Meet Our Staff Members
Jessica Beckman, Executive Director
In early 2003, Jessica Beckman joined Community Educational Outreach’s (CEO) instructional team. Jessica enjoys working with adult learners and strongly supports the idea that education is a critical step in gaining and maintaining independence. A GED graduate herself, Jessica is an excellent role model for GED students. In 2004, Jessica was promoted to Program Director and she created two new CEO programs: H.I.R.E. (Help, Information, and Resources for Employment) and S.K.I.L.L.S. (Strengthening Knowledge In Literacy and Life Skills.) Jessica specializes in developing services that target adult students who are completing sentences in community correctional facilities, and she is passionate about developing and implementing programs that support positive re-entry. In January 2005, Jessica accepted the Executive Director position and increased organizational funding, total site partners, and the number of staff positions. Jessica possesses a BA/BS in Social Science and Business Administration as well as a Masters degree in Nonprofit Management (MNM) from Regis University. Jessica has participated on various adult-ed boards and committees -CAEPA, Literacy Coalition of Colorado, Kaplan College- and she hopes to continue making a difference in her community.
ICCS–Lakewood
Dory Dannettell, Program Director
As a long time business executive, Dory Dannettell brings a real life perspective to her teaching and educating with Community Educational Outreach. She began her career in the mortgage industry shortly after college. Always the educator, Dory ensured her first time homebuyer clients were well informed and well educated. Over the years, her passion for teaching others has brought many educational opportunities, including creating and instructing courses with Colorado Free University. Most recently, Dory took on the role of teacher and counselor while home-schooling her daughter through high school. Dory is currently completing her Literacy Instructor’s Authorization certificate. Her goal is to instill a love of learning into her student’s minds and hearts, and she believes that CEO is working to make that a reality in the lives of the students.
Joanna Humphreys, Instructor
Joanna grew up in Arvada, Colorado and has always resided in the state. She attended Regis University in Denver where she played soccer on an athletic scholarship. She obtained her Bachelor’s Degree in Criminal Justice and Sociology and entered into a criminal justice career. While attending Regis College, she participated in an independent study program at CEO, where she continued her volunteer work after graduating from Regis. Joanna has always had a passion for helping others in the community and she believes that adult basic education, GED preparation, and life skills are areas of education that are often overlooked. As an instructor for CEO, Joanna has the opportunity to work adults who are sometimes given up on and who are extremely underserved. Joanna believes that being a member of the CEO team is both challenging and rewarding all at the same time.
Vanessa Montano, Instructor
Vanessa is a recent college graduate from the University of Colorado, Boulder. She has a BA in English and History. After moving to Denver in 2010, Vanessa began volunteering for Intercambio de Communidades, a non-profit organization in which she taught English to Spanish speaking adults. It was there that she discovered her passion for adult education. She began doing her research and found CEO. There she found a way to expand her experience in adult education beyond teaching English. She is now the GED instructor at the Department of Corrections, Division of Adult Parole. She hopes to pass on to her students her philosophy that it is never too late to get an education in order to gain self wealth and independence.
Kellsie Endres, Instructor
Kellsie recently graduated from the University of Northern Colorado with an bachelor’s degree in Anthropology, Minor in Art History and President’s Leadership Program. She first started her career with CEO during her Senior year in college as a volunteer at the Greeley facility where she assisted low level readers improve reading skills and GED students prepare for official test sections. During this time, Kellsie discovered her passion for teaching adult offenders residing in a community correctional facility. Additionally, she realized the incredible impact that GED, SKILLS, and HIRE courses can have on helping students positively re-enter local communities. Kellsie is a firm believer that education and employment opportunities increase independence and therefore reduce recidivism!
ICCS–Greeley
Meredith Rosales, Program Director
Meredith is a graduate of the University of Northern Colorado. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Art K-12 Education and is planning to pursue a Master’s in Special Education in the near future. This is Meredith's first experience teaching in a GED program, but she hopes her students willbenefit from her experience teaching in a more traditional classroom setting. She is lookingforward to learning just as much from her students, as they will learn from her. Her goal is to grow and strengthen the Greeley CEO program while instilling confidence and a desire forlearning in her students.
