapter of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers. Born on the west coast of Washington, Kassi spent her summers on her grandparents’ farm in eastern Washington, where she learned to fish and shoot. She is a “late onset” public land user who took up backpacking as an undergraduate, and only began hunting after moving to Idaho for graduate school. She holds a doctorate in Materials Science and Engineering from Boise State University and is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Adams State University in Alamosa.
Kassi joined BHA in 2015 and began volunteering with the organization in Idaho before moving to Colorado. Since then, she has served in several chapter leadership roles, including as Denver Metro Assistant Regional Director, as a member of the Executive Leadership Team and Board, and as the San Luis Valley Public Lands & Community Liaison. She is also certified by Colorado Parks and Wildlife to lead outreach hunts.
Her philosophy is that at the heart of conservation is the belief that protecting public lands, waters, and wildlife means building generations of people who care about them. Connection comes before conservation. People protect the places they know, love, and feel they belong to. Conservation organizations have a responsibility to create opportunities for those relationships to grow.
Whether someone enters through hunting, fishing, camping, hiking, family traditions, or a first experience outdoors, the goal is to help move people from simply enjoying public lands to understanding that they have a role in caring for them. Our work is not simply to conserve what we inherited, but to build the generations of people who will carry that work forward.
Don Holmstrom - Colorado BHA Co-Chair
Don was born and raised in Southern California near Pasadena. He was fishing at the age of 5 in the salt water of California and in the trout streams of New Mexico. His grandfather, who lived in New Mexico, started taking him hunting for doves and waterfowl at the age of 10. His big game hunting started when he moved to Colorado in the mid-70s. “I transitioned to bow in the early 1980s,” Don said. “Today I primarily hunt and fish in Colorado and the greater Rockies.”
He hunts both small and big game, including elk, deer, antelope, buffalo, grouse, turkeys, waterfowl and pheasants; and fishes primarily for trout, but also bass, salmon and catfish. Don was an early BHA member, joining in 2005, the same year the Colorado chapter (the first official BHA state chapter) formed. He was also one of the chapter’s first Habitat Watch Volunteers (HWVs), joining their ranks in September 2009, the same month the program started. In addition, Don has been the chapter HWV Program Coordinator since early 2017.
Don went to college at Stanford University and Law School at the University of Colorado. He worked for a French oil company for 19 years and the U.S. Chemical Safety Board for 16 years as Director of the Western Regional Office. He has a legal background in occupational safety and health, environmental law, toxic tort and administrative law. Don lives in Boulder, Colorado.
Derek Pankratz - Secretary 
Derek was born and raised in northeastern Wisconsin along the shores of Lake Michigan. He started gun deer hunting at age 12 and began archery hunting not long after. “I was fortunate to have many uncles and cousins who hunted when I was growing up and they taught me foundational skills,” he said. “That said, a lot has been self-taught—with lots of mistakes along the way! My brother is my primary hunting partner and has been a great mentor, even though he’s three years younger (don’t tell him I said that).”
Over the years Derek has steadily expanded his hunting portfolio to include turkeys, rabbits, squirrels and a “bit of dabbling in waterfowl.” He hunts with a compound bow, rifle and shotgun. “I’m a very casual angler but do like the simplicity of Tenkara-style fly-fishing,” he added. Derek studied economics and political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “I worked for the government in DC before deciding it wasn’t for me,” he said. “Now I’m a researcher and writer for a global consulting firm, currently focused on climate change and corporate sustainability.”
Since moving to Colorado, Derek has been working on building his mountain hunting skills, mostly chasing elk with a bow, but also mule deer and dusky grouse when he stumbles into them. “I really love archery elk hunting. September in the mountains with bugling bulls is something special,” he added. “Mule deer, too, when I can get a tag, along with turkeys and grouse. Looking forward to pulling an antelope tag … A bit of trout fishing in the summer as well.”
His youngest daughter is very interesting in fishing—including ice fishing—so spending more time on the water with her is a priority. This past fall Derek also made a trip back to Wisconsin to hunt public land whitetails and small game. “The deer hunting was unsuccessful, but it was great to be back sitting twenty feet up in a red oak,” he said. “I did bring home some gray squirrels, though! I miss chasing those ‘tree ninjas.’”
