Our Honorary Chairs
Ken Salazar
United States Senator, Colorado
Ken Salazar was elected to represent Colorado in the U.S. Senate in 2004. As Attorney General of Colorado, Ken Salazar led efforts to fight crime, address youth and family violence, combat fraud against the elderly, and protect Colorado’s environment.
Ken is a fifth generation Coloradan. He and his family have been ranchers and farmers in the San Luis Valley since before Colorado was a state. His family helped settle what is now Colorado and for generations before that farmed and ranched in New Mexico.
Ken Salazar attended St. Francis Seminary, graduated from Centauri High School in Conejos County in 1973, received a political science degree from Colorado College in 1977, and his law degree in 1981 from the University of Michigan. Salazar also received honorary doctorate of laws from Colorado College in 1993 and the University of Denver in 1999.
Ken Salazar has been a farmer and rancher in the San Luis Valley, natural resources lawyer, and small business owner much of his life. He and his wife have owned radio stations in Pueblo and Denver and own and operate a Dairy Queen in Westminster, Colorado. He has served as chief legal counsel to the Governor, executive director of the Department of Natural Resources, and chairman of the Rio Grande Compact Commission.
As executive director of the Department of Natural Resources, Salazar protected Colorado’s water and crafted reforms for mining, and oil and gas operations to provide greater public and environmental protections. He wrote the constitutional amendment creating Great Outdoors Colorado, led the successful campaign for its passage, and served as the first chairperson of the Great Outdoors Colorado Board. GOCO is the most successful land conservation effort in modern Colorado history. In addition, Salazar created the Youth in Natural Resources program for thousands of Colorado’s youth to work and learn about Colorado’s natural resources.
Ken Salazar also practiced water, environmental and public lands law for eleven years in the private sector.
Attorney General Salazar has served on many boards and commissions including six years as Chair of the Peace Officers Standards and Training Board, the Colorado Water Conservation Board and selection committees for United States Attorney and Federal District Court judges. He has served on many nonprofit boards. He is currently a member of the American Farmland Trust President’s Council and the Board of Trustees of Colorado College.
Ken and his wife, Hope, have two teenage daughters, Melinda and Andrea.