BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Aspen Science Center

Bill Turner, Board Chair
David Heil, President

Charles Cuniffe

With an award-winning architecture firm in Aspen since 1981, Charles Cunniffe, FAIA, is a champion of thoughtful community-based design, educational opportunities, the arts and human welfare.

Charles and his firm have donated pro-bono design services to countless non-profits, and consistently give back to the community; earning the AIA Colorado Community Service by an Architect Award in 2011. CCA has also earned AIA Colorado West Firm of the Year, Mentor of the Year, and has been on OUTSIDE Magazine’s 100 ‘Best Places to Work’ in the US for four consecutive years.

Charles is currently the elected Pitkin County Representative on the Board of Trustees of Colorado Mountain College, is a Founding Board Member and Chairman of Governance of Jazz Aspen/Snowmass, served as President Elect and President of the American Institute of Architects Colorado West from 2013 through 2017, is a member of the Aspen Art Museum, the Urban Land Institute’s Small Scale Development Council, Rocky Mountain Institute’s National Solutions Council, Aspen Institute’s Society of Fellows, Aspen Science Center, the Aspen Rotary World Service Committee, and the Aspen Elks Lodge #224.

Charles Cunniffe Architects (CCA) has garnered national recognition, appearing in the Wall Street Journal, Architectural Digest Veranda, LUXE, Modern Luxury, and Architect Magazine amongst others. CCA has received numerous American Institute of Architects design awards and has earned Mountain Living Magazine’s ‘Home of the Year’ four times.

Charles Cunniffe

William Turner

William “Bill” Turner is chair of the board of directors and a member of the executive committee. Bill spent 35 years as a management consultant, working with large financial institutions on issues of strategy, corporate governance, and operational effectiveness. While at McKinsey, PriceWaterhouse Coopers, and A.T. Kearney, he assisted clients in 25 countries and resided overseas for more than a dozen years in London, Seoul, and Hong Kong. He led strategy and financial services consulting practices in the U.S., the United Kingdom, the Middle East, across Europe, and in Greater China. Prior to consulting, Bill led the corporate banking business for Chemical Bank, now JPMorgan Chase, in five mid-western states, managing relationships with large corporations and banks, and structuring and negotiating complex credit transactions. Eons ago, he graduated from Brown University with a degree in economics and then earned an MBA in finance from Columbia. Bill’s family has been coming to Aspen and Snowmass since the mid-1980’s, and Bill, wife Paula, and their dog Lola have lived in Snowmass Village for 15 years. Bill recently rolled off the board of Aspen Public Radio, where he was Chair for several years, and he serves on the board of the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation in New York. Science – especially physics – has played an important role in Bill’s life. Brownian motion has kept him traveling around most of his life. From early on he accepted Einstein’s attributed comment that the most powerful force in the universe is compound interest. And, Bill views the world with lots of Fresnel rings, now that he has multi-focal intraocular lenses.

William Turner

David Heil

David Heil is the Aspen Science Center President and Treasurer, and a member of the executive committee. As President of David Heil & Associates, he works with non-profit organizations, governmental agencies and corporations to design, launch, and evaluate a range of educational and public outreach initiatives. Former Director of Informal Science Education for the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), Mr. Heil is an innovative science educator, new enterprise developer, lecturer, and author. He is the former host of the Emmy Award-winning science series, Newton’s Apple. He was lead author on the award-winning program, Discover The Wonder, and is editor of Family Science. David was the Associate Director of the Oregon Museum of Science & Industry. While there, he initiated and administered many of the museum’s nationally recognized education and outreach programs, and also developed hands-on exhibits for a national tour. He also taught science and enrichment programs in grades 7-12, conducted research in plant biochemistry and radiochemistry, and worked with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. He served on the Board of Directors of the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study, the Keystone Center, and currently serves as the Senior Science Advisor for the Council of Chief State School Officers. Mr. Heil recently received NSTA’s award for Distinguished Service to Science Education.

David Heil

Mark St. John, PhD

Mark St. John, PhD. earned a B.S. degree at Princeton in Aeronautical Engineering, an M.S. degree from the University of New Mexico in Physics, and a Ph.D. at the University of California in Science and Mathematics Education. Prior to pursuing his graduate education, he taught high school physics.
For over 30 years Dr. St. John has been the leader of Inverness Research. In this role he has developed approaches to studying investments in educational improvement that have become widely known and valued in the field. In the past two decades Mark and his colleagues have designed and implemented over 200 program and project evaluations. Their work ranges from the study of large-scale initiatives undertaken by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the U.S. Department of Education to the evaluation of individual formal and informal science projects. They have been involved in the evaluation of K-12, undergraduate and graduate programs including professional development and teacher leadership networks, curriculum design projects, science museum exhibitions, and multi-institutional partnerships,
Mark also advises philanthropies about ways they can better understand and improve their investments in educational improvement. He has provided advise to the NSF, the US Department of Education, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the Stuart Foundation, the Gates Foundation, the S.D Bechtel Jr. Foundation, the Ford Family Foundation, the Knowles Science Teaching Foundation and the Pew Charitable Trusts.
Three decades of work have led to many insights about educational improvement – its funding, design, implementation and evaluation. Now having founded the non-profit Inverness Institute, he seeks to draw on those years of experience to help support a wide range of efforts to help foundations and project designers “get better at getting better.”

