Jo Dufton Palmer
Associate Program Officer
jop@gayandlesbianfund.org
Jo Dufton Palmer joined the Gay & Lesbian Fund for Colorado in March 2006 and currently serves as associate program officer. In this position, Jo is responsible for reviewing event sponsorship applications and initiating funding recommendations. Jo originally joined as an auxiliary staff member, then came on board full time as office administrator.
Prior to joining the Gay & Lesbian Fund, Jo served as the coordinator and director of the Clark County Youth Coalition in Southern Indiana, a substance abuse task force serving as the local coordinating council for the Governor’s Commission for a Drug Free Indiana. Prior to that, Jo worked as the administrative assistant for the Community Youth Leadership Collaborative of Southern Indiana. She has been a freelance writer for over twenty five years, and a national workshop facilitator in areas of creative writing, writing for publication, writing for children, youth leadership, adult leadership, job search, and the evolution of grief. Jo served as an international curriculum writer for the Berlitz Language Center, and has also written curriculum for the Association of Unity Churches in Lee’s Summit, Missouri. She is an Ordained Interfaith Minister, with an emphasis on “inner faith” ministry, and ministry of presence.
Jo is a graduate and former board member of Leadership Southern Indiana. She is also a graduate and Community Trustee Award winner of Leadership Pikes Peak as well as leadership graduate and CHOICES instructor for Business and Professional Women (BPW). She is a Laws of Life Essay coordinator for Colorado Springs and currently serves on the Project Springboard Advisory Committee.
Jo is a native of Louisville, Kentucky, and spent two decades working on the thoroughbred racing circuits of Kentucky, Arkansas, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. She has worked with diverse populations all her life, and delights in both the similarities and differences that contribute to the tapestry of Life.
Jo is married to a Unity Minister, and states, “Our personal lives are committed to authentic expression. We strive to honor each person’s journey on the path of awakening.”
