tucker@tellurideinstitute.org
As president of the Board of Trustees of the Telluride Institute in Colorado, he has helped to develop and administer a number of environmentally-based curricula in the Colorado River Basin. His recent work, “The Colorado River Re-Storied,” focuses on locative media, participatory research methods, and documentary video with an environmental focus. Dan holds an MA from Stanford in Education, an MFA in Sculpture/New Forms from UCLA, and a PhD in Interdisciplinary Humanities from Arizona State University. Dan is the founding Co-Director of the PRISM lab (a 3D visualization and prototyping facility) and heads the first-year art program in the School of Art (artCORE) at Arizona State University. As a member of the Intermedia faculty at ASU, Dan teaches courses in the School of Art and the new Digital Culture program in the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts (HIDA). Over the past two decades, Dan has collaborated on a variety of discipline-based research projects that harness digital media for 3D visualization, prototyping, and archiving.
dan@tellurideinstitute.org
Evan is the Director of Science and Research for the Telluride Institute. He is also a Trustee and on the Executive Committee. Evan moved to Telluride in 2016 to pursue his interests in environmental science and to build the Telluride Environmental Science and Engineering Laboratory (TESEL), for which he is the Director. Evan has a strong interest in systems biology, particularly for high-mountain soils, wetlands, and forests. He also does work in microbiology, plant morphogenesis, mycology, and biodiversity/biocomplexity. Work at TESEL also includes the development of specialized instrumentation for unattended in situ environmental monitoring and the application of physics and engineering principles to address climate resilience, particularly related to small-scale renewable energy. Evan is also interested in STEM education through project-based learning, and is a volunteer at the Pinhead Institute and a leader for the establishment of a Telluride Community Makerspace.
Evan holds a BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of New Mexico, and MS and PhD degrees in Applied Mathematics, with a focus on computer science and physics, from the University of Arizona. He was at the Los Alamos National Laboratory for 13 years where he conducted research in computational physics, computer science, nonlinear dynamics and chaos, complex systems, and artificial neural networks. In 1990 he joined Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) where he led R&D in remote sensing, computer vision, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and digital signal processing. In 1998 he became a Vice President and served as the Manager of SAIC’s Imagery Technology and Systems Division from 1998 to 2006. This was followed by a year serving as Chief Scientist of SAIC’s Reconnaissance and Surveillance Operation. In 2007 he joined Rincon Research Corporation and served as Chief Scientist and Program Manager until transitioning to Consulting Employee and moving to Telluride.
evan@tellurideinstitute.org
Kris Holstrom is currently San Miguel County Commissioner from District 3. She is the owner of Tomten Farm, a high-altitude demonstration and education farm at 9000’ above Sawpit, Colorado. Kris grew up in Ft. Collins, Colorado and has lived in San Miguel County since 1987. From 2007 through 2013, she was the Regional Sustainability Coordinator and Executive Director of EcoAction Partners, a non-profit focused on sustainability issues in the San Miguel Watershed. Prior to that she worked for the Telluride
Institute as its Sustainability Director. Kris has a B.S. in Forest Management from Utah State University and an M.S. in Horticulture from Virginia Tech. She has a diverse background having held many different positions in the region from cleaning houses to operating a small saw mill. She co-founded and is Board President for SWIRL – the Southwest Institute for Resilience – a non-profit that supports community gardens, greenhouses and the Telluride Farmers Market. Kris has spent over three decades educating the public and youth about sustainability issues including renewable energy, food security, waste reduction and “out of the box” systems thinking to contribute to regional solutions to current challenges.
Institute as its Sustainability Director. Kris has a B.S. in Forest Management from Utah State University and an M.S. in Horticulture from Virginia Tech. She has a diverse background having held many different positions in the region from cleaning houses to operating a small saw mill. She co-founded and is Board President for SWIRL – the Southwest Institute for Resilience – a non-profit that supports community gardens, greenhouses and the Telluride Farmers Market. Kris has spent over three decades educating the public and youth about sustainability issues including renewable energy, food security, waste reduction and “out of the box” systems thinking to contribute to regional solutions to current challenges.
