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SPB Staff

The State Personnel Board (SPB) staff includes: Rick Dindinger (Director); Susan Tyburski (Administrative Law Judge); Keith Shandalow (Administrative Law Judge); Keely McCabe (Administrative Law Judge); and Andrea Woods (Senior Board Assistant).

Assistant Attorney General Jenna Anderson serves as Board Counsel.

Biographies

Rick Dindinger, Director

Prior to becoming the Director of the State Personnel Board, Rick served the Board as an Administrative Law Judge.

Rick's legal practice focused on employment matters, administrative law, and commercial litigation. He represented clients before the State Personnel Board, the Merit Systems Protection Board, the Denver Career Services Board, the Colorado Judicial Department Personnel Board of Review, and the Colorado Supreme Court's Office of the Presiding Disciplinary Judge. He also worked as an Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Litigation and Employment Law Section of the Colorado Attorney General’s Office.

Rick’s board experience includes the Centennial City Council, the Board of Directors for the Arapahoe County Bar Association, and the Urban Drainage and Flood Control District. His civic activities include coaching competitive soccer and volunteering as a Stroke & Turn Judge for youth swim meets.

Rick received a Juris Doctorate from the University of Denver Sturm College of Law and a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Colorado Boulder. Rick has hiked more than 50 fourteeners, soaked in multiple hot springs, skied A-Basin and Monarch, watched fireworks at Grand Lake, enjoyed concerts at Red Rocks, biked to the top of Mt. Evans, and toured more than one microbrewery.

Susan Tyburski, Administrative Law Judge

Judge Susan Tyburski was born in Buffalo, New York, and grew up in Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Houston and Toronto, Ontario. Judge Tyburski moved to Denver, Colorado for college, where she earned a B.A. cum laude in English and Philosophy, and an M.A. in English Literature from the University of Denver. She published a portion of her Master’s thesis, “Wallace Stegner’s Vision of Wilderness,” in the journal Western American Literature.

Judge Tyburski earned her J.D. from the University of Denver, where she served as an associate editor of the Denver Law Review and published a Tenth Circuit survey of administrative law. Judge Tyburski also completed graduate courses in Communication Studies, with an emphasis in Alternative Dispute Resolution, and is a certified mediator.

Before joining the State Personnel Board as an ALJ in September 2014, Judge Tyburski served as an independent hearings officer for the Colorado Department of Corrections from 2007 through August 2014. Prior to her work as a hearing officer, Judge Tyburski practiced labor and employment law for twenty years. Since 2005, she has taught courses exploring the intersections of gender, race, law and society for the University of Denver. Judge Tyburski is currently working towards a Certificate in Administrative Law Adjudication Skills from the National Judicial College.

Keith Shandalow, Administrative Law Judge

Judge Shandalow was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He received his B.A., magna cum laude, in English from the State University of New York at Buffalo, a Master’s degree in American Studies from the University of Iowa, and his J.D. with honors from the University of Michigan Law School. While in graduate school, he taught courses in Rhetoric, Writing, Literature, American Autobiography, The Novel, and the Literature and Culture of the 1960s at the University of Iowa and St. Cloud State University.

After law school, Judge Shandalow was a litigator with San Francisco law firms for twelve years before joining the Hewlett-Packard corporate law department in Palo Alto, California. His practice focused on employment law, litigation, contracts, and commercial law. He was also an adjunct instructor at the University of California’s Hastings College of the Law, teaching legal writing and research, and appellate advocacy.

After moving to Colorado in 2005, Judge Shandalow formed his own law firm in Boulder, specializing in employment law, administrative law, and transactional work for start-up companies. He represented state employees in employment matters before the State Personnel Board from 2010 until his appointment as an Administrative Law Judge for the State Personnel Board in June 2015. He is a certified mediator.

Keely McCabe, Administrative Law Judge

Judge McCabe has lived in several states and moved to Denver in 2012. She received her B.A. from Hanover College, J.D. from Florida Coastal School of Law, and M.A. from Iliff School of Theology.

Before joining the State Personnel Board as an ALJ in September 2019, Judge McCabe worked for the Colorado Department of Revenue Hearings Division from 2014 to 2019 as a Hearing Officer. At DOR, Judge McCabe conducted hearings on driver's licensure, business licensure for the marijuana, auto, and liquor industries, and rule promulgation by DOR for motor vehicle and liquor regulations. Judge McCabe also served as an Administrative Law Judge for the State of Indiana Department of Workforce Development from 2007 to 2012 conducting unemployment insurance appeal hearings.