Upbeat Colorado has been providing access to classical music to a wide range of communities since 2001, with a focus on underserved areas. Our 501c3 has brought numerous performances to schools, churches, day care centers, retirement homes, hospitals, and coffee houses. Upbeat Colorado is proud to announce our plan to offer scholarships for high quality music lessons to students from low income families.
Board Members
Dianne Betkowski
Sarah Biber
Stephen Dilts
Elizabeth Esty
Carol Rankin
Peggy Ritchie
Peggy Ritchie joined National Council of Corrections as a Senior Program Specialist in the Fall of 2012 and transitioned to Impact Justice in 2015-2018. She worked specifically with Field Initiated Technical Assistance and support areas related to audits, Implementation Training and curriculum development. She began consulting with Impact Justice in 2019.
Peggy retired from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) as Deputy Director, Correctional Health Care Services and was an appointee of the Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger Administration. Ms. Ritchie served as a Senior Policy and Budget Analyst for the California Legislative Analysts’ Office prior to her appointment. Peggy has over twenty years of service in the corrections field including more than seven years with the National Institute of Corrections, U.S. Department of Justice, including Technical Assistance Manager for the National Academy of Corrections. Peggy was the Deputy Director of the Office of Law Enforcement and Technology Center Border Research Center, U.S. Department of Justice, San Diego, California.
As Deputy Director for Ohio’s Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections (ODRC) her responsibilities included overseeing the implementation of a Technology Transfer Committee, Information and Operational Technologies, Research, Offender Records, and Strategic Planning. Peggy was Vice President of Research and Strategic Planning for ORIANA House, Ohio. Peggy also served over seven years in the Arizona Department of Corrections including activating a medium custody prison on the Mexican border. Governor Bruce Babbitt named her Outstanding Woman of the Year during her tenure with Arizona. Peggy was the Director of La Clinical Del Pueblo Behavioral Health Center, Superior, Arizona and has held other positions in Community Corrections, not-for-profits, and academics.
Peggy provided consulting on prison operations and community corrections issues during the emergence of democracy in Latvia and Lithuania. She received Latvia’s highest award for service provided to a non-citizen. Peggy represented the International Community Corrections Association (ICCA) at the United Nations Criminal Justice Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) for over five years. She is a long-term member of the American Correctional Association, International Community Corrections Association, and the International Prison and Corrections Association IPCA). Peggy was appointed to Governor Polis’s Community Corrections Council in 2019. She received the Lifetime Achievement Award from Who’s Who in America in 2020. Peggy has an MBA from the University of Phoenix, Arizona and a Master’s degree in Education (Counseling and Guidance) from North Dakota State University; Peggy has a Bachelor’s Degree of Science, from the University of North Dakota and attended the College of William and Mary for a summer session.
Advisory Board Members
Adrianna Abarca
John Dilts
Dennis Gallagher
Mike Green
After being “on the road” for many years, Mike came home to work in Colorado, using the skills and experience he’s gained to contribute to community change and community innovation with the Denver Foundation.
Mike was the training director of the ABCD Institute’s Neighborhood Circle for four years. This was a learning partnership of twenty community organizations across North America, formed to explore “what works’” for community building. With Henry Moore, John McKnight, and Jody Kretzmann, Mike founded the ABCD Training Group in 1997, which offered training, consultation, and workshops for over ten years. Mike Green, Henry Moore and John O’Brien have published a book and DVD about ABCD implementation for successful community partnerships: “When People Care Enough To Act: ABCD In Action” (published by Inclusion Press, Toronto, 2007.) The book is about community partnerships that work with residents at the center.
Mike Green grew up in a small Texas town and has lived in Denver for many years. He is most importantly married to Carol Rankin, the founder of Upbeat Colorado, and has one grown child, Annie. Mike’s present framework for practice came from three key life experience areas: community organizing, social work and business. He has community organizing experience developing neighborhood resident organizations, congregation based organizations, and community partnerships among neighborhoods and agencies to address social and economic issues. Mike had the opportunity to work in Denver for Metropolitan Organizations for People, now known as Together Colorado, two times from 1984 to 1988.
Mike has also worked in business having started three different successful companies, He has experience in business development, marketing, organizational development, and management. Mike was a licensed clinical social worker (L.C.S.W.) for 20 years and worked as a family therapist. Mike has worked as a social worker in human services, public welfare, mental health and schools. Mike helped start one of the first charter schools in Colorado, P.S. 1.
A key question often asked in Mike’s work is “How can helping agencies, local government, and schools shift from offering “service to clients” towards offering both services AND support for “citizen action?” He believes it takes both good programs and organized community members to solve most community problems today.
Much of Mike’s work is about the question of building more inclusive welcoming communities: How do marginalized clients move to being valued, contributing members of the community? Mike’s inclusion work has a focus on two related issues: organizing local residents in everyday life for inclusion of more isolated people; and helping service provider agencies get organized to support these local community groups in their work for community inclusion. Mike’s daughter, Annie, is a person with cognitive disabilities who inspires his work.
Mike wants to contribute in Colorado working on the necessities of a good life that only more organized local communities can achieve: health, safety, a good environment, stronger local economy, well being of children and families, access to the arts and affordable food.
All families and children need the opportunity for art and music in their lives. Mike feels that Upbeat Colorado is so important because it recognizes that beautiful music and high quality music education must be available to all people.
SoYoung Lee
Benita Muniz
Willem Luyten, Student volunteer
Adrian Caro, Student volunteer
Rachel Kelly, Student volunteer
Julia Luyten, Student volunteer
Samantha Buyungo, Student volunteer