Meet our Editorial Advisory Board

Guided by integrity, commitment to excellence, and knowledgeable experts

Fresh Water News is an independent, nonpartisan news initiative launched by Water Education Colorado in 2018 to report on water issues in Colorado and across the American West. Helping us in the work is an advisory board whose members help guide our editorial coverage and the growth of Fresh Water News.

Thomas Kelley has more than 40 years of experience working in libel defense and media litigation. Kelley retired in 2018 and is now of counsel at Killmer, Lane & Newman. He was also a founder of the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition (CFOIC) and garnered a national reputation for protecting the rights of news and media organizations, as he successfully represented a myriad of media outlets including The Denver Post and NBCUniversal. He received the Champion of the First Amendment Award at the 2019 ABA Forum on Communications Law.

Jim Trotter is currently an associate editor of The Gazette in Colorado Springs. He has worked as a reporter, columnist and editor at organizations including Rocky Mountain PBS, the Rocky Mountain News, San Jose Mercury News, and the Sacramento Bee. He has been an editor or writer on projects that won three Pulitzer Prizes. He was recipient of the Dart Society’s 2010 Mimi Award for exceptional work by an editor.

Tom Yulsman is director of the Center for Environmental Journalism at the University of Colorado-Boulder and a journalism professor there as well.  Before joining CU in 1996, Yulsman was editor-in-chief of Earth magazine. In addition to Discover, his work has appeared in a wide variety of publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Time, Audubon, bioGraphic, Climate Central, and others.