Mark St. John, PhD

Andrei Ruckenstein

Dr. Ruckenstein is a co-founder of the Aspen Science Center and a past President of the Aspen Center for Physics. He holds a B.S. from Harvard College and a Ph.D. in Physics from Cornell. He is trained as a theoretical condensed matter physicist and is known for his work in strongly correlated quantum systems. He later redirected his interests towards biology-driven research. He was awarded an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship, an Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award, and a Humboldt Foundation Senior Prize. Dr. Ruckenstein is Professor of Physics and former Associate Provost & Vice President for Research at Boston University. He is also Interim Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research at Lancaster University.

Andrei Ruckenstein

Alan Fletcher

Alan Fletcher, one of this country’s most accomplished music administrators and respected composers, was born in 1956 in Riverside, New Jersey, and earned his baccalaureate at Princeton University (1978) and his master’s degree (1979) and doctorate (1983) at Juilliard. He studied composition with Roger Sessions, Milton Babbitt, Edward T. Cone, and Paul Lansky and piano with Jacob Lateiner and Robert Helps. In 1985, Fletcher was appointed to the faculty of the New England Conservatory of Music, teaching composition and theory and serving successively during his 16-year tenure at the school as Dean, Provost and Senior Vice President. From 2011 to 2006, he was Professor of Music and Head of the School of Music at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, after which he assumed his current position as President and CEO of the Aspen Music Festival and School. Fletcher has lectured nationally and internationally on music and music administration, served on many boards, panels, juries, seminars and committees, and contributed articles and op-ed pieces to Symphony magazine, Gramophone magazine, Wall Street Journal, Sonus: Journal of Global Music, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Baltimore Sun, The Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy, Chronicle of Higher Education, and many others. Fletcher has won numerous composing awards and received commissions from the National Dance Institute, the Pittsburgh Symphony (2008 and 2011), Nashua Symphony, National Gallery of Art, Boston Celebrity Series, Duquesne University, New York Camerata, and other noted ensembles, organizations, and soloists. He chaired the 1997 Salzburg Seminar Music for a New Millenium: The Classical Genre in Contemporary Society.

Alan Fletcher

Harry Teague

Harry Teague AIA is President, founder and principal designer of Harry Teague Architects. Teague grew up in Alpine, New Jersey, graduated from Dartmouth College in 1966, and has lived in Colorado since receiving his M.Arch. from the Yale School of Architecture in 1972. He began his architectural practice in 1975 as a designer/builder, and personally constructed his designs for the first seven years of his career.Since 1975 HTA’s diverse practice has produced many significant buildings for educational, cultural and scientific institutions, as well as numerous award-winning residences. Teague was named AIA Colorado Architect of the Year in 2000, and Harry Teague Architects was named Firm of the Year by the AIA Colorado and the AIA Western Mountain Region in 1994 and 1995.

In addition to working closely with many non-profits as their architect, Teague has served on several boards including, as board president, the International Design Conference in Aspen, Aspen Science Outreach Center, and Aspen Journalism. His work has been included in exhibitions and published internationally in magazines and books. He has lectured and taught throughout the country, served on numerous professional design award juries and has received numerous local, state and national design awards.

Harry Teague

Mark Munger

Mark Munger recently retired from a 40+ year career in science education, including 13 years at Aspen Community School, and 28 years at Aspen Middle School. Mark earned a B.A. degree in Geography from the University of Kansas, a Teaching Certificate from the University of Northern Colorado, and an M.A. degree in Science Education from Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon. He considers himself a very lucky person, having the good fortune to live and work in the Roaring Fork Valley for the past 42 years. His passions of hiking, skiing, fly fishing, and salsa tasting are all readily accessible. Working with two school systems that valued academic achievement, experiential learning, and community involvement, provided the opportunity to fully engage with students while taking them on numerous outdoor trips, cultural exchanges, and community service projects. He has been known to say that “Outside the classroom is the best classroom”. For nine years Mark served as Board member and President (2010-2012) of the Crown Mountain Park & Recreation District in El Jebel, Colorado, and from 2014 – 2020 he served as Vice President and then President of the Aspen Education Association.

