Events Archive

Each fall, the CU Denver School of Public Affairs PhD Student Association (SPAPSA) invites a student-nominated scholar to present their research during the Zoom Scholar Series event. This is a great opportunity to honor and learn from a well-recognized senior scholar in our field. This year's featured scholar is Dr. Suzanne Mettler, the John L. Senior Professor of American Institutions at Cornell University's Department of Government.

Moderator: 
Stephanie Puello, third-year PhD student in Public Affairs and Co-President of SPAPSA

Guest Scholar: 
Dr. Suzanne Mettler, Professor

Watch the video.

 

No issue has more national attention right now than police and community relationships and related racial inequities, after the brutal killings of George Floyd and others by police officers. Massive protests and calls for police reform continue across the nation, even as we continue to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.

As a School of Public Affairs with criminal justice faculty and undergraduate, graduate, and certificate programs in criminal justice, we want to address these issues, hear your perspectives, and explore possible avenues for change.

Watch the video.

The COVID-19 crisis has led to severe fiscal challenges for all levels of government. This webinar offers insights on these challenges through a panel discussion among SPA’s faculty experts in the field of public finance. They will discuss questions such as: What are the likely changes to state and local government revenues and to spending on public sector programs? To what extent can federal stimulus funds cushion these effects? What tools can governments use to weather these types of fiscal crises? What will these fiscal impacts mean to citizens and communities of Colorado, and how should we help public affairs students prepare for this future?

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On April 17, 2020, the University of Colorado Denver School of Public Affairs hosted a webinar to showcase the variety of expertise and approaches taken by our faculty in understanding responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Five faculty members were featured panelists: Deserai Crow, Barb Paradiso, Paul Taylor, Danielle Varda and Chris Weible. Lisa VanRaemdonck, who directs the SPA Institute, moderated the panel. The panelists discussed how their own work can inform critical challenges facing decision-makers. These include how the political environment is shaping the crisis response, the adaptation of first responders and health systems to new demands, as well as the impacts of stay-at-home orders on domestic violence. The panelists also explored some of the questions the pandemic is raising for public affairs research, such as how science is informing policy decisions, how policy enforcement is changing, and what types of new policy and management networks are emerging in the pandemic response.

Watch video.

This first event of the 2023-2024 series focused on Denver's newly elected Mayor Johnston, and the work and opportunities that lie ahead for the city of Denver.

 

Watch the video for our New Denver Mayor and Council - New Directions event

The School of Public Affairs is celebrating our 50th anniversary of public affairs education!

This academic year's series of First Fridays will provide 50-year retrospectives on important topics for Coloradans—as well as a look ahead to the next 50 years.

Watch the video of our 50 Years of Colorado Environmental and Water Issues event.

The School of Public Affairs is celebrating our 50th anniversary of public affairs education!

This academic year's series of First Fridays will provide 50-year retrospectives on important topics for Coloradans—as well as a look ahead to the next 50 years.

Watch the video of our 50 Years of Evolution of Colorado Social Equity Conversations event.

The School of Public Affairs is celebrating our 50th anniversary of public affairs education!

This academic year's series of First Fridays will provide 50-year retrospectives on important topics for Coloradans—as well as a look ahead to the next 50 years.

Watch the video of our 50 Years of Colorado Public Finance and TABOR event.

The School of Public Affairs is celebrating our 50th anniversary of public affairs education!

This academic year's series of First Fridays will provide 50-year retrospectives on important topics for Coloradans—as well as a look ahead to the next 50 years.

Watch the video of our 50 Years of Colorado Nonprofits event.

The School of Public Affairs is celebrating our 50th anniversary of public affairs education!

This academic year's series of First Fridays will provide 50-year retrospectives on important topics for Coloradans—as well as a look ahead to the next 50 years.

Watch the video of our 50 Years of Colorado Criminal Justice event.

The School of Public Affairs is celebrating our 50th anniversary of public affairs education!

This academic year's series of First Fridays will provide 50-year retrospectives on important topics for Coloradans—as well as a look ahead to the next 50 years.

Watch the video of our 50 Years of Colorado Politics event.

The School of Public Affairs is celebrating our 50th anniversary of public affairs education! This academic year's series of First Fridays will provide 50-year retrospectives on important topics for Coloradans—as well as a look ahead to the next 50 years.

Watch the video.

Although many years in the making, recent accelerations in housing prices have pushed Colorado to a crisis point in terms of a widespread lack of affordable housing.

