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Helen Hankins will officially be sworn in as the Bureau of Land Management Colorado State Director by BLM Director Robert V. Abbey at 1 p.m. on Feb. 26 at the Denver Marriott West, Salon Conference Room, 1717 Denver West Blvd., Golden, Colo. 80401.BLM Colorado is expecting more than 100 guests from the public and private sectors to share this significant occasion. Hankins came to Colorado Feb. 1 after the former state director, Sally Wisely, retired in 2009. Hankins had served most recently as the BLM Arizona Associate State Director. “I wouldn’t be here today if I did not have a great appreciation for our public lands.” Hankins said. “I can assure the public that the steps that are made from here on out will be made responsibly and with the public’s best interest in mind.”Hankins, 58, is a native of Council, Idaho. She joined the BLM in Albuquerque, N.M., serving as a clerk-typist in the agency’s student work-study program in 1970. She went on to serve in increasingly responsible positions in Durango, Colo., Anchorage and Fairbanks, Alaska, Washington, D.C., Elko, Nev., and Phoenix, Ariz.She earned her bachelor’s degree in geology from the University of New Mexico and was one of the first two women to complete the BLM’s five-month-long minerals law school program.In Colorado, Hankins will oversee 815 employees with a budget of approximately $75 million and administer 8.3 million acres of BLM public lands and 27 million acres of mineral estate, which are concentrated primarily in the western portion of the state.Hankins, an active member of both Rotary International and Toastmasters International, is married to Michael Mauser, with whom she has hosted eleven exchange students. Hankins and her husband look forward to continuing their shared passion for hiking and backpacking in Colorado.