Meetings

June Meeting: Mark Johnson (the Voice of the Buffs) – The Ever-Evolving Landscape of College Athletics

Finola Annibella

Topic:  The ever-evolving landscape of college athletics.

Mark Johnson is in his 22nd season (2025-26) as the play-by-play announcer for CU’s football and men’s basketball teams, as he assumed the role of “Voice of the Buffaloes” ahead of the 2004-05 athletic year. He is also now in his ninth year as CU’s first-ever director of audio broadcasting for the athletic department, as he was named to the position on July 1, 2017.

In his role and in addition to his announcing duties, he hosts various television and radio shows, podcasts, makes personal appearances and does voiceover work for the university. He also does television and radio work for various national and regional networks in the Rocky Mountain Region and across the country and has become known for his distinctive, booming tenor voice.

Johnson, 58, was named sports director at KOA-Radio in Denver in the spring of 2004, replacing the retiring Larry Zimmer, who had held the position for over two decades. Zimmer, the long-time “Voice of the Buffaloes, had handled the play-by-play chores for CU dating back to 1971, but shifted over to the analyst position when Johnson was hired. When Zimmer retired from announcing after the 2015 season, the mantra of “Voice of the Buffs” fully shifted to “M.J.”

Zimmer’s 30 seasons of play-by-play are the most by any announcer in any sport at CU, with Johnson’s 21 in football under his belt second; John Henry holds the third spot with 17 (1954-70 at KOA). In basketball, M.J.’s 21 recently past Zimmer’s 19 for the most calling CU’s hoop contests.

April Meeting: Kendra Prospero – The Dignity of Work

Finola Annibella

Session Overview:
Work has a profound impact on our lives. It consumes the finest hours and years of our lives, and Kendra Prospero believes that everyone should love their job. Drawing from her personal journey and 15 years of experience leading her company, she shares powerful insights on finding joy and fulfillment at work. In this session, attendees will explore the importance of understanding their strengths and aligning them with their roles to achieve greater satisfaction and success. Kendra also highlights the shared responsibility of leaders and employees in creating a positive workplace culture that fosters innovation, productivity, and meaningful engagement. Participants will leave inspired to reflect on their “why” behind work and equipped with actionable steps to create a more fulfilling and dignified work life for themselves and for those they lead.

Top Three Learning Objectives:
● Understanding the Importance of Work: Attendees will learn about the significance of finding joy and fulfillment in their work, and how it impacts their overall well-being and productivity
● Identifying Personal Strengths and Aligning with Work: Participants will explore how to identify their strengths and align them with their roles to achieve greater satisfaction and success in their careers
● Creating a Positive Work Environment: The speech will provide insights on how leaders and employees can contribute to a positive work environment, fostering innovation, productivity, and overall job satisfaction.

Kendra Prospero is a human resources expert who delivers highly engaging keynote presentations that help founders and leaders transform their thoughts and feelings about work. She knows employers benefit when their team members feel included, are happier, and are more productive. Her philosophy is that we give up the best hours of our days and years of our lives for work, and we should love our jobs.

Before founding Turning the Corner, an award-winning Human Resources consulting firm and “Best Place to Work”, Kendra worked for many years as a Software Engineer for IBM but felt she struggled in a career that left her dying on the vine. Turning the Corner is a result of her following her passion for helping others as the CEO and Founder of one of the few firms in the nation that supports growing small businesses with all their “people” needs.

Kendra loves helping people get results, leading her team to greater places, and challenging us all to change the world one job at a time.

September Meeting: Nhi Aronheim – Resilience

Finola Annibella

Nhi Aronheim stands at only four feet, nine inches tall, but her story is immense.

Several anthologies including Kentucky Women: Two Centuries of Indomitable Spirit and Vision, Colorado Public Radio (CPR), and Harvey Brownstone Interviews have profiled her harrowing journey as a child refugee who escaped war-torn Vietnam in search of the American Dream.

Nhi’s diverse background is captivating.  As a refugee, she was adopted by a Christian family in the South, where she learned to deal with prejudice and discrimination. She later met and married a Jewish man and converted to Judaism in 2004. Nhi has two beautiful children who she has raised to embrace Vietnamese and Jewish cultures. After transitioning to sales and marketing in the mortgage industry—where Nhi worked for over sixteen years—she retired as a marketing specialist at the age of forty-one to begin her next life adventure. Since then, she has been a mediator, author, and speaker.

March Meeting: Ryan Miller with Team Vertice

Finola Annibella

Team Vertice is a senior-led B2B marketing consultancy built by experienced operators who’ve led strategy, built pipeline, and driven revenue inside the walls of startups, scale-ups, and Fortune 50 enterprises.

Collectively, we’ve helped hundreds of B2B brands generate nearly $1BN in trackable revenue—through smart positioning, aligned go-to-market strategies, and marketing systems built for scale. We’ve led in high-growth environments, guided companies through transformation, and partnered with leadership teams to turn marketing from a cost center into a strategic growth function.

We bring the mindset of in-house executives with the flexibility of a consultancy. Whether the challenge is brand clarity, sales and marketing alignment, or scaling demand generation—we show up as embedded partners focused on what matters: driving results.

February Meeting: DJ Summers – Common Sense Institute

finola.annibella@yahoo.com

Presentation Outline

This discussion will examine the Colorado and the Denver metro area as it stands now. Most of the key metrics that defined the Front Range in the mi-2010s are markedly different now in the mid-2020s: demographics, growth rates and key economic indicators among them. The area’s future will depend on how leaders respond.

DJ Summers is Common Sense Institute’s Director of Communications & Research Operations. He oversees CSI fellows and research staff, coordinates with partners, iterates and analyzes projects and breaks down findings for the public, legislators and commercial leaders.

Prior to CSI, DJ attended the University of Utah and Syracuse University. He worked as a journalist, investigator and political researcher across the U.S. from Washington, D.C. to Alaska. DJ has a drive to understand complex truths and make them clear and accessible to the public and its leaders alike.

DJ lives in Denver and is a classically trained pianist. He devotes his spare time to practicing and studying music. When not at the piano bench, he has a regimen of strength training, combat sports and enjoying good Colorado beer.

Common Sense Institute is a non-partisan research organization dedicated to the protection and promotion of Colorado’s economy. CSI is at the forefront of important discussions concerning the future of free enterprise in Colorado and aims to have an impact on the issues that matter most to Coloradans. CSI’s mission is to examine the fiscal impacts of policies, initiatives, and proposed laws so that Coloradans are educated and informed on issues impacting their lives. CSI employs rigorous research techniques and dynamic modeling to evaluate the potential impact of these measures on the Colorado economy and individual opportunity.