As the General Assembly’s Affordable Housing Transformational Task Force noted in January 2022: “Though it has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the housing crisis our state faces is not new. For decades, the lack of affordable housing has upended the lives of thousands who face homelessness in the Metro area and across the state, shuttered Colorado businesses and hindered working-class jobs due to a lack of workforce housing, and exacerbated inequities for communities of color.”

In this panel, we will explore perspectives and proposed solutions from scholars, industry representatives, elected officials, and K-12 educators.

Watch the video.

View panelist slideshow.

 

We are all aware that more recent discussions about American democracy have revealed extremely polarized views, and far more attention is being paid to candidates that are running for elected seats in offices. While this is especially true for career politicians that run for federal and high-level state offices, like Governor, it is also true for less prominent but nonetheless critical state and local offices, like school board member, city council member, higher education Regent, etc. In this panel, we will explore what motivates regular citizens to put their hat in the ring for elections—especially with many of these positions requiring so much time and no pay. Joining us are three School of Public Affairs faculty members, with no prior political experience, who ran for local positions over the last year. In addition, they will be joined by other panelists familiar with this electoral environment.

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When Barbara Paradiso, Director of the Center on Domestic Violence at the CU Denver School of Public Affairs, passed away suddenly in July 2021, the efforts to combat domestic violence lost a titan. This event is a remembrance and honoring of Barb’s legacy, as well as a retrospective of the work of the Center and the impact of its concentration and certificate program in Gender-Based Violence. We will hear from alumni of the program, faculty, and center staff, and will also touch on the impact of COVID-19 on instances of domestic and other violence in America.

Watch the video.

 

While the 2021 November election does not feature major national races, we are voting on several Colorado state and local races and ballot initiatives. With the 2020 Census data available, Colorado is using its independent redistricting process for the first time to guide future elections. In addition, we are in the midst of a national controversy about elections and how best to count ballots accurately and securely. Join our panel of experts, including two Colorado Independent Redistricting Commissioners who have worked on the redistricting process, for a discussion on some of the most important issues of our time and democracy.

Watch the video.

 

Before COVID-19 disrupted virtually everything in March 2020, much of local and national philanthropy was already looking inward, related to democracy, social equity, and DEI issues. The pandemic both partly disrupted those conversations with its own urgency, but also accelerated them with the clear overlap of COVID-related problems and equity issues.

As we hopefully move into a more manageable phase of COVID-19 (understanding that this changes day by day), where does that leave our philanthropic institutions? Will the focus return, perhaps even with great intensity, to social equity and DEI? Or are there other ideas that will provide new directions?

Many local philanthropic groups were also going through changes in leadership and/or new strategic plans when COVID-19 hit. We are excited to hear from a mix of local and national philanthropic leaders about how they are balancing these complex issues.

Watch the video.

Over the past two years, our parks and open spaces have seen more traffic than ever as people sought places for safe outdoor activity, and our recreation programs and facilities have been forced to evolve to prevent COVID-19 outbreaks among participants. At the same time, the field has been connecting more with the ways that they help create healthy and vibrant communities, working to create more access and a sense of belonging for people of color in outdoor recreation, and seeing the need to recruit and support a well-trained workforce that matches the communities they serve. All of this, and more, add up to a lot of evolution and change within local parks, recreation and open space programs. Our panel of national and local experts will share their perspectives on the data and demographics underlying these topics, their innovative efforts to meet the needs and how they see the evolving future of parks, recreation, and open space.

Watch the video.

 

During our final First Friday event of the 2020-21 academic year, we will discuss and assess this year’s activities and accomplishments of our Colorado Legislature.

With COVID-19, it has been an unusual session, to say the least. But a lot has happened. We will examine the impact of having more money this year, as compared to last year—and even compared to most years in Colorado. How did that impact the budget? What were the other most important legislative initiatives? What progress was made on economic stimulus, health care, gun violence, taxes, social equity, pandemic relief, and other issues?

Some argue that when a single party controls all institutions in Colorado, it tends to “go too far” with legislation. Was this the case with Democrats this year?

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Downtown areas thrive on density, human interaction at close scale, and the vibrancy that people bring to a place. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, downtown Denver was booming. Plans in the making over many years were coming together, as office buildings, hotels, and other projects were filling in surface parking lots and other downtown spaces.

With the pause that the pandemic has put on those plans, what can we expect once public health guidance deems it safe to congregate in downtown Denver?

How many people will return to work in office spaces, and how often? What will be the impact on the downtown restaurant and entertainment scenes? And how about taxes that fund public services, such as transit? What can we learn from other cities or related examples?