Mark Munger

WIlliam R. Frazer

William “Bill” Frazer is Senior Vice President, Emeritus of the University of California (UC) system, and Professor of Physics, Emeritus, UC Berkeley. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the American University of Armenia and was its founding chair. He chairs the External Advisory Panel for the UC-Caltech Thirty-Meter Telescope project, and is a member of the Boards of Governors of Los Alamos National Security, LLC, and Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC, which are the contractors for these two national laboratories. In 1978 and 1979 Frazer chaired the UC System-wide Academic Assembly and Council. From 1981 to 1991 he was Provost of the University of California’s nine-campus system, with responsibility for academic planning and admissions and with oversight of the scientific programs of the Los Alamos, Livermore, and Berkeley National Laboratories. Later he was charged with organizing UC’s oversight structure, the UC President’s Council on the National Laboratories and its panels, and was the first chair of its Science and Technology Panel. Frazer was the first Chairman of the Board of Directors of the California Association for Research in Astronomy, which built and operates the twin ten-meter Keck telescopes atop Mauna Kea, each the largest in the world. From 1985 to 1991 Frazer was a member of the Board of Trustees of University Research Associates, which managed the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.

From 1960 to 1981 Frazer was a member of the Department of Physics of the University of California, San Diego, where he conducted research and published extensively on the theory of the elementary particles. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society. He received a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley, and an A.B. from Carleton College.

WIlliam R. Frazer

Michael Murray

Jessica (Jess) Schwarz

Jessica (Jess) Schwarz is a District Instructional Leader for the Roaring Fork School District. She was born and raised in northern Michigan and has a bachelor’s degree in fisheries and wildlife management from Michigan State University, a master’s degree in human geography from the University of Colorado-Boulder and a Post-Baccalaureate degree in secondary science education from the University of Hawaii-Manoa. In her 15 years as an educator, Jess has served as a middle school science teacher, curriculum writer, building administrator, and district instructional leader. She has also taught overseas, spending three fantastic years in Italy and Spain. Most recently, Jess leads district wide implementation of K-8 literacy curriculum as well as incorporating social-emotional learning (SEL) and healing-centered pedagogy into districtwide programming with the RFSD. Prior to becoming an educator, Jess worked in the field of wildlife biology studying natural wonders such as spinner dolphins in Hawaii and orchids in Puerto Rico. As a National Science Foundation-Graduate Research Fellow (NSF-GRFP), she researched community-based conservation in northeastern Tanzania and has completed graduate work in educational psychology. She is a big believer in the power of community-centered science programming to provide children and adults, alike, the opportunity to become scientists in their own right and explore the natural world. When not at work, Jess likes to be active outside, especially running, hiking, skiing, and camping in remote, hard-to-reach spots with her malamute, Auggie.

Jessica (Jess) Schwarz

Duncan Wells, MD

Duncan Wells was born in New York, but raised in Bogota, Colombia, by his American mother and Colombian father. He attended a Swiss school in Bogota, where he became fluent in French and Spanish.

Dr. Wells obtained his medical degree in 1987 from Emory University in Atlanta, after graduating Summa Cum Laude from the University of California Santa Barbara. He completed his Orthopedic Surgery residency in 1992 at USC/Los Angeles County Hospital and then went on to do a fellowship in hand surgery at the Royal Perth Hospital in Australia. He returned to Los Angeles in 1993 to head the department of Hand Surgery at Kaiser Permanente Hospital. In 1996, seeking a bigger challenge and more independence, Dr Wells moved to Atlanta and started Atlas Orthopaedics, which would soon become one of the premier orthopedic practices in Northern Georgia.

After 25 years of 80-hour weeks as a full-time surgeon, CEO and President of Atlas Orthopaedics, Dr. Wells sold his practice in 2022 and moved to Aspen with his wife Kari, his daughter Alexa and his son Bryson. Duncan is now enjoying everything Aspen has to offer like mountain biking, skiing, hiking, and the Aspen Community. As a Board member with the Aspen Science Center, he is helping the ASC team develop and deliver a variety of health and medical-related programs. He also enjoys building sets for the Aspen Community Theatre, and is an active member of Health Volunteers Overseas, offering his orthopedic surgery skills in Guatemala and Tanzania.

Duncan Wells

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In Memoriam

George Stranahan

George Stranahan is Founding Chairman of the Board, past President, and a member of the Executive Committee of the Aspen Science Center. At age 12 George knew that science would be his career choice, and his subsequent grades in assorted schools demonstrate his disinterest in any other subject. Except for a two year stint in the army late in the Korean War his career was a standard academic progression of BS, MS, PhD, Research Associate, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and out. He worked in theory on meson physics, plasma physics, and some very non-linear mathematics of phase transitions. He was improbably in the right place at the right time to become one of the founders of the Aspen Center of Physics, unquestionably a much more significant contribution to physics than his research papers.

George Stranahan

Science is an indispensable tool for understanding our world, becoming an informed citizen, and enriching people’s lives. In today’s world, each citizen must have a solid base in the understanding of, and appreciation for, scientific concepts and their essential role in the betterment of humankind.The Aspen Science Center was formed to offer teachers, students, and the larger community a vital center of instruction in and exploration of science, and a resource for science literacy.