Derek lives in Gunnison. “We moved from Wisconsin in large part because of the incredible access to public lands, and we’re fortunate to have so many opportunities here to hunt, fish, camp, hike, mountain bike and ski,” he explained. Derek first heard about BHA from his brother and joined in 2017.
Benjamin Fickett - Treasurer
Ben grew up in New Hampshire with parents who loved to canoe and camp. “I spent my childhood exploring the White Mountains and paddling on lakes in Maine,” Ben said. “My mom and my grandfather both loved to fish. My uncle Andy was a big-time fisherman, hunter, and trapper. He taught me a lot of what I know. My dad and I hunted grouse and deer together.”
These days Ben flyfishes for trout, hunts waterfowl, and bow hunts for big game in Colorado, Wyoming, and Nebraska. “Last year I killed my first deer with my bow and I’m definitely hooked.” Ben has been on senior leadership teams at various non-profits since 2012, most recently serving as executive director of Fishing the Good Fight, a small non-profit working on men’s mental health through fly fishing. He’s also training his first gundog, Bowie. “Last season was his first and we learned a lot together,” Ben said.
“I love hunting with new hunters and have been mentoring some new adult hunters for the last several seasons,” Ben added. “I spent the last 18 years working for Outward Bound. Before that I was a raft guide. I’ve been lucky enough to spend my career and my entire adult life working on public lands. Our public lands, waters, and wildlife are sacred to me. Now, more than ever, they need to be protected.” Ben first learned about BHA from a sticker on a friend’s water bottle while duck hunting. He joined in 2018. Ben and Bowie live in Denver.
Deanna Greco - Policy Chair
Deanna Greco was a public‑lands manager whose three‑decade National Park Service career took her across seven states and into a range of leadership roles. She spent much of that time navigating complex natural‑resource issues affecting national parks and the surrounding public lands. Now retired, she makes her home in Gunnison, Colorado.
Her connection to conservation began in childhood, spending long days outside and tagging along on duck hunts with her father and deer hunts with her cousins. Her personal life still reflects those roots as an avid hunter and fly‑fisher. She has been a member of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers for nearly five years and a volunteer throughout that time.
In retirement, she plans to spend more time hunting and fishing, and to devote time to defending wild public lands, waters, and wildlife because she knows what’s at stake: irreplaceable landscapes and the species, people, and ways of life that depend on them.
Emily Mertz - Events Chair
Emily was born and raised in Missouri, where wildlife was always part of her life. Since moving to Colorado in 2017, she has explored the state by hiking and fishing. “I started fly fishing a few years ago when my husband began teaching me for an upcoming month-long camping trip through Wyoming and Montana,” she said. “Since then, it’s become a passion.” She has since picked up archery with a compound bow, completed hunter education, and apprenticed under a friend on goose and elk hunts. “I am excited to keep building my skillset for hunting,” she added.
Emily spent her career in real estate investment and management, overseeing operations and up to 200 employees. Since leaving that work in 2024, she has focused on giving back and sharing her love of the outdoors. She now works part-time for a Colorado outfitter, where she teaches fly fishing classes for women, handles communications and operations, and hosts free monthly meetups.
Emily discovered BHA after spotting someone in a BHA sweatshirt at a fly shop and asking about it. “Public lands and waters provide habitat for wildlife but also for the people that enjoy them,” she said. “I use public lands a few times a week, whether it’s hiking with my dog, fly fishing, or camping.”
Craig Grother - Northwest Regional Director 
Craig was born and raised in southern California and has lived in the western U.S. his entire life. “My parents took my brother and me camping in the mountains and beaches of California and Mexico,” he says. “My dad took us fishing in the lakes and streams of the Sierras, and fishing in the ocean off the coast of southern California and northern Mexico.”