Watch the video.

 

Long before COVID-19, higher education was undergoing transformation amid decreases in state funding, shifting student demographics, flexible curricula, questions about the value of degrees and other forces.  

The onset of the pandemic a year ago accelerated higher education’s transformation, with challenges (and opportunities) likely to endure beyond the pandemic. Both the University of Colorado System and CU Denver are engaged in strategic planning efforts, making this the perfect time to discuss future challenges and opportunities.

The School of Public Affairs is pleased to host a conversation with CU President Mark Kennedy and CU Denver Chancellor Michelle Marks – two nationally prominent leaders – about these issues.

Watch the video.

Now that there are COVID-19 vaccines available and more in the research pipeline, our attention turns to how to get the vaccine into people. In this panel, we'll explore some of the challenges of offering vaccination to the entire population of Colorado. We'll discuss how vaccine hesitancy and skepticism impacts uptake, the ethical considerations of vaccine distribution, and the logistics of getting two shots in every arm across our mountainous and rural geography.

Watch the video.

The November 2020 election is poised to be one of the most interesting—and challenging—in our history, taking place amidst a deadly pandemic, with many voters opting for mail-in ballots rather than in-person voting. Additionally, the country is mired in an extremely divisive national context, with fewer undecided voters than usual.

The unprecedented spike in mail-in ballots may cause problems and will likely delay the announcement of the official election results for days, and we hope to have the results in time for our First Fridays event. To understand and make better sense of the elections, please join our expert and balanced panel as we discuss and dissect these issues.

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In this panel discussion we'll be joined by state, county, and city leaders who have been working to innovate, adapt, and adjust to our changing times through COVID-19, our public focus on equity and racial justice, and the changing needs of our communities. We'll also talk about the organizational cultures and leadership approaches that make these efforts successful and sustainable.

Watch the video.

The fall 2020 election will be critically important and unique in so many ways, especially given the current COVID-19 pandemic. The election will determine important races, from the U.S. President, to the U.S. Senate, to all of Congress. For Coloradans, most of the state legislature will be on the ballot, as well as at least 11 state amendments and propositions.

Join us for a virtual moderated discussion with a diverse panel of experts who will delve into these races and ballot measures. We’ll get to the heart of what Coloradans are most concerned about and how the issues are likely to influence their votes for major candidates. We’ll discuss the implications of selected ballot measures and their likelihood of being passed. We’ll also discuss levels of confidence in Colorado’s mail-in ballot process in light of the national dialogue around mail-in voting.

Watch the video.

Equity. It’s a word that is on the minds of many people as we engage in a more public conversation about inequities in our culture, systems and society. In the School of Public Affairs, we explore social equity in terms of fairness, right, justice and freedom from the effects of bias. 

As more organizations recognize the need to move beyond solidarity statements and into the work of creating more equitable policies and cultures, we bring together panelists who have been doing this organizational work for some time. We will hear and discuss stories of organizational transformation - big and small - from the nonprofit and private sectors. Our panelists bring powerful examples of leadership, perseverance, protest and change that organizations in any sector can embrace.

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School shootings, while statistically rare, have increased; the number of days between school shootings has substantially declined. Since Columbine in 1999, there have been over 385 school shootings in the U.S. Trends are more than just numbers—they are the product of complex and intertwining factors that need to be understood in order to implement effective and feasible prevention and intervention strategies. They also represent stories and, in the case of school-associated gun violence, human beings who have been exposed to traumatic life-changing situations. Watch the video for our Examining and Preventing School Shootings event here

Join us for a conversation on Public Policy and Human Trafficking in Colorado from the perspective of multiple practitioners in this field.

Featuring:

Dr. Denise Paquette Boots 
Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education
Professor of Public Policy and Political Economy
Senior Research Fellow in the Institute for Urban Policy Research
University of Texas at Dallas School of Economic, Policy & Policy Sciences

Wendy J. Smith, RN, MSN, ACNP
Retired

Kristina Wilburn​​​​​​
Training and Education Associate Manager
Laboratory to Combat Human Trafficking

Moderated by:

Raya Kate Castronovo
Graduate Assistant
CU Denver School of Public Affairs
President 
Alpha Phi Sigma

Watch a recording of the event.

The Center for Community Safety and Resilience, Dr. Callie Marie Rennison, and Dr. Sheila Huss present a crime report analyzing major violent and property crimes, as well as DUIs and narcotics offenses that were reported to law enforcement between 2010 and 2021. The report covers the State of Colorado and its 23 largest jurisdictions. Results showed that crime trends are complex and interpreting the analysis of crime data should be done with consideration of the scope of the data, as well as local and contextual factors that drive crime.

