Welcome to Willamette

Most fellowships don’t start with a raft trip down the Colorado River, but Trevor Findley ’06 got lucky.

His El Pomar Fellowship started with a team building exercise that included negotiating 30 sets of rapids —with names like Capsize and Big Drop — through Canyonlands National Park in Utah. The 90-mile stretch is known as one of the swiftest river passages on the continent.

“It was exciting because we were learning rafting skills, but also team building skills that we can apply to our work,” Findley says.

That work revolves around the El Pomar Foundation’s Community Stewardship programs in urban and rural communities in Colorado. The El Pomar Fellowship, a highly competitive, two-year program, nurtures leadership skills as fellows fan out across the state, working on the front lines of philanthropy. Fellows are assigned to different foundation programs; Findley’s program addresses needs specific to each region of the state.

“I’ve been assigned to the High Country, which includes a lot of the resort towns,” says Findley, who works with a regional council to focus on health care. “Service workers in the resort communities often don’t make a living wage and there are a surprising number of uninsured children.”

Findley’s role with the council is to identify organizations that address specific needs — including a lack of providers and the difficulty of enrolling children in the state health care program — from multiple angles. He has researched physician loan repayment programs that may attract providers and collaborated with community organizations to create plans to enroll children.

Findley has also worked with the Empty Stocking Fund, an annual community fundraiser that supports 14 human service agencies in the Pikes Peak Region. Last year’s campaign raised more than a million dollars to help families with housing, emergency food and other needs.