Meet Lisa Hamm-Greenawalt

With her outgoing, make-everyone-feel comfortable style, you'd never suspect she's a New Yorker.  She isn't really, I suppose -- just a transplant from her most recent job in Manhattan.

One of eight children, Lisa's family moved all around the Northeast while she was growing up, instilling in her a love for travel and curiosity about the world.  "From fourth grade on, I knew I wanted to pursue journalism," she says while telling of her career as a journalist with Associated Press where she was stationed in Washington, DC, then Puerto Rico before moving back to the mainland and being based in New York City.

While in middle school, she produced her own neighborhood newspaper called the Arkay Express, hand writing and illustrating each copy without the use of any duplicating equipment.

She has the assertiveness of a New Yorker, which is what landed her a job with AP in the first place.  After graduating with a degree in communications from Glassboro State College (now Rowan University) in New Jersey, she decided to start at the top and work her way down, phoning someone with AP in the DC office, saying she'd be in Washington on such-and-such a date and asking when he could see her for an interview.  The man who would later become her life-long mentor was so impressed with this prospective reporter's technique at getting an interview that he made time, even though there were no positions open.

After the obligatory entry-level assignments, her career included a few things a bit more glamorous such as doing Metro Traffic Control covering the afternoon drive, beach reports, and reporting from a two-seater plane over the beltway in DC.

Her ability to speak French led to her to a post with AP in the Caribbean during the Clinton administration when the US intervened militarily after a coup against Haiti's elected leader, one of the many stories she covered.

Lisa's hopes to someday become an international correspondent were encouraged by time spent editing stories on the international desk in New York City, but she eventually traded marriage and children for global excitement.

While her children were quite young, she started her own communications business doing radio ads as well as articles for magazines and the Internet.

A move to Colorado three years ago has proven satisfying for the entire family.  Lisa and her husband, Bob Greenawalt, are outdoorsy people, enjoying cycling, running, and mountain climbing. She felt Colorado offered a better environment (and better schools!) for their children, Kyra (13) and Lexie (11), who currently attend Evergreen Middle School.  They vacation annually at a second home in Vermont.

Lisa accepted the position as Marketing and Communications Director at Mt. Evans Home Health and Hospice in April where she feels like she's "really making a difference, touching everyone in the community."  She enjoys immensely "letting the community know all about the great stuff Mt. Evans does and getting the community involved in it," as she puts it.  Sometimes she bikes to work from her home in Kittredge or bikes on her lunch hour.

Passing the rigorous audition for being in The Evergreen Chorale, known for its superior level amongst community choral groups, is another one of Lisa's more recent accomplishments.  She not only sings with the group but has agreed to head up the marketing committee as well.

After her busy life in a huge metropolitan area such as New York where one rarely sees another recognizable face beyond the home, office, or TV set, she values running into volunteers at the grocery store or seeing people wearing the Freedom Run T-shirts she helped to design.

"I'm in awe every time I drive anywhere," she exclaims, citing the ability to see the Continental Divide on the way to Wal-Mart as an example.  "I love it here -- never want to leave!"