SASO

SASO Staff

Stacy Kellogg-Executive Director

Stacy Kellogg joined the SASO team in January 2012.  Prior, she served as Institutional Gifts Manager and Grant Writer for Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation, a supportive affordable housing agency in San Francisco.  She also served as Program Manager for Insight Prison Project, a rehabilitation program inside of San Quentin State Prison in San Rafael, California.  In addition, Stacy worked as Crisis Services and Development Director at Alternative Horizons from 2006 to 2008. She received her Master’s in Nonprofit Administration from the University of San Francisco in 2011 and earned her BS in Business Administration from University of Colorado at Boulder in 2005.  When not at SASO, you can find Stacy enjoying the gorgeous outdoors, spending time with friends and family, traveling or making jokes behind a microphone from KDUR’s DJ booth.

Beth Cantrell-Community Education Coordinator

Beth Cantrell is a recent graduate of Fort Lewis College with a BA in Sociology. She was a member of the Chamber Choir and Concert choir for three years as well as a semester in the Durango Choral Society. Born and raised in Texas, Beth moved to Durango three years ago. Since living here she has worked for multiple non-profit organizations including Southwest Conservation Corps and La Plata Family Center. Beth is a Leo with a passion for music, poetry, the outdoors, reading and writing.

Olivia Donaji-de Pablo-Community Organizing Coordinator

Born and raised in Mexico, Olivia Donají moved to Durango in 1993 after finishing a BA in Business Administration from the University of Morelos, Mexico.   During 1997-99 she attended Fort Lewis College and earned her teaching certification. Currently, she is working in obtaining a Sociology Degree at FLC.  Her first encounter with SASO was in 1997 when she became the Latino Outreach Coordinator and volunteered for the hotline for a couple of years. She has worked as the Program Coordinator for the Companeros Latino Resource Center, the Latina Outreach Coordinator for Alternative Horizons, a Bilingual Elementary School Teacher for the Farmington School District, and the Interim Coordinator for the Colorado Immigrant Rights State Coalition.  She is also the Founder of the Ballet Folkloric of Durango, as well as an active and engaged community member. All of these positions have prepared her to embrace her passion for working with Social Justice Issues.  She has been SASO’s Community Organizer since 2007.  In her personal path she enjoys: Activism, traveling, local colors, people, family, poetry, writing, painting, nature, and dancing.

Alison Hiam-Advocacy Services Coordinator

As a sixth generation Coloradoan, Alison Hiam comes from a long line of strong mountain women. Born and raised in Durango, Alison was compelled to leave Fort Lewis when she had obtained enough credits for nearly three degrees and she begrudgingly accepted her diplomas in Psychology and Humanities with emphasis in Sociology, Philosophy and English. She has worked for Colorado Legal Services, Community Connections, Volunteers of America Community Shelter, Southwest Colorado Mental Health Center, and has volunteered with SASO for a number of years. When she is not trying to fight social injustice she loves to create art –working with the FLC theatre department, Penumbra Theatre Company, and Pellucid Escapades. Most recently you may have seen her masks in the latest Salt Fire Circus production. Someday she hopes to ride a motorcycle across the country and sail a boat around the Mediterranean. Until then you will either find her covered in glue, glitter and feather or trying to change the world.

Ashley Moody - Volunteer Coordinator

Ashley is currently finishing her BA in Sociology at Fort Lewis College and was raised in Los Lunas, New Mexico. She has worked at the Environmental Center as the Local Food Coordinator and was a Local Food Fellow in the Growing Partners grant. With a passion for the outdoors, Ashley enjoys swimming, hiking, gardening, as well as spending days nuzzled into a good book.

Ruby Jo Walker LCSW, CHT, SEP -Support Group Therapist

Ruby Jo Walker LCSW, CHT, SEP, has been a social worker for over 30 years and has been working in the field of trauma for over 20 years.  She is certified in EMDR, Hakomi and Somatic Experiencing, both mindfulness-based, body-centered methods of therapy, and has advanced training in MatrixWorks, using a group as a living systems model.  Ruby Jo is in private practice specializing in trauma, growth work, and supervising psychotherapists.  She is currently getting certified in Somatic Experiencing, an advanced trauma technique developed by Peter Levine.  She has passion and excitement about therapy—working with both clients and helping therapists to further develop their skills.  Ruby Jo was in the first CAPP training in Durango and is a past Board member of SASO.  She has one daughter who always keeps her on her toes.  She loves being a parent, and loves outdoor activities including hiking, snowshoeing, x-country skiing, and biking.  Ruby Jo is passionate about personal growth and professional development—and brings this love to all of her work and her life.

Emily Newcomer MEd, LPC -Support Group Therapist

Emily Newcomer, MEd, LPC has called Durango home for over five years being brought here by the opportunity for outdoor adventure and to fulfill her desire to work towards social justice and the prevention of sexual violence in our world.  From 2005 until 2009 she was the Community Education Coordinator for SASO providing prevention education for students of all ages only leaving SASO to continue to grow her private psychotherapy practice.  With a leaning towards mindfulness and body-centered psychotherapy, Emily specializes in trauma and disordered eating as well as grief and loss and life transitions and growth.  She is trained in EMDR and is a student in the Hakomi Comprehensive 2-year Training taking place in Durango.  Emily has worked with numerous groups in various settings including as an instructor for Outward Bound on the desert rivers in Utah with students aged 14-80. In addition to facilitating SASO's Support Group for female survivors of teen and adult sexual assault, she facilitates a Disordered Eating Support Group for the community.Residing in the woods around Durango she is supported by her family to make her dream of being a psychotherapist come true while having as many outdoor adventures as possible.

Leigh Meigs - Support Group Therapist

Leigh Meigs, MSW, JD, offers group facilitation and individual therapy for men and women at SASO and through her private practice.  Safe, supportive relationships are an integral part of the healing journey after experience of trauma.  Leigh provides a collaborative process, unconditional acceptance, and a loving regard for clients in working through and making room for what we face in life.  With a diverse background that includes community development, law and advocacy, mediation, child education and development, and social work and counseling, Leigh brings tremendous life experience to her therapy practice.  Leigh has been living, raising a family, and working in Durango since 1985, and has never suffered a dull moment.  

Cynthia Aspen - Executive and Program Associate

Cynthia has been a feminist activist ever since marching for the Equal Rights Amendment at the tender and formative age of two. She began her work in victim advocacy and assault prevention at her alma mater, the University of Illinois, and has continued in Alaska, Hawaii, Montana and Colorado. In her twelve years in Durango, Cynthia has served as the accountant for several nonprofit organizations, in addition to volunteering her time as the local coordinator for the National Organization for Women, the Family Center of Durango, and SASO. She is passionate about budgets, numbers, and pie charts, and her favorite moments are spent raising a safe, strong and free four-year-old daughter with her husband, Robert.