Pueblo native, family man, father, husband, uncle, community advocate, Colorado State University Pueblo alum.

He is the president and CEO of the Greater Pueblo Chamber of Commerce: Duane Nava.

Nava was raised in the Aberdeen community in Pueblo by his grandparents, who eventually adopted him when he was in late elementary school. Nava has four siblings with whom he is very close, along with the siblings he gained when he was adopted. He has great admiration for them for having helped raise him alongside his grandparents.

“It’s a kind of complicated past, but having that large of a family, you really lean on each other. It takes your whole family to kind of pull things together, especially when you have a large family like that.”

Nava recalls when he was growing up it was a different time. It was very safe, especially in his neighborhood. He recounts being able to sleep with the front door open or on the front lawn, and riding his bike all over town. Growing up in Pueblo influenced his decision to pay back that generosity to the community.

“I’ve always wanted to do something to give back to the community. This community gave me so much growing up; a great education, and great opportunities in the workforce.”

Nava also gives credit to CSU Pueblo for helping him attain the life that he has now.

“I’m an alum of CSU Pueblo and without the extended studies programs, I would not be where I am today. Having a family at a young age and working full time, I couldn’t take time off to go to school. It wasn’t something I was going to be able to do. So having the extended studies program I was able to work at my own pace, take classes when I could, and work on them when I could. It was a game-changer for me and without that program, there’s no way I would have accomplished everything in my life that I’ve accomplished, especially being in this position, and I hope that people in our community realize how important our higher education is in our community. We need our community college and university because it helps our workforce, but it also helps people like me that wouldn’t be able to have a higher education if it weren’t for programs like the extended studies.”

Seeing the struggles the community has gone through, along with the struggles of friends, relatives and community members weighed on Nava. It made him think, “What am I doing to help?” Nava told himself, “All right. Time to get up and do something about it or quit complaining about it.”

It wasn’t easy. Juggling the responsibilities of being a husband, father and making ends meet as a provider made it more difficult for Nava to achieve his dream of becoming more active and involved with the Pueblo community. Even so, it did not stop him. Claiming that one day he just got an “itch” to run for City Council, he was offered a job at the Chamber of Commerce while he was running his campaign for City Council. Nava ended up dropping out of the City Council race and took the job with the chamber.

“It was just a different way to serve Pueblo,” says Nava, “I was passionate about this chamber. I was on this board prior to taking this position and I love the work we’re doing here at the chamber and I love the impact that we have on Pueblo. It was just a better fit for me.”

The chamber, as Nava explained it, is a nonprofit organization, a business-serving organization that aids the community by offering networking opportunities for local businesses and advocacy for business owners. The main objectives of the chamber are supporting businesses, making sure that they have the tools they need to be successful.

Nava, despite not having owned a business himself, still recognizes the difficulties and hardships that local businesses face and is passionate about being able to provide resources however possible to these business owners and families.

“How are we supporting our businesses? How are we supporting those owners to make sure that they are successful?” Nava said. “A lot of these business owners put their livelihoods on the line. They’re putting all those resources out there, saying, ‘I gotta make this work. I have a family to support. I have bills to pay. I have things to lose’, and how are we going to support them to make sure that they’re successful?”

Nava explained that effort goes beyond promoting or referring customers to businesses. Many times the chamber gets involved in legislation affecting the local business community.

Nava said he realizes the community often doesn’t see the chamber’s good work, but he knows the chamber makes a difference and that is what makes the effort worth it. A side-benefit to his position, according to Nava, is that he has gotten to learn so much more about Pueblo than he ever realized growing up, such as the rich history in the Union Avenue district. He has enjoyed learning how things were paid for, how the riverwalk came to fruition, where the money came from, the people that were involved, and all these huge projects that made Pueblo what it is today.

“I’m starting to see Pueblo come together again when it comes to projects, which is exciting,” says Nava, “because without people coming together with a common goal and a common purpose, it’s going to be very difficult to make things happen and we need that to happen in order the younger generations and provide those opportunities for them to stay.”

Moving forward, Nava believes that the future of the chamber is bright. For example, it is making a push for a change in how Pueblo is marketing its businesses. The future is digital and the chamber recognizes this and is working toward helping community businesses market digitally through social media and the Internet.

The chamber also is working on new ways to bring the community together as a whole. A very successful event that has been in place for 30 years is the Chile and Frijoles Festival.

“How do we offer and support more things like the Chile and Frijoles Festival, whether we are putting in on ourselves or supporting other organizations who want to put on more events like this that bring people together in our community? What will bring new money, bring tourism in and outside visitors? If it’s not us, how do we support other organizations that are doing it?”

Nava says he also works to support his staff, making sure they have the resources and tools they need.

“I think how this benefits them is that it really puts our staff in the best places possible to do the best job on behalf of our members and our city,” states Nava, beaming with pride as he talks about his staff, “jumping in when I need to, but really letting them do what they do best and sometimes it’s just getting out of the way and letting them be who they are, which are just great people.”

When asked about the biggest challenges facing our business community Nava’s answer was direct: We have lost our moral compass, not only within our community but also on a national level as well.

“We have people breaking into businesses and shooting out windows and ramming cars into businesses and taking things. We really have to find our human decency again, and it’s not so much this community; it’s the nation, it’s everywhere. We need to start treating people better. We need to start holding people accountable for the things that they’re doing, especially when they have such a huge impact to a small business. Some of these business owners can’t afford to fix windows or replace inventory. They turn to insurance and then insurance goes up. They don’t understand the impact.”

Another challenge Nava mentioned is a shortage of trade workers, getting the younger generations interested in the trades and filling that workforce shortage. Nava also mentioned inflation and how that has had a large impact on the economy.

One of the biggest challenges that Nava brought up is that people can’t simply disagree. If they disagree, they become enemies, he said. Nava believes that common ground needs to be found and that our differences and our views need to be celebrated. If we were all the same, if everyone had the same beliefs, then we wouldn’t have the beauty that our world is, he said.

Nava says the camber is working with city and county leaders to form plans for the betterment of Pueblo. He also encouraged citizens to attend City Council meetings, and county commissioners’ meetings.

“Showing up and hearing what’s going on in the community, a lot of times your questions are going to be answered. It’s engaging in your local community, knowing what’s going on, that you are participating in the local communiy.

“As far as the chamber goes, people always are welcome to call and let us know if there are concerns that we need to bring forward. Our number and email are on our website. People are also welcome to call or email us and they are always welcome to stop by our offices on Santa Fe Avenue as well.”