Trainings · Advocacy support · Writing · Book publicity
Let's connect the dots.
I help people decode the systems that shape our lives, from healthcare to government to campaigns, and connect them with who and what they need to do the most good.
since July 2024
Featured · Energize Colorado
The Upstream story
Val founded Upstream in July 2020, in the middle of a pandemic, to help Colorado campaigns and nonprofits do more with less. When cancer treatment came, an Energize Colorado small business loan helped her keep the doors open.
“Being a business owner is never easy.”
Hi, I'm Val. Pull up a chair.
I'm a sixth-generation Coloradan, a Colorado mom, a wife, a sister, an aunt, and a friend who will always save you a seat. I've been a patient, and I've been a caregiver to my parents and the people I love as they face their own life experiences.
I think of everything I've lived through as a decoder ring. Twenty years in politics and government at the local, state, and federal levels. Serving on the Wheat Ridge City Council through COVID. Raising kids. Marriage. A stage 3 colorectal cancer diagnosis in 2023 and a year of treatment. I've been cancer-free since July 2024, but that wasn't the end of the story. After multiple surgeries, I'm still living with the effects of treatment and still navigating a healthcare system that doesn't seem to work for really anyone.
Each of those experiences unlocked something. If it worked for me, I want to listen, take in your story, and help you connect your own dots. And I'll be learning from you the entire way.
I believe our politics, our stories, our history, and our future all depend on finding what we agree on, so we can make it better together.
None of us can do it alone. We need one another.
“Choose your corner, pick away at it carefully, intensely and to the best of your ability and that way you might change the world.”
“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”
What I do
From exam rooms to campaign rooms, I help people get heard.
Community in women's health
Circles where women, caregivers, and providers share what they know and push for answers together.
Start a circle →Workshops and talks
Workshops, panels, and conversations on self-advocacy, screening, and building community.
See topics →Campaign trainings
Hands-on training in campaign strategy, communications, scheduling, and fundraising, plus Launchbox to get your campaign up and running fast.
Trainings and Launchbox →Writing and podcasts
Community stories for the Neighborhood Gazette, essays, and guest spots on podcasts.
Read and listen →Book publicity
Launch strategy and media outreach for authors with something important to say.
Current launch →As seen and heard on
9NEWS · CU Anschutz · Colorado Public Radio · The Denver Post · The Colorado Sun · Neighborhood Gazette · Alvina Talks Shift
Named one of Colorado's Top 25 Most Powerful Women in Business, Colorado Women's Chamber of Commerce, 2022.
Now launching
Writing for Delta by Helen Thorpe
Journey Institute Press · December 2026
I'm leading the launch campaign for Helen's new book. Want a review copy or to host Helen? Let's talk.
Media and event inquiriesOrganizations I love
I serve on boards and show up for these wonderful organizations. Go see what they're up to.
Let's talk.
Speaking, trainings, podcasts, book publicity, or just a good story. I read every note.
val@upstream303.com
Wheat Ridge, Colorado
Workshops and talks
Nobody should have to navigate their care alone.
Val's workshops and talks are warm, honest, and practical. She blends a survivor's story with twenty years of bringing people together, and audiences leave with a way to speak up for themselves and a plan to build community around them.
Signature topics
01 · WORKSHOP OR TALK
Being Believed: Speaking up for your own body
A stage 3 colorectal cancer survivor on getting diagnosed, getting screened, and the practical tools that finally got answers. For women's health events, patient conferences, and hospital audiences.
02 · PANEL OR WORKSHOP
Circle Up: Building community in women's healthcare
What organizers know about bringing people together, applied to patients, caregivers, and clinicians. How to start a circle, keep it going, and turn shared stories into better care.
03 · WORKSHOP
Your Story, Your Ask: Advocacy training for patients and providers
A hands-on session on telling your story in five minutes, asking for what you need, and getting decision makers to act, whether that's a doctor, a board, or a legislator.
04 · TALK OR PANEL
Go Upstream: Finding what we agree on
Twenty years of organizing taught me that communities move when people find common ground. A conversation on picking your corner, bringing neighbors together, and getting good things done.
Formats
Talk or fireside chat
20 to 45 minutes, in person or virtual, with plenty of Q&A.
Workshop
Half day or full day, interactive, for teams and patient groups.
