Rotary District 5440 elects it's District Governors three years in advance of their service year. This adds continuity to the District Leadership which in turn provides better support for our clubs.
Rotary District 5440 Leadership
District Governor
Lee Varra-Nelson
Rotary Club of Fort Collins
Breakfast, CO
Lee joined Rotary as a member of the Rotary Club of Fort Collins Breakfast in 2003. She served her club as the Director of Club Administration, The Rotary Foundation Chair, Club President in 2013/14 and will complete her term as club Membership Committee Chair at the end of 2022 Rotary Year.
In District 5440 Lee served as Assistant District Governor in 2015, Foundation Annual Fund Chair in 2016 / 2017 and as District Membership Chair from 2018 to 2021. Lee is a Paul Harris Fellow since 2008, a Paul Harris Society Member since 2011, a member of the Bequest Society, a Level 1 Major Donor and a Benefactor of The Rotary Foundation.
Lee’s career with Hewlett-Packard spanned over 35 years and crossed many business areas. Also, during this time, she took a leave of absence from Hewlett-Packard to serve in the Military Intelligence Branch of the US Army and is a proud veteran. Lee left Hewlett-Packard to work as a Senior Technical Project Manager for Intrado, a company under the Homeland Security umbrella, that supports and enhances the national 911 emergency system. While working at Intrado, she led her project team to the first successful release of software that allowed transmission of cell phone text messages to 911 dispatch centers.
In her private Project Management consulting work, Lee has enjoyed working with major technology corporations and government agencies, but her favorite work was on a special project with NASA’s Director of the International Year of Astronomy. She has also donated her project management expertise to Rotary for major projects and conferences.
Lee, Catherine and their black Lab, Molly live in Fort Collins. They have four adult children and eight grandchildren. They all enjoy spending time kayaking at the lake, hiking in the mountains and movie nights.
District Governor Elect
Steve Sehnert
Rotary Club of Steamboat Springs, CO
Steve Sehnert (pronounced Say-nert) has been a Rotarian for over 40 years. He first joined Rotary in Findlay, Ohio in 1982 and then two clubs in Denver and was a Club President in 2003-2004. He moved to Steamboat Springs in April of 2013 and served as their Club President in 2017-2018.
Steve is a multiple Paul Harris Fellow. He has attended Rotary International Conventions in Brisbane, Australia, Atlanta, GA, and this year in Houston, TX. He served as Webmaster and Event Registrar for the Rotary Zone and attended multiple Zone Institutes. He was trained as a facilitator for the “Rotary Leadership Institute” and facilitated these programs for several years. He also served as an Assistant Governor in District 5450 for six “downtown” Denver clubs.
Steve received a BA Degree in Economics from the College of Wooster, Ohio and an MBA Degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. His employment career was in various Financial and Operations positions in Ohio, Washington, D.C., and Colorado. He was an independent Contract CFO for several years and retired in 2010 as CFO for a 100-person privately held architecture firm in Denver.
District Governor Nominee
Julie Johnson Haffner
Rotary Club of Loveland, CO
Julie, a professional fund raiser and a Colorado native, was one of the first women to join Rotary in northern Colorado. During her nearly 35 years as a Rotary member, she has served as an Assistant Governor in District 5440; President of the Rotary Club of Loveland (CO); an active member of several District committees; a trainer at PETS and a presenter at District assemblies and conferences. Julie is a multiple Paul Harris Fellow, a member of the Paul Harris Society and a major donor.
Julie graduated from Colorado State University with a B.S. in Consumer Sciences and a minor in business. She raised money for hospitals, a university system and a community foundation during her 40-plus year career as an executive director and certified fundraising executive.
After leaving full-time business, Julie created her consulting business, Blue Jewels LLC, to teach nonprofit organizations how to build their boards, grow their fundraising capacity and expand their leadership skills. Currently, she serves on the boards of the Children’s Museum of Northern Colorado and Sunrise Community Health. Julie is also a member of Kappa Alpha Theta and PEO.
Julie is the mother of three adult daughters and “Mimi” to five young grandchildren. She is an accomplished hand-knitter as well as a “pretty-darn-good” country cook. When she isn’t seeing her kids, Julie travels to complete her goal of visiting every National Park in the United States. She is married to Gene Haffner, a proud Rotary spouse who is a Paul Harris Fellow, a member of the Paul Harris Society and her cowboy cha-cha dance partner. They live in Windsor, Colorado.
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