About the Alliance
Formed in late 2017 as an initiative of the Denver South Economic Development Partnership and established as a standalone nonprofit organization in 2018; the Colorado Smart Cities Alliance is the first state-wide alliance of government, business and allied organizations dedicated to advancing smarter communities in the United States.
VISION
A statewide digital and collaborative ecosystem that improves quality of life for all Coloradans
MISSION
Create technology partnerships that develop and prove next-generation solutions to the challenges shared across Colorado communities
VALUES
Sustainability | Mitigate the environmental, social, and economic impacts of human activity
Equity | Address disparities in qualify of life outcomes associated with race, income, and inclusion
Resilience | Absorb shocks to community systems and infrastructure to maintain qualify of life
Humanism | Ensure the needs of people inform technology – not the other way around
Staff
Tyler Svitak has built his career solving problems at the intersection of technology and urbanism. Tyler has held strategic roles advancing connected, automated, and electric mobility initiatives at the City and County of Denver, Colorado Department of Transportation, and American Lung Association in Colorado, where he led or contributed to some of the most innovative smart mobility projects and policies in the country.
Tyler became the Executive Director of the Colorado Smart Cities Alliance in 2019, which is the first and only statewide coalition of public, private, academic and research organizations committed to advancing smart cities initiatives across sectors and jurisdictions. Tyler leads the membership-based organization as it develops a new model for project identification, replication, and scale.
Chelsea Barrett is passionate about communities and has taken a path of professional and volunteer opportunities that make an impact. Chelsea has past experience in marketing, communications, and business development for organizations such as the Downtown Boulder Partnership, Stantec, and Greenwood Wildlife Rehabilitation Center. She understands what it takes to ensure big ideas are actionable and has a track record of crafting goal-based communications strategies aimed at developing relationships with a variety of audiences and stakeholders.
Chelsea joined the team at the Colorado Smart Cities Alliance in 2021. Her role is focused on expanding the Alliance’s reach and impact through different communications channels, including events, website, social media, and the pursuit of new engagement opportunities.
Board Members
As the manager of the City of Colorado Springs’ Office of Innovation & Sustainability, Ryan Trujillo leads the smart cities program, SmartCOS, among various projects and programs. Ryan is responsible for developing and implementing SmartCOS in close partnership with regional stakeholders, state & national non-profits, industry partners, city staff and the citizens of Colorado Springs. Prior to working for the city, he worked in the private sector for eight years with a focus in energy, contracting, commodities and project management.
Ryan holds a BA in Economics from Colorado College, an MBA from Regis University, and sits on the Board of Directors for the Colorado Smart Cities Alliance.
John Tolva is currently a fellow at CU Denver helping design and instruct smart cities curriculum, including the smart cities certificate program. John has a storied career in smart cities as a co-founder of CityFi, an urban change management consultancy dedicated to enabling smart, sustainable cities through innovative public-private partnerships, triple bottom line policymaking, and human-centric technology.
Formerly John was the president of PositivEnergy Practice, an systems engineering firm based on data-driven planning for new building design, retrofits, and urban design.
Formerly John was the president of PositivEnergy Practice, an systems engineering firm based on data-driven planning for new building design, retrofits, and urban design.
John’s career has focused on developing and applying technology to improve the urban environment. From 2011 to 2013 he was Chief Technology Officer for the City of Chicago, leveraging technology to streamline public services through more efficient data-sharing, digital communications, and next-generation infrastructure. He led the development of ‘The City of Chicago Technology Plan’, an initiative that sets forth a series of public-private strategies to accelerate economic growth, build educated and digitally-engaged communities and workforce, improve government services, and reduce costs through technology.
In 2012, the White House recognized John as a ‘Champion of Change’ as part of a group of creative individuals engaged in building stronger communities through innovative approaches to problem-solving.
Prior to joining the City of Chicago, he was Director of Citizenship and Technology at IBM Corp, where he worked on the firm’s ‘smarter cities’ initiative, advising cities how to incorporate data analytics into planning and operations. John led the City Forward project, the first global aggregator and visualizer of urban data sets.
Significant projects include the Wuhan, China Erqi District Parametric Model and Master Plan, Astana, Kazakhstan Expo 2017 Master Plan, The Broadband Challenge, Open Data/Civic Innovation, Open 311, and the City of Chicago Technology Action Plan.
Jake Rishavy is a Co-Founder and Executive Committee member of the Colorado Smart Cities Alliance. He has led economic development organizations and initiatives in Colorado for more than a decade, including co-founding the Denver-based nonprofit Prime Health, aimed at facilitating the growth of Colorado-based health tech companies. He currently serves as the Executive Director of the Chaffee County Economic Development Corporation in Salida, Colorado, where he creates public-private collaborations to address a broad set of topics including startup support, the Future of Work and workforce development, housing, transportation, real estate development, and the built environment. Technologies of interest include transportation and mobility, public safety, resilience, resource efficiency (water, energy, etc.,) food security, affordable and alternative housing and municipal process improvement, among many others.
Michael Lawson is the Assistant Town Manager for the Town of Parker. Prior to arriving in Parker, Michael was the City Manager for Woodland Park and, before that, spent 12 years with the City of Aurora, Colorado, serving in the City Manager’s Office and Budget Office as well as stints as interim City Clerk and interim Community Development Manager. Michael has also worked in the City of San Diego, California’s Financial Management Department. One of Michael’s greatest professional privileges was acting as Aurora's donations coordinator following the July 20, 2012 Century 16 theater shooting.
