In this session, local futures talk about what Durango will look like and be in 2040.

Storytellers include: Sarah Lemcke is a certified early childhood educator, advocate for children and passionate champion for progressive education. She is employed at Riverview Elementary School as a preschool teacher for children ages 3-5. Having always been passionate and fascinated by alternative forms of education, she spent the summer training at a forest kindergarten in Zurich, Switzerland. Her experiences as a forest teacher altered her paradigm around education for the better. Sarah is committed to bringing best practices into public education and is proud to work in a district where this mindset is encouraged and supported.

Dr. Richard Grossman practiced obstetrics and gynecology in Durango for 40 years. For most of that time he was the volunteer medical director of the health department. He has written the column Population Matters for The Durango Herald since 1995. In high school he read an advertisement in Scientific American titled “A Statement of Conviction about Overpopulation” which said, “We believe that widespread, effective and voluntary use of medically sound and individually acceptable birth control is an essential factor in any humane design to raise world living standards and achieve international peace.” He was hooked and since that time has done what he can to help every child born in Durango be planned, healthy and loved. In addition, he has learned about the limits to growth, and learned that humans have gone far beyond those limits.

Greg Hoch worked for the City of Durango’s Community Development Department for 35 years. He retired in 2016 when he was the department director, a job he describes as administering the public decision-making processes related to the physical forms and associated change within the city.