Introducing Dana Guinn on Guild staff

Written by Dana Guinn and Esmé Cadiente 

Dana joined the Guild in May 2023 as the Southwest Partnership Manager. While the main focus of her work is coordinating the 2-3-2 Partnership and working on the Rio Chama Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program , she is also developing Foresters for the Birds programming in the Southwest and working with the Women Owning Woodlands Network. A Colorado girl all her life, Dana looks forward to continuing to work on creative solutions for a climate altered future with a broad variety of partners in rural communities in southwest Colorado and northern New Mexico, and to sharing successes and working through challenges with a national community. 

After graduating from the University of Colorado Boulder where she majored in geography, anthropology and environmental science, Dana completed her master’s in integrated agricultural resource management at Colorado State University. Prior to joining the Guild, she developed professional values and perspectives working in public education, marketing, journalism, and the non-profit sector. Her work as a secondary mathematics teacher also led her to earn a master’s in culturally and linguistically diverse education from Adams State University. These experiences have led her to focus heavily on building relationships, emphasizing community values, and supporting critical thinking among those with diverse perspectives and backgrounds. Dana is excited to continue coordinating collaborative processes for ecologically, economically, and socially responsible forestry and natural resourcemanagement in the southwestat the Guild, where she’ll lend her skills in facilitation, project management, program development and communication to the team. 

In her free time Dana enjoys gardening, rafting, reading, and serves as a school board member in Archuleta County, where she’s made her home in Pagosa Springs since 2013.  

 Note from Supervisor Esmé Cadiente: We’re thrilled to have Dana join the Guild as the Southwest Partnership Manager. Dana has been building and coordinating essential partnerships in the landscape for many years. Her expertise in managing partnership and funder relations with the 2-3-2 Cohesive Strategy Partnership and the Rio Chama Collaborative Forest Restoration Program project will further the Guild’s initiative to collaboratively develop solutions to move project outcomes forward and help fulfill the Guild’s mission of ecological forestry in the Southwest United States.