Our dedicated board, alongside a team of supporters, strives to preserve the Sonoran Desert for the future Carefree Park. For details on our goals and strategy, please refer to our Strategic Plan
Wendy Mattes
Wendy earned her B.S. Degree in Animal Science from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. After graduating from Cal Poly, Wendy worked as Assistant Trainer in the Thoroughbred racing industry. She then managed the Training Program for 60 young horses on a farm in Virginia, before moving back to California, where she founded her own Executive Search consulting firm for the high technology industry. She was in this role for 21 years.
After being diagnosed with MS in 1998, Wendy wanted a lifestyle change, and her natural love for children and passion for horses drew her to take a job as Riding Instructor/Trainer at a ranch in Portola Valley, California. When one of her young students was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor, Wendy took a miniature horse to visit the child in her home before she passed away. This visit inspired Wendy to found Jasper Ridge Farm, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization offering therapeutic animal-assisted programs to the most vulnerable children and Veterans.
Wendy served as Board Member and Executive Director of Jasper Ridge Farm until 2017, when she and her husband moved to Arizona, drawn by the beauty of the Upper Sonoran Desert. Wendy still sits on the Board of Jasper Ridge Farm and assists the organization with grant writing and other fundraising activities. She ran a successful capital campaign to build a new, larger facility when the organization outgrew its first small site. The flourishing organization now serves over 3,000 children and adults each year.
Wendy was named a 2015 Woman of Influence by the Silicon Valley Business Journal. Under her direction, Jasper Ridge Farm was named “Enterprise of the Year” by the Veterans Commission of San Mateo County for providing “exemplary service to Veterans.”
Wendy served on the Executive Board of the California Dressage Society as an elected Regional Director, and also served several terms on the San Francisco Peninsula Chapter of CDS, in various capacities, including Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary and Horse Show Committee Chair. She also founded the Junior/Young Rider Committee, and organized fundraising activities and educational opportunities for the junior riders in the Bay Area.
Wendy and her Marine Corps veteran husband of 38 years share their Carefree home with a dog, and her two horses are stabled in Rio Verde Foothills. Two of her three sons served in the U.S. Air Force, and Wendy is now the proud “tutu” of three beautiful grandchildren. Wendy enjoys hiking and horseback riding in the beautiful Sonoran Desert, and she believes we all have the responsibility to do what we can to save open space around us. Once developed, it is lost forever.
Ariane Buser
As an avid outdoor enthusiast and a true advocate for the environment, Ariane is always looking for the next adventure and a new trail to explore! Her passion for outdoor activities and the belief that everyone in Carefree should have the same opportunity to enjoy our natural landscape fuels her dedication to preserving the 48 acres intended to become Carefree Park.
Cindy Burgin
Cindy was born and raised in Chicago. In 1986 she purchased a turn-of-the-century cottage on the north side of Chicago and restored and modernize it. In 2009 she purchased a property in Carefree and moved between properties while still working full-time out of her Chicago office. She moved permanently to the desert in 2016.
Cindy spent nearly her entire career in healthcare, beginning in Internal Medicine and moving to breast-specific surgical oncology. She takes pride in having been recruited by the American College of Surgeons in 2007 to develop a multidisciplinary breast cancer accreditation program focusing on quality improvement. This program was officially launched in the United States in 2008 and quickly gained international attention. She served as Program Director of the National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers (NAPBC), a program administered by the American College of Surgeons, from 2007-2014.
Cindy has professional memberships in 13 national organizations, most of which are healthcare based. She is a member of Alpha Chi National College Honor Scholarship Society, served on the Advisory Counsel for the Chicago Park District, as well as holds a membership with Yellowstone Forever, and more currently FIREWISE, Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management, where she is a trained Assessor. She has also served on numerous boards along the way.
Cindy is all about preservation of the land and brought that passion with her to Arizona. There were several opportunities in Chicago to work with Openlands, an organization whose mission is to protect the natural and open spaces of northeastern Illinois, and was successful in acquiring and preserving land in her very own Chicago neighborhood, which the community turned into community garden space and a passive park for the kids of the neighborhood to enjoy. Cindy loves the National Park System and volunteers at Yellowstone National Park where she lives and plays for several summer months each year. She is an avid hiker and can be found out on the trails or wandering in nature whenever the weather permits.
Janice Castro
Janice grew up in Southern Illinois where she earned a Bachelor's Degree in Biology from Southern Illinois University - Edwardsville. She earned a Masters' Degree in Wildlife Management from Kansas State University where her research focused on three species of Kansas songbirds. After college Janice became a bird keeper at the Tulsa Zoo in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She met her husband there and as his career moved them around the country, her career shifted to the standardized testing industry. Janice worked 20+ years in that field as a science content editor creating and managing science testing programs for Harcourt Educational Measurement, Pearson and Data Recognition Corporation. She retired in 2018 but has stayed busy as a volunteer for the Phoenix Zoo, where her husband is the President/CEO. She is an active birder and loves to travel.
Jo Gemmill
Originally from the U.K, Jo brought her passion for all things tea related and founded the highly successful English Rose Tea Room in the center of Carefree, which is now celebrating it's 22nd year in business.
During her time in Carefree, she also operated two gift stores, English Rose Accents & Jo London, ran an etiquette school, Chaired the Carefree Christmas Festival for 10 yrs and was a member of various non-profit boards including the Desert Foothills Theater, the Chamber of Commerce of which she was also Chair and the Desert Foothills Library.
Jo is honored to be asked to help serve on the Board for Carefree Park. Having seen so much development over the last two decades, now is the time to preserve a piece of Carefree to pass on to future generations to enjoy. The desert is the very reason why people move to Arizona and Carefree Park has the potential to be the jewel in Carefree's crown.
Gene Ullrich
Gene Ullrich brings to the Carefree Park organization 43 years of communication expertise and a proven track record of developing and implementing marketing, corporate communication, public relations, reputation management and corporate citizenship strategies that deliver results. Gene has served more than 15 years as Senior Vice President for TagTeam Global™, a provider of marketing communication and public relations expertise to clients ranging from start-ups to Fortune 100 companies.
Geneʼs unique background includes 8 years as a Vice President of Communication with GE Money and an 18-year career as a television news producer and reporter. While at GE, Gene led all external and internal communications for GE Money – Americas, GEʼs provider of credit services with more than 50 million customers and 18,000 employees throughout the U.S., Canada, and Latin America. With focus on conveying simple, powerful, consistent messages through great story telling, Gene implemented successful communication strategies across multiple mediums, diverse businesses, and global geographies.
Prior to joining GE, Gene served in the television news industry as a newscast producer, field producer, special projects producer and reporter. He worked at top-rated stations including Disney-owned ABC7, WLS-TV in Chicago. Prior to that he worked at ABC affiliates in Phoenix, AZ and Wichita, KS and the CBS affiliate in Champaign, IL.
In addition to more than a dozen top honors from GE in recognition of outstanding performance, Gene is a three-time winner of the prestigious Telly Award for Creative Excellence in video production, as well an award-winning documentary producer and Emmy-nominated newscast producer. Gene received his B.S. in mass communication with a minor in public relations from Illinois State University.