Born in New York, Grant Jackson received a Bachelor’s Degree in Anthropology from Plattsburgh State University.  His course work had an emphasis on medical anthropology specifically related to disabilities across cultures.

Grant started his career in Western Alaska as the regional coordinator for an agency similar to Strive called Hope Community Resources.  His first position there was as a Direct Service Provider intern at a group home. He was eventually hired as the Regional Coordinator for the organization.  He gained a tremendous amount of experience with both case management and direct services. In his role there he was fortunate to be able to travel all over Western Alaska visiting different Yupik Eskimo villages.

Born and raised in Grand Junction Christopher Bergquist attended Colorado Mesa University back when it was called Mesa State College. He earned an undergraduate degree in psychology which led to his first professional job working as a Case Manager for Strive.

After several years as a Case Manager Christopher went back to school and earned a Master’s Degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in finance from Colorado State University. While doing his coursework for this degree he worked in Strive’s accounting office. Right after graduating Strive’s CFO retired and Christopher applied for the position and was promoted into it. He’s worked for the agency for 11 years now.

MaryAnne Lawrie has been working here at Strive since 2001. Through all that, she’s been a rock-solid source of organizational expertise. MaryAnne says she learned everything she knows on the job and through workshops and a variety of training she’s been fortunate to attend. Prior to coming to Strive she worked as a paralegal and did transcription on the side.

MaryAnne likes working with people with disabilities because she says it feels genuine and real. “It pulls on your heartstrings when you see them achieve their goals.”  She considers her honesty as one of her greatest assets on the job. She describes herself as an open book.

My name is Heather Parga. I was born and raised in Alamosa Colorado, committing fifteen beautiful years to a nonprofit organization called Blue Peaks Developmental Services Inc. one of twenty CCBs similar to Strive. Where my role ranged in being a Direct Support Professional for six years when transitioning into the Human resource assistant in 2012 working alongside my Human Resource Director. Then in 2016 receiving the Human Resource Director position until April 2022.

Having grown up in Fruita, Colorado I have always had a longing for river floats, Country Jam, hiking, lake days, palisade peaches and being around my family. Although life took me on some amazing adventures living in Utah and Northern Colorado for the last ten years, I am finally living back in the Grand Valley!

Vittawat received his training and education from the University of Nevada, Reno where he first was exposed to working with adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (ID/DD) applying behavioral science strategies to help them manage their behaviors, learn life skills, and vocational skills. He started as a behavioral technician before transitioning into a behavioral consultant role. During his time there, he collaborated on various research projects as well as conducted his own research project towards the advancement of literature on applied behavioral science with the ID/DD population.