AREDAY Team

Chip Comins 
Founder,
Chairman & CEO of AREI, Inc.

Chip Comins is the Chairman and CEO of the American Renewable Energy Institute, (AREI, Inc), Founder of the AREDAY Summit, Expo and Film Festival, Managing Director of American Spirit Productions, President and CEO of W Energy, Inc. and Co-founder of the Green Girl Minute. He has produced and directed both long and short form documentary films for educational and broadcast television markets, including The National Renewable Energy Laboratory, DOE Wind Powering America, PBS, Link TV and BET.

A long-time advocate of developing and implementing renewable energy resources to abate green house gases and climate change, Comins advocates a business approach to solving both the economic and environmental crisis. In 2009 he produced 13 official side events at the UNFCCC COP 15 in Copenhagen, has just completed producing the 11th Anniversary AREDAY Summit featuring President Jimmy Carter “Accelerating Solutions for the Great Transition” August 10-13, 2014. Comins is now implementing all five AREI programs including the 12th annual AREDAY Summit.

Sally Ranney
Co-Founder &
President of AREI, Inc.

Sally Ranney President, American Renewable Energy Institute (AREI); CoFounder, International Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN), has forty years experience in the environmental arena. She is CEO of Stillwater Preservation, LLC, a wetlands mitigation banking company and a Patron of Nature for the IUCN. Ranney is Chairman of eraGlobal Alliance and an anchor for “A Matter of Degree,” an internet series on climate change. Ranney has worked with three U.S. Presidents, including appointed by President Reagan to his Commission on American Outdoors. She now serves on the Global Advisory Committee of Women & the Green Economy (WAGE,) the Advisory Board of RoundRock Partners, LLC. and the board of the Climate Accountability Institute. Recognitions include the Horace Albright Award, the International Conservation Award, Earth Guardians’ Earth Stewardship Award, and the Children’s Environmental Literacy Foundation (CELF) Lifetime Achievement Award.

Ali Welch
Program Manager &
Special Assistant to the CEO

Ali Welch is a Roaring Fork Valley Native with a Bachelor Degree in Environmental Sociology and a double minor in International Development and Global Environmental Sustainability from Colorado State University. An avid lover of nature, her main interest focuses on the connection between society and the environment and what shifts people and businesses towards sustainable practices. Ali interned for the Colorado Legislature at the State Capitol where she received an insiders view of how the legislative process functions. She is now thrilled to be working with an organization that facilitates the implementation of renewable energy and sustainability and is happy to be living back in the mountains of her homeland.

Jeanette Darnauer
PR and Communications

Jeanette Darnauer is founder and CEO of Darnauer Group Marketing + PR, an Aspen-based, strategic communications firm providing community relations, public affairs, media relations, brand positioning and consulting services for the travel and tourism, resort real estate, public, professional and non-profit sectors since 1991. The firm has special expertise in the fields of environmental sustainability, arts and culture, and aviation. Their strategic and creative ability has been recognized with 50 national and international awards.

The agency created the logo and launched the successful fund raising efforts for the Presidential Climate Action Plan.  They have been involved with numerous sustainable development projects and environmental conferences. For eight years she handled all communications work for Amory and Hunter Lovins at Rocky Mountain Institute.  She staged Washington DC press conferences on their ground breaking work and successfully produced national book tours for their first Green Development book.  In 2009, the firm joined the invitation-only Public Relations Boutiques International, a prestigious network of national and international public relations firms.  She holds a B.A. in Mass Communications from the University of Denver and has worked on a Master’s in Filmmaking at the University of Oklahoma.

Barclay Lottimer
Production Manager

Barclay Lottimer has been involved in more than 50 theatrical productions on stages from Europe to Los Angeles.  He has developed and produced motion pictures and television productions in Hollywood for Disney, MGM, Columbia, CBS, Warner Bros., Paramount, Orion, Lorimar and others.

Throughout his career, he has lectured frequently at universities nationwide on topics that include strategic marketing, promotions, finance, and developing, producing and distribution of media projects.

Janice Hall
Business Development
and Strategic Partnerships

Janice Hall is President of Natural Network International (NNI) since 1991. A business development, marketing and trends forecasting company, specializing in market intelligence, branding and strategic management. Hall has decades of pioneering experience with natural health, organic, environment and sustainability policy, and products. Additional expertise includes environmental sciences, climate change and supply chain issues.

