Anyone can give a Kudos.
Recognize an individual or a team.
Submissions will be shared in the Lottery Lowdown and on the intranet Kudos Board.
Kelia consistently offers a helping hand whenever possible, bringing creativity and kindness to work every day while helping ensure projects continue moving forward. This month, she created engaging player health posters for our Claims offices that connect the idea of balanced fun with an activity Coloradans love—skiing! Her ability to think outside the box, creatively execute ideas, and bring an element of fun into important conversations elevates how we communicate with players. Truly excellent work!
Amanda Quintana I Player Health Program Manager
Angel Ramos is being recognized for his exceptional teamwork, accountability, and dedication to quality. Over the past few months, Angel has volunteered his time, skills, and tools to complete several Lottery projects with true professionalism.
Most recently, he played a key role in the Starship conference room upgrade—removing the old Cisco monitor system, repairing the wall, and installing the new TV and panels. Angel even went the extra mile, selecting hardware that improved the finished look.
Always willing to step up—from assembling furniture to moving equipment—Angel consistently delivers high-quality work and exemplifies what it means to be a team player.
Theresa Geier I Operations Director
Throughout the year, Marie and Giana work so hard to bring the Lottery to life with our players and retailers across the state through creative and engaging events, sponsorships and promotions. The work doesn't end with setting up the event or promotion, Marie and Giana are on site, creating positive impressions of the Lottery and making people smile! I can't thank Marie and Giana enough for all their hard work, passion and dedication to building that connection between the Lottery and our players and retailers. Thank you so much!!
- Marketing Director I Scott Chavkin
I’d like to recognize Cassie for going above and beyond when the communications team was short-staffed. She's been nothing but a rock star helping out with all things Comms for the past two months. She stepped up without hesitation, took on extra responsibilities, and ensured that projects stayed on track. Cassie demonstrated exceptional teamwork, flexibility, and a positive attitude during a challenging time. Her dedication and support made a significant impact and truly exemplified what it means to be a valued team member. Thanks Cassie!!
- Proceeds Manager I Adrian Varney
Jeanette has been doing an amazing job cross-training in the BAMO lab for conversion testing. She has been great with the HR process that seems to change at the drop of a hat, and then getting that information out to the hiring Managers/Supervisors so that our hiring process is not impacted. And her willingness to assist in the onboarding of Alanna and share her knowledge of purchasing, RQS, org charts, and travel (and all the other details and items, which I am sure there are many). Jeanette is definitely a TEAM player and I wanted to thank her for all that she does! Terri Geier I Director of Operations
I want to give Kudos to the entire Claims team. I could write something about them individually for each of their contributions, but how they contribute to each other as a whole team is unlike anything I’ve seen in my years as a supervisor. My team is spread out over Colorado with offices in Denver, Pueblo, Grand Junction, and Fort Collins. Everyone on my team brings something different that blends with the others seamlessly. Many only see each other once a year, but you wouldn’t know that. They interact daily through phone calls, chat, and email. When they see each other, you would think they are old friends. The team shows the utmost respect for each other, and they demonstrate this by how they are willing to step in when an office is struggling to complete their daily or weekly rotation duty due to being short-staffed or super busy. I rarely have to ask if someone will help out another team. They recognize the need and step right in to complete it. As a team, they offer excellent service to the customers of the Colorado Lottery and are always an advocate to do what is right for them. They will diligently try to resolve any customer issue with a ticket or an interaction with one of our retailers. The Claims team is the front-line team for our customers and retailers and supports internal teams within the Lottery. Because of this, they are the first to know of any issues that occur. They answer the phones for the Lottery; they also answer all of the consumer emails. The claims team is knowledgeable in ALL aspects of the Lottery, and if they do not know the answer to the customer’s question, they will find it or send it to the person who does know the answer. As individuals and a team, they are highly accountable for completing all their job requirements daily, weekly, and monthly. I know it’s easy to think that the Colorado Lottery Claims team is there only to give away money, but they do so much more than that. They have to know everything about each game whether