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‘THE FOUNDATION IS A VERY DYNAMIC ORGANIZATION.’ J ason Cor zine
WELCOMING JASON CORZINE Telluride Foundation has a new CEO BY ZANNY MERULLO STEFFGEN
Foundation] helped me hone an awareness of the issues, whether it’s climate or diversity, and how we can serve the community to make sure it’s completely inclusive.” On a personal level, Corzine is happy to be living full-time in Telluride, a place that captured his imagination since he first visited on a family vacation. “[Telluride] left an indelible mark on me as a child. Since then, I think it’s safe to say I’ve spent most of my life working, recreating, building relationships in Telluride and the surrounding region based on that first experience as an 8-year-old fishing in Town Park.” For Corzine, it seems, the emphasis is on interpersonal relationships, which, in a multi-faceted community like Telluride’s, is sure to serve him well.
Photos Melissa Plantz
he Telluride Foundation is a community keystone, spearheading initiatives in affordable housing, partnering with programs like Tri-County Health and overseeing college scholarships and community grants. The foundation’s breadth of services means it needs nothing short of an excellent leader at the helm to keep it moving forward. In January, the foundation found just that by welcoming new CEO Jason Corzine to replace Paul Major, who retired after two decades in the position that stretched back to its founding in the early 2000s. Corzine brings a unique set of experiences from his 25 years with the National Park Foundation and the Trust for Public Land, plus a long-running connection to Telluride that makes him excited to be a part of the community. “The foundation is a very dynamic organization — lots of moving parts, lots of relationships both to build and relationships to restore, relationships to maintain,” Corzine says of his first months in the role. “It has been intense getting onboarded, but we have just been completely embraced by, not only the foundation staff and the board, but everybody in the community.” For Corzine, days often start at 4 a.m. as “the monkey mind starts to kick in,” followed by meetings with partner organizations and community leaders. “Getting to know the communities in our service areas is of the utmost importance to me … The day-to-day is really a lot of one-on-one conversations and relationship building.” When asked about his goals for the Telluride Foundation, Corzine cites a mixture of carrying on the legacy of the organization and prioritizing new issues that the community is sure to face over the coming years. “While we realize climate is a national issue, it’s an international issue, as a community foundation we owe it not only to ourselves but also to our constituents to think and act locally.” The idea is to partner with local climate and science-oriented organizations to find solutions to head off problems posed by a rapidly changing climate, Corzine says. He also mentions affordable housing and better serving the Latinx community as other priorities. Corzine believes that his past experiences have prepared him well for the challenges ahead, “When you work on the national level with issues like this, you get exposed to the complexity but also really innovative ways to address them. Both [the Trust for Public Land and the National Park
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