Our Team
Recovery Movement
All of us have been part of the recovery movement for over 150 years combined.
AWF confronts barriers to recovery by providing free access to all vulnerable individuals for solutions to improve physical and mental health, and support and educate all people seeking recovery from substance and mild to moderate mental health disorders.
Claudia Archuleta – Board of Directors, Chairman

Keith Cox – Board of Directors, Member at Large | Certified Recovery Coach
Keith is the owner of Longmont Insurance Brokers. He was born and raised in Boulder County. He has strong ties to the Longmont community and through his service wants to give back to the people of Longmont. He has experienced the impact of addiction in his own family, and thus brings pertinent personal experience to fulfill our mission. He has proven himself to be a businessman of good character, fully aware of his fiduciary responsibilities and honest reputation in the Longmont community.
Larry Rand – Board of Directors, Secretary | Certified Recovery Coach
Larry has been involved on the board level with four different nonprofits in Longmont, three of which specifically addressed addiction and alcoholism, including The Addiction Treatment Center. He is also the parent of a child with this affliction. Larry had been in active in ongoing recovery from alcohol and drug addiction for 15 years when his 17-year-old son, Levi, was killed in a single car accident on the Longmont-Boulder Diagonal in 2004. The accident was related to alcohol and drug use and abuse. It was only in the aftermath of this tragic event, that Larry realized that those of us closest to the problem are hopelessly ineffective at finding solutions for the family on their own. Since the accident, Larry has been intent on creating a memorial to his son’s memory by helping others find recovery. He brings these experiences and knowledge to ‘A Way Forward’. Finally, Larry is a combat veteran of the Vietnam War. Larry has been involved in the recovery movement and veterans’ outreach for the past 32 years. He was a founding member of Veterans Helping Veterans NOW.
Edward “Sonny” Smith – Board of Directors, Diversity Officer
As an African-American, Sonny brings his unique perspective as having grown up during the Civil Rights Era. Sonny was born in Philadelphia and grew up in Japan, North Carolina, Colorado, and New York. Sonny is a Vietnam era Air Force veteran. He left the Air Force 1973 and became one of the very first stewards for United Airlines. In 1980, he moved to Boulder to study at the University of Colorado. Sonny then worked until 1987 managing a hedge fund. In 1989, he moved to Australia where he worked for the Commonwealth Bank. During this time, Sonny decided to pursue his passion in Art and Art history. While working at the Bank, he enrolled at the University of New South Whales to study painting and art history. In 1993, he returned to Boulder and in 1995, Sonny opened an art studio in Boulder, while lecturing and teaching studio painting at CU. In 2010 he moved to Lyons where he facilitates a children’s art program, as well as other programs. Since 2015, he has served on the Board of the Lyons Arts and Humanities Commission.
Kim Jandro – Board of Directors, Treasurer | Certified Recovery Coach

Debbie Platts – Executive Director, MBA | Certified Recovery Coach
Debbie was born and raised in Boulder. Most of her career was in Banking and Financial Consulting. She speaks fluent German and Russian. She worked for the Deutsche Bank in Chemnitz Germany, shortly after the reunification of East and West Germany, as a credit analyst and later managed the credit department of a subsidiary of the Deutsche Bank in Warsaw, Poland. She worked on two different USAID projects; one in Ukraine and one in Kazakhstan advising the governments of those countries on privatization methods of large enterprises and establishing financial markets. In Moscow, she worked for the World Bank managing a $94M line of credit to the Russian Federation. Eventually, she moved back to Colorado to be near her family and care for her elderly parents. Most recently, she worked for the SVVSD School District at a Longmont middle school as a paraeducator. Here, she was able to witness firsthand many families who suffered the impact of substance use disorders in their own families or close circle of friends. This experience helped fuel her passion to give back to our community and be of service. Debbie is a single mother of a teenage son. She has been active with her son’s Boy Scout troop, holding various leadership positions throughout his journey which began when he was 6 years old. She is also a breast cancer survivor.
