Jay Seaton

Jay Seaton is the publisher of The Daily Sentinel in Grand Junction, Colorado. Jay also manages a group of radio stations serving the Grand Valley that the Sentinel acquired in 2018.

Prior to his arrival at the Sentinel in 2009, Jay was a corporate and commercial litigation partner at the law firm of Lewis Rice in Kansas City, Missouri. Prior to his position at Lewis Rice, Jay worked in toxic tort litigation at the law firm of Shook Hardy & Bacon.

Jay serves on the Colorado Economic Development Commission and the Colorado 150/250 Commission. He is a past chair of Rocky Mountain Health Plans and the Grand Junction Economic Partnership. Jay also chairs the Grand Junction Air Service Alliance and noses into other efforts to improve life in western Colorado. Jay holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and received his juris doctorate from Kansas University in 1996.

Executive Director

Charles Ashby

Board Member

Charles Ashby was a newspaper reporter for 47 years, finally for the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel for 16 years, covering politics and the Colorado Legislature.

Prior to that, he covered politics and the Legislature for the Pueblo Chieftain and Durango Herald while living in Denver. He also worked as a reporter in Florida covering the Navy in Pensacola, in Virginia covering the Legislature and Congress, ad Nebraska as a city editor.

Before all of that, he was a Scottish highlander. Actually born in 1532, or was it 1352? It’s been so long that he forgets.

Board Member

Bob Silbernagel

Bob Silbernagel worked for The Daily Sentinel for 34 years and was the editorial page editor for 19. Since retiring, he has written a twice-monthly regional history column for the Sentinel.

He also writes non-fiction history books. His most recent book, First Draft: Exploring the History of Western Colorado and Eastern Utah is a collection of 40 of his Sentinel columns.

In addition, he’s the author of The Cadottes: A Fur Trade Family on Lake Superior; Troubled Trails: The Meeker Affair and the Expulsion of Utes from Colorado; and Historic Adventures on The Colorado Plateau.

He’s written articles for a number of periodicals, including the Wisconsin Magazine of History, Colorado Heritage, and The Outlaw Trail Journal.

He’s a member of the Board of Directors for the Mesa County Historical Society. When not writing, he enjoys horseback riding, hiking, and camping. He and his wife, Judy live near Palisade Colorado.

Board Member

Tim Foster

Tim Foster has accomplished a lot in his life and has no plan to stop.

Foster grew up in Grand Junction. In 1980, he earned a degree in economics with honors from Kenyon College in Ohio. He went to Colorado School of Mines in 1982, where he completed graduate coursework for a master’s degree in mineral economics in 1984. He earned a juris doctorate from the University of Denver - School of Law in 1984.

He was elected to the Colorado House of Representatives and, starting in 1988, served four terms in the state legislature, two as house majority leader.

In 1999, Foster was appointed executive director of the Colorado Commission on Higher Education by Colorado Gov. Bill Owens. In March 2004, he began his tenure as the president of what is now Colorado Mesa University.

He retired from CMU on June 30, 2021, after serving for 17 years as president, having led the institution since 2004, overseeing its transition from Mesa State College to a university and expanding enrollment by over 60%.

Vice President and Treasurer

Robin Brown

For the past decade, Robin Brown has worked to build a strong community in western Colorado, whether it was leading Mesa County’s economic development efforts at the Grand Junction Economic Partnership, writing about local issues in her monthly column in the Daily Sentinel or by launching Spoke + Blossom, a regional lifestyle magazine focused on the western Colorado lifestyle.

Brown is a US Army veteran and aviator and deployed twice to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Today, she serves as the CEO of the Colorado Mesa University Foundation and Senior Vice President of Development for CMU and continues to call Grand Junction home with her husband and two children.

President

Laurena Mayne Davis

Laurena has worked in or around professional journalism since she was a stringer for The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel while a college student. Now an assistant professor of Mass Communication at Colorado Mesa University, Davis aims to develop the next generation of media practitioners.