Michael earned his Masters of Public Administration from the University of Colorado, Denver and a Bachelors of Arts in Political Science from the University of California, San Diego. He has written several articles and presented to national audiences on the topics of employee retention and the role of empathy in local government.
In 2020, Michael helped Aurora craft its first ever smart city strategic plan, the Smart City Playbook. He has worked extensively on laying groundwork for cities in Colorado to acquire streetlights from utilities to better prepare for a smart city future. Michael’s interest in smart city technology lies in giving local governments better tools to love and serve their residents. Improved governance, resident engagement, and electric vehicle infrastructure are Michael’s specific areas of interest.
Michael is married with two young children and a dog.
Tom became President and CEO of Denver South in the spring of 2019 after joining in 2018 to assist with financial reorganization. Tom began his professional career as a CPA with Deloitte and continued as a consultant with Price Waterhouse before moving on to SunAmerica Inc. as Chief Financial Officer for their subsidiary Resources Trust Company (RTC) here in Denver. Tom’s role evolved to include Chief Investment Officer of RTC’s $1.5 billion portfolio, the head of its newly formed institutional operations, and ultimately, President of SunAmerica Trust Company.
Since the early 2000’s, Tom has worked in the scale-up and start-up space in Denver in a variety of roles for approximately 20 companies. Outside of work Tom enjoys spending time with his wife and adult children traveling and enjoying the Colorado lifestyle.
Jay Decker serves as the Transportation and Innovation Manager for the City and County of Denver. In this role, Jay coordinates the development of a visionary mobility program that combines shared mobility, emerging technology, and public-private partnerships to help achieve the City’s equity, affordability, and connectivity goals. He is cultivating a strategic approach for testing and scaling innovation within the public sector through the adoption of Smart City technology, pilot projects, and data-driven decision making with the goal of transforming Denver Public Works into a nationwide innovation leader.
Johanna Jamison, MPA, is a program manager in the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center (IEC) at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. She is currently leading lab-to-market programs including the Shell GameChanger Accelerator™ Powered by NREL (GCxN), which spurs promising cleantech start-ups through financial, facility, and research resources. Johanna is also collaborating to design and launch new tech incubation programs that support the IEC’s mission of building a cleantech ecosystem to empower market solutions that transform communities around the world.
Prior to joining NREL Johanna managed a range of programs, projects, and policies in government, private, and nonprofit settings spanning smart cities, economic development, mobility and transportation, environmental quality, affordable housing, and placemaking and revitalization. Among these were an innovation challenge that attracted solutions from across the globe for deployment in Colorado, the local presence of an international mobility services joint venture, and state programs totaling $1M+ in financial and technical assistance to catalyze community economic development.
Johanna holds a Masters in Public Administration with a concentration in Environmental Policy, Management, and Law from the University of Colorado Denver and a Bachelors in City and Metropolitan Planning from the University of Utah. While away from the office, Johanna enjoys experimenting in the kitchen, spoiling her dog, and adventuring outdoors.
Betsy Markey has over 30 years of leadership experience in government and the private sector. She most recently served as the Executive Director of the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade under Governor Polis. She was appointed by President Obama to serve as the Assistant Secretary for Intergovernmental Affairs in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security during the President's first term, and as the Regional Administrator for the U.S. Small Business Administration during the President’s second term. Betsy was elected to serve as a Member of Congress in Colorado’s 4th Congressional District in 2008, where was on the Committees of Transportation and Agriculture. In the late 1980’s she co-founded a technology company, Syscom Services, which provided web design and web-based information management systems. During the late 1990’s she purchased and later sold a retail store in Fort Collins.
Leah Riley joined the Regional Transportation District (RTD) in August 2021 as the Chief Administrative Officer. In this role, Riley oversees the agency’s Strategic Plan and provides direct oversight of Information Technology, Cybersecurity, Safety, Environmental Compliance, Human Resources, Civil Rights and Contracting and Procurement.
Prior to joining RTD, Riley served as the Managing Director of Nelson/Nygaard, a national transportation planning firm known for its progressive approach and commitment to mobility, equity, economic development and health living.
Riley also served as the Director of Transportation for the City of Portland, OR from 2013 – 2018. Under her leadership, the Portland Bureau of Transportation was one of seven finalist cities in the USDOT Smart Cities Challenge. After the culmination of the challenge, Riley continued the body of work by starting new programs centered on solving mobility challenges through autonomous and electric vehicles, universalizing data and information availability, piloting new and emerging technologies, and leveraging private sector investments. Riley also partnered with Nike to launch the largest smart-bike system in the country at the time.
Riley has also served in executive roles in the Chicago Department of Transportation and the District Department of Transportation.
Rebecca Tate serves as the Research and Innovation Manager for the Denver International Airport (DEN) where she helps employees find innovative solutions to aviation’s greatest challenges. Rebecca uses human centered design principles to create an entire organization of problem solvers and foster a culture of innovation.
Prior to DEN, Rebecca served as the Continuous Improvement Manager for the Regional Transportation District (RTD) where she took pride in supporting an organization that improves access and creates opportunity for all.
Rebecca holds Masters degrees in Business Administration and Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Colorado, Denver, and a Bachelor’s in Economics from McGill University. Having worked extensively in the transportation industry, Rebecca is completely fascinated with the systems that move people around the region, state, and the world.
