Board of Directors – YouthZone

Dave Portman is the Market President at FirstBank in the Roaring Fork Valley. Originally from suburban Chicago, Dave graduated from the University of Illinois, Champaign Urbana in 1998 with a BS in Accounting. He then passed the CPA Exam in the State of Illinois and began his career at PriceWaterhouseCoopers as an audit associate.

Dave is an avid skier since childhood, and his love of the outdoors drew him to Steamboat Springs in 1999-2000 to be a kid’s ski instructor. It was there that he met his wife, Brook, and they eventually moved to the Vail Valley in 2001. After 18 years in the Vail Valley and 16 years at FirstBank, the Portman family moved to the Roaring Fork Valley in 2018.

Dave has a passion for giving back to the community, and has served as a Board Member for numerous non-profit organizations such as Meet the Wilderness, SOS Outreach, the Shaw Outreach Team, Vail Chamber & Business Association, and the Bridging Bionics Foundation. Most recently, he joined the YouthZone Board in March 2020.

When he's not working, Dave and his family enjoy skiing, hiking, rafting, biking, and playing basketball, tennis, and golf.

Allison Mahoney is the Founder and Managing Attorney at ALM Law. She has over a decade’s worth of experience litigating on behalf of survivors of abuse, and she specializes in representing vulnerable children in civil rights matters.

Allison began her legal career at O’Melveny & Myers LLP, where she was a member of the firm’s pro bono committee and represented survivors of sexual abuse and intimate partner violence from around the world. She was later a prosecutor in New York City and investigated sex crimes, public corruption, and human trafficking rings. For the next several years, Allison worked at Lawyers for Children, Inc. and represented children in foster care in New York City in various family court proceedings. As LFC’s Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Project Attorney, she carried a specialized caseload and served as the in-house legal expert for cases involving those sensitive issues. Allison was most recently the Interim Deputy Director at A Better Childhood, where she investigated child welfare systems across the country, formed partnerships with local organizations and national law firms, and filed class action lawsuits on behalf of foster children, alleging violations of their civil and federal statutory rights.

Today, Allison is a member of The American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children; on the Board of Directors at Response, an organization that works with survivors of domestic and sexual abuse in the Roaring Fork Valley in Colorado; on the Board of Directors at YouthZone, a diversion and advocacy program for youth in Colorado; and a member of the New York Cyber Abuse Task Force. Allison served as the Secretary of the New York City Bar Association’s Children & the Law Committee and was the Chair of Fordham University’s School of Law Government and Public Interest Affinity Group. She was also part of a working group to reimagine intimate partner violence services for abusers. The goal of the working group was to change abusers’ behaviors and stop the cycle of trauma.

Brianda Cervantes grew up in the city of Tepic, Nayarit Mexico, and graduated with a degree in law from Universidad Autonoma de Nayarit. She practiced law for 4 years before moving to Glenwood Springs, Colorado in 2013. Brianda helped launch the first fully bilingual school in the Roaring Fork School district, the Riverview School, as a community liaison. After two years at Riverview School she moved to the Family Resource Center of the Roaring Fork Schools where she launched a project to strengthen parent voice, leadership and advocacy using community organizing tools.

Recently she worked on a Language Access Project and she is dedicated to Language Justice. As district school-community Organizer, Brianda serves on the district communication team, equity steering committee, the equity advisory council, and leads and facilitates the Family Advisory Council. Brianda serves the broader valley community by serving on numerous councils, committees and providing consultation to partners. Brianda also sits on the board of Mountain Voices Project. Brianda is deeply committed to strengthening social justice and equity in schools and communities. She has one son who is 6 and attends the Riverview School.

Rev. Charla Belinski has been in the Roaring Fork Valley for over 30 years, and has been affiliated with YouthZone since 2005. She is the Associate Pastor at Snowmass Chapel, and previously worked as a writer/producer in broadcast news, as well as a parent educator for YouthZone and freelance writer focusing on faith and families. She has a Master’s of Divinity(MDiv) from Iliff School of Theology and is currently working on her Doctorate in Ministry at Duke Divinity School. She has served on numerous non-profits in the valley, and has been on the YouthZone board since 2018.