Janelle Armentrout, Instructor
After retiring from Colorado State University, Janelle began a new career as an adult educational instructor with the CEO program in Greeley. She passionately believes in education and hopes to help others achieve their goals in obtaining their GED. She enjoys the challenge of different learning stylesand is rewarded when the student says, “Aha, I get it now!”
Lexi Pflock, Instructor
Lexi Pflock is completing her Bachelor’s in sociology in order to enter the graduate program at the University of Northern Colorado. After a great volunteer experience with the Greeley CEO program, Lexi joined the staff in May of 2012. She believes education is the best way to increase understanding and success in the world and is very excited to help the students achieve their academic goals. So far, her experience has been very rewarding.
ICCS–West
Rick Morrill, Employment Specialist
As Rick looks back over his life’s endeavors, he sees a consistent theme of learning and teaching. Whether as a technical theatre student and intern, engineering student, manufacturing engineer, computer consultant, African folkloric drumming student and instructor, or as an adult literacy tutor, his experiences have combined study and sharing. His involvement in business and the arts informed his opinion that work should be treated as an art – a blend of the logical and the creative, cognition and emotion. His recent volunteer efforts with CEO have shown that knowing a subject doesn’t necessarily mean you have the tools to teach it. Successful tutoring requires empathy for the student’s current knowledge, helping them understand what they already know, and how to incorporate new information to move to a different level.
Nadine Kersetter, Instructor
Nadine comes to Community Educational Outreach with the skills and experience of an instructor and employment specialist. Nadine earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Communication at The Women's College of the University of Denver. She is a graduate student at Regis University,
School of Education and Counseling, working toward her master's degree in education and a Colorado state teacher's license. Nadine has worked in offender re-entry programs since 2008 and is a contributing writer in Getting On After Getting Out: A Re-entry Guide for Colorado. She has provided educational and employment services to offenders and former offenders through programs such as Second Chance Program, Stop the Revolving Door, and Prison Reentry Initiative.
Nadine believes that with involvement at the macro-level, a community can provide resources, guidance, and compassion to men and women who strive to overcome barriers and embrace their strengths. Nadine is proud to share in the work of CEO, providing education to men and women seeking pride and self-sufficiency.
Dindy Fuller, Instructor
Dindy Fuller, B.S.W. has a demonstrated ability to partner with adult students in their educational growth. Her teaching experience includes working with people of all cultures and backgrounds. Dindy’s instruction combines knowledge of learning styles with motivational communication. Educated in Social Work at the University of Nebraska, Dindy's professional teaching experiences have been with staff teams, college interns, adults, adolescents and children. Dindy views education as a means to foster responsible behavior and new life choices for students. Dindy appreciates the collaboration between Community Educational Outreach and Intervention Community Corrections Services to foster an educated citizenry. She believes there are spill-over benefits from this mission that also improve the lives of families and communities.
Resource Educational Community Center (RECC)
Karen Bowen, Program Director
Karen has worked as an adult educator since 1996, beginning as a VISTA volunteer in a small GED program in New Mexico. She now directs the Resource Education Community Center, a GED program made possible by a partnership between CEO and the First Judicial District. She has taught for the Albuquerque Academy, the University of New Mexico’s Adult Education program, Colorado Northwestern Community College, and Naropa University. She received her B.A. in Literature from Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT and went on to complete her M.A.Ed. with Colorado State University. In 2005, she received her M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University. She has also served as a board member for the Literacy Coalition of Colorado and the Colorado Adult Education Professional Association. Her commitment to the field is persistent. She believes education is required for self-advocacy and self-actualization, and that it’s fun, too.
