The Honorable Mark Hillman RLP Class of 1996, LPR Board Member
Each year at the Retreat, Leadership Program of the Rockies recognizes a LPR alum who exhibits a deep understanding of freedom’s principles and a profound willingness to take action again tyranny.
The Leader in Action Award recognizes a LPR alum whose life is a model of leadership, risk, courage, entrepreneurship, and success while promoting timeless constitutional principles and impacting public policy. Very few people can lay claim to those attributes more than Mark Hillman—whose unpretentious humility would never allow him to make that claim himself. His life and career—and his ability to balance the two—are an example to all who know him.
Mark Hillman is a Colorado native, operating a family farm near Burlington, where he and his wife, Heidi, live with their two children. All his life, friends and neighbors have looked up to Mark as one of the region’s most knowledgeable and influential thought leaders. He was twice elected to the Colorado State Senate, where he immediately rose to the top levels of state leadership.
He became Majority Leader and was honored as National Legislator of the Year. Senator Bill Armstrong once called him “one of the greatest legislators in the history of Colorado.” No wonder Mark was (and still is) one of the nation’s leading champions of the Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights (TABOR), and brought an all-too-rare common sense to the legislature. He also served as Colorado State Treasurer, and was elected as Colorado’s Republican National Committeeman.
Today, Mark is Executive Director of Colorado Civil Justice League, the state’s leading organization in the fight against lawsuit abuse. Mark graduated from the Republican Leadership Program in 1996 and he has served on the Board of LPR for 15 years, never tiring of the work it takes to support the Army for Freedom. He is an essential brand champion for the program, working hard to raise awareness and visibility of the unique LPR training model. He is also a prolific and gifted writer, yet still takes time to publish and distribute important columns by other principled leaders, as well.
Mark’s writing brings his trademark common sense approach to current issues—from the perspective of founding constitutional principles. His site, markhillman.com, is widely read and highly popular among opinion leaders across the state and around the country.
Mark Hillman fully understands the long-term cultural power of arming leaders with education and training, is a proud supporter of LPR and its mission, and shows by his own example how to mobilize dedicated citizens for freedom. He is the definition of a leader in action.