Jackpot or Scratch, they have to know how to explain the odds of each game, they have to know rules, and draw results, they have to understand taxes, and intercepting for government agencies, they get to deal with people brining in stolen tickets, and the list goes on. They follow very regulated steps to ensure the integrity of the Lottery and the Department of Revenue. I often caringly refer to the Claims team as the junk drawer of the Lottery because they pick up extra work that does not ‘fit’ into other departments. They are back ups to the Commission Secretary, they back up the Draw Manager, they help in BAMO (our test lab), they help with translating customer facing documents into Spanish, they process all the mail that comes in for the Lottery, including the handling of checks to pay our vendors, they order supplies and have access to CORE, they attend to facility items within our facilities, and the list goes on. As far as Teamwork goes, I think I’ve alluded to this throughout my nomination. They are a solid team that steps in when one of the others needs help. An example is that one of the offices recently had a family emergency. I immediately had volunteers to cover the office; those who couldn’t do it stepped up to cover the office’s weekly rotation duties. My team makes my job so much easier as a Supervisor. They are resilient, strong, dedicated, knowledgeable, and simply excellent at work. This is why I am nominating Heather Fisher, Clint Petrun, Nathan Laney, Rachel Sanchez, Angel Ramos, Jenna Cordova, Diana Padilla-Morales, Margaret McBride, and Elisabeth Schmerge, better known as the Colorado Lottery Claims Team.
- Wendy Weldon I Claims Supervisor
I want to thank Cassie and Tiffany for helping with my comms duties while I was out on FMLA for my Dad's decline and passing and then again for wrist surgery! I'm very thankful to this team. And my supervisor Elizabeth Kosar acted as comms manager while I was out, and I'm also thankful for the understanding of our Lottery leadership wihen life goes awry. Kudos!
- Meghan Dougherty I Communications Manager
The Lottery team has collaborated for nearly a year to complete the NASPL/NCPG Responsible Gambling Verification (RGV) Application, which was submitted in February. While this was the first time participating in this program, switching over from WLA, the team met monthly, worked across teams, and submitted a strong application showcasing the significant strengths of our player health program. Area Leads took the initiative to collaborate with their respective teams to pull together the needed information and supporting evidence. Huge kudos to area leads Meghan Dougherty, Terri Geier, Tom Campbell, Scott Chavkin, Mike Strasser, project manager Gloria Reiter, and everyone on staff who helped to complete this application. We should know the outcome of our submission in June, but we received excellent feedback from our NASPL mentor earlier in the year!
- Amanda Quintana | Player Health Manager
Kudos to the entire Lottery Operations team for showing how our team can become like family when my health emergency took me out for nearly 2+ weeks. Everyone went above and beyond my wildest expectations to cover my shifts, bring me phone chargers, food, and clothing while I was in the hospital, and readily and willingly gave massively encouraging words when I needed them most. Being part of such an amazing team is what gave me the added motivation to get healthy and get back to work as soon as I regained the ability to do so. Working with our team has been the best medicine of all. I simply can't thank everyone enough.
- Joseph Evans | Draw Operator
Teamwork really does make the dream work! A quick shout-out to Peg McBride, Bridget Rader, Ali DeHerrera, and the Grand Junction DMV for working together to fix the GJ cash register PC. I appreciate Bridget working with me and doing the “have you tried unplugging it and plugging it back in” scenario half a dozen times on various parts of the machine and finally determining that the wireless keyboard was at fault. Thanks to the GJ DMV for letting us borrow a wired keyboard, and Peg and Ali for working through the reports to ensure that GJ was balanced and that the inventory for Scratch games was correct. Truly a team effort! THANK YOU ALL!!
- Terri Geier | Director of Operations
Tennille has assisted OIT deskside support with reimaging laptops for new hires and current employees who required replacement laptops. I wish I could say that her assistance was as simple as just putting them on the network and letting the tech remote in; she had to make adjustments to settings, communicate network setup, find the devices, coordinate the work, and determine the validity of the image after the work was completed. This actually took several days as the OIT tech kept getting called out to other deskside tickets.
In addition, she worked with the IGT cabling vendor to install a switch in the comms/server room to allow the BAMO team access to the DOR network from the IGT conversion test lab. This included working with a network OIT staff member to install the wireless access point in the UAT lab.
