At both the local and state level, School of Public Affairs alumni have been instrumental in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. Scott Bookman (MPA '15), Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment incident commander for COVID-19, and Geoff Butler (MPA '19), Battalion Chief, Poudre Valley Fire Authority, recently took some time to answer questions about their current roles addressing COVID-19 and how they have grown as leaders dealing with the challenges posed by the pandemic.
This year has been like no other in recent history, and issues of social inequity are front and center in the hearts, minds and consciences of many Americans, amidst a pandemic and protests against police violence toward people of color. The timing of the new textbook, “Achieving Social Equity: From Problems to Solutions,” co-written and edited by Mary Guy, professor of Public Affairs at the CU Denver School of Public Affairs, and alumnus Sean McCandless, assistant professor at the University of Illinois – Springfield, could not be better.
The COVID-19 Pandemic struck the world in early 2020 and resulted in a shutdown of the state of Colorado on March 25, 2020. The stay-at-home order not only impacted the University of Colorado Denver, but dramatically affected retail businesses, restaurants, community events, and other vital main street institutions that drive the economy of our state. A cross-section of these impacts comes into play when Randy Harrison’s ‘Economic Development’ class (PUAD 5630) and its partners Downtown Colorado, Inc. (DCI) shifted their work with five Colorado communities entirely online and helped transition these communities into the recovery process.
Jongeun You, who is pursuing a doctoral degree in public affairs at the CU Denver School of Public Affairs, recently had his article “Lessons from South Korea’s Covid-19 Policy Response”published in The American Review of Public Administration. Jongeun reviewed South Korea’s public health policy approaches, by using documents and materials written in Korean and English, to learn how the country managed the coronavirus from January through April 2020. In the article, he proposes some lessons about country-level responses in South Korea that can potentially be applied in other contexts. We interviewed Jongeun to learn more about his research in this area.
Dr. Deserai Crow shares her thoughts on the positive effects of nature on physical and mental health during a pandemic, as well as inequities in access to nature.
On May 21, the CU Denver School of Public Affairs hosted its second COVID-19-focused webinar, this time focusing on the fiscal implications of the pandemic on state and local governments. The webinar featured Drs. Todd Ely, Christine Martell and Geoffrey Propheter, a few of the school’s experts on public finance. Dean Paul Teske moderated the discussion.