Grandpa Otto, from Iowa, was Craig’s first hunting mentor. “My grandfather introduced me to pheasant hunting on his farm in Iowa at an early age as well, first as the assistant bird dog, and then as one of the hunters,” he said. “My biggest ocean-fishing mentor has been my nephew, Nick, and I continue to learn more about trout fishing from my buddy John here in Colorado.”
Craig has a BS in Wildlife Biology from Utah State University. He started working with the U.S. Forest Service soon after graduation, which led to a 33-year career as a wildlife biologist on ranger districts in Idaho, Nevada and Colorado. Craig worked the last 20 years of his career for the Norwood and Ouray Ranger Districts of the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison (GMUG) National Forests in Colorado. He retired in 2009.
Craig joined BHA in 2007 while attending a Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation convention in Reno, Nevada, and has served as a Habitat Watch Volunteer (HWV) for the Uncompahgre National Forest since 2009.“I mostly hunt elk and deer on public lands, as well as turkey and grouse,” Craig adds. “I also fish for trout in Colorado and Idaho, and make the trip to Southeast Alaska to fish for salmon and halibut with my nephew off the Prince of Whales Island. I am fortunate to have a son-in-law from western Kansas and my chocolate lab, Ozzie, and I get to hunt pheasant on their farm around the Thanksgiving holiday.”
During 2013, Craig received one of BHA’s highest national awards, the Aldo Leopold Award, which recognizes significant contributions made towards preserving wildlife habitat. During 2015, Craig was recognized as BHA’s Volunteer of the Month (for January), and was appointed by Interior Secretary Sally Jewell to serve on the Dominguez-Escalante National Conservation Area Advisory Council. He has been Colorado BHA’s Central West Slope Regional Director since January 2016.
“I spend time giving back to the conservation of our fish and wildlife resources by teaching hunter education and as an active member of BHA,” Craig says. “Through BHA, I currently serve as the sportsman’s representative on the Colorado Forest Health Advisory Council and Adaptive Management Group for the Spruce Beetle Epidemic and Aspen Decline Management Response program on the GMUG National Forest.” Craig and his wife, Sheila, live in Norwood, Colorado.
Leslie Kaminski - Southwest Regional Director
A love of land and water led her to pursue a degree from Bowling Green State University in Geography and GIS with minors in Geology and Environmental Studies. After moving to the Rocky Mountains in 2009, she ended up in the North Fork Valley, where her training in the earth sciences serves her well as a middle school science and math teacher. After sixteen years as an educator, she truly enjoys inspiring students through exploring the natural world. She takes her students on field trips whenever possible and also leads a fly tying elective course. In August 2024, Leslie graduated from Mississippi State University with a Master of Science in Environmental Geosciences. A degree that has allowed her to excel in the world of education in the natural sciences.
Her love of angling continues to this day. Leslie enjoys small stream fly-fishing best. She loves casting a caddis into a drift above a deep hole under a willow, enticing trout to take her fly.
Although Leslie is a lifelong angler, hunting wasn’t an activity she was exposed to until earning her Hunter Education certificate in 2013. She fondly remembers being the only student able to drive herself to class. Even though she was now legal to hunt in Colorado, with no experience or mentor to teach her about hunting, she didn’t know where to begin. Luckily, Colorado Parks and Wildlife hosts a women’s outreach program and she was invited on a mentored hunt for a doe pronghorn antelope.
After an exhilarating two days of chasing antelope in northwest Colorado, a shot from her .30-06 filled her first tag and changed her life forever. The experience not only ignited a passion for hunting and the harvest of her own wild game meat but also gave her a deep appreciation for the importance of mentorship in our hunting community. She hunts elk every year in western Colorado and enjoys upland bird hunting in several western states.
Today, Leslie is grateful to reside in Montrose, Colorado, with her husband Dan and their thirteen year old yellow lab (yes, she's still retrieving birds). The time Leslie and her family spend together in the outdoors feeds her obsessions for geology, foraging, cooking wild game and fishing. She is proud to be a public land steward and enjoys volunteering on all projects, bringing BHA’s message of public land awareness to her community and beyond.
