Aug 21, 2023 by Ellen Patterson

The School of Public Affairs recently had the honor of sitting down with a unique trio of alumni – Elsa Holguín (MPA '11), her husband Ed Lucero (MPA '98), and her daughter Denise Gomez (MPA '16) – a multi-generational example of the impact of SPA’s programs in the greater community.

Jul 19, 2023

Kristin Wegner Guilfoyle works at the intersection of technology, environment, and society. She currently leads networks at the Joint Institute for Strategic Energy Analysis (JISEA), at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

Jul 7, 2023

Greg LeBlanc joined the Town of Snowmass Village in March of 2022 after serving for five years with the City of Grand Junction, Colorado. Prior positions include serving Boulder County, Colorado and the City and County of Denver. He holds a bachelor’s degree in environmental biology (Ecology) from Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado, and a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Colorado Denver.

Jun 29, 2023

Tony Frank is the Director of Business Development for PCs for People. He is based in the Denver office where he develops partnerships with businesses, government agencies, nonprofits, affordable housing organizations, schools, and other community groups to ensure PCs for People is maximizing the impact of providing affordable computers and low-cost internet across Colorado. He holds a Master of Public Administration with a Local Government Policy concentration from the University of Colorado Denver School of Public Affairs.

Jun 23, 2023

Melinda Pollack, Managing Director at Blue Meridian Partners, provides strategic and executional leadership on critical business priorities and leads innovation efforts which will expand Blue Meridian’s work as it evolves. She explores new philanthropic investment opportunities, leads due diligence on potential Blue Meridian investees, and manages relationships with current investees, with a focus on Place Matters. Melinda earned a BA at George Washington University and an MPA from the University of Colorado, Denver.

Jun 14, 2023

Carol was raised in a military family - spending formative years moving between England, Arizona, Mississippi, Turkey, New Jersey, Hawaii, and then Missouri - where her family has its roots. Her educational and career path wandered as well, from a degree in Antiquities and New World Archeology that led from “shovel bum” to managing a bookstore, to undergraduate and graduate degrees in English that led to teaching in Montana, a Native American village in Alaska, and international schools in Pakistan and the Czech Republic. The move to Colorado from Prague was a turning point in Carol’s life, followed by walking into a prison classroom as a GED teacher. Twenty-four years later, Carol’s work remains related to that first prison experience. Carol credits her SPA education for providing her with a public policy lens for her work in re-entry and its role in the public safety sphere.

Jun 7, 2023

Anneliese Steel is the Senior Director of Public Affairs for Colorado Concern, an executive alliance committed to protecting and enhancing the Centennial state's business economy. She manages a robust policy portfolio, including issue research, legislative drafting, lobbying, and public testimony, along with member and media relations. She helped champion the successful passage of $5.3 billion dollars in funding for the 10-Year Transportation Plan, secure over $700 million in property tax relief, achieve substantial occupational licensing reform, and create a new rulemaking transparency website for the state of Colorado.

Apr 25, 2023 by Toula Wellbrook

U.S. News & World Report today released its 2024 Best Graduate Schools Rankings, in which the University of Colorado Denver School of Public Affairs is ranked number 28 in the nation overall for public affairs programs, alongside Johns Hopkins University, Rutgers University – Newark, and Texas A&M University – College Station, up one position from the 2023 rankings.

Mar 27, 2023

Mar 14, 2023

Mar 20, 2023

Democracy was in focus at CU Denver when Nobel Peace Prize recipient Dmitry Muratov recently visited the campus on a blustery Colorado Tuesday. The all-day event was hosted by the School of Public Affairs (SPA) and coincided with the school’s 50th anniversary, the launch of the Center on Policy and Democracy, and the newly re-energized Herrick Roth Lecture Series on Democracy. Students, alumni, faculty, staff, and members of the community gathered to hear the Russian journalist speak on topics like the role independent media, higher education, and world citizens play in creating peace and sustaining democracy.

Mar 20, 2023

Master of Public Policy (MPP) student Nico Arizaga has commenced work on establishing a student association for the MPP program. The Master of Public Policy Student Association (MPPSA) works to create community, opportunity, and networks for new and seasoned MPP students alike.

Mar 20, 2023

The Herrick Roth Community Seminars on Democracy hosted a lunch event on March 10 on media and democracy. The event was moderated by Melissa Davis and Corey Hutchins of the Colorado Media Project and featured panelists: Kyle Clark, Anchor & Managing Editor, 9News; Andrew Villegas, News Director, Colorado Public Radio; Elizabeth Green, Founder & CEO, Chalkbeat and Co-author of “The Roadmap for Local News;” and Jesus Sanchez, Publisher & Editor, El Comercio de Colorado.

Mar 20, 2023

The Center for Policy and Democracy has partnered with Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic on a project utilizing the Policy Conflict Framework to assess issues in a range of policy realms. They plan to present their work at the European Consortium for Political Research Annual Conference in Prague in September.

Mar 20, 2023

​Professor Chris Weible has become a member of the Stakeholder Advisor Board for a project funded by the European Commission entitled “Reignite Multilateralism via Technology” (REMIT) to strengthen European Union’s role in global governance. The project is coordinated by Dr. Roberta Haar at the University College Maastricht, the Netherlands.

Mar 20, 2023

Professor Chris Weible has been appointed Visiting Professor with the Political Science unit in the Department of Social Sciences, Technology, and Arts at Luleå University of Technology (LTU), Sweden. The role involves collaborating with LTU faculty and students on projects and building tighter bonds with CU Denver.

Mar 20, 2023

Several Center for Policy and Democracy students will be presenting at the Midwest Political Science Association Annual Conference in Chicago, IL from April 13-16. Emma Scheetz is presenting her work on about emotions and coalition formation on a renewable transmission line. Kayla Gabehart is presenting some of her dissertation work in a presentation titled: “Colorado’s “MeatOut”: An Examination of Executive Branch Policymaking, Rural Exclusion, and Culture and Identity as Policy Core Beliefs.” Anna Crawford is presenting her work on coalitions and abortion policy.

Mar 20, 2023

PhD student Allegra Fullerton is presenting work at the Western Political Science Association Annual Conference in San Francisco, CA from April 6-8. Her presentation, based on work co-authored with Chris Weible, is titled: “Linking emotional expressions to beliefs in gender policy. A case study of gender affirming care policies in Arkansas using Emotional Expression Belief Analysis and the Advocacy Coalition Framework.”

Mar 16, 2023 by Toula Wellbrook

The new Center for Community Safety and Resilience (CCSR), housed at the School of Public Affairs at CU Denver, hosted an event to disseminate the findings of a recently produced report on crime rates in Colorado from 2010 to 2021. The report co-authors are School of Public Affairs faculty Professor and CU Regent Callie Rennison and Dr. Sheila Huss, clinical assistant professor and interim co-director of the CCSR.

Mar 8, 2023

If you were at student in the Denver Public Schools between 2008 and 2019, you may not have realized it at the time, but you were likely benefiting from the most comprehensive and effective education reform initiative in the history of the United States.