Finally, on January 13, the Lottery partially lost its DOR network just before the draw. Tennille came in and contacted OIT after-hours deskside support to open a P1 ticket. She stayed on to troubleshoot the issue with the techs. She relayed the issue accurately and precisely to the on-call SAM network person, who, with her assistance, got several PCs up and running and developed a workaround for the draw team for the evening draws.
Tennille has become a reliable IT source for the Lottery, and I appreciate her willingness to assist in troubleshooting any computer, network, or server issue that has arisen since Chris Hines' departure.
THANK YOU SO MUCH!
- Terri Geier | Director of Operations
Kelia attended the NASCAR Championship Weekend with our NASCAR promotional winners to capture their VIP experience.
She braved a snowstorm, delays and logistical issues, but she did a great job and worked through the weekend to gather content about Colorado's very own winners! Nice job, Kelia!
- Jennifer Anderson | Deputy Senior Director
Kelia was busy behind the camera, but please enjoy this masterful imagining of her alongside our winners at the NASCAR Championship Race in Arizona
Nate grew a very impressive mustache in honor of Movember, an annual campaign to raise awareness and funds for men’s health issues like mental health, suicide prevention, and prostate and testicular cancers.
Excellent work, Nate! (We all know you should have won the CDOR photo contest.)
I would just like to pass on my thanks to the Sales Team regarding delinquent retailers. As you know, we finally got the IGT change for the 14-day warning letter approximately two months ago. We also started letting all the Reps know at 14 days out.
The licensing team has stated that the Reps have been very diligent and cooperative with the 14-day list and they appreciate it.
In case you missed it, this week's delinquent report had NOONE expired who was required to be inactivated!
Again, thanks for your cooperation, and please know that S&I and Licensing really appreciate it.
- Brian Kohnlein | Director, Security and Investigations
P.S. - Thanks also to Kasanda (Kassie) Gutierrez and Jorge Rivera for their communication and the assistance they provided to the sales reps and retailers. Teamwork!
The Colorado Lottery was tasked with migrating its end-of-life telephone system to a new OIT-approved Enterprise Cisco system. This required the six offices to coordinate to allow both OIT and Lumen to access the individual Lottery locations after hours to install and update the Lottery phone system equipment and phones and complete testing of the new system.
What was scheduled to be approximately a 2-hour installation was actually a 4-to 5-hour installation at some sites, and it required the individuals at the sites to respond to questions and liaise between the project manager and the office location.
Additionally, they each had a test script to perform prior to clearing the site, stating the install was successful and releasing the teams from the location.
Finally, we had to locally test the Webex client, and without that testing prior to going live, we would have had serious issues. Deploying the client to the desktops and then pretesting it prior to going live was a major part of our success.
The teamwork and willingness of these individuals to assist the Lottery in this undertaking is greatly appreciated, and we would not have had the success we had if not for them.
THANK YOU!!
- Terri Geier | Director of Operations
Diane has been amazing in helping train me on the Commission Packet and find all the ins and outs to know prior to running my first Commission Meeting. I truly appreciate all of her help, teamwork, and kindness she has shown me since my first day.
- Breann Magnone | Executive Assistant and Commission Secretary
Ali has been so welcoming and kind to me since starting at the Colorado Lottery. She has helped me get items set up so that I will be able to run my first Commission Meeting entirely on my own. Her teamwork, agility, attitude, and kindness are definitely appreciated.
- Breann Magnone | Executive Assistant and Commission Secretary
Big shout out to Amanda Quintana, who spent five hours straight OUTSIDE the Lottery building, engaging with players and testing their Two Myths & A Truth Game knowledge for prizes to promote Responsible Gaming Education Month!
Amanda organized this add-on to the State Fair—thanks also to Marie Valtakis for supporting it with her help and ideas—in a short time frame and spent time in blistering heat to educate our players.
- Meghan Dougherty | Communications Manager
Amanda represented the Colorado Lottery as a presenter at the National Conference on Gambling Addiction and Responsible Gambling from 7/17 through 7/19. She made a three-hour presentation as part of the pre-conference agenda entitled: "Exploring the Spectrum: Understanding the Value & Practice of Responsible Gambling."