PROGRAM DIRECTORS
As president of the Board of Trustees of the Telluride Institute in Colorado, he has helped to develop and administer a number of environmentally-based curricula in the Colorado River Basin. His recent work, “The Colorado River Re-Storied,” focuses on locative media, participatory research methods, and documentary video with an environmental focus. Dan holds an MA from Stanford in Education, an MFA in Sculpture/New Forms from UCLA, and a PhD in Interdisciplinary Humanities from Arizona State University. Dan is the founding Co-Director of the PRISM lab (a 3D visualization and prototyping facility) and heads the first-year art program in the School of Art (artCORE) at Arizona State University. As a member of the Intermedia faculty at ASU, Dan teaches courses in the School of Art and the new Digital Culture program in the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts (HIDA). Over the past two decades, Dan has collaborated on a variety of discipline-based research projects that harness digital media for 3D visualization, prototyping, and archiving.
dan@tellurideinstitute.org
Evan is the Director of Science and Research for the Telluride Institute. He is also a Trustee and on the Executive Committee. Evan moved to Telluride in 2016 to pursue his interests in environmental science and to build the Telluride Environmental Science and Engineering Laboratory (TESEL), for which he is the Director. Evan has a strong interest in systems biology, particularly for high-mountain soils, wetlands, and forests. He also does work in microbiology, plant morphogenesis, mycology, and biodiversity/biocomplexity. Work at TESEL also includes the development of specialized instrumentation for unattended in situ environmental monitoring and the application of physics and engineering principles to address climate resilience, particularly related to small-scale renewable energy. Evan is also interested in STEM education through project-based learning, and is a volunteer at the Pinhead Institute and a leader for the establishment of a Telluride Community Makerspace.
Evan holds a BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of New Mexico, and MS and PhD degrees in Applied Mathematics, with a focus on computer science and physics, from the University of Arizona. He was at the Los Alamos National Laboratory for 13 years where he conducted research in computational physics, computer science, nonlinear dynamics and chaos, complex systems, and artificial neural networks. In 1990 he joined Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) where he led R&D in remote sensing, computer vision, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and digital signal processing. In 1998 he became a Vice President and served as the Manager of SAIC’s Imagery Technology and Systems Division from 1998 to 2006. This was followed by a year serving as Chief Scientist of SAIC’s Reconnaissance and Surveillance Operation. In 2007 he joined Rincon Research Corporation and served as Chief Scientist and Program Manager until transitioning to Consulting Employee and moving to Telluride.
evan@tellurideinstitute.org
Pam is a writer and environmental educator who has a long history of projects created at the intersection of speculative fiction, environmental education, and politics. Zoline is admired for her experimental approach to both the form of the short story and the genre of science fiction, especially for using the language of science to interrogate the scientific world view. Her 1967 novel, Heat Death of the Universe, is structured in a loosely encyclopedic style, with 54 numbered paragraphs narrated in a deliberately matter-of-fact third-person voice. As the narrative veers back and forth among scientific explanations, descriptions of household events, and philosophical speculation, the cumulative effect is of a mind and a culture on the verge of collapse. Zoline has also written a children’s book (Annika and the Wolves), libretti for two operas (Harry Houdini and the False and True Occult, The Forbidden Experiment), and original science fiction radio plays for the Telluride Science Fiction Project.
Art retired in 2017 after serving for 20 years on the San Miguel County Board of Commissioners, the first and only Green Party county commissioner in Colorado. A co-founder of the local enviro group, the Sheep Mountain Alliance, he has won numerous environmental awards and been a member of dozens of boards and commissions on the local, regional, state and even national levels. Twice director of the local arts council in Telluride, he has also worked as a pre-school teacher/director in California, as well as a journalist, editor, and now weekly op-ed columnist for the on-line MontroseMirror.com and monthly for Cortez’s print newspaper, the Four Corners Free Press.
Former Institute president and long-time trustee, Art directed the Telluride Mushroom Festival for its first 25 years and helped spearhead the founding of three Institute initiatives: the Talking Gourds poetry program, the Ute Reconciliation program; and the Prospect Basin Fens Project.
