Leadership Team
Board
Staff
Careers
Mark Shea
Chair
Bio coming soon
Sarah Mudge
Vice Chair
Bio coming soon
Amber Shanklin
Treasurer & Secretary
Amber is the founder and president of Red Curl Consulting, where she collaborates with mission-driven organizations dedicated to sustainable development and enhanced organizational efficiency. She holds an MS in Ecology from Colorado State University and BS’s in Biology and Wildlife from the University of Wisconsin – Steven’s Point.
Amber’s diverse background includes roles with The Nature Conservancy, the Bureau of Land Management, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, Palmer Land Conservancy, and the Rocky Mountain Field Institute. Throughout her career, she has managed nearly 140,000 acres of conserved land, discovered new populations of endangered plant species, restored streams for endangered blue fish in the middle of the desert, and led hundreds of volunteers and staff on trail-building and restoration expeditions in Colorado and Nevada. She is currently supporting nonprofit organizations nationwide in their efforts to achieve long-term sustainability and greater community impact.
In addition to her role as Treasurer/Secretary of the Board of Directors of ARWC, Amber has served on the Arkansas Basin Roundtable, the Gold Belt Tour National Historic and Scenic Byway Association Board, and was invited to participate on the Park Land Development Ordinance Task Force for the City of Colorado Springs.
Abba Ahmed
Board Member
Bio coming soon
Al Tucker
Board Member
Al is a retired Data Communications Engineer with 32 years of experience in the field. His career is marked by a strong commitment to community service and leadership in various organizations dedicated to sustainable development and resource management.
Al’s extensive background includes serving on the Huerfano County Hospital District Board of Directors and representing Huerfano County on the Pike San Isabel Resource Advisory Committee, where he also served as Chair. He is the founder of the Spanish Peaks Community Foundation, demonstrating his dedication to enhancing community resources and support.
Since 2012, Al has been an active member of the Arkansas Basin Roundtable, contributing his expertise to regional water management and sustainability efforts. He also serves as a board member for both the Arkansas River Basin Water Forum and the Arkansas River Watershed Collaborative, where he continues to play a crucial role in fostering collaborative solutions for water resource challenges.
Al’s blend of technical expertise and community leadership makes him a valuable asset to the organizations he serves, promoting long-term sustainability and community impact.
Ariel Hacker
Board Member
Ariel is the district engineer for a utility district near Colorado Springs, where she manages district projects, programs, and developments. She serves as El Paso County Representative and Public Education Participation and Outreach (PEPO) Liaison on the Arkansas Basin Roundtable. She is excited to support projects across the basin, as well as her own passion for “water in the west” and river health.
Ariel was not born in a barn, but she got to one as fast as she could. She has a lifelong horse obsession and enjoys volunteering her time to animal rescue efforts. When she is not horsing around with her rescued Westphalian mare, she is spending time on one of too many creative projects. She also loves adventuring with her partner and his son, hiking, scuba, traveling, and cuddling with her kitty to a historical non-fiction.
Bob Hamel
Board Member
Bio coming soon
Greg Felt
Board Member
Bio coming soon
Jeffery DeHerrera
Board Member
Jeffrey DeHerrera was appointed to the ARWC Board of Directors in 2024. He dedicates much of his unpaid time to serving as an adult leader in 4-H and Scouting America. Over the past few years, he has chaperoned several 4-H camps and conferences and continues to do so. Additionally, he serves as a leader for various 4-H projects, including metalworking, shooting sports, small engines, and gardening. In Scouts, he assists in leading a Troop and acts as a merit badge counselor for Environmental Sciences, Soil and Water Conservation, Welding, Farm Mechanics, Automotive Mechanics, Cycling, Swimming, and more. His daughter is on track to become a 14-year-old Eagle Scout, having already started her Eagle project, and his son is also expected to achieve the rank at the same age.
Professionally, Jeffrey serves as the Deputy Director of Utilities for the Pueblo West Metropolitan District. In this role, he oversees the provision of water and wastewater services to approximately 34,000 people. He is actively involved in water rights, infrastructure, water and wastewater treatment, capital planning and construction, and general administration.
In addition to his roles on the ARWC Board and the Arkansas River Basin Roundtable, Jeffrey also serves on the Board of his credit union, the Pueblo Friends of the Library, and the Pueblo Library Board of Trustees.
Jeffrey firmly believes that not all who wander are lost.
Jeris Danielson
Board Member
Bio coming soon
Lucy Harrington
Board Member
Lucy is a specialist in restoration and environmental regulations at GEI Consultants, Inc. (GEI). Lucy has over 20 years’ experience participating and leading large-scale restoration and permitting efforts throughout the Western U.S. while actively engaging with stakeholders to get pragmatic conservation on the ground. She is a proud Arkansas Basin resident, living, working, and playing with her husband and son in Monument, CO.