Michael Flohr is a long-time resident of Glenwood Springs and is passionate about the Roaring Fork Valley and serving his community. In 2016, he began his career with Alpine Bank at the Willits branch where he currently works as an Assistant Vice President. In this role, he co-manages and specializes in loan operations and origination within the Willits area. Before joining Alpine Bank, he was an Assistant Store Manager for City Market in Gunnison, Colorado. He is a graduate of Colorado Mesa University and was a collegiate athlete on the Maverick men's basketball team until 2010. He is still involved in various youth development and athletics programs throughout the state and continues to advocate for them within the communities he serves.

Patrick McGinty has worked with exceptional students for over 15 years. During this time he has worked with students and families from a variety of backgrounds and needs. He started his career as a special education teacher in Gunnison Colorado and eventually worked in an Expeditionary Learning School in Denver. His leadership experience has been working for the Department of Education, Denver Public Schools and currently as the Director of Special Education for the Roaring Fork School District.

Patrick is proud to have helped set up a specialized behavior program for the school district to meet severe social and emotional needs of some students. Building strong community partnerships has been a goal of his to help ensure that the school district helps break down barriers for students and families to get access to resources. He feels that providing easy access should be a priority to help expedite needed mental health services for students and families. He is a part of the Mental Health team for the school district to help create strategic initiatives and manages the special education mental health team. The touch points with these school based providers helps him understand that landscape of the community to help close gaps and enhance the strengths to serve students.

Paul Lazo was born in Trujillo, Peru. His parents brought his family to the states seeking a brighter future for his brother and self. Paul found something special when he came to the valley in 1999. He has called the Roaring Fork Valley home since.

In 2019, Paul decided that he wanted to chase a dream since he was young. Paul quit his job and registered to attend the CMC Police Academy. His fear of not knowing if and when he would be hired by an agency was quickly alleviated. Carbondale Police Chief Gene Schilling offered him a Police Officer position within the first week of the academy. Everything since has been a dream come true for him.

Paul's greatest passions in his position is to advocate for his Latino community and local youth. He has lived and experienced the fear of being a Latino and it empowers him to have a voice for his community and relate to those fears. Paul is currently the School Resource Officer, and loves his job. He is able shows up for local youth in a time when they need it most or simply at a sporting event. These kids have forever impacted his life. Go Rams!

Paul is beyond grateful and humbled to serve his community. Carbondale will always have a special place in his life. Paul met my wife here, and he hopes to raise his family here. He is excited to continue his career here and advocate for what community policing has been in our town. If you don't find him in one Carbondale's schools, he is out enjoying the sunny days on a bench downtown seeing how many people wave back! Just in case you see a police officer randomly waving at you. Please stop by and say hello anytime, Paul looks forward to engaging more with everyone.

Tiffany Phipps is the owner and driving force behind Aspen Dev Co, LLC, a real-estate developing company operating in Colorado and Arizona. With over a decade of experience in the field, Tiffany has worked on projects worth billions of dollars, and she has successfully navigated market cycles and corporate buyouts. Prior to her time at Aspen Starwood, Tiffany worked for the publicly traded REIT BioMed Realty Trust, where she was responsible for 1.5 million square feet of construction for Regeneron Pharmaceuticals. Before her career in development, Tiffany worked for Layton Construction and Turner Construction, and she holds an M.S. in Real Estate Finance from New York University.

Tiffany is also involved in the Aspen community, where she serves on the boards of several non-profit organizations and Home Owners Associations. When she is not working, Tiffany enjoys traveling, wine collecting, and IronMan triathlons with her family. Tiffany, her husband Tom, and their two children, Charlie and Finnley, live in Snowmass Village, Colorado, with their rescue dog Mikayla.