Jayla Poppleton Bio

Jayla Poppleton is the departing Executive Director of Water Education Colorado (October 2024). Prior to becoming Executive Director, Jayla oversaw Water Education Colorado’s full suite of print and digital content programming. In that capacity she also served as the editor for Headwaters magazine, Water Education Colorado’s flagship publication, for nine years. Through the duration of her career, she has been intent on communicating important science and policy issues with a human-interest lens. She has written extensively on all things Colorado water, and it continues to be the subject she is most passionate about. In addition to the Advisory Committee for TAP-IN, Jayla also serves on the Advisory Council for the One World One Water Center at Metro State University. Hailing from the outskirts of Chicago, her enthusiasm for outdoor adventure and the natural world led her to the field of natural resources—and to Colorado, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in technical journalism with a specialization in natural resources management from Colorado State University. She fell in love with Colorado’s rivers while guiding commercial rafts down the Cache la Poudre River. In addition to reading and traveling, she enjoys running, hiking, rafting, snowboarding, mountain biking and any other opportunity to be outside in the Colorado sunshine. She lives in Denver with her husband and three sons.