Board of Directors
Jennifer L. Schubert-Akin — Chairman
Owner, Marathon Accounting Services, LLC, Steamboat Springs, Colorado.
Jennifer Schubert-Akin has lived in beautiful Steamboat Springs, Colorado, with her husband of 30 years, Rick Akin, since 1995. Jennifer is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma and received her Master’s of Business Administration degree from Saint Edward’s University in Austin, Texas. Jennifer founded her business, Marathon Accounting Services, in 1999, providing accounting and consulting services to a variety of small businesses. Jennifer is a graduate of the Leadership Program of the Rockies and also served on that organization’s Advisory Board for several years. She, along with her husband, Rick, co-founded and serves as Chairman of The Steamboat Institute, a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to the advancement of conservative principles. Jennifer was formerly Chairman of the Routt County Republican Central Committee and has also participated in many community activities in Steamboat Springs, including serving as Community Representative on the Steamboat Pilot & Today Editorial Board, Steamboat Marathon Committee, Tax Policy Advisory Board appointed by the Steamboat Springs City Council and many other activities. In her free time, Jennifer enjoys trail running with her 4-legged children, Boomer and Cruiser, and has completed 3 Leadville Trail 100-mile Races and the last 17 consecutive Boston Marathons.
Rick Akin — Vice Chairman
Founding Member, The Akin Law Firm, LLC, Attorneys and Counselors, Denver, Austin, and Steamboat Springs
Jennifer’s husband, Rick, is the Vice Chairman and a co-founder of The Steamboat Institute. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Letters Degree with Highest Honors from the University of Oklahoma and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin, where he was a member of Order of the Coif and The Texas Law Review. Rick is currently the owner of The Akin Law Firm, LLC with offices in Austin, Texas; Denver, Colorado; and Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Rick began his career at Austin’s largest law firm, Clark Thomas & Winters, where he was a shareholder and member of the management committee before moving to Steamboat Springs in 1995. Rick is also a member of the board of Directors of Marathon Kids, a non-profit corporation dedicated to exercise and healthy habits for school age children. He is a former member of Steamboat Pilot & Today Editorial Board and the Routt County Airport Board and is a graduate of the Leadership Program of the Rockies. Rick coordinates the conservative editorial series for the Sunday Steamboat Pilot newspaper. Rick enjoys fishing, canoeing, hiking, and climbing 14ers.
Gary Hofmeister — Treasurer
Most people know Gary Hofmeister from Hofmeister Personal Jewelers which he founded 36 years ago and remains the C.E.O. Prior to entering the jewelry industry, he was a professional singer/actor, salesman and health administrator. Though he says he never had one conservative professor all the way through his undergraduate studies nor his graduate work at Purdue, he has been an active conservative most of his life and was the Republican nominee for U.S. Congress in 1998 for the 10th congressional district.
Gary’s political beliefs also led him to teach Applied Economics for Junior Achievement in several high schools for 10 years. Taking it to another level in 1992, he began going to the former Soviet Union to share Democratic Capitalism and his experiences as an entrepreneur after the Berlin Wall fell. He made 18 such trips developing his own curricula and running seminars from one to three days in various cities. Most trips lasted about three weeks.
Gary also hosted a political talk show in 1990-91 called TALK OF THE CITY and another for WFYI from 2004-06 called BROADWAY MEMORIES: MUSIC AND THE STARS, drawing on his experiences as a Broadway singer.
He is married to JoAnne and together they share 20 grandchildren.
Anne A. Lowe – Secretary
Pharm D
Anne and her husband Rich have lived part time in Steamboat Springs for more than a decade, and have been full time residents since 2007. Steamboat provides excellent recreational opportunities for the sports Anne enjoys such as skiing, hiking, biking and horseback riding. is a native of Salt Lake City where she earned a BS in Biology and later a BS in Pharmacy, both from the University of Utah. She later received her Pharmacy Doctorate (PharmD) from the University of Colorado in 2006 and became a Certified Geriatric Pharmacist (CGP) in 2007. Recently Anne obtained her Anticoagulation Certification and is currently working with the New Joint Mobility Program at Yampa Valley Medical Center in Steamboat Springs, as well as working in a community pharmacy. She and her husband have three grown children and two grandkids. She got involved with the Steamboat Institute after attending Steamboat’s first Tax Day Tea Party in 2009. Anne claims that becoming a grandma has been her motivation. She realizes that as Ronald Reagan said, “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction”.
Kelly Victory MS, MD, FACEP
President, Victory Health
Dr. Kelly Victory has vacationed and owned a home in the Yampa Valley for more than 20 years, until finally making a ranch in Steamboat her full-time residence in 2008.
Kelly is a board certified trauma and emergency specialist, and an expert in disaster preparedness and the medical management of mass casualties. She served for many years as the Chief Medical Officer for Whole Health Management, and developed and lead their Health & Wellness Division until the sale of the Company to Walgreens in 2008.
Prior to Whole Health, Kelly founded a medical-legal consulting firm and was a principle in an investment banking firm where she lead efforts to raise funds for innovative healthcare companies. She holds a BS from Duke University, studied literature at Oxford University in England, attended the Masters program in Clinical Psychology at the University of Illinois, and received her Medical Degree from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
Dr. Victory currently serves on the Boards of multiple non-profit organizations and healthcare companies. She has been very involved in the healthcare policy debate, and consults with a variety of politicians and both public and private companies regarding sustainable models for healthcare. She is a guest lecturer at the University of Notre Dame and Harvard Business School, and is a member of the Leadership Council at the Harvard School of Public Health. She makes frequent appearances at political events and on talk radio shows across the nation to discuss healthcare and the impact of the recent reform legislation. Kelly has been recognized by multiple organizations for her leadership in entrepreneurial and healthcare ventures.
In her free time, Kelly is an avid distance runner, hiker and gardener, and enjoys time on the ranch with Labrador Retrievers, Reilly and Callahan, and her horse, Finnegan.
Kelly is a Contributing Editor for Line of Sight, an online publication. Click here to read her articles.
Cheri Carsten
Cheri Carsten and her husband COL(R) Don Griffin have lived full time and part time in Steamboat Springs since 2002. Cheri is a native of Colorado and an avid horsewoman. She had a first career as a Non-Commissioned Officer in the U.S. Army serving in Asia, Europe and the U.S. and then as a civilian with the Department of Defense in Germany and Washington DC with a specialty in Organizational Development. Cheri holds a degree in psychology from the University of Maryland. In her second career, Cheri was a senior Human Resources Management executive for several large corporations including Prudential and a subsidiary of Air Canada. Cheri is an active and innovative participant in national and local conservative political efforts and is a graduate of the Leadership Program of the Rockies.
Charlie MacArthur
Vice President of Operations, Native Excavating, Inc.
Born and raised on the slopes of Steamboat, Charlie has been fortunate enough to call the Yampa Valley home his whole life. Despite a four year stint in the People’s Republic of Boulder, CO, Charlie has always found the five pillars of the Steamboat Institute to hold precidence in his own life. He returned full-time to Steamboat in 2007 and quickly began his career in the famliy business, Native Excavating. Charlie and his wife, Rebecca, enjoy cycling, water-skiing, hiking and skiing. They volunteer for the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club and believe strongly in the value it provides to the community. Charlie believes in a balanced debate and advocates routinely for discussion from both the Right and wrong side of the aisle.