Despite being part of the pre-conference agenda, her session was the second-highest-attended session at the conference (after sports betting).
Congratulations, Amanda! Well done!
- Jennifer Anderson | Deputy Senior Director
I would like to give a huge shout-out to the following folks for their help on the "BLUESCREEN OF DEATH DAY!"
The warehouse, all four claims centers, draw operations, BAMO, and the HQ, were hit with the BLUE SCREEN of DEATH on Friday, July 19. Dierrick and his team were the first to experience the issue and Dierrick had worked out an awesome fix and passed that on to Kim.
The word was sent out to the Lottery about the situation, and we started working on the PCs. The Ops team, Claims team, and Warehouse staff rebooted (a gajillion times), restored, and grabbed serial numbers from machines so we could get back up as fast as possible. Aidan came in early and assisted in getting some of the more difficult machines up with an alternate fix that had a CrowdStrike restore point (no bueno). As machines came up, staff would jump on them and get the day started while the others worked on getting the other machines up.
Chris Hines came in on his day off to assist with crashed programs, and uninstalled and reinstalled apps, and got the network All-In-One printers back up in no time at all. By this time the wait for OIT was 680 minutes 😬. Kenny offered to drive down from the Springs to assist (which was AWESOME), however we had already begun our restores. So we had him on deck.
The outer claims offices were communicating when they were up but had lost their cash registers so Wendy and the team worked out a plan to manually track sales so as not to impact our customers. And Tara was keeping the Ops team in the loop on MUSL flex for draw operations and how far they had progressed on fixing their issue in GA.
We were even ahead of the game warning our employees of scammers 😄!
All in all, the TEAMWORK was amazing, the communication was OUTSTANDING, and we were up and fully functioning in a few hours.
Thank you everyone!!!
- Terri Geier | Director of Operations
I don't believe there is a Lottery employee who hasn't appreciated the support Chris Hines provides. He's our go-to guy for just about everything technical and delivers solutions with efficiency and kindness. (He doesn't make anyone feel stupid.)
I am super excited to publicly CONGRATULATE Chris on successfully obtaining his CISSP certification! 🎉
CISSP, which stands for Certified Information Systems Security Professional, is a globally recognized certification in the field of information security. It is administered by the International Information System Security Certification Consortium, or (ISC)², which is a nonprofit organization that specializes in certifying cybersecurity professionals.
Earning the CISSP certification is no small feat; it requires a deep understanding of cybersecurity principles, proficiency in managing and protecting organizational assets, a commitment to upholding the highest standards of professional ethics, a required number of years of experience in the various domains, and a really hard exam! 🤓 If that wasn't enough, the certification also requires endorsement from another CISSP. I was honored to serve as Chris' sponsor.
Please join me in congratulating our colleague on this amazing achievement! Congrats Chris! 🎉
- Tara Stosek | Senior Security Analyst
Huge thank you to Marie Valtakis for her involvement and help figuring out the logistics for the annual all employee and sales event. Marie also took over the responsibility of coordinating apparel distribution following the departure of Heather Love. Marie worked so hard behind the scenes and the event was amazing in no small part due to her hard work. Thank you, Marie!
- Jennifer Anderson | Deputy Senior Director
Jenna has been a rock star helping to update and improve our online claims process. She has made the DocuSign 'envelopes' more customer friendly as well as Claims Team friendly. She was asked to be a back up to the DocuSign/Online Claims process and she took the initiative to learn it, improve it, and teach it. She has taken time with each Claims team member and trained them on how to process a direct deposit claim. There are a lot of steps involved in the process and if any of them are missed, the claim will fail. She is always willing to help her team members in the process as well as helping any frustrated customers. She has updated and created new written procedures as well as business processes. If you ever hear me say 'we' made updates to the process, I really mean Jenna made updates to the process. She is a valued member of the Claims Team! I'm sure each team member would agree.
- Wendy Weldon | Retail Operations Manager
The Operations Department which is comprised of three units, Draw Operations, Business Analyst Management Office and Retail Business/Claims has been short staffed by six FTE (five existing positions and one a new position). We have hired two Draw Operators, two BAMO Analysts and the HR Liaison. We still have one outstanding position, the Draw Lead.
