Council of Neighbors and Organizations

Liz Lancaster is 1st vice president of the Council of Neighbors and Organizations. She also is secretary-treasurer of Cragmor Village Neighborhood Association, a very small neighborhood located just east of the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs campus.

Liz moved to Colorado Springs full-time in the fall of 2008 after her youngest son, Kyle, graduated from high school in Denver. She has an older son, Grant, who is currently in college in Redmond, Washington. Liz lived in the Denver area for 25 years before moving to Colorado Springs. Having spent the last 5 years living part-time in Denver, and part-time in Colorado Springs, where her boyfriend Kent lives, Liz moved to the Springs permanently and is happy to finally call one house a home.

Liz has long been an advocate for neighborhoods and community involvement, both personally and professionally. Liz owns her own company, Design Collaborative, which is a landscape architecture and public participation firm, and also moved the firm from Denver to Colorado Springs last fall. She focuses on projects that include public participation and community involvement and is certified through the International Association of Public Participation (IAP2). She is also a registered landscape architect in Colorado and Texas. Liz grew up in Austin Texas and her landscape architecture bachelor degree is from Texas A&M University.

In addition to CONO, Liz is a member of the Building and Grounds Subcommittee at Denver Academy, a K-12 learning disability school, and works with teachers and students to design and construct landscape projects on their school campus. She has a long history of working with schools and communities to build landscapes and playgrounds. She even spent 5 weeks in Nepal with her two sons and a workgroup from Denver working with school age children in small villages, and has designed a couple of playgrounds for Nepali schools and hospitals as well.

Kent is a local civil engineer in Colorado Springs, and Kent and Liz enjoy working together on development projects. They also enjoy skiing, hiking, playing golf, traveling, making wine, and working on construction projects around the house. Liz is also a runner, having completed her first half-marathon in the fall of 2008.