Traci Case, 48, enjoys being involved with the Golden community and has served on a number of the city’s boards and commissions in addition to a current role as a board member of Leadership Golden. Case is an adjunct professor at the Colorado School of Mines and her favorite volunteer activity is trail building and maintenance with Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado.
An interesting journey to Golden
I like Golden’s proximity to the outdoors, but I especially enjoy the Golden community. And I like to be involved with the community. Currently I’m a board member for Leadership Golden, and I’ve served on a number of the city’s boards and commissions.
It’s an interesting journey how I ended up in Golden.
I paid for college at the University of Texas at Austin as an undergraduate with an ROTC scholarship. After college, I served active duty in the Army at Fort Carson here in Colorado. In 1995, I completed my term of service — which was five years — and I moved to Golden to attend the Colorado School of Mines. I earned a master’s degree in environmental science and engineering.
I fell in love with Golden and decided I never wanted to leave.
About me
I work for a nonprofit water research foundation. I’ve been there for almost 20 years.
I also teach as an adjunct professor at the School of Mines. I teach EPICS, which is an acronym for a freshman design class. This is my first semester, so it’s new and exciting. I love it — it’s another way I can serve the community, by teaching students the problem-solving skills that they will use in their engineer and science careers.
I met my partner Pete Gotseff in grad school at Mines — we were in the same department. He now works at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).
Orange Cat
We don’t have any household pets, but in 2008, a litter of kittens was born under our back porch. One stayed around, and now anybody on East Street would recognize the big, orange cat who has become our neighborhood pet.
We got him neutered and we feed him. And he’ll bring us dead mice in gratitude.
We call him Orange Cat, and most days, he can be found sunning himself on our front porch.
A love for the outdoors
Pete and I share a love of the outdoors, and we enjoy volunteering on trail projects together. So probably my favorite volunteer activity is building and maintaining trails with Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado. There are trail building opportunities throughout the state in the summer months. I get to discover new places in Colorado that I never would have known about.
