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.”
As more organizations increasingly recognize the need to move beyond solidarity statements and into the work of creating more equitable policies and cultures in their workplaces, the CU Denver School of Public Affairs dedicated its inaugural First Fridays event for the 2020-21 academic year to this topic. The virtual event, Leading Towards Equity: Stories of Organizational Change, held on Sept. 11, brought together panelists who have been doing this organizational work for some time.
By studying 488 public airports in the United States, University of Colorado Denver School of Public Affairs researcher Serena Kim, PhD, found that 20% of them have adopted solar photovoltaic (PV), commonly known as solar panels, over the last decade.
When MPA alumna Monica Caballeros (MPA ’20) went looking for a capstone project, her focus was on public health and reproductive rights. Caballeros, who is the PR and Communications Director for Connect for Health Colorado, is passionate about equitable access to healthcare. However, when she could not find a good fit in her field, she turned to the school’s list of sourced capstone projects. She found a powerful partnership with the Center for Community Wealth Building that allowed her to look at issues of equity through a lens of economic development.
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.