Aaron Lingwall - Northeast Regional Director
Aaron was born and raised in Wahpeton, North Dakota, and spent a lot of time in nearby central Minnesota with extended family. “My brother and I would follow my father afield before we were old enough to carry a firearm,” he said. “We hunted pheasant and waterfowl in North Dakota. Fished for walleye, panfish, and pike and hunted whitetail and grouse in Minnesota. My dad and both of my grandpas were integral figures in raising me with a passion and respect for the outdoors.”
After completing a B.S. in Geology, Aaron worked in that field for about a decade. “A passion for woodworking led me to a management position in the hardwood lumber industry,” he explained. “I have been a manager at Western Hardwoods since 2020.” Most of Aaron’s hunting and fishing takes place in Colorado these days, with occasional trips to Wyoming and Nebraska, and trips back to Minnesota to hunt or fish with family.
“I hunt waterfowl, pronghorn, deer, and elk in Colorado,” he added. “I typically target trout and walleye across Colorado and Wyoming. I enjoy ice fishing and often make a trip back to Minnesota in the winter to chase walleye and crappie through the ice.” Aaron hunts most often with a rifle, but also occasionally uses a bow or muzzleloader. “Anything that allows me to get out in the wild more each season,” he said.
Aaron is a trainee in CPW’s Hunter Ed Volunteer program and hopes to start teaching classes this year. He attended his first Backcountry Hunters & Anglers event in Minnesota during 2018 after hearing BHA mentioned multiple times on the Meateater podcast. He became a member after moving to Colorado in 2018. Aaron lives in Wellington, Colorado.
Kyle Vistuba - Southeast Regional Director
Kyle was born in Texas but raised in Colorado. “My dad first took me fishing when I was 5,” he said. “First tried some dove hunting when I was 10 and started hunting big game when I was 12 with pronghorn and deer.” Kyle attended the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs (UCCS) and has a bachelor’s degree in Geography and Environmental with an emphasis in GIS. His free time on weekends, when he isn’t hunting/fishing, is spent working at a bike and ski shop.
“I do enjoy small game hunting, but spend most of my time hunting big game, including elk, deer and antelope,” Kyle says. “Recently had a successful mountain goat hunt. Spend summers fishing for trout and recently discovered how fun ice fishing is.” Most of his hunting is done with a rifle, but Kyle also uses a muzzleloader and bow. He first heard about BHA on the Meateater Podcast and lives in Colorado Springs.
Matt Lee - Armed Forces Initiative Liason
Matt was born in Iowa and raised in both Iowa and Minnesota. He’s an avid outdoorsman and mentor. Matt’s preferred pursuits are upland hunting, fishing, hunting deer, learning to hunt elk, and outdoor photography. His affection for outdoor spaces was first sparked early in his childhood while fishing for bullheads with his grandpa.
Soon after he was taken on a family vacation to Colorado where he fell in love with the mountains and the vast opportunities North America has to offer. At age 9 Matt was taken along on his first pheasant hunt and he was instantly hooked on those cagey birds. He spent his teen years fishing through the summer and chasing roosters in the fall.
He also spent 10 years serving in the Minnesota National Guard as an artilleryman. Matt has been a member of several outdoor conservation groups over the years, but in 2015 he learned about Backcountry Hunters & Anglers and the public lands access mission we fight for. This message spoke to him and resonated with his experiences as a public land hunter.
After becoming a life member and volunteering for numerous BHA events, in 2018 he was asked to join the MN BHA board, in 2019 he was elected to a vice-chair role, and in 2020 he volunteered to serve as the interim board chair position and then was elected to be the chair where he served until leaving MN for CO. “In 2022 I moved to Colorado with my amazing wife and our dog,” he explained. “I am now currently serving the Colorado BHA chapter in the Armed Forces Initiative Liaison role.”
In his role he is working with veterans and active-duty military members, helping to facilitate their hunting and fishing opportunities. Giving back to the military community is a driving force in Matt’s life, the foundation of his dedication and selflessness. “I want to give back to those who have given so much to protect our access to hunting, fishing, and freedom,” he said. Matt lives in Lakewood, Colorado, and works as a commercial pilot transporting cargo and people all over the world.
