Bryan Welker

Before founding Big Dog Ranch Rescue, Lauree Simmons built her career in custom home construction and interior design. A request to help with a dog rescue quickly exposed Lauree to a system operating beyond capacity. It was a moment that would ultimately redefine the direction of her work. Bryan Welker sat down with Simmons to talk about how she came to rescue work, what is driving the crisis in shelters and what it will take to change it.

As director of Programming at The Arts Campus at Willits (TACAW) in Basalt, Kendall Smith operates at the intersection of taste, instinct and analysis, trying to predict what audiences will show up for, but also what might move them once they’re in the room. His atypical arts career trajectory provides a surprisingly functional foundation for his curated programming at the arts nonprofit.

Running a successful business in Aspen depends heavily on being present, and this is especially true in veterinary medicine, where emergencies often occur far from treatment facilities. Dr. Anne Cooley arrived in 2011 and quickly became a consistent presence in the community — first as a new veterinarian learning the rhythms of the valley, then as the owner of Aspen Animal Hospital, and now as its steady clinical leader under WellHaven ownership.