Colorado Forum taps Kelly Flenniken to lead influential civic organization

Kelly Flenniken, who has worked both public and private roles and currently leads the nonprofit Colorado Counties Inc., will become the next president of the Colorado Forum , the influential civic group that dates back to the late 1970s, the organization announced Tuesday.

The Colorado native was selected from among more than 70 applicants to oversee the Forum, which weighs in on a wide range of public policy issues. With a membership that’s capped at 80, it prides itself on its statewide, nonpartisan representation — and that its positions dodge political bias by virtue of requiring 100% consensus.

“I’ve been familiar with the organization and their work for a long time,” Flenniken said. “The mission of the Forum is so closely connected to my career, what I am passionate about — and that is really trying to work collaboratively in all four corners of our state to deliver the most positive and impactful solutions for our friends and neighbors.”

She says the job leading the Forum in some ways marks a natural progression from her current role with Colorado Counties Inc. , which supports local officials in all of the state’s 64 counties, whereas the Forum also pulls in business leaders: “Similar mission, maybe just a slightly different partnership.”

Colorado Sun publisher Larry Ryckman is a member of the Colorado Forum.

Flenniken, who lives outside of Idaho Springs in Clear Creek County, replaces Gail Klapper, 83, a Colorado civic and business icon. Klapper began her tenure as the organization’s leader in 1989 as just the second president of the Forum after founder Herrick Roth , a former state legislator who died in 2008. Flenniken will officially assume duties Nov. 2, while Klapper stays on through the end of the year to help with the transition.

“It is incredibly humbling to be chosen to lead such an important organization and to follow in such deep footsteps and big shoes — you know, all of the metaphors,” Flenniken said. “Gail is a tremendous leader and has left Colorado in such a better place because of her work, and that’s intimidating. But it’s also a really welcome opportunity.”

Flennikan takes over after a national search that began with Klapper’s announcement in June that she would step away from the organization after 37 years. Klapper noted that Flenniken checked all the boxes she’d hoped for in a successor.

“She is a person who really enjoys other people,” Klapper said. “She’s easy to get along with. She’s a consensus builder. She doesn’t flout her own sentiments about issues. She loves to learn. I could give you many things that I felt were important that I passed to the search committee, and she really ticked off every one of them.”

Flenniken, 47, got her undergraduate degree at Knox College, a small liberal arts school in Galesburg, Illinois, and afterward went to work for the city of Chicago in its department of cultural affairs.

Fun fact: In that job, she helped organize the ceremonial demolition of what became known to local baseball fans as the “Bartman ball.” In the 2003 Major League playoffs, a Chicago Cubs fan named Steve Bartman had reached out and deflected a foul ball away from the Cubs outfielder who was poised to catch it. That unfortunate event triggered a collapse that cost the Cubs a trip to the World Series and reinforced the notion that the team was cursed.

“I was at that game, which was an insane game,” Flenniken recalled. “And we ended up exploding the baseball to try to break any additional curses that might be on the Cubs.”

The ethos of Building a Better Colorado lives on

Flenniken said she’s excited to dig into the issues important to Colorado with “shared commitment, shared passion, and really this drive to solution. And that’s what I see at the Forum, and that’s what I’m really excited to be a part of.”

The Forum’s impact under Klapper — her tenure began, she recalled, when Roth “basically tapped me on the shoulder and said, ‘You’re it,’” — touched on a wide range of issues, from Denver International Airport’s development to helping to balance statewide interests around water rights to redistricting and election reform .

But asked to single out a few key issues, she counts the Animas-La Plata water project and the state’s development of early childhood education among projects that bear the Forum’s fingerprints. And she points with particular pride to the Forum’s creation of Building a Better Colorado , a nonpartisan, nonprofit formed in 2015 to build consensus around complex issues in Colorado.

“And I’m hopeful that that continues,” Klapper said. “It gave the purposes of the Forum to the entire population of the state.”

The Forum’s influence on the cleanup of the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons manufacturing facility ranks as another achievement that underscored the organization’s ability to make progress even amid shifting political winds.

Flenniken says she hasn’t thought much yet about her vision for leading the Forum and first wants to meet the members she doesn’t know and hear about their priorities.

“I want to have some more solid ground under my feet before I suggest that perhaps I know what’s best,” she said. “I’d really like to spend some time listening to make sure that I know what they think is best.”

Meanwhile, Klapper will leave with a sense of pride of all that has been accomplished so far, but also the recognition that it’s the right time to turn over the Forum to the next generation.

“This organization needs enormous energy at the top,” Klapper said, noting that she looks forward to spending time with family and continuing to manage the family’s Elbert County ranch. “It was time, and I am so sad to leave. I mean, it is what has made my life have meaning for all these years. I have loved this job.”

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