This panel looked in-depth at the Crime Report, and explored the role of the media in reporting crime and the media’s impact on politics, policy-making, and the criminal justice system.

Watch the video.

Impaired Driving in Colorado has been on the rise since the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic, while impaired driving arrests and convictions have been on the decline since 2016. This year, it is estimated that the state of Colorado is set to see its highest number of fatalities since 2002.

Join us for a conversation on Impaired Driving in Colorado and the forces behind changing DUI trends from the perspective of multiple practitioners in this field.

Watch the video.

The United States juvenile justice system was established almost 125 years ago to better manage delinquency and other perceived and actual social problems related to kids. Since its implementation, the juvenile justice system has provided a platform for landmark legal changes concerning juvenile constitutional rights, as well as substantive changes to improve upon weaknesses within the system. Today, the juvenile justice system strives to divert youth offenders from formal processes and encourages needs-based rehabilitation that emphasizes diversion, treatment, and deterrence while maintaining victim and community safety. While the philosophies of the juvenile justice system are different from the adult criminal justice system, the two institutions share some challenges (e.g., over-use of institutionalization; purpose and identity; race, ethnicity, and other forms of discrimination, etc.). That said, the juvenile justice system is experiencing a decline in incarceration, and juvenile justice reform is active, relevant, and beneficial. Join us for a conversation on the State of Colorado juvenile justice system as we explore this system from the perspective of multiple practitioners in this field.

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The final event in our Activism in Action theme of the Criminal Justice Event Series features Elisabeth Epps, who established the Colorado Freedom Fund (CFF) in 2018. The CFF is comprised of abolitionists who are trying to work themselves out of existence. They support litigation, legislation, and direct action to end wealth-based pre-trial detention, and the fund, itself, is used to pay cash bail in full for individuals who cannot afford to pay it themselves. It has paid bail amounts from $50 to $50,000. After CFF pays bail, they work with released individuals to ensure they attend their court dates and have their cases resolved.

The CFF’s work is meaningful in a number of ways: It illuminates how a structural feature of the criminal justice system is set up to criminalize poverty, and more directly, it provides individuals accused but not convicted of crimes with their freedom prior to their trials or plea bargains. People who are free prior to the resolution of their cases are able to maintain their health, housing, family and other relationships, and employment. Also, they have better case outcomes, as well in that they are more likely to have their cases dismissed and less likely to plead guilty.

Watch the video.

The Criminal Justice Activism in Action Series plans to highlight guest speakers' personal experiences working and engaging in activism in justice-related causes. Justice takes many forms and exists in many arenas, both in and outside of the formal criminal justice system. This program within the Criminal Justice Series explores traditional and alternative forms of justice, using personal experiences to illuminate how efforts to improve justice are carried out.

Paul Wright is the Founder and Executive Director of the Human Rights Defense Center and serves as the National Vice President of the National Police Accountability Project. He is the editor of Prison Legal News (PLN), the longest-running independent prisoner rights publication in United States history.

A former prisoner, Paul was imprisoned for 17 years in Washington state until his release in 2003. During and since his incarceration, he has successfully litigated a wide variety of censorship and public records cases against prison systems around the country, both as a pro se plaintiff and on behalf of PLN.

Paul is a former military policeman, a graduate of the University of Maryland with a degree in Soviet history, the former National Lawyers Guild Jailhouse Lawyer co-vice president (1995 - 2008), and a 2005 Petra Fellow. His articles have appeared in more than 80 publications, ranging from Counterpunch to USA Today.

Watch the video.

The Criminal Justice Activism in Action Series plans to highlight guest speakers' personal experiences working and engaging in activism in justice-related causes. Justice takes many forms and exists in many arenas, both in and outside of the formal criminal justice system. This program within the Criminal Justice Series explores traditional and alternative forms of justice, using personal experiences to illuminate how efforts to improve justice are carried out.

Lindsey Krenzer is the Program Director of the Non-Profit Organization, Back on My Feet. Back on My Feet operates in 14 cities in the US, including Denver. The organization uses the transformative power of community and fitness to support and inspire individuals as they progress from homeless to independence by obtaining an education, becoming employed, and acquiring housing. Back on My Feet has made a difference in thousands of people’s lives, and we hope you will join us to hear more about its energizing work from its leader, Lindsey Krenzer!

