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Nan Sundeen, Pitkin County's longtime human services director, retires

Nan Sundeen receives the Colorado Non-Profit Public Service Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017. Sundeen in 2002 helped start the Healthy Community Fund, which now raises more than $3 million a year for nonprofits in Pitkin County and the Roaring Fork Valley.
Pitkin County
Nan Sundeen receives the Colorado Non-Profit Public Service Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017. Sundeen in 2002 helped start the Healthy Community Fund, which now raises more than $3 million a year for nonprofits in Pitkin County and the Roaring Fork Valley.

Nan Sundeen has spent the past 31 years working as director of the human services department for Pitkin County. Her last day on the job was March 1, and we asked her to reflect on her time in the position, on what people in Pitkin County need and on where to go from here.

Sundeen helped the human services department grow from a six-person department to a team of 26. She began in 1991 working with eight nonprofit organizations, and now the department works with 72 nonprofits in Pitkin County.

In 2002, Sundeen also helped start the Healthy Community Fund, which now provides more than $3 million a year to various nonprofits in Pitkin County. The county provided another $3 million for food, rent and utility relief during the first three months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, she’s looking forward to traveling around the country.

Aspen Public Radio is a 2022 recipient of Pitkin County's Healthy Community Fund.

Halle Zander is the news director at Aspen Public Radio. She's a broadcast journalist and the host of "All Things Considered." Her work has been recognized by the Radio Television Digital News Association, Public Media Journalists Association, the Colorado Broadcasters Association, and the Society of Professional Journalists.