Ryan McSparran - CPW Commission Liason (Non-Voting)
Standing on a remote spot, somewhere on public lands, is exactly where Ryan McSparran likes to be; whether it’s in the sagebrush, above timberline, or anywhere in between. Ryan was born and raised in Colorado, where public lands were the playground and a way of life. He remembers family hunting trips, learning to fly fish, summer backpacking with friends, and skiing some of the highest peaks in the U.S.
Ryan graduated with a degree in journalism and has spent much of his career writing and deploying content for businesses in the outdoor rec industry. Away from his day job, Ryan has guided wilderness hunting, fishing, and horseback trips for nearly 20 years. In 2022, Ryan and his family took the reins at Budge’s Wilderness Lodge, a remote destination that operates on wild, public lands. Ryan lives in Littleton and enjoys adventures with his wife, Kelly, and kids, Nolan and Clara.
David A. Lien - Emeritus (non-voting) 
David grew up in the small northern Minnesota town of Grand Rapids and started fishing at the age of four. He shot his first squirrel when he was eight, was hunting ruffed grouse at age eleven and started deer hunting the next fall. At thirteen, David killed his first deer with a Ruger .44 Magnum rifle handed down to him by his grandfather, World War II/U.S. Navy veteran, John Boyce.
After completing high school, David was offered an Air Force ROTC scholarship at the University of Minnesota-Duluth and went on to graduate with a BA in political science and second lieutenant bars. He completed four years of military service as a missile launch officer at Grand Forks Air Force Base, North Dakota, while also completing a master’s degree in administration (MSA). After finishing his service commitment and a second undergraduate degree (in accounting), David accepted another federal job and moved to Colorado.
David served on the BHA national Board of Directors for eight years. He is the founder and former chair of the Minnesota BHA chapter and has been either the chair or co-chair of the Colorado chapter since July 2006. He’s also a Life Member of both Trout Unlimited (TU) and the Minnesota Deer Hunters Association (MDHA). In addition, David has climbed all 54 of Colorado’s fourteeners (i.e., peaks over 14,000 feet), six of the Seven Summits (the highest peaks on each continent), and has set foot on each of the fifty state highpoints. He has also traveled to forty-one countries and been to all seven continents.
David has contributed stories, articles, essays, letters and photos to numerous periodicals, books and newspapers, including American Hunter, the Backcountry Journal, Boundary Waters Journal, Bugle and Fur-Fish-Game. He has also published six books, including Age-Old Quests II: Hunting, Climbing & Trekking and, most recently, Hunting for Experience II: Tales of Hunting & Habitat Conservation.
In 2014 David was recognized by Field & Stream as a “Hero of Conservation.” He lives in Colorado Springs with his wife, Melinda, and works as a federal financial institution examiner for the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA).
Ivan James - Emeritus (non-voting)
Ivan was raised on a farm in northeast Kansas and started fishing at the age of four. He was handling a shotgun by age ten, followed by a bow at thirteen. “I grew up hunting small game and waterfowl, and fishing ponds and streams, then got into trout fishing and ocean fishing when I moved to New England,” he says. “Now fishing is secondary to bowhunting.”
His hunting-angling mentors, and best friends, were his father, uncles and two cousins. “They are all gone now, but hardly a day goes by that I do not think of them and the great times that we had together,” Ivan said. He went on to spend a decade honing his skills as a dedicated muzzleloader hunter and has been a traditional bowhunter for over 20 years.
And during his hunting career Ivan has had the opportunity to bowhunt 9 of the 10 big game species extant in Colorado, and has been fortunate to bowhunt in 10 states and two foreign countries, including three Canadian provinces. His most memorable backcountry hunts were in Montana’s Bob Marshall Wilderness, Colorado’s Weminuche Wilderness, and northwest of the Alaska Range near Denali/Mount McKinley.
Ivan has a BS in civil engineering and MS in water resources engineering from the University of Kansas and completed advanced graduate work in environmental engineering at Harvard. He spent over 40 years with the U.S. Geological Survey in their Water Resources Division and has done consulting in hydraulics, hydrology and statistical analysis since then.