Watch the video.

 

The Criminal Justice Activism in Action Series plans to highlight guest speakers' personal experiences working and engaging in activism in justice-related causes. Justice takes many forms and exists in many arenas, both in and outside of the formal criminal justice system. This program within the Criminal Justice Series explores traditional and alternative forms of justice, using personal experiences to illuminate how efforts to improve justice are carried out.

Guest speaker Jen Marlowe is an author, filmmaker, and activist for international human rights; she is involved in a number of pursuits of justice for vulnerable people and groups worldwide. In the United States, Jen worked with Troy Davis and his family prior to what was very likely his wrongful execution in 2011 and later published the family’s story in her book, "I am Troy Davis." Jen will talk about her experience with Troy Davis and his family and the death penalty more generally as it is connected to other forms of state violence. She also will discuss her play, "There Is A Field," about Aseel Asleh, a 17-year old Palestinian citizen of Israel who was killed by police. As with Troy Davis’s story, Aseel Asleh’s story provides a personal lens through which larger structural problems are illuminated—in this case, how inequality is at the root of state violence and how the court systems uphold structures of  oppression.

Watch the video.

Drug enforcement is a complex and multi-faceted topic that is relevant in the federal, state, and local criminal justice systems. For this CJ Series Event, we secured two guest speakers to talk about different aspects of drug enforcement. These speakers will provide engaging and informative presentations based on their professional experience. Sergeant John Sherrill of the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office will talk about drug identification and classification, current drug trends, marijuana and its legalization, narcotics and meth lab investigations, and undercover operations. He will talk about cases in which he was involved. James Smith retired after a 36-year career with the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office. He will discuss managing a multi-jurisdictional drug enforcement task force for a suburban agency. His organization was comprised of investigators from throughout Boulder County, but had federal partners. He also will talk about specific issues that Boulder faced. With the benefit of hindsight and reflection, James Smith will explain how and why his feelings around drug enforcement have evolved since his retirement. We hope you will join us for a stimulating evening of presentations from two criminal justice practitioners with extensive experience in drug enforcement.

Guest Speakers

John Sherrill
Sergeant 
Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office, Patrol Section

James Smith
Principal Consultant
JD Smith Consulting Services
Retired Support Services Division Chief, Boulder County Sheriff's Office

Watch the video.

In Bradwell v. The State of Illinois (1872), the United States Supreme Court upheld a ruling that Myra Bradwell — and by extension, women in the United States — could be forbidden to practice law on the basis of their sex. Indeed, the Court ruled that it was important to maintain “the respective spheres of man and woman,” with women acting as mothers and wives consistent with the “law of the Creator.” This ruling was not surprising, as women who worked in the criminal justice system during this time were typically secretaries to male attorneys or police “matrons” who worked with women and children.

In the middle of the 19th century, women increasingly worked in roles of active law enforcement, lawyers, and judges. In 1968, the first women went on patrol duty in Indiana, and by the early 1990s half of law school students were females. Legally, many barriers women faced in employment in the criminal justice field have been removed. However, challenges remain — women are substantially under-represented in leadership roles in law enforcement and other criminal justice fields. In some professions, particularly in smaller geographic areas, there are few female applicants and few to no female employees. Women also face hurdles as employees in criminal justice professions.

Our March 2021 CJ Series Event is a panel of women employed in law enforcement, forensics, law, and a tangential but well-connected field, child development; two of these women were the first females to work in their positions. This panel looks at gender issues in employment within the criminal justice system, specifically examining the progress that has been made and the barriers that remain.

Watch the video.

For the past few decades, there has been growth in international criminal justice, in part, because of changes to the structure of the international justice system and also because of greater concern for human rights violations and war crimes within States’ borders. In 1998, a statute was passed that led to the creation of a permanent International Criminal Court. After a relatively brief period of time prioritizing the prosecution of war crimes and legally responding to genocide, international justice seems to be fatiguing, with concerns about the effectiveness, costs, and amount of time taken by the investigations and trials. Are these concerns valid, and what are some of the possible responses?

Ken Scott has spent his career fighting large-scale injustices, from white-collar crime to human rights violations and war crimes. In his last trial at the Yugoslavia Tribunal, he convicted a prime minister, defense minister, two army chiefs of staff, the head of the military police, and another senior government official for war crimes involving ethnic cleansing. After serving for 12 years as a federal prosecutor in Denver, focusing largely on white-collar and environmental crimes, Ken and his family moved to The Hague, where he was a senior prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for 14 years.

