Doris Dewton, President and Eagle County Trustee

• Colorado Mountain College Trustee from District 7 (Eagle County)

• Retired director of Government Relations for the National Petroleum Refiners Association
  

• Bachelors Bryn Mawr College political science, 1969Masters Latin American Studies University of Texas at Austin, 1971 National Defense Education Act Fellowship for Foreign Area Studies
  

• Elected to Board of Trustees 2001

Being a breast cancer survivor may be an unusual motivator for becoming a Colorado Mountain College Trustee, but it helped Doris Dewton decide to run for the office she won on November 6. "I have the attitude that I do because I am a breast cancer survivor and I think that every day is a treasure and I should do something with every day. Life is good and this is one of the ways I am making a contribution."

Even though she is new to the CMC Board of Trustees, Doris Dewton has been involved with Colorado Mountain College for the last five years. As a member of the "Friends of the Campus" advisory committee for CMC's Vail/Eagle Valley Campus, she led the local campaign to lift "TABOR" restrictions on the revenue CMC can keep last year. The initiative won with 71% of the vote in Eagle County. Her success was the result of lobbying hard for the change. "I met with every metro board and town government and home owners association that we could identify and there was pretty strong enthusiasm for a new Eagle county campus and what CMC was doing," said the new trustee.

Lobbying is one of the important skills Dewton has to offer in her new position. She comes to the board with 13 years of experience lobbying Congress and federal agencies. She worked for the U.S. Department of Energy and its predecessor agencies from 1971-1980, and was a member of the Senior Executive Service and Assistant Administrator for Petroleum Operations, eventually running all of the Federal fuel allocation programs. Next, she worked as a lobbyist in Washington, DC for Ashland Oil from 1980 to 1990, with a focus on petroleum, tax and environmental issues. And she was director of Government Relations for the National Petroleum Refiners Association from 1991-1993, setting up a new department with a focus on environmental issues, including reformulated clean gasoline and diesel fuel.

After moving full-time to Edwards in 1994, she worked as a consultant on environmental issues for Total Petroleum in Denver and on educational programs for the National Association of Convenience Stores. She also led an international oil industry advisory group for NATO in Brussels, Belgium until 1998 when it was disbanded.

Locally she works as a volunteer with Bravo! Colorado, the Vail Valley Music Festival, the Vilar Center for the Arts, the Vail Valley Foundation, the Literacy Project, Gore Range Natural Science School, Meet the Wilderness, the Eagle River Cleanup. She recently completed a five-year term as President of the Singletree Property Owners Association, and participated as their advocate at the County level. She is on the Board of Vail Club 50 and on the board of the Vail Symposium, which sponsors programs in the valley in the areas of public affairs, classic movies with lectures, and an artists' series.

And as a volunteer with CMC's Valley/Eagle Valley Campus, she helped set up the Creative Life program with low-cost seminars, forums and workshops to expand one's intellectual horizons. Creative Life Director Sandra Morgan says, the voters made a good choice with Dewton.

"I'm delighted. Doris is one of the most intelligent people I've had the pleasure of meeting. She has the ability to think clearly, make decisions and look at all the facts. She has no special agenda. She is an independent thinker. She just cares about the good of the cause. I'm happy that the voters saw this."

Dewton received her Bachelor's degree in political science from Bryn Mawr College and a Master's degree in Latin American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. She also was a recipient of the National Defense Education Act Fellowship for Foreign Area Studies.

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