MEEKER I Maggie Phelan, Meeker High School National Honor Society president, has announced that Meeker native Stan Hilkey, executive director of the Colorado Department of Public Safety, will be the keynote speaker at their annual induction ceremony Monday.
Hilkey, who was graduated from Meeker High in 1982, will be inspiring the new inductees to “Live with Honor.”
Hilkey was appointed by Governor John Hickenlooper to his public safety directorship in June 2014 after serving more than 11 years as sheriff of Mesa County. In his role as executive director, he supervises the work of more than 1,600 department members, including the Colorado State Patrol, Colorado Bureau of Investigation, Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, Division of Criminal Justice, Division of Fire Prevention and Control, and Colorado School Safety Resources Center. CDPS is one of the largest departments in Colorado government.
“We’re very excited to have someone of Director Hilkey’s stature speak to us,” Phelan said. “He represents the goals and ideals of an organization like ours—and he is from Meeker. His is an important role model for all of us.”
Hilkey has spent his whole career in public safety, including 28 years in the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office where he championed evidence-based decision-making. EBDM represents a comprehensive, collaborative effort among all criminal justice agencies to implement practices based on research to improve the effectiveness of all components of the criminal justice system, from initial contact with offenders through re-entry into the community. His leadership in EBDM has continued in his current role and as chair of the Colorado Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice.
Hilkey was graduated from the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Va., in 2004, and from the Northwestern University School of Police Staff and Command in 2001. He is the son of former Rio Blanco County sheriff Ron Hilkey.
Hilkey will be speaking at the NHS induction ceremony at 6:30 p.m., Monday, April 24, at the high school auditorium. The public is invited. The event will be preceded by a potluck dinner in the high school cafeteria at 5:30 p.m., honoring the members and inductees of the Meeker Scholastia Chapter of the NHS.
For further information, please call honor society teacher-sponsor Kathleen Kelley at 970-878-9070 X334.
