BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Mary Ann Bearden
Chair
Retired State Court Judge
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Mary Ann Bearden graduated high school in Dallas, Texas, in 1969, finished her B.A. in English Literature at Colorado State University in 1972, spent three years as a lineman for Chesapeake & Potomac Bell in the Appalachian Mountains, before starting law school at the University of Oregon in 1975. She graduated law school in 1978, passed the Bar Exam and went into private practice in Eugene, Oregon. After 20 years practicing law, she was appointed to the bench as a Circuit Court Judge in 1998, where she served until her retirement. The last ten years on the bench she served as the presiding judge for the second largest judicial district in Oregon. After retirement she moved to Park County full-time in early 2017. Mary Ann has been fishing here since 1969 and spent vacations here every year since 1990, building a home here in 2005.
Bridget Bean
Secretary
Retired Teacher
Bridget Bean grew up in Minneapolis, MN. She earned a B.A. in Elementary Education from Lewis & Clark College in Portland, OR, and over the course of her teaching career, taught outdoor school, environmental education, and general science to upper elementary and middle school-aged students in Ohio, Oregon, Minneapolis, and Washington, DC. Bridget also worked for The Nature Conservancy’s International Program, serving as the Director of International Outreach Programs for the Latin America Division. Community volunteer work has included serving on a Red Cross Disaster Action Team in the National Capital Area and on PAL and Delta Society Pet Therapy Partner Teams, visiting veterans, juvenile offenders, the elderly, and hospitalized children in the Washington, DC, area. Bridget has returned to Paradise Valley many times over the years since her first visit in 1967 and moved here permanently in 2017.
Chris Spromberg
Dr. Chris Spromberg was raised in a small mill town in the beautiful pacific northwest, but didn’t find his passion for psychology and exploring the great outdoors until later in life.
He completed his bachelor’s degree majoring in psychology with a minor in sociology from Portland State University. He then worked at an adolescent inpatient facility and an adult psychiatric hospital for a few years before returning to school.
Christopher completed his graduate dissertation exploring the physical relationship between masculinity and shame and earned his doctorate degree in clinical psychology from George Fox University in 2019. He currently works at Livingston Healthcare, where he splits his time between the outpatient clinic and Park High school. He remains passionate about spending time in the outdoors and helping people grow beyond what they thought they could, and is frequently found walking his dog, Banjo, around town.
Vice Chair
Clinical Psycologist
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Mark Schulein
Treasurer
Family Physician
Community Health Partners
Mark Schulein MD has dedicated his career to the care of vulnerable and underserved populations. He has worked for the Indian Health Service in Crow Agency, then for Deering Clinic (a community health center) in Billings, and since 2001 for Community Health Partners in Livingston.
"Joining the board of ASPEN is a natural extension of my commitment to improve individual and community health and wellbeing and address "upstream" factors, like violence, which negatively impact those."