Over the last three months, Kim has shown that she embodies the DOR CORE values by assisting the Operations department in the following ways:
Service: Kim’s main focus was the GT28 terminal batch and training the new staff members in the BAMO lab for the last few months. During this time, she had the support of the Operations Director and one part-time trained FTE to assist her with the 500 test cases for the batch. She essentially worked half the time by herself testing and training and still met the deadline for the production date.
Teamwork: Kim has recently hired two individuals for the vacancies in the BAMO lab and during the GT28 batch testing she and the existing BA II, kept the batch on target and kept the new hires engaged with what was gong on in the lab. It is not easy making a new hire feel included in the testing and teaching them valuable information when they are hired in the middle of a testing initiative.
Accountability: Kim had met each deadline for the UAT lab for the Lottery, this is in spite of late or incomplete software from a vendor, additional testing initiatives that are dropped on top of the current batch (promo testing, ESMM shoes, new scratch games, production issues, db updates, etc.)
Integrity: Kim has embraced her new role as the supervisor of the draw operations group as well as maintain her current role in BAMO. She has met with the draw team and they have discussed the team and how they are going to move forward. If there are any issues she brings them to me immediately and we discuss the best options for resolution.
Respect: During this time Kim has been outstanding in assisting me with managing the draw operators, and BAMO team. She is currently on the ICS RFP team and has brought what I feel is a fresh perspective to the needs of the Lottery for an ICS vendor.
- Terri Geier | Director of Operations
As you are all aware, the Claims staff are excellent at customer service. Everyday they take phone calls, answer emails and have customer interactions that strengthen and build rapport with our players, retailers and vendors.
Every once and a while, a situation will come up and members of the team will take it upon themselves to go that extra mile for a customer. This time it was Wendy and Jorge and that customer was the mother of a DMV Supervisor in Del Norte, who only speaks Spanish.
Mrs. Quintana claimed her winning scratch ticket in Pueblo and happily deposited her check in her local bank in Del Norte when she got home. Jorge assisted her at the claims counter and she had a great experience during her visit to the Pueblo HQ.
It was a few days later when the bank removed the funds from her account stating, “the check was not cashable”. Wendy and Jorge went above and beyond to research why the bank was not cashing our warrant and communicated the issue to the customer in Spanish so that she understood 100% there was no fraud or shenanigans (the routing number on the warrant was torn and unreadable).
They provided Mrs. Quintana the Affidavit of Lost Warrant with a cover letter translated in Spanish that contained detailed instructions on how to complete the form and return it to the Pueblo office for processing. Wendy followed up with Mrs. Quintana’s son to let him know when items were mailed, received, processed and of course when the replacement check was sent to his mother.
To quote Mr. Quintana, “As a previous state supervisor, I know all the hard work and great customer service that is provided day in and day out, however, I always liked to hear from the public when employees provided exceptional customer service. Both my Mom and I are grateful for the support and communication throughout this process."
- Terri Geier | Director of Operations
I want to recognize the entire Operations staff this month for pulling together as one AWESOME team! This month the entire Operations crew pulled together to ensure that the Operations group (each unit) was successful. The Draw Team of Glen and Renee adjusted their schedules to cover draw operations and expertly trained (or refreshed) Sabrina, Kim and myself to fill in the gaps in the schedule. The BAMO team is taking shifts in the draw operations unit so Glen and Renee can take their well earned days off, thank you Sabrina and Kim! The Claims group has been rotating into BAMO to assist with testing (wagering and balancing) and the outlying offices have taken up answering any additional calls/emails while they are in BAMO. So thanks to Jorge, Jenna, Rachel, Ali, Angel, Heather, Peg, Clint, Betsy, Diane, Nate and Wendy!
I appreciate everyone pulling together while we fill the vacant positions.... TEAMWORK MAKES THE DREAMWORK!
- Terri Geier | Director of Operations
Congratulations to the Marketing & Advertising team for being nominated for 7 NASPL Batchy Awards and bringing home 3 wins! This recognizes the hard work that our Marketing & Advertising team has done to create excellent advertising for our Lottery products and proceeds messaging! Nice job!
