CMC board appoints Charles Cunniffe as interim Pitkin County trustee

In a special meeting on March 5, the Colorado Mountain College Board of Trustees voted unanimously to appoint Charles Cunniffe as interim trustee for Board Member District 1 in the college’s six-county district.

Cunniffe’s appointment continues until the next regular election of the board, in November 2013. He will be sworn in and participate in the board’s next regularly scheduled meeting, which is March 11.

The trustees expressed appreciation for having two strong candidates from which to choose. “I want to acknowledge the decades of service to the college from our other applicant, Ann Harris,” Ken Brenner, the trustee from Routt County, said in the meeting. Harris retired in 2010 as vice president of academic affairs at the college, and is a former dean of the Aspen Campus. “I am impressed with what Charles can bring us from [his experience with] the foundation, and also bringing a fresh perspective.”

Dr. Charles R. Dassance, interim president of Colorado Mountain College, said, “I will be meeting with Charles Cunniffe immediately to begin orienting him to his role as a CMC board member. I greatly appreciate Mr. Cunniffe’s willingness to serve the college in this important position.”

Cunniffe is the principal of Charles Cunniffe Architects, and has worked as an architect in Aspen since 1979. He is a member of the Colorado Mountain College Foundation Board and serves on the Aspen Rotary-Rotary International World Service Committee, AIA Colorado West Board of Directors (president-elect), and Jazz Aspen/Snowmass and River Bridge Regional Center boards.  He holds bachelor’s degrees in architecture, fine arts and sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design, followed by studies at Harvard Graduate School of Design, MIT and Brown University.

The District 1 seat became vacant recently when Dr. Anne Freedman resigned for health reasons.  Freedman had been the college’s District 1 trustee since 2005.

District 1 covers most of Pitkin County, plus a small area within Eagle County. District 1 is formally described as Pitkin County, not including the Roaring Fork School District Re-1 Director District B, plus the area within the boundaries of Re-1 Director District A.

The Colorado Mountain College Board of Trustees has seven seats, which are elected by all voters in the six counties composing the CMC district. There is one trustee from each of seven board member districts in Eagle, Lake, Pitkin, Routt, Summit, East Garfield and West Garfield counties. Three other counties – Chaffee, Grand and Jackson – are within the college’s service area, but are not part of the voting district.

Media contacts: Debbie Crawford, public information officer, Colorado Mountain College, 970-384-8535, dcrawford@coloradomtn.edu