Angelica “Angie” Halbert – Bilingual Outreach
I was born in Matamoros, Mexico. As an infant, my father brought me to the United States through the Rio Grande River as he did the rest of my older siblings. I grew up in Mendota, California as a kid working in the fields helping the family during summers. I learned to work hard and appreciate equity and activism as a kid.
I remember seeing and hearing Caesar Chavez, an activist who frequented the fields near the ranch where we lived and worked as farm workers when I was about 8 years old. He came to rally farm workers to unionize for better working conditions. He was loud, strong, and held a bugle horn which he yelled into. He made an impression on me especially after I worked in the fields and saw first-hand how the working conditions of the fields are so harsh and soul sucking.
It made me appreciate my father that much more. Most embarrassing of all things was that I didn’t know who Ceasar Chavez was. He wasn’t mentioned in schools. We all sort of knew what was going on with the movement but no one felt comfortable talking about it. My father later informed me of what was going on and we talked about it.
Growing up in that small town in California, it was an expectation that most of us were expected to work in the fields forever and drop out of high school by 9th grade. College was not in the cards for any of us. My family was not religious but traditional in that my father worked away from the home and my mother stayed home to attend the cleaning and child rearing.
Like many families, I grew up in a home where substance use disorders plagued us. Several of my brothers were and are poly users, and one passed away because of drug and alcohol abuse. I currently have a brother who is unhoused or couch surfing.
Professionally, I have worked for organizations that help people who are struggling or in recovery from mental health disorders, substance use disorders, are in domestic violence relationships, have been crime victims of the highest misfortune, child protection, the unhoused populations including children, youth, parents, adults, people with disabilities, veterans, and elders.
I possess a master’s degree from the University of Denver, in Applied Communication and Conflict Resolution. My undergraduate degree is in Behavioral Science, and I am bilingual in English and Spanish. I also received a CAC II, in 2019, and have tons of training hours in most human services sectors with a combined 38 plus years of non-profit and government work as a leader and/or front-line staff member.
I am inspired by this amazing organization and I am happy to be here!
I look forward to meeting you!
Kay Huskins – Volunteer, Certified Recovery Coach
Kay has been a passionate member of the Longmont Recovery Community for over two decades. Kay is a professional stylist and has owned and managed several salons in the St. Vrain Valley. As a single mother, she has raised two beautiful daughters and also enjoys three granddaughters. She has been a devoted mother accompanying her eldest daughter, a nurse, on her brave, arduous battle with breast cancer. Kay is able to turn her lived experiences of adversity into compassion for others. Graciously she shares her experience, strength, and hope with all who come to A Way Forward.
Cody Love – Certified Recovery Coach
Cody is a Colorado native. He participated in competitive paintball for over 20 years. This sport develops your sense of strategy and tactics and offers great exercise. You need to outthink your opponents on the field and constantly come up with new strategies. Cody attended Colorado Northwestern College where he studied Criminal Justice. He is a recovering alcoholic which allows him to come to the recovery coaching from a position of strength. Cody’s journey and experience in his recovery are invaluable to those he coaches.

Katie Server – Volunteer / Certified Recovery Coach
Katie is a Colorado native who grew up in Boulder County but has lived all over the state. She has always been passionate about creating art and has a deep appreciation for the natural world and being in the great outdoors. Growing up Katie struggled with self-esteem, obesity, untreated anxiety and depression, and self-harm. As a teenager she discovered drugs and alcohol and started self-medicating with them. In her 20’s, Katie became not only addicted to, but physically dependent on these substances. Due to her alcoholism and addiction, Katie became homeless and lived with her partner and dog in her car for 10 months. They travelled aimlessly from state to state, surviving on food banks, handouts, odd jobs and selling Katie’s art.
