Sept. 4, 2018 • By Sue Postema Scheeres

The CU Boulder Outreach Committee is pleased to announce that 34 faculty-led projects have been selected to receive CU Boulder Outreach Awards for 2018–19.

These projects represent every college and school and will impact nearly 19,500 Coloradans through innovative pre-K-12 programs, community-based initiatives, legal assistance, STEM education and more. Funding for the projects this year totals $460,000, and comes from the Office of the Chancellor, Office of the Provost and the Division of Continuing Education. 

“These projects are essential and add value to higher education, exemplifying CU Boulder’s role as a comprehensive public research university,” said Sara Thompson, dean of continuing education and vice provost for outreach and engagement.

“They also align with Continuing Education’s mission of providing high-quality, innovative lifelong learning opportunities to diverse populations by extending the educational resources of the university,” she said.

The CU Boulder Outreach Committee, composed of faculty and staff members across many disciplines, oversees the award process. Since 1999, the committee has selected 774 projects and awarded $5.5 million to projects benefitting communities throughout Colorado and beyond. The Office for Outreach and Engagement, a unit within Continuing Education, administers the awards.

These projects represent a portion of the outreach work involving faculty and staff. Currently, there are about 230 programs that connect faculty, teaching and teaching with communities in Colorado and beyond.

The following list details 2018–19 projects by college or program funded through the Outreach Awards:

College of Arts and Sciences

Attention, Behavior, and Learning Clinic: Affordable Childhood Evaluations 
Professor Erik Willcutt and Research Associate Nomita Chhabildas 
Department of Psychology and Neuroscience 

Brain Behavior Clinic and Boulder County Homelessness
Associate Clinical Professor Emily Richardson 
Department of Psychology and Neuroscience 

CU Contemporary Dance Works Residency Tour 
Professor Nada Diachenko, Professor Michelle Ellsworth, Assistant Professor Helanius Wilkins, Community Engagement Coordinator Peg Posnick 
Department of Theatre & Dance

Co-Designing an Early Education Program for Children Birth to Three 
Associate Professor Eliana Colunga
Department of Psychology and Neuroscience 

CU-STARs: CU Science, Technology and Astronomy Recruits 
Associate Professor Erica Ellingson
Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences

Educating Prisoners in an Era of Mass Incarceration
Professor Joanne Belknap
Department of Ethnic Studies

Empowering Families Through Museum Exhibits on Child Development 
Professor Yuko Munakata 
Department of Psychology and Neuroscience 

Literacy Practicum
Associate Professor Kira Hall
Department of Linguistics 

RDS Center: Reaching Out to People with Bipolar Research
Associate Alisha Brosse and Adjunct Professor David Miklowitz 
Department of Psychology and Neuroscience

Working with Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Children with Communication Disorders
Associate Professor Pui Fong Kan and Clinical Assistant Professor Amy Thrasher
Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences

Leeds School of Business

CU Boulder Volunteer Income Tax Assistance
Senior Instructor and Teaching Professor Susan Morley

Graduate School

Collaborative Community Resilience for Heat Mitigation Through Trees
Research Associate Alana Wilson, Lecturer Mehdi Heris
Program in Environmental Design

Colombian Displaced Communities: Planning and Urban Design Seminar
Assistant Professor Jota Samper
Program in Environmental Design

School of Law

The Acequia Project: Helping San Luis Valley Farmers
Professor Sarah Krakoff

Constitutional Literacy in Colorado High Schools 
Professor Melissa Hart

The Korey Wise Innocence Project
Professor Ann England
Director Kristy Martinez, Korey Wise Innocence Project

College of Music

Middle School Ensembles Program
Assistant Professor David Rickels, Assistant Professor Leila Heil and Associate Professor Margaret Berg

Piano for Dreamers 
Professor Alejandro Cremaschi

Research Institutes

Building Science Communication Skills Through Improvisational Theater
Research Associate Megan Littrell-Baez and Director Anne Gold
CIRES Education and Outreach

