All of our board members are volunteers, and all are drawn from constituencies that we serve. All have a history of outstanding service to the GLBT community, for which they have received numerous community service awards. Many also occupy, or have held, leadership positions with other GLBT organizations. Our current board members are:

Anthony Aragon

Anthony Aragon is a Denver native and has been a proud member of Denver’s GLBT community for over 25 years. Currently, he is the President of the ERC Board of Directors. Previously, Anthony served as a member of the GLBT Community Center of Colorado Board of Directors for three years and coordinated the pride parade for five years. Anthony also served on the Boards of the Colorado Gay Rodeo Association and the Alexander Foundation. He also co-chaired the annual Colorado HRC Dinner in 2005 & 2006. He is a long-time Democrat activist having worked for former Mayor Federico Pena, Governor Romer and Ambassador Swanee Hunt. He works in Mayor John Hickenlooper’s Administration as his Director of Boards & Commissions. He has also been honored as the Colorado Pride Guide 2005 Coloradan of the Year and the 2006 Colorado Business Council Professional Man of the Year.

Sheila Barthel

Jim Burgess

Jim Burgess is an assistant county attorney for Jefferson County, Colorado. As part of the litigation department, he focuses on property tax appeals, zoning enforcement, and lawsuits against the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.  Prior to joining the County Attorney’s Office, he was law clerk to the Hon. Tamara S. Russell, a district court judge in Jefferson County.  Jim completed his J.D. at the University of Iowa, where he was a note and comment editor for the Journal of Gender, Race & Justice and served as social chair for OutLaws, the law school’s GLBT student group. Jim's undergraduate degree is from Doane College in Crete, Nebraska, where he graduated summa cum laude with a triple B.A. in English, Spanish, and German.

Cypriano Damian

Cypriano Damian is a Denver native and longtime GLBT activist.  He has been involved with several organizations including the Alexander Foundation,  The Human Rights Campaign,  The GLBT Community Center, The Matthew Shepherd Foundation among others.  Cypriano is a longterm City and County of Denver employee and is currently an inspecter for the Department of Excise and Licenses.

Cheryl Jones

Sue Anne Michaels

Prior to joining the board of ERC, Sue Anne was and still is very active in the Imperial Court of the Rocky Mountain Empire, where she served on its Board of Parliament and Board of Directors, during which time she also was the CFO for 2 years. Other affiliations include the Colorado Gay Rodeo Association and the Colorado Stone Wall Democrats Transgender Caucus. Sue Anne currently works as a Special Deputy for the United States Marshal Service, and she is the immediate past President of the Colorado Fraternal Order of Police, having served on its E-board for 18 years.

Rob Short

My name is Rob Short and I live and work in Northern Colorado where I was born and raised. I attended the University of Colorado in Boulder where I received a bachelor's degree from the College of Architecture and Planning. I have been a member and advocate of various organizations and causes ranging from historic preservation to environmental sustainability to GLBT rights and equalities. I firmly believe that legitimization and maintainance of equalities, rights, benefits, and responsibilities for GLBT citizens in Colorado is something that is the utmost of human causes we at Equal Rights Colorado advocate for in this beautiful state. I am very proud to serve on the board of this extraordinary organization with such fine and outstanding members of the community.

Shawn Nowlan

Linda Warren

Benjamin Waters

Andrew Yale

Andrew Yale was born and raised in Gunnison, CO. After a brief stint in Minnesota for college, he returned to Boulder, CO to attend Naropa University to obtain his masters in psychotherapy. He currently is a contract administrator for Denver Public Health and has been in the health care field for numerous years. He has been actively involved with BCAP, CAP, CORA, ERC, Our House II, and a community advisory board for clinical research on AIDS.

Patrick Steadman*

Patrick Steadman is an attorney who works as a registered professional lobbyist with the firm of Mendez, Steadman & Associates in Denver. He received his law degree from the University of Colorado in 1991. He has been lobbying the Colorado General Assembly for nine years on behalf of a wide variety of client interests, including Equal Rights Colorado. He came to lobbying through his work on ballot initiative campaigns. He has worked or managed a number of statewide initiative campaigns for progressive causes starting with the NO on 2 campaign in 1992, and most recently the NO on amendment 25 campaign in 2000. He serves on the board of Equal Rights Colorado in an ex officio, non-voting capacity.  

Mindy Barton*

Mindy is the current Legal Director of The Center’s Legal Initiatives Project (CLIP) at The GLBT Community Center of Colorado.  In addition, she serves an ex-officio, non-voting member of the Board of Directors for Equal Rights Colorado.  She holds an undergraduate degree in Speech Communication from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a JD from the University of Denver College of Law.  Prior to this position she worked as a civil litigator as well as a volunteer attorney with the ACLU of Colorado and a local non-profit called OpenWorld Learning.