Previously she served as Director of International Development and Associate Group Publisher for New Hope Network, the international communications leader in the natural products industry. Key leadership for international events spanning three continents includes: the Natural Products Expos, the Citizens Summit at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Mayors for Peace, UN events. Hall consults with the American Renewable Energy Institute (AREI) for Business Development & Marketing and is on the Board of the Environmental Education Fund.

Sue Winters
SageTurtle Design
Website Management
Production Coordinator

Sue Winters, owner of SageTurtle Design, a custom website design company based in Santa Fe, NM with clients in Europe, South America, and the U.S.

With 40 years experience in visual communications as a freelance photographer, Sue has documented numerous environmental symposiums in the Aspen area, and currently is designing custom websites for artists, alternative medicine practitioners, and environmental non-profits.

Sue is currently managing the AREDAY website, creating email marketing campaigns, and assisting in the organization and production of the AREDAY Summit.

Kristen DeMay
DeMay Designs, LLC
Graphic Designer

Kristen DeMay, owner of DeMay Designs llc, spent the past few years as a graphic and web designer in the Roaring Fork Valley. A Michigan native, Kristen graduated from Michigan State University and after a short stint in education found her true calling using her imagination and computer skills in the mountains along with her Yorkie Tiki Bob.

Her role on the AREDAY team is to complete print materials (such as the program, newspaper ads, banners…), and assist with any other design needs. She is thrilled to be involved with AREDAY and looks forward to seeing how the event evolves and grows each year.

Taylor Barry
Development Associate

Taylor Barry moved to the Roaring Fork Valley from Oklahoma City in the Spring of 2014. She began her studies at Texas Christian University and soon began to travel the world where she  discovered her passion for and connection to nature.

Taylor’s love and passion for the environment has propelled her toward her journey of environmental advocacy. Her main focus is environmental education and facilitating the collaboration of those who focus on protecting the environment and those developing natural resources.

Audrey Allen
Logistics Coordinator

Audrey Allen is a resident to Colorado, and a native of Portland, Oregon. Audrey has the passion to make her mark while exploring this planet we call home. Having a love for travel and a deep appreciation for nature and all species, she’s determined to help bring more awareness to the importance of climate change and our environment. Instilled in her from the start, she feels a responsibility in helping shape the future for generations to come. With filmmaking in her family, she grew up in the business, working as a production assistant at a very young age, and later as a Camera Assistant/Stage Coordinator on various tv series/commercial work and independent projects. In recent years, working in marketing and web/digital design and now excited to be with AREI, ready to be a part of something bigger. Loves to volunteer, whether it’s for Aspen Film, cleaning up the Oregon coast, helping with a fossil dig or right here in our own backyard.

Natalie Rae Fuller
AREDAY Intern

Natalie Rae Fuller, local Carbondale resident, came to the Roaring Fork Valley to study permaculture with Jerome Osentowski at the Central Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute. She is a co-author of his collaborative book, The Forest Garden Greenhouse. She sits on the Carbondale Environmental Board, and is secretary of the Roaring Fork Beginning Farmers. Natalie is passionate about keeping fossil fuels in the ground, utilizing compostable or reusable material, and local farms.

Eva Leung Y.W.
Regenerative Development Advisor

Eva Leung graduated from National University of Singapore with a B.A. Architecture (Honors) in 2005 and with a Masters in Architecture from Harvard Graduate School of Design in 2012. Eva was raised in Hong Kong and Singapore, worked in New York and Boston, and has eight years of professional experience in the building industry. She designs processes that prioritize strategic alignment of interests across ecological, social and economic platforms. Eva’s expertise is in the comprehensive transformation of living systems through place-making and food-system integration. Her vision is to enable a world culture rooted in empathy and shared abundance. She is a member of the 2017 Urban Agriculture Ambassador Program for the City of Somerville in Massachusetts. Eva’s interests are Vastu Architecture, regenerative agriculture, Vipassana meditation and Muay Thai kickboxing.

A certified Permaculture Designer, Eva is the Co-Founder / Director of Design & Strategic Partnerships at Terra Cura Inc., a Massachusetts-based regenerative development nonprofit organization. She is also the Founder of We:Generation, a blog that explores the intersection of regeneration, design, spirituality, technology and politics.