Since returning to Denver, he has engaged in wide-ranging human rights and war crimes legal practice, was appointed a UN Commissioner on Human Rights in South Sudan, and continues to act as a special prosecutor at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, also in The Hague. He consults on various projects and engages in training throughout Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.

Join us for this hour-long talk by Ken Scott, followed by a Q&A segment.

Watch the video.

First responders are at the forefront of numerous incidents, including disasters of all kinds. They protect people, animals, and property, while managing challenging and intense situations as they unfold. First responders are in high-risk situations and subjected to multiple forms of trauma. The very nature of first responders’ jobs takes a toll on them—perhaps even more now than in the past given the COVID-19 pandemic, existing racial tensions, and wildfires in the western United States, including several in Colorado.

Our September Criminal Justice Series event focuses on the challenges that first responders face and ways to mitigate the stresses of the job. It also looks at the current environment in the first responders’ world and ways to move forward while managing present difficulties.

Watch the video.

The 2022 Social Equity Series kicks off with a panel discussion of Ibram X. Kendi’s 2019, How To Be An Antiracist that will foreground the series for the Spring semester. This first event will establish as Kendi mentions, “The consistent function of racist ideas and any kind of bigotry more broadly: to manipulate us into seeing people as the problem, instead of the policies that ensnare them.” In a panel consisting of School of Public Affairs faculty, we will have a discussion on what it means to be anti-racist and how anti-racism is necessary for policy discussions.

Watch the video.

The second installation of the School of Public Affairs Social Equity Series will focus on the structures of oppression surrounding child welfare with an emphasis on the pursuit of anti-racism and anti-oppression within this sphere. Panelists will include CU Anschutz assistant professor Dr. Ida Drury and other child welfare practitioners. Participants will be encouraged to ask questions during the event for further discussion.

Watch the video.

The Social Equity Imperative is the first of a multi-event series focused on social equity and social justice, and specifically drawing from the book Achieving Social Equity, edited by School of Public Affairs Professor Mary Guy and PhD alumnus Dr. Sean McCandless. Themes throughout the series include gender, racial, and LBTQ equity and the intersection of identities thereof, and achieving social equity in policy domains and administrative structures, including homelessness, child welfare, policing, and immigration.

View the slideshow that was used during the webinar.

Watch the video.

Hear an in-depth conversation on refugee rights and the decolonization of philanthropy as a part of the School of Public Affairs' Social Equity Series. Topics include the status of refugees today, immigrant inequities, and changing how philanthropy operates. Taking part in the discussion are Dr. Pamela Medina, Assistant Professor of Public Administration and Nonprofit Management at California State University San Bernardino, Jailan Adly, Managing Director at RefuSHE, and Geoffrey Thige, CEO of RefuSHE.

Watch the video.

Join the Accelerated Master of Public Administration cohort for their final event of the year. This webinar will revolve around intersectionality of identity within the context of structural inequality and how intersectionality may affect various aspects of public administration, from the workplace setting to program design and implementation. Our panelists will be Belinda Hearn, People Engaged in Raising Leaders (PERL) Program Coordinator at Boulder County Community Action Partners Division, Dr. Francisca Angulo-Olaiz, Vice President of Strategy, Development, and Community Engagement at Mile High United Way, and Dr. Anthony Starke, assistant professor in the CU Denver School of Public Affairs. The discussion will be moderated by Dr. John Ronquillo, assistant professor of nonprofit and public management at CU Denver School of Public Affairs and co-chair of CU Denver's Equity Task Force.

Watch the video.

 

As Colorado enters a second school year in a pandemic, schools and systems from coast to coast have been forced to figure out how to deliver a high-quality education and effectively address a multitude of student needs all while the nation struggles to fight a deadly disease. Systems were wrestling with many of these difficulties before the pandemic to be sure, but the virus caused a disruption of a different magnitude. 

Superintendents are often said to have an impossible job, and that’s in normal times. Superintendent Rico Munn has led Aurora Public Schools (APS), Colorado’s fifth largest district, since 2013. APS is responsible for the education of more than 40,000 students, who come from more than 130 countries and speak 160 different languages. Nearly half of students speak English as a second language, and over 65 percent qualify for federally subsidized school meals. Although in-person classes have recently resumed, the district’s 65 school buildings were closed for much of the past year, many used for food banks as the district shifted to remote instruction.

Join the CU Denver School of Public Affairs and School of Education and Human Development for an in-depth conversation with Superintendent Munn about school district leadership during the pandemic.

Watch the video.