Sandy White
Board Member
Sandy is a retired water and land use lawyer who luxuriates on a small hay farm near La Veta in Huerfano County, Colorado. There he has served on the boards of the county historical society, the La Veta Fire Protection District, the county’s Federal Mineral Lease District (past chair), the county’s Water Conservancy District (past chair) as a member of the county planning commission and as the county’s representative to the Arkansas Basin Roundtable (past chair).
While in private practice, usually representing local and state governments, Sandy tried over one hundred complex water and land use cases in many of the western states, briefed and argued over 30 appeals before state and federal appellate courts, including the United States Supreme Court, served as a Master Referee for the Colorado water courts, acted as an expert witness in his areas of specialty, trained as a mediator, taught in law and graduate schools, and authored over three dozen articles, papers and books. He was a frequent speaker at professional programs (over 100 in 17 states) and is the past chair of the Water Law Section and of the Environmental Law Section of the Colorado Bar Association. Along with other professional and civic recognitions, he was inducted into “The Ancient & Honorable Order of the Water Buffalo” by the Water Law Section of the Colorado Bar Association.
He and his wife of over 60 years have three grown children and seven grandchildren. His academic degrees include a B.S. in Engineering from West Point, an M.S. in operations management from Southern Cal and a J.D. from the Cornell Law School.
Terry Scanga
Board Member
Lifelong resident of Chaffee County, Colorado, Ralph “Terry” L. Scanga, Jr. assumed the post as General Manager of the Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District on June 1, 2001. Prior to assuming this position Mr. Scanga was a member of the District serving as a Board Director from 1988 until June of 2001. From 1994 until January of 2001, he served as a member of the Upper Arkansas Water Activity Enterprise, the entity formed by the district to administer its blanket augmentation plans in the Upper Arkansas region and helped develop that entity’s augmentation plan processes.
He is a graduate of Adams State University, graduating in 1970 with bachelor’s degrees in Economics and French in 1970. Mr. Scanga is currently the Vice President of Scanga Meat Company and SMC Ranch. From 1982 to 2019 he served as the President of Scanga Meat Company. His son Ben now serves in that capacity in this local family business established by Mr. Scanga’s father in 1952.
Mr. Scanga served four years in the United States Coast Guard spending time on a Coast Guard Cutter on the mouth of the Columbia River and in the Coast Guard Liaison Office at the Public Health Service Hospital in Seattle, Washington before returning home to Salida, Colorado.
In the community, he served as chairman and member of the Chaffee County Fair Board for over 10 years, trustee on the Sangre De Cristo Resource Conservation and Development Council and is the past chairman of the Upper Arkansas Soil Conservation District, having served 15 years on that board. Mr. Scanga has also served on many other community, veteran, and church boards and councils and continues to do so to this day.
As a business owner and rancher associated with livestock as part of Scanga Meat Company, Mr. Scanga has been involved with water and irrigation. As a principal of Scanga Meat Company, he served as President of the New Salida Ditch Company providing irrigation water to over 1000 acres of land in Chaffee County.
Through the Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District activities Mr. Scanga continues to be involved with water rights and uses in the Arkansas Valley. Since the inception of the Colorado Water for the 21st Century Act in 2005 he has been a member of the Arkansas Basin Roundtable representing the Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District. In 2016 he was appointed to the Inter-basin Compact Committee representing the Arkansas Basin.
Mr. Scanga continues to work for the Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District and the basin in the traditional role of the protection of water rights and in furtherance of this goal providing augmentation and water resources to the region. Beginning in 2017, Mr. Scanga tasked his staff to begin undertaking projects to respond to the beetle infestation upon the watershed forests in the Upper Arkansas District. In response to the devastation on Monarch Pass and the impending danger to the South Arkansas watershed, the Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District partnered with the Roundtable, Trout Unlimited the USFS and Chaffee County to develop a project to remove diseased timber from 600 acres of steep mountain slopes as demonstration designed to encourage and develop the timber industry in the removal of this timber prior to a catastrophic fire. Again in 2018, Mr. Scanga directed his staff to manage the Hayden Pass Fire – Big Cottonwood Drainage Recovery Plan in partnership with the Arkansas River Watershed Collaborative to protect water and water rights in the upper basin. He continues to move the District forward by expanding storage capacity in the upper basin and particularly through integrated water management with the various municipal entities in the District and through recent work in managed aquifer and recovery system projects.
Prevention of damage to the watershed, drainage recovery from burn scars, and integrated water management plans has become a hallmark of the water district under Mr. Scanga’ s management of the Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District.
Mr. Scanga loves the Upper Arkansas Basin and lives here with his large extended family. He is a 3rd generation business owner with roots in its land and water.
