Before the arrival of COVID-19, the United States was amid one of its worst public health crises in decades: the opioid epidemic. To those experiencing, treating, and supporting someone with opioid use disorder (OUD), the deadliest pandemic since 1918 couldn’t have come at a crueler time. Dr. William Swann describes his recent research on the opioid pandemic.
Colorado House of Representatives Alec Garnett poses for the portrait at the House chambers of Colorado State Capitol in Denver, Colorado on Thursday. November 12, 2020. Garnett, who is a CU Denver School of Public Affairs alumnus of the Accelerated Master of Public Administration program, will lead 73rd Colorado legislative session as speaker.
On December 4, the CU Denver School of Public Affairs hosted its First Friday event centered around how governments are changing to meet the needs of our time, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Comprised of experts from state, city, and county governments in Colorado, the panel took a deep dive into the pivots that organizations have made during the tumultuous year of 2020, what processes would continue, and their hopes for the future.
On October 6, the CU Denver School of Public Affairs hosted its second virtual First Friday on the topic of What Are We Voting On? Joined by an expert panel, the event was moderated by Paul Teske, Dean of the School of Public Affairs. The panelists were Michael Fields, Executive Director of Colorado Rising Action; Lynea Hansen, Senior Vice President of Strategies 360; and Andrew Kenney, Public Affairs Reporter for Colorado Public Radio. The discussion covered a range of topics from the upcoming presidential election to the state and local ballot amendments and proposals.
Colorado’s nine Democratic presidential electors cast their votes for Joe Biden at the state Capitol on Monday. First-time elector Alan Kennedy, an attorney and doctoral student at the CU Denver School of Public Affairs, said he hoped Monday’s nationwide vote brings acceptance of Biden’s presidential victory.
Over the past fall semester, the CU Boulder Community Safety Task Force has continued its work to forge new paths and bring forth recommendations to increase accountability, transparency, engagement and trust between the University of Colorado Boulder Police Department and the broader university community. Paul Taylor, an assistant professor in the CU Denver School of Public Affairs and the task force’s external facilitator, said members are on track to deliver actionable recommendations to campus leaders.
On November 6, the CU Denver School of Public Affairs hosted What happened in our elections?, its third installment of the First Fridays virtual event series, to unpack a range of topics from the presidential election (which had not yet been called at the time of the event) to the state and local ballot results. Moderator Paul Teske, Dean of the School of Public Affairs, was joined by Saja Hindi, reporter for The Denver Post; Mike Littwin, columnist for The Colorado Sun; and Sean Walsh, election consultant for Sean Walsh Consulting.
This op-ed was written by the Risk & Social Policy Working Group, an interdisciplinary team of scholars formed to study risk messaging and public policy during the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Deserai Crow of the CU Denver School of Public Affairs is part of the working group.
November is Native American Heritage Month, which is also the month many people in the United States celebrate Thanksgiving. While it’s tempting to ignore history and focus on the benign, familiar archetypes of Pilgrims and Indians, the reality for Indigenous Peoples is far more complex. At CU Denver, Native student Queana Maher, students from the Native American Student Organization (NASO), and Professor John Ronquillo, PhD, co-chair of the university’s new Equity Task Force, discussed what Native American Heritage Month means to them.
Failure to recognize and appreciate that Americans are not all of the same culture undermines public service values and service delivery, something that the COVID-19 pandemic highlights. While federal agencies and contractors were recently banned by a presidential executive order from offering “divisive” and “un-American” anti-racism training, it is difficult not to see the value of learning to understand and adapt to cultural contexts. Cultural intelligence, or CQ, manifests respect and dignity for all while fostering fairness and equity. Thus, public administrators must seek opportunities for themselves and their teams to develop capabilities to function and manage in culturally diverse settings. Recognizing United States public administrators and the constituents they serve indeed reflect cultural diversity, and should, is paramount.
On March 6, the School of Public Affairs hosted a diverse and expert panel of creative individuals to share their thoughts on how the arts can and do strengthen Denver’s communities. The event, "The Arts as Catalyst in Strengthening Denver’s Communities," part of the CU Denver School of Public Affairs First Friday Breakfast Series, was moderated by Dr. Jane Hansberry, an Associate Professor, Clinical Teaching Track, at the school.
The School of Public Affairs Economic Development class has been credited by communities for providing an important service at this time of need. Read about how students and partners Downtown Colorado Inc. helped two Southern Colorado communities -- Cañon City and Rocky Ford -- adapt and help their small businesses, youth, and residents stay hopeful.
Two CU Denver School of Public Affairs students are among this year’s recipients: Public Service student David Olguin (featured at timestamp 3:22 in the video) and Criminal Justice student Sinead (Kalin) Mooney (featured at timestamp 3:42).
In a new research paper published in Police Quarterly, University of Colorado Denver School of Public Affairs Assistant Professor Paul Taylor found officers can significantly improve shoot/no-shoot decisions by simply lowering the position of their firearm.
Barbara Paradiso, director of the Center on Domestic Violence in CU Denver’s School of Public Affairs, speaks to CU Denver News about the connection between coronavirus and domestic violence.
Winners from the CU Denver School of Public Affairs are Associate Professor Todd Ely, with his project titled “Understanding and Leveraging Philanthropic Foundations in Colorado’s Urban Areas,” and Scholar in Residence Dr. Serena Kim, with her project titled “Integrated Solar Energy for Sustainable, Resilient, and Equitable Communities.”
Professor Chris Weible and PhD student Jill Yordy discuss a faltering U.S. democracy in the face of a calamitous combination of crises in the pandemic, economy, climate change, and social inequities. They offer four guiding principles for bringing
political equality into societal discourse, developing tools and techniques for its assessments, and fostering better theories of our understandings and practices for its emergence, realization, and maintenance.