Staff

Maureen S. Farrell, Esq., Executive Director
Ms. Farrell was a staff attorney at the Legal Aid Society of Metropolitan Denver for approximately 10 years. While at LASMD, Ms. Farrell practiced consumer, housing, domestic relations and public benefits law, including welfare reform. She also engaged in legislative and administrative advocacy and was involved in and responsible for a number of special projects. Ms. Farrell began working for Catholic Charities in 1996 on welfare reform issues both at the Legislature and before the State Board, Department of Human Services. Much of her work at Catholic Charities involved analyzing and drafting proposed legislation and amendments related to welfare reform. Once the State adopted welfare reform legislation, Ms. Farrell focused upon implementation of the new law and the development of state regulations and county policies and practices. She later led the efforts to create a separate and independent entity, CCLP.

Email: mfarrell@cclponline.org

Phone: 303-573-5669 ext. 301

Elisabeth Arenales, Esq., Director, Health Care Program
Ms. Arenales has been the Director of the Colorado Center on Law and Policy’s Health Care Program since January 2000.  She has a successful track record of protecting, preserving and expanding access to healthcare, particularly for lower income Coloradans.  She advocates at the legislature and before the Medical Services Board.   She was a founder and served for six years as Board Chair of the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative.  She was appointed by Speaker Romanoff to serve as a consumer representative on the Colorado Blue Ribbon Commission on Health Care Reform.  Prior to working at CCLP, Ms. Arenales was staff attorney for the Colorado Lawyers Committee where she focused on access to education, particularly in rural areas of Colorado.  She also spent one year coordinating complex litigation related to the rights of landowners in an around San Luis, Colorado to access land known then as the Taylor Ranch.  Ms. Arenales graduated from the University of Colorado School of Law in 1993.   She currently serves on the Advisory Committee for the Ombudsman for Medicaid Managed Care, the Advisory Board of Family Voices Colorado, and is a member of The Denver Foundation’s Health Committee.  Ms. Arenales has been recognized by various organizations including the University of Colorado (Law School Alumni Award for Distinguished Achievement), the Colorado Bar Association (Donald Hoagland Award), and Trial Lawyers for Public Justice (Trial Lawyer of the Year).  In 2006, Ms. Arenales was recognized as a Community Health Leader by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. 

Email: earenales@cclponline.org

Phone: 303-573-5669 ext. 302

Ed Kahn, Esq., Special Counsel 
The former President of CCLP’s Board of Directors, Mr. Kahn left the board in 2004 to join the staff as Special Counsel. Mr. Kahn brings extensive legal experience to CCLP.  As a partner at Kelly Haglund Garnsey and Kahn, LLC, he has arbitrated more than 90 cases involving franchises, contracts, health care, business acquisitions, securities, rules of the Olympics, insurance contracts, consumer finance and educational testing and represented companies and individuals in disputes over contracts of many kinds. Mr. Kahn also has extensive experience in pro bono and public interest matters. He represented the public interest in obtaining $155 million for conversion foundation after lobbying statute governing conversion to for profit status of Colorado Blue Cross and other health insurers; was Special Counsel, appointed by Colorado Supreme Court, to investigate possible mismanagement by State Public Defender; was appointed as Special counsel by then Boulder County District Court Judge Murray Richtel, to prosecute Boulder Daily Camera and two reporters for improper contacts with jurors in a death penalty criminal case. Mr. Kahn has also represented the Colorado State Legislature in an action securing a ruling that legislation concerning confidentiality of grand jury reports took precedence over a Supreme Court rule. In Ramos v. Lamm, Mr. Kahn successfully represented plaintiffs in a landmark attorneys fees case. Mr. Kahn received his J.D. from Harvard Law School and BA from the University of Colorado. His civic and professional activities include: Fellow, American College of Trial Lawyers; Martindale-Hubbell "AV" rating, and listed in "Best Lawyers in America" for more than 20 years; Commercial Arbitration Panel of American Arbitration Association; Practitioner-in-Residence, University of Denver Law School, Spring 2000; Lecturer in Constitutional Law, University of Colorado School of Law (1975); Colorado Supreme Court Grievance Committee (1996-1999), and Hearing Board 1999 to present; Colorado Supreme Court Judicial Advisory Committee (1994 to 2000); Colorado Lawyers Trust Account Foundation (COLTAF) (Director 1990-1995) (President 1990-1992); Legal Aid Society of Metropolitan Denver (Acting Director of Litigation five months in 1994); Denver Bar Association (President 1984-1985); Colorado Bar Association and Denver Bar Association (various activities, including Board membership); Colorado Lawyers Committee (Founder, 1978 and Director from time to time); American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado (Board Member 1967-1972) (Chair of the Board for two years), and member of its Legal Panel 2001 to present; Harvard Law School Association of Colorado (President 1989-1990); and Denver, Colorado, and American Bar Associations.