Former poetry editor for Twin Peaks, Earth First! Journal, Wild Earth, and the Mountain Gazette, he currently serves as poetry editor for Fungi magazine and the on-line anthology Sage Green Journal. He was appointed as the first Western Slope Poet Laureate (2011-12). His latest poetry books are Dancing on Edge: the McRedeye Poems (Lithic Press, Fruita, 2019), Looking South to Lone Cone (Western Eye Press, Sedona, 2013) and As If the World Really Mattered (La Alameda Press, Albuquerque, 2007). He performs his poetry widely in the region.
shroompa@gmail.com
MASTERS IN ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT COHORT (MEM TELLURIDE)
Evan is the Director of Science and Research for the Telluride Institute. He is also a Trustee and on the Executive Committee. Evan moved to Telluride in 2016 to pursue his interests in environmental science and to build the Telluride Environmental Science and Engineering Laboratory (TESEL), for which he is the Director. Evan has a strong interest in systems biology, particularly for high-mountain soils, wetlands, and forests. He also does work in microbiology, plant morphogenesis, mycology, and biodiversity/biocomplexity. Work at TESEL also includes the development of specialized instrumentation for unattended in situ environmental monitoring and the application of physics and engineering principles to address climate resilience, particularly related to small-scale renewable energy. Evan is also interested in STEM education through project-based learning, and is a volunteer at the Pinhead Institute and a leader for the establishment of a Telluride Community Makerspace.
Evan holds a BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of New Mexico, and MS and PhD degrees in Applied Mathematics, with a focus on computer science and physics, from the University of Arizona. He was at the Los Alamos National Laboratory for 13 years where he conducted research in computational physics, computer science, nonlinear dynamics and chaos, complex systems, and artificial neural networks. In 1990 he joined Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) where he led R&D in remote sensing, computer vision, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and digital signal processing. In 1998 he became a Vice President and served as the Manager of SAIC’s Imagery Technology and Systems Division from 1998 to 2006. This was followed by a year serving as Chief Scientist of SAIC’s Reconnaissance and Surveillance Operation. In 2007 he joined Rincon Research Corporation and served as Chief Scientist and Program Manager until transitioning to Consulting Employee and moving to Telluride.
evan@tellurideinstitute.org
Kris Holstrom is currently San Miguel County Commissioner from District 3. She is the owner of Tomten Farm, a high-altitude demonstration and education farm at 9000’ above Sawpit, Colorado. Kris grew up in Ft. Collins, Colorado and has lived in San Miguel County since 1987. From 2007 through 2013, she was the Regional Sustainability Coordinator and Executive Director of EcoAction Partners, a non-profit focused on sustainability issues in the San Miguel Watershed. Prior to that she worked for the Telluride
Institute as its Sustainability Director. Kris has a B.S. in Forest Management from Utah State University and an M.S. in Horticulture from Virginia Tech. She has a diverse background having held many different positions in the region from cleaning houses to operating a small saw mill. She co-founded and is Board President for SWIRL – the Southwest Institute for Resilience – a non-profit that supports community gardens, greenhouses and the Telluride Farmers Market. Kris has spent over three decades educating the public and youth about sustainability issues including renewable energy, food security, waste reduction and “out of the box” systems thinking to contribute to regional solutions to current challenges.
Institute as its Sustainability Director. Kris has a B.S. in Forest Management from Utah State University and an M.S. in Horticulture from Virginia Tech. She has a diverse background having held many different positions in the region from cleaning houses to operating a small saw mill. She co-founded and is Board President for SWIRL – the Southwest Institute for Resilience – a non-profit that supports community gardens, greenhouses and the Telluride Farmers Market. Kris has spent over three decades educating the public and youth about sustainability issues including renewable energy, food security, waste reduction and “out of the box” systems thinking to contribute to regional solutions to current challenges.
TELLURIDE MUSHROOM FESTIVAL
As one of the original organizers of Wild Mushrooms Telluride in 1981, my roles have shifted over 46 years. Paul Stamets has called me steward of what has become the Telluride Mushroom Festival, a title I take as a huge honor carrying on the legacy of Manny and Joanne Salzman, Gary Lincoff, Andrew Weil, Paul, and so many others involved with this amazing event. I’ve long called myself poet-in-residence — bringing poetry, dance, drumming and our iconic parade to the festival. Currently the Mushroom Team has dubbed me Creative Director, advising on speakers and other presenters as well as running MycoGourds sharing circles, a history of the festival lecture, the Open Myc, and the MycoLicious MycoLuscious MycoLogical Poetry Show.
shroompa@gmail.com
Kris Holstrom is currently San Miguel County Commissioner from District 3. She is the owner of Tomten Farm, a high-altitude demonstration and education farm at 9000’ above Sawpit, Colorado. Kris grew up in Ft. Collins, Colorado and has lived in San Miguel County since 1987. From 2007 through 2013, she was the Regional Sustainability Coordinator and Executive Director of EcoAction Partners, a non-profit focused on sustainability issues in the San Miguel Watershed. Prior to that she worked for the Telluride
Institute as its Sustainability Director. Kris has a B.S. in Forest Management from Utah State University and an M.S. in Horticulture from Virginia Tech. She has a diverse background having held many different positions in the region from cleaning houses to operating a small saw mill. She co-founded and is Board President for SWIRL – the Southwest Institute for Resilience – a non-profit that supports community gardens, greenhouses and the Telluride Farmers Market. Kris has spent over three decades educating the public and youth about sustainability issues including renewable energy, food security, waste reduction and “out of the box” systems thinking to contribute to regional solutions to current challenges.
