Board of Directors

Jennifer Bassignani - Interim Board Chair

Jennifer, or Jen, is a Colorado native and moved to Durango in 1992 to attend Fort Lewis Collage. 30+ years later, she is happy that she calls Durango home. She started an HR consulting business, Essential Operations, four years ago and it has been a success! Jennifer has also sat on the board of the Women’s Resource Center and the Durango Area of Human Resource Managers.

Jennifer has an amazing partner, Brian, and two amazing boys in her life that keep her grounded, laughing, and scratching her head. She enjoys playing in the snow, paddle-boarding, hiking, golfing, and a good tequila to cap off her day. Time spent with her family, her dog, Bob, her cat, Beulah, remind her of the best parts of life.

Michelle Sainio - Treasurer

Michelle Sainio is the Audit Engagement Director and an owner of FredrickZink & Associates, PC. With more than eleven years of experience working on audits of nonprofit organizations, Michelle supervises, reviews and manages the work performed by others. Michelle is a graduate of Fort Lewis College and is a licensed CPA in Colorado and New Mexico. She currently is the Treasurer for Durango Food Bank, President of the Four Corners Chapter of the Colorado Society of CPAs, and is a graduate of Leadership La Plata. Michelle and her husband, Kevin, have two children: Aubrey, 5 and a half years old, and Aiden, 16 months old. In addition, we have a couple of fur babies: our twelve year old cat named Andy and Rugby (almost 3 years old) which we were fortunate enough to adopt through Lisa Parker's Puppies. Michelle and Lisa became friends after Lisa inquired of accounting work with FredrickZink & Associates, PC. Michelle quickly inquired about the cute, innocent little puppy named Rugby who was still available for adoption.

Erin Van Winkle - Secretary

Erin is a 5th grade school teacher in Bayfield, Colorado. She has been a resident of Durango for 26 years and absolutely admires dogs. Erin and Lisa became friends after a Face Book post to rescue an adult male Pitt Bull. (Ziggy) Erin volunteered to foster this amazing dog and as they say the rest is history. Erin rescued her dog Eddy 14 years ago and he was introduced to another rescue from Kayenta, Keel. Keel and Eddy are no longer with us but those 2 dogs started the path of doing all she could for unwanted pups. Erin has a Parker's Animal Rescue adopted dog named Aggy that her and her partner John fostered and fell in love with. Erin continues to support Parker's Animal Rescue, helping out as needed with various activities and fostering. Erin and John enjoy their now 2 dogs (Rufus and Aggy), camping, hiking, dirt bike riding, river running and skiing. Erin also serves on the board for Animas River Days.

John Watson - Board Member

John is the founder of the Evergreen Education Group, which helps public school educators and their supporters create innovative learning options using technology. John and his wife Sharon split time between Durango and Tempe, where she is a professor at Arizona State University working in conservation biology and related issues. Their pup Cedar joined them from the Farmington animal shelter six years ago. John was an early board member of Colorado Wild (now Rocky Mountain Wild), and has been involved as a volunteer with other regional and national environmental conservation organizations.

Maria Baker - Board Member

Maria Baker was raised in Ignacio, graduated from Fort Lewis College and is the Vice President of Human Resources for the Southern Ute Growth Fund. She has worked for the Southern Ute Indian Tribe for over 21 years, starting her career with the Tribe's Education Department and then transferring to the Growth Fund HR department.

Maria has been a board member for Los Amigos and Durango Adult Education, was a long time board member and past board president of KSUT, and sat on the SUIT's Wildlife Advisory Committee for over 10 years.

Maria and Isadore have been long time supporters of animal rescues and programs and have one fur baby, Emma Sue.

Bill Rogers - Board Member

Bill is the co-owner of Source One Marketing, a Housewares and Gift manufacturer's representative company, based in Dallas. Bill and his wife Buff have lived in Durango for 25 years. Bill has served on the boards of the Greenhill School, KERA-TV (the local PBS station), and the Dallas Arboretum, all based in Dallas. Both Bill and Buff have long been pet owners and are passionate about adopting rescue "forever" pets as Roy and Ginger have joined their family.

Butch Gemin - Board Member

Butch brings over 40 years of experience in the education and business sectors to PAR. His work has focused on marketing and sales, project management, research, and publishing in both higher education and K-12 settings. His work includes leading several national sales teams, developing strategic sales and marketing campaigns for both commercial and nonprofit educational technology companies. I have extensive project management experience overseeing large-scale initiatives, coordinating cross-functional teams, and ensuring project goals are met within scope, time, and budget.

Butch held executive positions with two innovative educational nonprofit organizations, the Monterey Institute for Technology and Education (MITE) and Prometheus, a learning management system developed within The George Washington University. Prior to his roles at MITE and Prometheus, Butch held key editorial, marketing and sales positions at Harcourt College Publishers (later to become Cengage Publishing).

Butch has extensive board experience with nonprofit organizations in Colorado ranging from music festivals and performing arts to founding the Custer County Kids Council and the High Mountain Hay Fever's Children's Health Fund.