Email: ekahn@cclponline.org

Phone: 303-573-5669 ext. 305

Scott Downes, Communications Director

Scott Downes oversees all communications and media relations at CCLP and the Colorado Fiscal Policy Institute.  He has nearly a decade of experience in communications, media relations, policy development, political campaigns, and research.  As a veteran campaign strategist and speechwriter, Scott has worked in Colorado, New Mexico, Indiana, and Washington, D.C., at all levels of government.  In 2002, Scott managed a winning congressional campaign in Indiana’s 9th District.  Scott served as the press secretary on Indiana Governor Joe Kernan’s 2004 campaign, and later as a policy advisor and chief speechwriter to Governor Bill Richardson.  In 2005, he moved to Denver to start his own speechwriting and strategic communications business, where his clients have included elected officials, advertising and real estate companies, and non-profit organizations.  Scott graduated from the University of Notre Dame. He currently volunteers on the Community Awareness Committee for Denver’s Road Home—the city's initiative to end homelessness, and is in the 2008 Class at the Colorado Insititute for Leadership Training.

Email: sdownes@cclponline.org

Phone:  303-573-5669 ext. 306.

Nilmini Senanayake Hecox, Development Director
Nilmini Senanayake Hecox joined CCLP from The Colorado School of Mines, where she worked as a major gift fundraiser in the Office of Institutional Advancement.  During her time at Mines, Nilmini worked exclusively with major alumni donors in all areas of development from prospect identification to donor cultivation, solicitation and stewardship.  She also managed the annual Reunion Giving Volunteer Program which raised approximately 30 percent of the School’s total annual giving.  Prior to moving to Colorado, Nilmini was the Fund Developer at Middle Way House, a domestic violence shelter in Bloomington, Indiana.  Nilmini also has experience in healthcare philanthropy, and interned at the Blooming Hospital Foundation during graduate school.  Her educational background is in Theater History – she holds a Master’s Degree in the field from Indiana University, in addition to her Bachelor’s in English and Theater from Lawrence University, Appleton, WI.

Email: nhecox@cclponline.org

Phone: 303-573-5669 ext. 311

Rita Young, Business Manager
Rita Young joined the Center in June of 2006. She brings more than 20 years experience in nonprofit office and business management and oversees the daily operations of the Center and the Institute. Most recently, Center, Ms. Young was the Executive Secretary and Board Liaison for the Clayton Foundation in Denver. Prior to that she served as Administrative Assistant for Colorado Legal Services.

Email: ryoung@cclponline.org

Phone: 303-573-5669 ext. 307

Elizabeth Feder, Health Policy Analyst

Elizabeth joined the Colorado Center on Law and Policy in January 2007 as a Health Policy Analyst.  She has a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University and taught the history of medicine, public health, and health policy, among other subjects, at Colorado College since 1995.  She served as a public member of the state Board of Medical Examiners and serves on the boards of an array of organizations active at the state and local level around issues of access, equity, and affordability in health care, including Peak Vista Community Health Center, the Citizens Committee for Public Health, and the Colorado Springs Consumer Health Initiative.  Elizabeth also holds elective office, serving as councilmember on the Manitou Springs City Council.

Email:  efeder@cclponline.org

Phone:  303-573-5669 ext. 308

Kathy A. White, Project Coordinator, Colorado Fiscal Policy Institute
Kathy White worked as a paralegal and assistant manager of regulatory compliance for an international insurance company prior to working for CCLP. In that position she coordinated compliance reporting for five companies offering health products in 50 states, tracked and analyzed health care related legislation at the national and state level, and conducted legal research to assist internal departments in development of compliant policies and procedures based on research findings. She also created position and functioned as research coordinator for department of six attorneys and six paralegals. Prior to that, Ms. White worked as a commercial real estate paralegal and volunteer for the American Civil Liberties Union.

