In his December 2020 commencement address, Colorado Supreme Court Justice Carlos A. Samour, Jr. ’87 told CU Denver graduates to “make a difference,” whether for an individual, for a group, or for society as a whole. Justice Samour, who fled El Savador as a child with his family, encouraged CU Denver’s newest alumni to leave the world a better place than they found it. When student David Olguin graduates in 2022, he plans to do just that.
The Master of Criminal Justice (MCJ) program at the University of Colorado Denver School of Public Affairs has been ranked number 24 in the nation, according to U.S. News & World Report’s Best Online Master’s in Criminal Justice Programs rankings for 2021, placing the program third in Colorado.
President-elect Joe Biden is nominating New York emergency department commissioner Deanne Criswell to serve as the Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator. Criswell, an alum of the Master of Public Administration program at the CU Denver School of Public Affairs, is the first woman nominated to head the agency.
Paul Taylor, an assistant professor in the CU Denver School of Public Affairs, is working with the CU Boulder Community Safety Task Force as an external facilitator to help in increasing accountability, transparency, engagement, and trust between the University of Colorado Boulder Police Department (CUPD) and the broader university community.
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.