Meet The Team
Alex Durham, CPS II
Executive Director
Alex joined the Voyager team in 2016 in an effort to stay connected with youth and community. After graduating from Ouray High School in 2008, she felt drawn to serving the schools in some capacity. She coached volleyball at Ouray School for five years while working as the youth prevention coordinator at Voyager until January of 2022 when she became the Executive Director.
Alex aims to spread messages of wellness, connection, and generosity to the young people she works with. Alex has an educational background in speech language pathology and behavioral health. She is a Certified Prevention Specialist, Positive Youth Development Trainer, Sources of Strength Trainer, and Communities That Care Certified Community Mobilizer. She also serves as a Board Member for Axis Health Systems.
In her spare time, Alex enjoys hiking, skiing, traveling and spending time with her husband and pups!
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Agnieszka Przeszlowska, PhD
Grants and Development Manager
Agnieszka’s professional background is in riparian ecology and watershed science. She completed her graduate degrees at Colorado State University in 2009 and in late 2011 returned to Colorado after completing a research project in the Pacific Northwest. She and her husband set roots in Ridgway where they enjoy exploring the outdoors with their two young children. She was the first Program Coordinator for the Uncompahgre Watershed Partnership, serves on the Steering Committee for the Ridgway Community Garden and has been substitute teaching at Ridgway Elementary.
Agnieszka values Voyager’s commitment to connecting youth to their local community through enriching and meaningful activities that empower them to make positive life choices. Her role at Voyager is to develop funding resources to support its innovative programming.
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Madison Gustafson, M.Ed
Program Manager
Madison is a Texas native residing in Ridgway, CO. She has a B.A. in Psychology and Health and Exercise Science from the University of Oklahoma and a Master’s in Counseling Psychology with an emphasis on Athletic Counseling from Springfield College in Massachusetts. While in Massachusetts, Madison interned for the United States Military Academy as a Mental Performance Coach.
In March of 2020 Madison moved to Colorado and soon after started working for Treeline Education. During her time at Treeline, Madison taught social-emotional coping skills to children through mindfulness and nature. In August of 2021, Madison joined Voyager Youth Program as a Program lead and in February of 2022 Madison became the Program Manager. Now Madison is in charge of developing programming, child care license and social-emotional learning. In addition, Madison runs our Sources of Strength program in Ouray, teaching youth coping skills and how to use their strengths!
In her free time, Madison enjoys hiking, camping and exploring the local area!
Cat Geras
CTC Mobilizer/Teen Program Manager
Cat is our new CTC Mobilizer and Teen Center Coordinator. She has a B.A. in International Affairs specializing in Latin American studies. Cat's previous role was in community organizing, mobilizing and empowering members of its community to advocate for change. She loves working with people, building relationships and getting to understand different perspectives and cultures within existing communities.
In her free time she is climbing or skiing and is eager to get out and explore the San Juans.
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Michelle Melendez
Program Coordinator
Michelle was born and raised in North Plainfield, New Jersey and enlisted into the Marine Corps shortly after high school in 2013. She studied telecommunications in Twenty-Nine Palms, California and was later stationed in Camp Lejuene, North Carolina, where she got married and had two wonderful children. After completing her time in the Marine Corps, Michelle and her family moved to her husband's hometown, Ridgway, Colorado. She has been working with children since the winter of 2018 as the lead attendant of the children's center at Telluride Ski School. After completing her first summer at Voyager as a summer enrichment employee, Michelle will continue on as Voyager's program coordinator and lead Ouray's after school enrichment program. She is excited to continue to connect with the community and its children. During her free time, Michelle loves to hike, camp, and explore beautiful Colorado with her family.
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Seán Taplin
Program Assistant
Seán’s earliest memories are of Ridgway, having gone from preschool all the way through high school graduation in 2020 here. He started working with kids in 2018, volunteering with the Pinhead Institute’s Mad Labs program, teaching kids STEM subjects via activities and hands-on learning. In the summer of 2020, she joined Voyager’s enrichment team for the Summer Enrichment Program, and has continued for the After School Program and beyond. Passionate about science, art, and the community, he’s always excited to be doing the work that he loves in the hometown that he loves. She is also a proud member of the queer community, being nonbinary. In his free time, he likes to read, run, and contemplate the future.