David Miller

David Miller
CEO, Barton Institute

David Miller is the CEO of the Barton Institute for Community Action. The mission of the Barton Institute is to create safe community spaces where people can build lives with more opportunity to thrive. The Barton Institute began at the University of Denver in 2016 and in 2020 became an independent nonprofit organization.

Before the Barton Institute, David was President and CEO of The Denver Foundation from 1996 until 2016. The Denver Foundation is the oldest and largest community foundation in the Rocky Mountain region.  Under David’s leadership, the assets of The Denver Foundation grew from $58 million to well over $700 million and generous donors contributed more than $1 billion to The Denver Foundation as a vehicle for their charitable giving.

 David is a native of Denver and a fifth generation Denverite.  He is a graduate of Thomas Jefferson High School in Denver, Harvard College, and Harvard Law School.  Since then, he has worked in all three sectors: public, private, and nonprofit.

David spent ten years in Colorado state and local government, serving as Executive Director of the Colorado Office of State Planning and Budgeting under Governor Richard Lamm and Chief of Staff for Denver Mayor Federico Peña.  After that and before coming to The Denver Foundation, he was a principal in Greenberg, Baron, Simon & Miller (GBSM), a strategic communications consulting firm.

 David currently serves on the Board of the Boettcher Foundation, the Board of the Helen Bonfils Foundation, and the Investment Committee of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. He is married to Lisa Farber Miller. They have two children and four grandchildren.