Panel and fireside
Moderator or panelist on women's health, advocacy, and civic life.
Community series
A multi-session circle for clinics, nonprofits, or employers.
Bring Val to your event.
Tell me about your audience and date. A speaker one-sheet and AV needs are available on request.
Campaign Trainings
Run a campaign like you've done it before.
Twenty years of campaigns, from U.S. Senate offices to city council races, packed into hands-on trainings for candidates, staff, and volunteers. Strategy, communications, scheduling, and fundraising: the stuff nobody hands you on day one.
Who it's for
First-time candidates
Campaign managers and staff
Volunteer leaders
Advocacy and nonprofit teams
On your campaign, don't wait for the rescue.
Train for the river.
You don't need a massive staff to run a massive operation. You just need Launchbox. We give lean teams and local candidates the backend firepower of a national campaign, minus the headache.
Don't spend your first month building spreadsheets. Spend it building power. With turnkey infrastructure, you start five weeks ahead of the competition. We secure the back office; you secure the victory.
What you'll learn
01
Campaign strategy
Know your district, find your path to win, set a vote goal, and build a plan and budget you can actually run.
02
Communications
Your story in thirty seconds, a message that sticks, earned media, social, and handling the tough questions.
03
Scheduling
Guard the candidate's time. Calendars, call time, doors, events, and the daily rhythm that keeps a campaign moving.
04
Fundraising
Build your list, make the ask, run call time and events, and set up compliance so the money is clean from day one.
Formats
Campaign bootcamp
One full day covering all four areas. Great for a slate of first-time candidates.
Deep-dive series
Weekly sessions on one topic at a time, with homework that builds your real plan.
Team training
Custom sessions for your campaign staff, party, caucus, or advocacy group.
One-on-one coaching
For candidates and managers who want a trusted sounding board.
Learn from someone who's been inside the room, and outside it.
Val has staffed a Congressman and U.S. Senators, worked for a Governor, managed campaigns, run her own races, and served on the Wheat Ridge City Council through COVID. Today she's a partner at The Strategy Division.
She's also been on the outside, without the right title or the business school playbook that gets other people into those same rooms, and she found her own way in. What she had instead came naturally to her as a woman: listening to people, connecting the dots, and connecting people to who they needed to know so they could do the most good for themselves. She'll show you how to use those same strengths to earn your seat at the table.
Her trainings are practical and friendly. You'll leave with templates, a plan, and a phone number for when you get stuck.
Twenty years of showing up
Bring a training to your team.
Tell Val who's in the room and what you're running for. She'll build the session around it.
Press, writing and podcasts.
Stories about Val's work, her cancer journey, and her community, plus her own writing. For media requests, get in touch.
Recognition
Top 25 Most Powerful Women in Business
Colorado Women's Chamber of Commerce · 2022
In the news
March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. Wear blue.
A Fight for Answers: Colorectal Cancer Survivor Shares Her Story
By Megan Lane · March 24, 2025
Three years of unexplained symptoms, then a diagnosis, and the care team that got Val to cancer-free.
Read the story → NEIGHBORHOOD GAZETTEWhen Stepping Back Is Moving Forward
By Zoe Jennings · December 3, 2025
“The only way I can really serve other people is if I take care of myself first.”
Read the story → COLORADO PUBLIC RADIOJeffCo School Board moves forward with school closures
November 10, 2022
“The school district needs to do a better job of working with the families…”
Read the story → COLORADO PUBLIC RADIOThe Wheat Ridge elementary schools that JeffCo selected to close underscore potential inequities, miscalculations and pitfalls in the process
By Jenny Brundin · September 13, 2022
“I am so concerned from the bottom of my heart.”
Val and fellow councilmember Korey Stites, both parents at schools on the closure list, push back on how JeffCo chose which Wheat Ridge schools to close.
Read the story → THE DENVER POSTWheat Ridge revisits racist history in housing policy
By John Aguilar · July 27, 2022
“Untying these nasty, nasty knots.”
Val on Wheat Ridge's resolution denouncing the racist covenants once written into local housing deeds.
Read the story → THE COLORADO SUNColorado ballot questions, meant to keep special interests in check, are increasingly created by them
By Colleen Slevin · August 18, 2026
Val weighs in on who is getting measures onto Colorado's ballot, and how they're doing it.
Read the story →