Girls at the Museum Exploring Science (GAMES) 
Assistant Professor Jingchun Li, CU Museum of Natural History and Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Education Coordinator Cathy Regan, CU Museum of Natural History 

Interpretive Nature Trails at the Mountain Research Station
Professor William Bowman, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Director, Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR) Mountain Research Station 
Education and Outreach Coordinator Alex Rose, INSTAAR and CU Science Discovery
Station Manager Kris Hess, INSTAAR Mountain Research Station

Restoration Ecology: A Youth and Inclusiveness Outreach Activity
Professor Tim Seastedt
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR)

Interdisciplinary and Faculty Group Awards

AQIQ: Air Quality Inquiry Projects in Rural Schools
Program Assessment and Research Associate Daniel Knight and Associate Professor Michael Hannigan, Department of Mechanical Engineering
Associate Dean Joseph Polman, School of Education 

Building Post-Disaster Resilience: ICT-Enabled Mental Health Support Service
Professor Bernard Amadei, Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering
Instructor Annie Bruns, ATLAS Institute

Communities Code: Engaging Underrepresented Youth in Creative Computing 
Associate Professor Eliana Colunga, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience 
Assistant Professor Ricarose Roque, College of Media, Communication and Information
Director Stacey Forsyth, CU Science Discovery

Community-Building Facilitated Dialogues with Boulder Manufactured Home Communities 
Senior Instructor and Program Director Karen Ramirez, CU Dialogues
Professor Michele S. Moses, School of Education
Community Partnerships Director Manuela Sifuentes, CU Engage
Research Associate Ashmi Desai and Assistant Director for Coordination and Outreach Pilar Prostko, CU Dialogues

Empowering Neighboring Communities to Mitigate I-70 Construction Impacts
Professor Shivakant Mishra, Department of Computer Science
Professor Shelly Miller, Department of Mechanical Engineering and Environmental Engineering Program

Expanding Multicultural Awareness in Colorado Classrooms
Distinguished Professor Emerita Marjorie McIntosh, Department of History
Senior Instructor Kent Willmann, School of Education
Associate Professor Arturo Aldama, Department of Ethnic Studies

Indigenous Connections at Rocky Mountain National Park
Professor Patricia Limerick and Research Associate Brooke Neely, Center of the American West
Assistant Professor Angelica Lawson, Center for Native American and Indigenous Studies
Assistant Professor Clint Carroll, Department of Ethnic Studies and Center for Native American and Indigenous Studies
Professor Andrew Cowell, Linguistics and Center for Native American and Indigenous Studies

Make 3D Books with Locals for Families Worldwide  
Assistant Professor Tom Yeh, Department of Computer Science 
Associate Professor Bridget Dalton, School of Education
Director Stacey Forsyth, CU Science Discovery

Partnership for Action-Oriented Climate Change Education
Associate Professor A. Susan Jurow, School of Education 
Director of Education and Outreach Anne Gold, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES)
Instructor Jeffrey Writer, School of Education and Environmental Engineering Program
Associate Professor Erin Furtak, School of Education

A Pilot Colorado-Brazil Program on Sustainable Development Education
Professor Bernard Amadei, Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering
Dean S. James Anaya, Colorado Law
Assistant Professor Peter Newton, Environmental Studies Program

Reconnecting the Public to Solar Physics through Magnetism
Director John Keller, Fiske Planetarium and Senior Instructor, Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences (APS) 
Assistant Professor Adam Kowalski, Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences (APS) and National Solar Observatory (NSO)
Lecturer Wayne Seltzer, ATLAS Institute / College of Engineering and Applied Science
Education and Public Outreach Specialist Bryan Costanza, Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP)

Shakespeare and Violence Prevention in Schools 
Senior Research Associate Beverly Kingston and Research Assistant Laurie Keith, Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence 
Assistant Professor Kevin Rich and Associate Professor Tamara Meneghini, Department of Theatre & Dance
Outreach Director Amanda Giguere and Outreach Coordinator Heidi Schmidt, Colorado Shakespeare Festival