Institute as its Sustainability Director. Kris has a B.S. in Forest Management from Utah State University and an M.S. in Horticulture from Virginia Tech. She has a diverse background having held many different positions in the region from cleaning houses to operating a small saw mill. She co-founded and is Board President for SWIRL – the Southwest Institute for Resilience – a non-profit that supports community gardens, greenhouses and the Telluride Farmers Market. Kris has spent over three decades educating the public and youth about sustainability issues including renewable energy, food security, waste reduction and “out of the box” systems thinking to contribute to regional solutions to current challenges.
Bio coming soon!
For twenty years, the Telluride Mushroom Festival has been a constant in my life—a place where science, community, and curiosity gather in the thin mountain air. What began as an annual pilgrimage gradually became a deeper commitment, and a decade ago I was invited to serve as Executive Director. It was an honor that opened the door to shaping a festival I had long cherished. Since then, the event has grown dramatically. Attendance has expanded, programming has diversified, and the festival has become a nationally recognized hub for mycology and environmental culture. And as Art G. once wisely reminded me, no festival thrives on the vision of a single person. Today, I share leadership with an exceptional team—Ashley, Rebecca, and Mariah—who skill and dedication guide every facet of the festival. Together, we cultivate the conditions for others to flourish, sustaining a mycelial network of organizers, contributors, and participants who bring the festival to life each year.
Ashley has called the San Juan Mountains home for nearly two decades and brings a deep love for this landscape, community, and the Telluride Mushroom Festival itself. With extensive experience in nonprofit development, organizational strategy, and program leadership, Ashley previously served as Festival Operations Manager from 2019–2022 and returned in 2025 as Interim Officer. Now stepping into the role of Festival Executive Officer, Ashley is excited to support the festival’s continued growth, care, and long-term sustainability alongside an incredible team.
Chris Grimes is our resident voice of command, the steady hand who keeps everything moving in the right direction. With years in the hospitality world and experience managing multiple event spaces, he knows exactly how to keep chaos looking classy.
Chris thrives when things get wild and pressure kicks in which is exactly why he’s the perfect person to lead our volunteer teams. He brings calm to the storm, clarity to the confusion, and a whole lot of smoothness to the many moving parts that make this festival run.
When I joined the team in 2022 as the Social Media manager for Telluride Mushroom Festival, I knew nothing about mushrooms or this magical community. I accepted the role to help my friend, Matt Guertin, spread the message about the incredible festival he was co-organizing. Singe then, I have been a part of promoting and organizing 4 festivals and I have grown both personally and professionally since joining Team Mushroom. Over the years, I have fallen in love with telling the story of Telluride Mushroom Festival which has now reached millions of people all over the world. My greatest passion is to steward the festival’s legacy authentically and responsibly and to always keep the heart at the center of the festival! I now manage all of the sales and marketing for the festival and enjoy being the person who gets to connect with our global community through email and social media! It is one of the greatest blessings of my life to be doing this work and planning a legacy event alongside my teammates, and co-founders!
Working with our incredible TMF sponsors and partners and weave our mycelial web across the country in my business development role is a dream. Often the lines between work and personal life blur, while sometimes challenging, it makes the work I do feel quite meaningful. This year, I’ve officially taken over management of our integrative wellness programming. Being able to merge my 10 year long journey of studying clinical herbalism and working in marketing in the Integrative Health Space into “work,” is a dream of mine that I hope you feel when you experience our 46th Annual Celebration of TMF. As a TMF team, we’ve created a really special dynamic. We have shared values around intentional communication, mutual respect and honoring each other's balance of work and personal life. As our Operations Manager, my goal is to have our attendees feel the time, care and spirit we put into the festival, that starts with our team, each year so that when you arrive into our box canyon down you get to experience something that you will cherish forever.
Click on any of the above images to learn more about and get contact information for our wonderful faculty & staff.
