Aspen Hope Center Executive Director Michelle Muething steps down

Longtime Aspen Hope Center Executive Director Michelle Muething has resigned, the local crisis agency recently announced. She served Aspen Hope as both a crisis clinician and executive director for the past 14 years.

She is also one of the founding members of Aspen Hope, helping create it in 2010, according to her online biography. Her “unwavering support and commitment to the agency remains intact – today and always,” a news release states. 

“Michelle has been the backbone of Aspen Hope Center since day one, and while our hearts are heavy upon hearing this news, we are so incredibly grateful for her long-standing commitment and passion to this organization,” Aspen Hope Center Board President Sandy Iglehart said in the release. “She has poured her heart and soul into Aspen Hope Center and has successfully and graciously led the agency to be all that it is today. We can all rest assured knowing that, while she is stepping away from the executive director role, she looks forward to supporting Aspen Hope Center in its next chapter.”

As the first-ever freestanding crisis center in the state of Colorado, Aspen Hope Center opened its doors in 2010 with five employees and a budget of $368,000. The agency launched with a 24/7 HopeLine and a mobile crisis team to meet people where they are, the release states. Education and outreach services were aimed at reducing stigma and raising awareness of resources. Today, the agency employs over 40 team members and has a $4.3 million budget. The team provides support to our communities from Aspen to Parachute through crisis response, school programming, education and outreach, therapy, and consulting services. 

Aspen Hope Center is strong, growing, and “honored to serve our valley,” the release states. 

The agency’s Board of Directors will begin searching for an executive director who embodies the philosophy, integrity, and consistent delivery of services that our community depends on. 

“The Hope Center is unique,” Muething said in the release, “and over the years, emphasis has not been placed on clients as a revenue stream but rather as human beings seeking assistance without any barriers and ensuring no one is alone in a time of darkness.”

“We are excited to see what the future holds for Michelle, for whoever fills her role as executive director, and for the agency as a whole,” Michael Buglione, Pitkin County Sheriff and Aspen Hope Center advisory board member.

About Aspen Hope Center: Aspen Hope Center — the only freestanding crisis agency in the state of Colorado, and one of only three in the country — is a private non-profit serving the Roaring Fork Valley with a continuum of crisis services. It maintains a 24-hour crisis line, provides services for individual stabilization to prevent in-patient psychiatric hospitalization, manages a robust school-based clinician program, delivers a wide range of education and outreach, and offers consulting and training to other communities to help them implement mobile crisis response. Visit aspenhopecenter.org to learn more.