Katie’s physical dependence on alcohol grew more severe and despite still being young, Katie became increasingly ill. In 2020 while living in a motel, Katie went to the ER with acute pancreatitis and was treated in the hospital for 11- days. Due to acute pancreatitis Katie also suffered a rare condition called Purtscher Retinopathy in which her retinas hemorrhaged. resulting in scarring that has left her visually impaired. Though this near-death experience was not enough to get Katie long term sobriety it did start her on the path to recovery. For the next 2 years Katie still struggled with sobriety even after a couple of inpatient treatment programs. In 2021 Katie found A Way Forward and found a renewed purpose in life – through meetings, fellowship, one-on-one counselling, and volunteer commitments. Katie has been sobered for 15 months and is now a certified recovery coach at A Way Forward. Katie is passionate about helping others on their path to recovery and happiness, as A Way Forward helped her.
Joan Foster-Volunteer, Certified Recovery Coach
Joan was born in Evanston Illinois and grew up the youngest in a family of 4. She attended the University of Dayton and graduated with a degree in Communications Management. After fulfilling career in Medical Device sales she began her dream of being a mom to two daughters. After a variety of corporate moves around the country, Joan, her husband and daughters settled in Longmont. Joan has always had a love of children and volunteered and mentored many years in the SVVSD and Kids Hope, to be involved with her children and the community. Joan has witnessed how devastating addiction can be in a family and friends and is committed to sharing her experience with the Boulder community.
Steve Esenwein – Volunteer, Certified Recovery Coach
Steve has lived in the Longmont area since 1978. He entered treatment for addiction to alcohol in 1983 and has been sober since then. Most recently, Steve worked as a Peer Support Specialist for Mental Health Partners. Steve received extensive training from Mental Health Partners. One program he particularly liked was “Advocates for Recovery. Aligned with the guidelines of peer support workers, Advocates for Recovery encourages people to build their own recovery paths, which follows their own spiritual beliefs and goes at their own pace. Steve has been active in sponsorship and service positions in the Longmont Recovery Community since 1983. For many years Steve has been involved with many recovery groups besides AA, such as LifeRing, Dharma Recovery and Red Road. This has given him in depth experience in a wide variety of approaches to recovery. Steve’s life philosophy is to be helpful to people looking for help: “It helps me to be helpful. I believe recovery is a two-way street between peers and peer support.” Steve is very well read in a variety of philosophies and spiritual teachings as well as recovery approaches.
Richard Booth – Volunteer /Certified Recovery Coach
Richard grew up in California in a poor household. Never getting along well in school, Richard eventually flunked out of the public school system and joined an alternative learning program where he earned all his high school credits in 2.5 years. Born an artist and a musician, Richard spent all of his young years creating and eventually started teaching himself graphic design.
Having always felt a little different from the crowd, struggling with self-esteem, a neglectful home life, bullying, obesity and poverty, Richard found himself retreating into the numbness of drugs and alcohol at the age of fourteen. Richard battled his various addictions for 25 years and on his path to recovery has spoken to many different groups about his story, including various Alcoholics Anonymous clubs and Barrios Unidos Santa Cruz.
Richard has a passion for helping and applies this to his daily responsibilities at A Way Forward, always striving to do better and give back what was so freely given to him on his journey to recovery.


Aletta Martinez – Bilingual Specialist
Aletta Martinez grew up in Longmont in a traditional Hispanic household. Having grown up on “the wrong side of the tracks.” Aletta experienced much racism in her early days. Aletta is the mother of 3 children, one of whom has struggled with substance use. Aletta has the lived experience of a mother trying to help her son get healthy. She has also experienced homelessness. Most recently, Aletta worked for the St. Vrain Valley School District and for the City of Longmont. Prior to that, she worked for 19 years as a Court Clerk for the 20th Judicial District.
Phil Sidoff – Volunteer
Phil Sidoff and his wife have lived in Longmont for the past 22 years. He is originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin where he worked as a museum anthropologist throughout most of the 1970s. Also, it should be mentioned that he served in the US Airforce and was stationed in Viet Nam in 1964 – 65. Phil has been in recovery for some years and feels strongly that for successful recovery from substance abuse, one needs first and foremost to have a commitment to living a clean and sober lifestyle.
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Call
(303) 630-1400
Location
Longmont, CO 80501
info@awflongmont.org