Email: kwhite@cclponline.org

Phone: 303-573-5669 ext. 303

Carol Hedges, Senior Policy Analyst, Colorado Fiscal Policy Institute
Carol Hedges is a recognized expert on the effects of Colorado’s TABOR amendment.  Her current research explores spending and taxation in Colorado in light of fairness, efficiency and adequacy.  Her most recent report is entitled, Aiming for the Middle, Benchmarks for Colorado’s Future.  Carol is the primary author of the Bell Policy Center publication,  Ten Years of TABOR: A Study of Colorado’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, a comprehensive study of Colorado’s fiscal and budget situation in light of the TABOR constitutional amendment.  Carol has experience in the philanthropic sector and in political service with Governor Roy Romer of Colorado,the National Governors’ Association and with Governor John Carlin of Kansas.  Carol has a BS in Public Administration from Emporia State University and a JD from the University of Kansas.  Carol is currently a Board member for the Front Range Economic Strategies Center in Denver.  She is a member of the Colorado Nonprofit Association’s Leadership Advisory Committee and a member of the Technical Advisory Committee for Governor Ritter’s Blue Ribbon Transportation Panel.

Email: chedges@cclponline.org

Phone: 303-573-5669 ext. 309

Adela Flores-Brennan, Federal Budget Advocate,

Colorado Fiscal Policy Institute

Adela Flores-Brennanrecently re-joined the Colorado Center on Law and Policy as the federal budget advocate working on major issues before Congress this year such as SCHIP and Food Stamp reauthorization.  Adela is a graduate of the University of Colorado School of Law (JD ’05), and the University of Denver Graduate School of International Studies (MA ’99, BA ’98).  Her previous work experience has included policy analyst and program coordinator for the Colorado Fiscal Policy Institute, clerkships for the Hon. H. Jeffery Bayless and the Hon. John Madden, a policy position with the National Conference of State Legislators, and various other legal and policy positions related to environment and higher education. 

Email:  afbrennan@cclponline.org

Phone:  303-573-5669 ext. 313

Tracey Stewart, Economic Self-Sufficiency Program Coordinator

Colorado Fiscal Policy Institute

Tracey Stewart is the Economic Self-Sufficiency Program Coordinator.  She monitors the updates for the Colorado Self-Sufficiency Standard tables and the Colorado Self-Sufficiency Calculator.  More importantly, Tracey promotes the use of the Self-Sufficiency Standard as a new tool for measuring the economic health of Colorado’s families.  Tracey’s utilizes her 20-year background in outreach and marketing as she travels around Colorado informing and education individuals, non-profits, state and local governments, businesses and educational institutions about the value of the Self-Sufficiency Standard as well as the Calculator.  Before joining COFPI, Tracey worked with Colorado Coalition for the Homeless where she was the project manager for the Colorado Homeless Management Information System used throughout rural Colorado. Prior to her non-profit career, Tracey was a network consultant and software application specialist.  Her gift for gab was sharpened with a bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College and a Masters from the School of Education at the University of Denver.  She also advocates as a volunteer board member for the Delores Project, a participant of the Bus 15 Coalition, and a member of the Denver Human Services Network.

Email:  tstewart@cclponline.org

Phone:  303-573-5669 ext. 314  

Marty Esquibel, Fiscal Analyst

Colorado Fiscal Policy Institute

D. Marty Esquibel joined COFPI in December 2007.  He received his degrees in engineering from Stanford University (M.S. ’92, B.S. ’90).  After graduating from Stanford, he worked for Hewlett-Packard for over 8 years.  During his time with H-P, he attended the University of Denver Law School (JD ’00).  After graduating he worked as a law clerk for Hon. H. Jeffery Bayless.  He then worked on the Mares for Mayor, and on the Citizens for a Healthier Colorado campaigns.  He later accepted a position as a prosecutor for the Denver City Attorney’s Office before transferring to the newly created Office of the Independent Monitor (OIM).  He helped establish OIM as one of the top police/sheriff oversight agencies in the country and build its community-police mediation program into the largest per-capita in the country.

Email:  mesquibel@cclponline.org

Phone:  303-573-5669 ext. 304