Team
Courageous Colorado is led by three full-time staff members with backgrounds spanning education, social impact, democracy, and community-driven change, supported by a network of special advisors who bring additional expertise and perspective to our work. Intentionally brought together by community leaders at the organization’s founding, Landon, Jamie, and Amy are inspired to serve Colorado and build a more open, representative, and connected civic future.
Dr. Landon Mascareñaz is the founding Chief Executive Officer of Courageous Colorado and Courageous Colorado Action, a cross-partisan coalition and initiative working at all levels to open up democracy in Colorado. He was recently named a 2026 Obama Foundation USA Leaders Fellow and awarded the 2026 Cisneros Public Policy Award from the Colorado Latino Leadership Advocacy and Research Organization (CLLARO). With family roots that stretch back generations in Colorado and New Mexico, Landon brings an open mind, open heart, and an open perspective to complex social challenges. He is the co-author of The Open System (Harvard Education Press), a book that guides leaders who seek to redesign systems with the communities they serve while reigniting local democracy.
A lifelong coalition-builder and social entrepreneur, Landon has led efforts across education, democracy, and economic development—whether it was supporting the efforts to launch the NACA Inspired Schools Network across indigenous communities, growing family and community engagement for Denver Public Schools, or building cross-sector efforts with the Homegrown Talent Initiative and Emergent Campus to support rural economic mobility. He began his teaching career on the Navajo Nation through Teach For America, then led the New Mexico region from 2007-2012 building significant public and private support, as well as supporting breakthrough projects such as the Native Alliance Initiative.
Between 2023 and 2026 he served as Chair of the Colorado State Board for Community Colleges and Occupational Education (appointed by Governor Jared Polis in 2019), where he helped generate consequential innovative investment resources for the system from philanthropy while steering the co-creation of the new strategic plan, Together We Will, which centered economic mobility as the north star. He advised The Colorado Project and the Denver Democracy Summit at the Korbel School of Global and Public Affairs at the University of Denver.
Landon serves as board chair for the Emergent Campus project, is on the board of the Caring for Colorado Foundation, and Latinos for Education, a groundbreaking nonprofit to accelerate Latino leadership. He also chairs the Reisher Scholars Committee, soon to be the largest scholarship program in the state.
Landon lives in Denver, offices in Trinidad at the AR Mitchell Museum of Western Art, and holds a doctorate in Education Leadership from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He is convicted to “Led Colorado Lead” - ensuring that the Centennial State will become a national beacon for open democracy during this time of national challenge.
Chief Executive Officer
Jamie Engel is the founding Chief Partnership Officer of Courageous Colorado. She is an educator, strategist, and civic innovator working to expand opportunities for people to engage meaningfully in public life. As Chief Partnership Officer, she leads strategic partnerships, coalition development, and statewide engagement efforts that bring together leaders and organizations committed to strengthening Colorado's civic future.
She began her career as a middle school English Language Arts teacher in Lynn, Massachusetts. Following her time in the classroom, she helped launch Democracy Entrepreneurs, a national nonpartisan network of civic entrepreneurs, where she shaped strategy, secured early funding, and organized a flagship conference at Harvard Kennedy School that convened more than 150 civic leaders from across the country. Jamie went on to serve as Director of Programs and Civic Community at the National Conference on Citizenship, where she led programs and engagement for a national network of more than 5,000 civic and community leaders, developed the organization's strategic learning framework, and oversaw its annual convening.
Most recently, Jamie was Principal Consultant at Knight Impact, where she advised nonprofit and philanthropic clients on strategic planning, program development, and field-building initiatives. As part of this work, she was the Civic Health Advisor to the YMCA of the USA, where she led the national expansion of the Civic Health Champions program for middle and high school students and co-developed the Youth Civic Health Survey, which has reached over 16,000 young people across 15 states.
Outside of her full-time roles, Jamie has designed and facilitated campaign and advocacy training programs for college students at the Harvard Institute of Politics and remains an active volunteer on local, state, and national campaigns.
Jamie holds a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and a Master’s degree in Education from Boston University, and a Master’s degree in Public Administration from Harvard Kennedy School, where she was an Education Entrepreneurship Fellow and a Pforzheimer Fellow. She currently serves as Vice Chair of the Boston University Young Alumni Council.
After more than a decade on the East Coast, Jamie is grateful to be back in her hometown of Denver with her husband, John. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, hiking, and watching women’s sports.
Chief Partnership Officer
Amy Spicer
Chief Impact Officer
Dr. Amy Spicer is the Chief Impact Officer at Courageous Colorado, where she leads strategy, learning, and impact across the organization’s work to strengthen local democracy, expand civic participation, and advance bold structural reforms. In this role, Amy focuses on translating vision into action—connecting policy analysis, community insights, and coalition efforts into coherent strategies that drive measurable change across Colorado.
Amy brings nearly 15 years of experience designing and implementing complex, multi-partner initiatives at the intersection of education, workforce development, youth well-being, and systems change. Prior to joining Courageous Colorado, she served as Vice President of Implementation and Design at the Colorado Education Initiative, where she led statewide and regional efforts to help communities move from vision to execution—supporting school districts, colleges, nonprofits, and public agencies to build more equitable, future-ready systems.
Throughout her career, Amy has been known as a connector and synthesizer—bringing together diverse stakeholders, surfacing patterns across local contexts, and helping teams align around shared goals. Her work has spanned graduate profile and student-centered accountability efforts, career-connected learning and advising systems, youth mental health and belonging initiatives, and place-based economic development partnerships, with a consistent focus on equity, coherence, and sustainability.
Amy holds a Master of Public Policy from the University of Denver and a Doctorate of Education from the University of Colorado Denver. She lives in Colorado and is motivated by a belief that democracy works best when systems are designed with people, not for them. She is energized by collaborative problem-solving, thoughtful design, and the possibility of building a more representative and courageous civic future—together.
Uriel B. Espinoza joins Courageous Colorado as Senior Advisor for Public Engagement, where he helps advance statewide strategies that strengthen civic participation, expand cross-sector partnerships, and deepen engagement with Colorado's rapidly changing electorate.
His work focuses on developing innovative approaches to public engagement that build trust, broaden participation, and help more Coloradans see themselves as active stakeholders in democracy. His research on Colorado's Latino electorate, including a comprehensive turnout memorandum examining one of the state's greatest untapped opportunities for civic participation, has helped inform conversations around long-term engagement strategies.
Uriel is the Co-Founder of Momento Presents, a civic entertainment company transforming concerts, sporting events, and cultural experiences into platforms for civic participation. Through partnerships with artists, venues, nonprofits, businesses, and community organizations, Momento is pioneering a new model of civic engagement that integrates voter registration, immigrant advocacy, local business activation, and community service into large-scale cultural experiences.
Prior to launching Momento Presents, Uriel co-founded ScholarLead.com, a national education technology company serving public schools across the country, after beginning his career as a risk analyst at Goldman Sachs.
Across his work Uriel is driven by a simple belief: that democracy is strengthened when communities experience belonging, trust, and meaningful opportunities to participate.
Uriel holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics and Public Policy from the University of Denver and has continued his education through an executive education at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. He divides his time between Denver, Colorado, and his family's ranch in Chihuahua, Mexico, where he is reconnecting with his ranching heritage and training to ride in the Great American Horse Drive, one of the last large-scale, authentic horse drives still conducted in the American West.
Senior Advisor