Denver Press Club Board of Directors - 2025-2026
Board Officers
Nathan Fernando-Fres
President Nathan Fernando-Frescas is the Senior Host for All Things Considered on CPR News. Prior to returning to CPR News, Nathan was an editor for NPR's All Things Considered in Washington D.C. - then a manager of a commercial radio station in Glenwood Springs. His work in journalism has been recognized by the Associated Press, the Colorado Broadcasters Association, the Society of Professional Journalists and Public Radio News Directors Incorporated.
Joe Boven
Vice President Joe Boven is a former journalist for the Colorado Independent, among other publications and media work, and a communications leader for non-profit, government, political, and for- profit organizations. Joe provides communications direction for the National Research Center on Hispanic Children and Families and for other federal contracts in his role at Child Trends.
Matt Larsen
Club Treasurer Matt is an experienced business professional who has worked in strategy, sales operations, and marketing roles, most recently in the medical device industry. Since 2022 Matt has been a lead with YIMBY Denver, and in 2024, Matt was elected to the RTD Board of Directors representing District E, the district that includes parts of Aurora, Denver, Greenwood Village, and Centennial. Matt graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in English and in Urban Studies, and received an MBA from the Yale School of Management.
Cassandra Ballard
Club Secretary Cassandra Ballard has been a reporter in the Denver metro area and the Western Slope for the past five years. Before journalism, she worked behind the Denver Press Club bar. She has been a Press Club member for nearly a decade, having first joined the club while attending Metropolitan State University of Denver.
Board Members
Tori Mason
Tori Mason joined CBS Denver in 2017 after award-winning tenures at WAFB in Baton Rouge and WIBW in Topeka, where her feature reporting was recognized with a first-place win at the 2017 SPJ Kansas Press Club Awards. In Denver, her reporting on the apprehension of the Thornton Walmart shooter earned her a Breaking News Emmy in 2018. In 2020, Mason’s reporting on the prejudicial locking of multicultural hair products in Walmart led the store to change its policy in all 4,700 stores. She's a Florida native and a member of the National Association of Black Journalists, and a former vice president of the Denver Press Club. If you see her, yell “GEAUX TIGERS.“
Tim Jackson
Tim Jackson served 30 years in the automotive industry and 35 years in association management. Of those, 18 years overlapped as Tim served as president/CEO of the Colorado Automobile Dealers Association (CADA), the trade association for 400 new car, truck, RV and motorcycle dealers across the state. Tim led the advocacy efforts for the statewide association winning 23 of 23 priority must-pass measures for the association. During his time at CADA, Tim produced the annual Denver Auto Show for 18 years, after New York and Chicago, the third oldest auto show in the country, which dates to 1902. He is the author of “Dude, where’s my flying car?” a book chronicling advancements in personal mobility.
Marques Haley
Born in Bethesda, Maryland and raised in Springfield, Oregon, Marques Haley moved to Denver in 2012. Graduating with a degree in International Studies from Willamette University, Marques moved to Colorado after spending over 3 years teaching English in Guri-Si, South Korea.
With his teaching background and previous experience working with Medicaid Eligibility in Colorado, Marques currently works as a manager for a local non-profit health insurance company. He also is on the Organization Committee for Denver Health Workers United, spearheading the union’s anti-racism activities. In these roles, he works for better healthcare outcomes for the people of Denver and justice for workers.
Out in cyberspace, Marques is a moderator on the Internet’s oldest (and largest) community for tabletop roleplaying games which has been in the forefront of issues related to gaming and best moderating practices of large online spaces. He will also provide a deep dive on Dungeons and Dragons (and other roleplaying games you never heard of), comic books, science-fiction, fantasy, The Simpsons and anything else generally nerdy.
Jody Beck
Jody Beck is a professor of landscape architecture at the University of Colorado Denver where he has taught for fifteen years. He has written two books on the connection between politics and landscape. John Nolen and the Metropolitan Landscape focused on how the personal political beliefs of John Nolen, trained as a landscape architect and the first person to professionally refer to himself as a city planner, underpinned his landscape design and city planning – both of which were influential in the early 20th century. The second book, Landscape and Utopia, examines the role that landscapes play in the political imagination of three different utopian proposals from the early 20th century which have continued to be highly influential. Most of his research and much of his teaching as well as his community engagement focuses on intersections between politics and landscapes in some way, often through considerations of food and agriculture.
Danny Zimney-Schmitt
Danny moved to Colorado to attend University of Denver, where he earned degrees in Environmental Science and Geography. He stayed to work as a public servant in renewable energy at the National Lab of the Rockies (formerly NREL), where he writes for work and personally on Substack. He is a long-serving board member and Vice President of local nonprofit Colorado Rail Passenger Association, which advocates for rail as a transportation option across the state. He has traveled to all 3,144 counties in America to better understand this country we call home, and believes in institutions like the Denver Press Club which have a crucial role to play in bridging our nation’s divides and building a healthier civic culture.
John Mahoney
John Mahoney manages NCSL’s Institute for International Cooperation. Prior to this role, he served NCSL’s Center for Legislative Strengthening as a senior policy specialist. With significant international experience, Mahoney relishes the opportunity to build enduring relationships between NCSL members and their counterparts abroad.
Henry "Corky" Kyle
Corky Kyle is one of Colorado’s most respected government affairs professionals, with more than four decades of experience representing associations and businesses before the Colorado General Assembly and state regulatory agencies. As President of The Kyle Group, he provides strategic legislative advocacy, regulatory representation, and political guidance to organizations navigating complex public policy environments. A Certified Association Executive (CAE) — one of approximately 4,400 nationwide — Corky brings a rare combination of political strategy and association leadership expertise. His work spans construction, charitable gaming, assisted living and senior issues, workers’ compensation, property and casualty insurance, transportation, and nonprofit association governance (501(c)(3), (4), and (6) organizations). Corky is widely recognized for his ability to build coalitions, craft effective legislation, and guide clients through high-stakes policy battles. His leadership and impact have earned him multiple “Lobbyist of the Year” awards from professional and industry organizations, including CCBA, IEC, CAHU, and CAND.
Club Staff
Jim Bofenkamp
General Manager. Jim is a student at MSU Denver, and wrote and edited at The Metropolitan, the school's student newspaper. He is studying philosophy and picked up journalism as a minor after falling in love with the Metropolitan's newsroom.