COLORADOINFLECTIONPOINT

Thanks for coming here to read today. This site is meant to help illuminate Colorado and Denver policy issues and politics. My unique perspective (beyond that of journalists and ideological policy websites) is to bring academic ideas and perspectives to bear on our current issues and events.

While “inflection point” is perhaps overused today, I like it, and it suggests interesting future directions. Presently the nation is probably more at an inflection point than our state. But Colorado will play a critical role going forward.

Briefly, about me. I am a University of Colorado Distinguished Professor of Public Affairs, the first Distinguished Professor CU ever designated on the downtown CU Denver campus (in 2008). I’ve written, co-authored or edited 8 books, 75 articles and book chapters, and earned over $5 million in research grant funding. I won the 2005 national research award from the 300 university member group Network of Schools of Public Affairs and Policy (NASPAA).

I am also the former Dean of the CU Denver School of Public Affairs (or “SPA,” a role I held for 17 years, until July 2025), and a lifelong policy nerd.

I have lived in Denver since 2003. Prior to that, I lived on the east coast, where humidity is a real thing (as I am reminded when I return for visits). I grew up in the ex-urban NYC area (Hudson Valley, Fishkill to be precise). I lived in Chapel Hill, NC for college, Princeton NJ for an MPA and PhD degree, and then in Manhattan and Brooklyn NYC. I was a faculty member at Stony Brook University (SUNY) for 15 years. I actually lived in NYC for 20 years, and so I perceive Denver not so much as a big city, but as an emerging important one.

Intellectually, I have always been fascinated by how the intersection of economics and politics plays out in state and local policy arenas. My own political inclinations are left and center/left, but I try to keep a fairly objective lens on issues. So, while we have to keep in mind economic efficiency as we assess policies, equity is also an hugely important value. And, I think markets do amazing things for economies, but they also need to be tempered by smart government policy, to address areas where they sometimes “fail” to deliver appropriate outcomes. To me, this is not a “slippery slope” or “one or the other” - as markets and governments can and do co-exist together effectively, in the US and really in all other nations (though in varying proportions). How politics works and how it shapes good, or bad, policies is also a key part of the stories here.

Beyond the academy in Colorado, I have had several fun and exciting opportunities to engage in important real-world policy activities. I was an academic partner with DPS leadership’s widespread reforms in the 2000s and 2010s. I was appointed by Governor Ritter to his P20 education commission, and by Governor Hickenlooper as one of 3 Coloradans to the (then federally-funded) Regional Education Lab (REL). I have been the founding academic partner for CiviCO’s Governors Fellows program for a decade. In terms of other nonprofit activities, I chaired the Catapult Schools board (aka, Get Smart Schools), for training charter school leaders. I was on the board of Great Education Colorado, to advocate for more resources for K12 and higher education. I currently serve on the Policy and Advocacy Board of the Rose Community Foundation. I have been quoted, or my research presented, in the Denver Post, Rocky Mountain News, CPR, Colorado Sun, Denverite, Axios Denver, Chalkbeat, PBS12, and other local and national media outlets.

Generally, I believe Colorado does many many things well politically, and in our policies, but that we are absurdly constrained at the state level by TABOR. I have mixed feelings about all of the ballot initiatives that we vote upon each fall.

While my writing here will mostly be about Colorado politics and policy, I will also bring my political economy perspective to some national issues, current events, occasionally sports, music and popular culture, and other related topics of interest.

Opinions expressed here are my own.