Executive Director Rebecca (Becca) Samulski joined Fire Adapted Colorado as the contracted Director in fall 2018 after seven years of growing the Neighborhood Ambassador and other local support programs with Wildfire Adapted Partnership in southwest Colorado. She has a BA in Anthropology from Fort Lewis College and got her initial wildland firefighter training when working as a seasonal Archaeologist for the San Juan National Forest and Mesa Verde National Park. Becca also engaged in community development and land use planning during an intern program associated with her Master’s degree in Political Science from CU Denver.

Don’t be fooled by the firefighter photo. Becca has done very little firefighting, but once you get into Fire Adapted Communities work, the pull is strong to learn about fire as a tool and all aspects of fire management. Becca enjoys working with communities to help them live more safely with wildfire. With a broader Cohesive Strategy perspective on wildfire, she launched the Dolores Watershed Resilient Forest (DWRF) Collaborative in 2015 to create a more resilient 667,000 Upper Dolores River Watershed. Now her focus is on helping to connect the Fire Adapted Communities leaders around the state with the knowledge and support they need to be successful with their communities.

When Becca is not FACOing, or volunteering for the DWRF Collaborative, School, or Fire Department, she enjoys spending time playing, hiking, and gardening, with her husband, two sons, and dog on their piñon-juniper woodland property near Dolores, Colorado.