James joined LFSRM in 1999, serving most recently since 2011 as Vice President of Refugee and Community Services overseeing the Refugee & Asylee, Immigration Legal Services and Disaster Response programs. James is a highly respected national leader in refugee and immigration legal services, with a proven record of developing strategies, building partnerships and securing resources to carry out programs under his direction. He has worked with multiple communities throughout Colorado, New Mexico, and the Rocky Mountain region which included establishing the first LFSRM programs outside of Colorado. In addition to his work with refugees and immigrants, he has also excelled at developing and leading multi-year disaster responses to major and federally declared disasters involving hurricanes Katrina and Rita, wildfires, tornadoes and floods. Previously James served as an English instructor, employment specialist and program director. James has been a Board of Immigration Appeals accredited representative since 2005 and has acted as a consultant for refugee resettlement, employment and self-sufficiency in a number of states.
Brian joined the LFSRM team in 2016. He has worked in the Child Welfare field since 1997 in an array of public and private organizations on the local, state and national level with experience in foster care, adoption, family preservation, day treatment, residential care, human trafficking of minors, and transition age youth services. Prior to joining LFSRM Brian served as the Adolescent Services Administrator for the Colorado Department of Human Services, overseeing the redesign and implementation of Colorado’s adolescent programming and multi-system alignment of services for transition age youth. While at the State, Brian co-chaired the Human Trafficking Task Force to design a coordinated child welfare response for minor victims of trafficking. Brian led efforts to improve access and outcomes for foster and unaccompanied youth pursing post-secondary education and he is a nationally recognized expert in youth engagement, rural social services, and services for transition age youth. Prior to his work with the State of Colorado Brian served as a multi-regional Director at the Child Welfare League of America. In addition to a broad base of direct-care experience, Brian’s history includes work with Casey Family Programs focused on Indian Child Welfare and work with the National Conference of State Legislators on legislative strategies to safely reduce the number of children entering foster care. Brian currently serves as a Governor appointed board member for the Tony Grampsas Youth Services Program, and is President of Fostering Colorado, an association of Child Placement Agencies in Colorado. Brian earned his Master of Social Work in 2009 from the University of Denver following a Bachelor’s in Social Work from Metropolitan State University of Denver.
Julie joined the LFSRM team in 2009 as Senior Accountant. She received a B.S. in Human Biology from the University of Wisconsin at Green Bay, a B.S. in Accounting from Regis University, and her M.S. in Finance at CSU Global. Julie has over 20 years experience directing all aspects of accounting operations, analyzing financial results, and providing strategic guidance. She oversees Accounting, IT, and Human Resources at LFSRM.