The OM Team
STAFF
Heather Distad (she/her)
Executive Director
Our Executive Director, Heather Distad, is an enthusiastic leader and all-things-outsider. With over 14 years of experience in the nonprofit, outdoor, and giving the best high fives, her passion for community engagement, philanthropy, team leadership, and transformative outdoor experiences shines through in every interaction.
Heather is an accomplished fundraising, programming, and community engagement guru, both within Colorado and nationwide. Heather oversaw the school-aged recreation and events department at Ken-Caryl Metropolitan District, managed the marketing, events, fundraising, and educational programming for Friends of the Colorado Avalanche Information Center (CAIC), and led the national philanthropy team at Access Fund. Heather is also the founder and lead consultant at High Point Nonprofit Consulting, where she has worked with organizations like the United States Ski Mountaineering Association, PCOS Challenge, Cerebral Therapeutics, and Justice Necessary.
Heather holds a Master of Science in Recreation, Sports, and Tourism from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. This is complemented by a Bachelor’s Degree in Nonprofit Management, Psychology, and Service Leadership at Wartburg College.
When Heather isn’t working hard for Outdoor Mindset, you’ll find her enjoying time with her family, taking pictures, trail running, mountain biking, backcountry skiing, climbing, or sailing around the world.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
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Kyle Martin (he/him)
FOUNDER/BOARD PRESIDENT
After growing up in Texas and earning a business degree from Texas Tech, Kyle made the journey to Colorado. He now splits time between Maui and Utah. He’s worked in Human Resources and Technology for various industries including Travel & Leisure, Cloud Software, and Environmental Engineering. Kyle has a passion for the outdoors and on most days can be found on his surfboard, bike, or snowboard. Diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2009; he knows firsthand the positive power of the outdoors and community on quality of life.
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Jake Quigley (he/him)
VICE PRESIDENT
Jake has been involved with Outdoor Mindset from the get-go. His direct connection to a neurological diagnosis drives his passion to help OM inspire and positively impact its members. Jake's professional background in nonprofit management, the outdoor industry, and experiential learning provide him a diversely unique perspective to offer. Jake is currently the owner and instructor of Zuma Bike Ranch in Cortez. Colorado. When he is not working, Jake can be found adventuring outside somewhere with his wife Jeanie by foot, bike, or ski.
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Lisa Avram (she/her)
MEMBER
Lisa made the move to Denver, Colorado from Ohio after graduating from The Ohio State University with a degree in Special Education. Diagnosed with epilepsy after receiving a Traumatic Brain Injury in college, she became involved with Outdoor Mindset almost 10 years ago! When she’s not teaching or participating on her district’s Brain Injury Resource team, she’s finding outdoor adventures with her family, friends and best dog ever, Boxcar. Lisa has summited Kilimanjaro, trekked around Myanmar and loves to explore new places in Colorado and beyond.
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Eric Distad (he/him)
MEMBER
Growing up, Eric split his time between Minnesota and his grandparents’ house in Montana. He was exposed to the mountain lifestyle at an early age, and despite being focused on hockey for most of his childhood and college, he always knew he would end up in the mountains. Eric eventually made the move to Breckenridge, Colorado where he lived for nearly 15 years. Now, he and his wife call Durango, Colorado home. Professionally, Eric has focused his career on researching CNS diseases, primarily movement disorders. Eric’s main outdoor passion is ski-mountaineering, having skied the likes of Elbrus, Grand Teton, Rainier, and an attempt at Aconcagua. When not skiing, you will find him rock/ice climbing, trail running, or mountain biking.
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Dr. Nathan Fountain (he/him)
MEMBER
Nathan is a long-standing fixture as a neurologist at the University of Virginia directing the Comprehensive Epilepsy Program, where he studies new treatments for epilepsy, including how exercise helps epilepsy and how head injuries cause epilepsy. Outdoors has been important throughout his life, with decade-long areas of interest in fly fishing, triathlon, road biking, then mountain biking, with running interspersed throughout. He spends his free time wandering the Blue Ridge Mountains, mostly by bike but occasionally by ice axe when there is a hard freeze. Adventure, wordly travels have brought him to amazing places. A uniform truth he has found: People often make the adventure great, but more often the adventure makes great people. He strongly believes that the healing power of an outdoor adventure can be restorative!
Meet Our Ambassadors
Our mission and meetup Ambassadors make our world go ‘round! They are an integral part of our team—meet this awesome group of people making a difference in their local communities.