Alizay Furtado, Reading Specialist
Born and raised in Ohio, Alizay completed a bachelor’s degree in English and Teaching from The University of Findlay in 2006. An educator since 2006, she has worked with all levels of high school students. She started working with struggling adult readers at CEO in July of 2011, developing a program designed to bridge the gap between illiterate adults and success in the GED classroom. She enjoys targeting curriculum to adult learners. Alizay is a teacher in her heart and looks forward to spending her life making a difference in this way.
Jefferson High School
Natriece Bryant, Instructor
Natriece has a Bachelor’s degree in Communications from the University of Colorado and a Master’s degree from Regis University in Business Administration. Additionally, Natriece has two other Master’s degrees in Sociology and Criminal Justice from the University of Colorado, Denver. She has a passion for teaching and has worked as an Instructor for the University of Colorado (CU) Succeed Program teaching college level courses in Criminal Justice. since 2009. Natriece owns her own consulting company and contracts with various agencies to help develop business and strategic plans for their companies as well as writing grants and assisting with a variety of other business related services. In addition, Natriece works for the City and County of Denver as a Victim Specialist for domestic violence court cases. She possesses a strong passion for helping people educate themselves and has always enjoyed teaching adults and teenagers. My appreciation for adult education comes from the different levels of students that I have worked with in the past and I value those that take the time to educate themselves and others around them.
Scott Dinges, Instructor
Scott grew up in Lakewood. Through a series of unfortunate incidents he was transplanted in Nebraska. There he graduated High School and received an AA. Then back to Denver to take all the math UCD had to offer. Moving back to Nebraska he attended Platte Valley Bible College and received a BS in Bible and Ministry. During the 1990’s he taught all ages in a church and camp setting. Having moved back to Colorado (for good) he is pursuing the education he began long ago. Taking on line courses through Grand Canyon University; he’s taking all the teaching courses.
Having spent three years working with Special Education students in an Elementary School, Scott wanted to spend more energy on academics than behavior. When someone takes ownership of their own education, it can be very liberating. An education means more choices. Scott believes in second chances.
Stout Street Foundation
Thomas LaFore, Instructor
Thomas LaFore was born in a small town in eastern Colorado--not far from Kansas border. He has been in the field of adult education for over 12 years. He landed his first teaching job as a part-time GED teacher for a non-profit organization after earning an undergraduate degree in English/Literature from the University of Colorado. Thomas earned a master's degree in Adult Education and Creative Writing (the first in his family to earn such a degree) from Regis University. Presently, he is the lead teacher for the Adams County Public Schools ESOL program and he works part-time as a GED teacher for CEO. Thomas enjoys encouraging and challenging learners to be the finest citizens that they can be and he is very proud of his work with CEO.
DOC-Division of Adult Parole
Sonja Lindeman, Instructor
Sonja Lindeman is a GED Instructor at two CEO locations: Department of Corrections (DOC) Division of Adult Parole and Stout Street Foundation. Sonja is well versed in using a variety of assessments and she is a dedicated education professional who excels at recognizing adversity and challenge. She has worked in the Denver Public School System for over 9 years and she became involved in adult education to broaden her skills as an accomplished classroom teacher. Sonja is also working on earning her Teaching English to Speakers of Other Language certificate at the University of Colorado; she enjoys integrating English as a Second Language (ESL) teaching strategies into GED instruction.
Castle Rock and Parker Library Locations
Ian Stanford, Instructor
Ian was a volunteer firefighter for many years and rose to the rank of lieutentant, as well as taking on the position as company safety officer. During that time, he was also a county and state adjunct fire instructor. While performing his duties in these positions, Ian became aware of serious gaps in the education system that left our young people without the necessary basic skills to meet life on life's own terms. Assisting recruit firefighters with literacy led him to want to help more.
When the opportunity of the GED preparation class at the Castle Rock library was offered, Ian jumped in with both feet. Although the GED is different from any other adult education he is used to, he is determined to adapt his skills to this challenge to give others the opportunity to grow beyond wherethey find themselves. “Seeing a student achieve a goal they did not think possible is something greater
than words can describe.”