- Jennifer Anderson | Deputy Senior Director
On Oct 27, several Lottery employees were recognized for hitting milestones in years of service. Thank you all for your years of dedication!
5 Years of Service:
Kassie Gutierrez
Sonja Valedon
Ryan Boger
Sabrina Gonzales
Tom Seaver
Journy Walcher
10 Years of Service:
Teresa Blazina
20 Years of Service:
Heather Fisher
Jay Hinkle
Mark Ocker
25 Years of Service:
Nancy Bartosz
Rick Reyes
30 Years of Service:
Heather Segura
Pauline Gorman
Danielle DeLeon in Security and Investigations earned a certification in the Passport to Performance program! Great job, Danielle!
Tiffany Ramsdell in Comms completed the Communication track in the Passport to Performance program. Now she is a certified expert in communicating.
The recent tracking study results for Waves 42 & 43 showed gains when it comes to digital news, social media and the Giving Back page/Proceeds interactive map. The numbers don't lie! Here are some of the impressive stats which have resulted from the Lottery's communications team's efforts:
30% of those who visited the CO website have visited the Colorado Lottery ‘Proceeds interactive map’ or ‘Giving Back’ page, both significantly higher compared to a year ago.
Colorado Lottery social media pages, Instagram (22%), Twitter (17%), Pinterest (8%) and Tumblr (4%) each grew significantly in W43, reaching past year highs.
Consistent since last wave, seven in ten of those that saw or heard media coverage of lottery news encountered it via television news. This is followed by digital news (44%, rising significantly and reaching a past year high), audio news(17%) and newspaper (9%, trending up).
Nice job, Comms team!
- Jennifer Anderson | Deputy Senior Director
Renee Aguillar in Drawings earned a shoutout in the DOR Weekly Brief for completing a Passport to Performance track! Congrats, Renee!
Misty gave a great presentation on Situational Awareness and Safety to the Pueblo team this month. The presentation included great tips and information on staying vigilant while at work and at home. After the presentation Misty had set up an interactive game for the participants to put their new knowledge to the test! Thanks, Misty!
- Emily Stewart | Drawing Manager
Marie worked tirelessly on NASPL PDS and made it one, if not the best NASPL PDS, in history. She worked for months to organize and coordinate all of the logistics which was a HUGE lift! Thank goodness she will probably never have to do it again, since it's not slated to come back to Colorado anytime soon. However, she made us proud and made it very easy for the volunteers, as well as the attendees. Thanks, Marie for a job well done!
- Jennifer Anderson | Deputy Senior Director
Emily worked diligently to make sure that the rule change necessary for the Lotto+ Monday drawing stayed on track to make sure it was effective before the launch. This required an emergency commission meeting (outside of our normal meeting) as well as continued follow-up with the AG's office and others to make sure it moved along at a faster than normal pace. The result is that it will be effective on September 14th just in time for the first Monday drawing on September 25th! Thanks, Emily for your hard work!
- Jennifer Anderson | Deputy Senior Director
Glen Henry in Drawings received a shoutout in the DOR Weekly Brief for completing a Passport to Performance track! Way to go, Glen!
Just want to say thank you to Sara Greek and the Warehouse. I was able to get 2 pick up orders before the requested time!! Great service. I also want to thank Sabrina Suazo for her help last Friday on a CHOW. I received what I requested within 5 minutes. WOW service. Thank you all for making my job easier. I definitely need all the help I can get!!
- Michael Drury
Thank you Heather for all your work around the most recent apparel order! The vendor obviously did not make things easy or simple for us but you are going above and beyond to make sure everything looks great and everyone gets what they need. And of course – always with a smile – thank you, Heather!!!
The warehouse shipped a record number of packs last week 26-30 June! This has never been done before, the amount was over 42K!!
Please give a hand to Mark, Zulay, Rick, Jacob, Ken, and Doug. I wanted to thank them for their hard work and dedication.
- Dierrick Davis | Warehouse Supervisor
In July Denver Claims Office Program Assistant Nate Laney completed all three Passport to Performance tracks and received his Globetrotter passport stamp!
Way to go, Nate!
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