Tenacity 2026: Women Leading the Future of Land & Water

Every meaningful conversation benefits from someone who understands both the big picture and the local landscape.

Andrea Aragon has spent more than three decades working alongside nonprofits, funders, and community leaders across southern Colorado. In her role as Executive Director of the Robert Hoag Rawlings Foundation, she helps guide investments that strengthen communities over the long term. Earlier in her career, as President and CEO of United Way of Pueblo County, she saw firsthand how leadership, trust, and partnership determine what actually gets done.

Andrea brings that perspective to TENACITY. She understands how ideas move from discussion to action, and she knows how to create space for a thoughtful, inclusive, and grounded conversation grounded in real experience.

Tahlia Bear works at the intersection of land, water, culture, and climate across the West. As an enrolled member of the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation and the Navajo Nation, and in her role with Western Resources Advocates, she collaborates with Tribal Nations to advance clean energy, protect lands, and address water challenges across seven Western states.

Her perspective adds important depth to this conversation. Conservation decisions affect communities differently, and the history of land and water in the West is layered and complex. Tahlia brings experience grounded in both policy and lived reality, helping us better understand how those layers shape today's choices and tomorrow's outcomes.

Rebecca Jewett brings the on-the-ground realities of conservation to the stage.

As President and CEO of Palmer Land Conservancy, she works daily with landowners, public partners, and communities to protect working farms and ranches, develop new approaches to optimizing water resources, and ensure outdoor spaces remain accessible. Her work sits at the intersection of agriculture, growth, water, and recreation, where trade-offs are real, and solutions require collaboration.

Her perspective is essential because conservation today is not theoretical. It is negotiated, practical, and long-term. Rebecca understands what it takes to build agreements that last, and how to protect land in ways that benefit both rural economies and urban communities.

Local leadership shapes how conservation shows up in everyday life.

Jan Martin brings decades of civic experience in Colorado Springs, including service on City Council and leadership roles with the Garden of the Gods Foundation and Pikes Peak Waterways. She understands how policy decisions, land use planning, and community investment influence the health of our parks and creeks.

Her voice matters because conservation is not only about rural landscapes or distant watersheds. It is also about how cities grow, how waterways are restored, and how communities choose to invest in long-term resilience.

Caitlin Ochs documents climate change and water challenges through the lens of agriculture, working alongside farmers who are adapting in real time. Her photography and storytelling connect complex environmental shifts to human experience.

Conservation is not only about policy or land and water transactions. It is also about narrative. The way we tell the story of Colorado's future influences how people engage with it. Caitlin helps us see both the stakes and the resilience emerging across working landscapes.