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Briefs Summer 2020

Reps. Singer and Jaquez Lewis host Town Hall for College Students About Education and COVID-19
Colorado Representatives Jonathan Singer (D-Longmont) and Sonya Jaquez Lewis (D-Longmont) hosted a virtual townhall April 14 on Facebook to share COVID-19 impacts on higher education. Special thanks to CU Regent Jack Kroll, CU Boulder Chancellor Phil DiStefano and CU Boulder CU Student Government (CUSG) Tri-Executive Ryan Passas and Legislative President Sarah Altshuler for participating as panelists at the event, along with Colorado Department of Higher Education (CDHE) executive director Angie Paccione. The town hall provided a great opportunity to hear from CU leadership as well as students about all of the actions being taken to protect our students health and wellness, while continuing to provide access to education. Read more in CU Boulder Today

Lee Newman, MD of CU School of Medicine Hill Meetings
Dr. Lee Newman, Director of the Center for Health, Work and the Environment (CHWE) and Stephen Reynolds, PhD, Director of the High Plains Intermountain Center for Agricultural Health and Safety of Colorado State University (CSU), met with congressional staffers from Colorado and throughout the Mountain West region on February 5. The meetings were focused on the importance of funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety (NIOSH). NIOSH grant funding supports three centers between CU and CSU that collaborate closely within the Colorado School of Public Health to conduct research on occupational health and safety, train new specialists in the field, and partner with employers to solve real-world problems for the employees.

Vice Chancellor of Research Thomas Flaig Hill Meetings
Dr. Thomas Flaig, Vice Chancellor for Research for the CU Denver and Anschutz Medical Campus, met with the Colorado congressional delegation on February 25 to highlight important research efforts underway on the campuses and discuss the university’s support for federal programs that fund science and training programs on our campuses. Dr. Flaig gave the delegation an update on Colorado Center for Personalized Medicine (CCPM)’s biobank, which now has data on nearly 125,000 patients throughout Colorado and the Rocky Mountain region. He also discussed progress on developing novel CAR-T immunotherapy treatments on campus.

CU Boulder Space Grant Hill Meetings
Chris Koehler, Director of the Colorado Space Grant Consortium (COSGC), joined Barb Sobhani, Honors Program Director at Red Rocks Community College, and students from both Red Rocks and Arapahoe Community College to take part in the National Space Grant meetings in Washington, DC. While there, the group also participated in the NASA Space Grant 30th Anniversary Exhibition. The federal team arranged meetings for the group with staff from each office of the Colorado congressional delegation to discuss the work that COSGC does in the state.

Chris Koehler (Director, COSGC), Barb Sobhani (Red Rocks CC) and students from Red Rocks and Arapahoe Community College outside the office of Congressman Joe Neguse

Chris Koehler (Director, COSGC), Barb Sobhani (Red Rocks CC) and students from Red Rocks and Arapahoe Community College outside the office of Congressman Joe Neguse

Colorado Space Grant Consortium (COSGC)

CU Boulder North Central Climate Adaptation Science Center Hill Meetings
On February 25 and 27, Jennifer Balch, Director of the North Central Climate Adaptation Science Center (NC CASC) and Director of CU Boulder’s Earth Lab, met with congressional offices from Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, and North Dakota to discuss the U.S. Geological Survey’s CASC network, which partners with natural and cultural resource managers to provide the scientific information needed to help fish, wildlife, ecosystems, and the communities they support adapt to the impacts of a changing climate. Balch also expressed support for the Joint Fire Science Research Program, supported by the U.S. Department of the Interior and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service.

CU Boulder Institute of Behavioral Science Hill Meetings
On February 25, Myron Gutmann, Director of CU Boulder’s Institute of Behavioral Science (IBS), participated in meetings to help inform congressional efforts to reauthorize the National Science Foundation (NSF). Gutmann met with the offices of Senator Gardner and Congressman Perlmutter, who serve on the committees of jurisdiction, as well as a bipartisan group of House Science Committee staff. In addition, Gutmann met with new leadership at the NSF to offer his assistance on issues of interest to the agency. Gutmann served as Assistant Director at NSF from 2009 to 2013, leading the agency’s Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences Directorate.

CU President Kennedy Establishes CU National Security Advisory Group
CU President Kennedy convened faculty experts from all four campuses to discuss CU’s critical role within national security research on May 5. By leveraging CU’s strengths in space, cybersecurity, medicine and other key national security-focused areas, CU’s National Security Advisory Group will bring expertise from across the CU System together to identify existing strengths and foster enhanced collaboration on current and future national security-related initiatives. This group will advise President Kennedy on critical national security research and will work closely with the Office of Government Relations to identify advocacy opportunities at the federal level.

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