Meet Us

Organizational Structure

The structure of FCCAN consists of the Spokescouncil (roughly the equivalent of a board of directors), the staff coordinator, affiliates and dedicated volunteers.

The Spokescouncil is responsible for overall oversight, policy-making and fundraising. The coordinator manages interns and volunteers, administers day-to-day activities, leads grant writing initiatives and other fundraising and coordinates the work of the affiliates. FCCAN as a whole has about 50 active volunteers who are generally local community members, activists and students.

Some of our spokescouncil members, volunteers and staff together during the 2018 retreat.

Shirley Man-kin Coenen, Fort Collins Community Action Network Coordinator

info@fccan.org |970-419-8944

Shirley identifies as a multiracial, south asian-american woman of color. She works as a community organizer with the Fort Collins Community Action Network and as a yoga teacher. Shirley spends a lot of her time desperately trying to meld together two separate worlds- the body work/spiritual realm and social movement organizing. She’s combining her skills and knowledge from ethnic studies, women and gender studies and community organizing with her deepest passion (meditation, buddhism and yoga) to try to create something that can be transformative, healing and (gasp) pleasurable for her community. She is also prone to making poor jokes while traversing the rigors of being an organizer in a place like Fort Collins. When not being self- referential in a bio, you can find her playing with her dogs, biking around town, dancing, or reading a book. 

Spokescouncil

Rena Trujillo, Community Representative

Rena Trujillo identifies as a queer, multiracial, Indigenous woman of color. She recently graduated from Colorado State University with her bachelor’s degree in Ethnic Studies and a minor in Women’s Studies. As she navigates post-grad life she spends much of her time trying to share knowledge and skills gained inside an academic institution and make it accessible to all people. Recently, she has been building knowledge and skills directly related to environmental justice by attending non-violent direct action camps led by Indigenous peoples. She believes there is great power that lies at the intersection of embodiment work, land-based practices, and social and environmental justice. Having access to clean air, water, and soil should be a basic human and non-human right, so until that is achieved and maintained for all beings, her body will remain on the frontlines. Pleasure activities include hiking, fishing, ethically hunting and gathering, creative resistance through art, dancing, eating food, and attending music concerts. She is a proud plant and puppy companion.

Kevin Cross, Fort Collins Sustainability Group

Kevin got his start as an activist opposing U.S. support for the Contras in Nicaragua in the 1980s.  He  has been involved with FCCAN affiliates since 2002, and has been a member of the FCCAN Spokescouncil since 2008.  Kevin helped found the Fort Collins Sustainability Group (FCSG) in 2005, and has convened it since then.  He served on the Strength Through Peace Steering Committee from 2002 until 2018, and convened it for much of that time.  Kevin has a B.S. degree in Physics from the University of California – Davis and an M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. He currently works as a Senior Project Developer for a large energy services company, and is registered as a Professional Engineer in the State of Colorado. Kevin has also taught high school and college classes in math and science in California and Wisconsin.

Lynn Thompson, Fort Collins Homeless Coalition

Lynn Thompson has a long-standing interest in fighting for the civil, constitutional, and human rights of poor and marginalized communities. She joined the Fort Collins Homeless Coalition (FCHC) in 2014, just a few months after she moved to Fort Collins, and serves as their representative on the FCCAN Spokescouncil. As a member of FCHC, she has worked to defeat numerous sit/lie bans, fought against the City’s camping ban, supported the statewide Colorado Right to Rest Act, pushed for city-wide improvements such as Sunday bus service, 24/7 public bathrooms, year-round drinking water, & 24/7 storage lockers, and engaged in community education efforts. Lynn is also a member of the Northern Colorado Potters Guild, where she explores her fascination with clay and ceramics.

 

Steve Ramer, Community Representative

Steve Ramer is currently the Pastor of the Fort Collins Mennonite Fellowship.  Born and raised on a wheat farm in Kansas, he enjoys the great Colorado outdoors; hiking, biking and skiing.  He is married to Dr. Cathy Egan and is the father of two wonderful adult daughters, Gabriela and Lea.  Previous vocational experiences include being a college instructor, a mission worker, volunteer coordinator and working with the mentally ill.  He taught in the Philippines for two years, lived and worked in Harrisburg, PA in a large group home for the mentally ill for five years, and then live in an inner-city neighborhood in Washington DC for 17 years prior to moving to Ft Collins, CO. He has been a Christian Peacemaker Team (CPT) reservist since 2004 involved in projects in Washington, DC, the Philippines and Israel-Palestine.

 

Cheryl Distaso, Community Representative

Cheryl Distaso is a long-time social justice activist. She worked as the coordinator of FCCAN for over 15 years. She has worked on numerous local campaigns and organizing efforts in that capacity, including the successful 2011 effort to keep thriving low-income schools open, organizing with neighbors of two local mobile home communities to secure relocation funds when their homes got demolished for redevelopment in 2008 and 2011, fighting the horrific sit-lie ban in 2016. She is thrilled to transition into a spokescouncil role for FCCAN and stay involved in a different capacity. She is currently teaching community organizing courses to social work graduate students at CSU as well as on-line with Village Earth, a local NGO. She loves to spend time in the full moon,  hiking on moonlit nights in the summer and snowshoeing in the winter.

Arpi Miller, Fuerza Latina

Arpi Miller works on the Fuerza Latina emergency immigration hotline and is a volunteer coordinator with the Education and Outreach team. She also sits on the steering committee of ISAAC – the Interfaith Sanctuary and Accompaniment Coalition – and is part of Plymouth Congregational’s immigration team. She considers herself a Buddeo-Christian and believes insight meditation and the prophetic Christian tradition are critical tools and grounding forces in her own social justice work. Prior to living in Colorado, Arpi spent nearly three years working with a cooperative in highland Guatemala. She returned to California to pursue her PhD in sociology at UCLA with an emphasis in international migration. For a decade, during her masters and doctoral work, she worked with veteran Salvadoran immigrant organizers in the Los Angeles area, where she feels she received an education better than any university. During that time, she traveled to El Salvador regularly to monitor elections and participate in delegations. She currently freelances as a research fellow with the Center for Religion and Civic Culture at USC, and plays mom to two boys and a yellow lab.