Community Engagement Week

Community Engagement Week Re-cap: Celebrating 150 years of Service and Engagement

Arielle Wiedenbeck — Wed, 25 Feb 2026 20:42:57 +0000

Community Engagement Week Re-cap: Celebrating 150 years of Service and Engagement Arielle Wiedenbeck Wed, 02/25/2026 - 13:42

Madeline Brant , Gretchen Minekime

The first month of �� Boulder’s sesquicentennial year was the perfect time to host the campus’s inaugural Community Engagement Week. Produced by the Office for Public and Community-Engaged Scholarship (PACES),the late-January event brought together a cross-section of faculty, staff and students passionate about partnering with communities beyond campus.

Through panels, workshops and a poster showcase, attendees shared experiences, networked and built their knowledge and skills for conducting community engagement. They also learned about the university’s history and a long-standing charge “to render to the state at large such public service as may lie within its power.”

According to David Meens, assistant vice chancellor for public and community-engaged scholarship, “Events like this give us a chance to see that bigger picture of service and engagement, to see our role within it. It’s great for morale and for making new connections. A lot of folks I spoke with said they learned of activities they weren’t aware of and made connections that might lead to new collaborations.”

Senior Vice Chancellor for Strategic Initiatives Ann Schmiesing set the week’s tone by detailing the historical, current and future priorities for community engagement at �� Boulder. Schmiesing described the newly instated“hub and spoke” model the campus will follow and emphasized the importance of forming collaborative partnerships across Colorado and within the university. She also celebrated �� Boulder’s first-time application and attainment of the Carnegie Elective Classification for Community Engagement.

Marisol Morales, executive director of Carnegie Elective Classifications, attended to celebrate �� Boulder’s accomplishment and to speak on a panel alongside Colorado State Senator Iman Jodeh and Diane Doberneck, director for faculty and professional development at the Office for Public Engagement and Scholarship at Michigan State University. Moderated by David Humphrey, associate vice chancellor for leadership support and programming, the panel addressed the civic role of universities and what it means to step out and lead.

Attendees reported being deeply inspired by presentations from Max Boykoff, Jota Samper, Valeria Henao, Beth Osnes-Stoedefalke and Karla Trujillo, as well as by the 42 showcase presenters whose work spans from engineering education for rural K-12 students to music research. Workshops were hosted on days two and three, with sessions led by Doberneck and Patti Clayton, senior scholar at the Institute for Community and Economic Engagement at University of North Carolina Greensboro.

The workshops provided a forum for individuals with diverse experiences in community-engaged scholarship specifically to share their work and to reflect on how context shapes approaches to engaged-research, teachingand creative work. Both Doberneck and Clayton emphasized the importance of honoring community partners, co-designing engagement activities and fostering trust and mutual respect. �� Boulder’s own Michelle Renée Valladares led a workshop about funding community-engaged scholarship and will build on that content with additional offerings on March 10 and April 14.

Community Engagement Week’s closing event punctuated the importance of reflecting on the university's past as we move forward. Meens was joined by Richard B. Williams, president of People of the Sacred Land; Patty Limerick, professor of history; and Gregor McGregor, professor of environmental studies, for a presentation and panel titled Land Grants, Extension Service and Institutional Amnesia: The University of Colorado’s Forgotten Origins and Possible Futures.

“Most of us know that the land the Boulder campus sits upon was made available through the dispossession of Indigenous Peoples. What many do not know is that, through the 1875 Enabling Act that authorized Colorado statehood, "the State University” (��) also received 72 sections of land that were taken from tribal nations and likely scattered throughout the West. The leasing or sale of these sections provided critical financial support in the early decades of the university. This forgotten aspect of our origins underscores our obligation not just to the residents of Colorado but also the Native Americans whose mistreatment is intertwined with our legacies of transformative research, education and service.”

Community Engagement Week was made possible with support from various partners and sponsors, including Chancellor Justin Schwartz; Senior Vice Chancellor for Strategic Initiatives Ann Schmiesing; Outreach and Community Engagement; Division of Continuing Education; Office of Faculty Affairs; Research and Innovation Office; Center for Teaching and Learning; and Service Learning and Impact in Community Engagement.

PACES is part of Outreach and Community Engagement in the Chancellor’s Office. Visit colorado.edu/paces for more information about resources available for engaged scholars at �� Boulder.

Through panels, workshops and a poster showcase, attendees of �� Boulder's first ever Community Engagement Week shared experiences, networked and built their knowledge and skills for conducting community engagement.

Off

Traditional

White

A University for All of Colorado, A Resource for the World: Outreach and Community Engagement at �� Boulder Today

Arielle Wiedenbeck — Tue, 24 Feb 2026 22:44:16 +0000

A University for All of Colorado, A Resource for the World: Outreach and Community Engagement at �� Boulder Today Arielle Wiedenbeck Tue, 02/24/2026 - 15:44

Remarks by Ann Schmiesing, senior vice chancellor for strategic initiatives.

Jan. 27, 2026

Good evening, everyone. As we approach �� Boulder's 150th anniversary, we're at a transformative moment. Tonight marks the launch of our first-ever Community Engagement Week. It's a perfect time to reflect on where we've been, celebrate where we are, and envision where we're headed.

Before I begin, I want to acknowledge the foundation we stand on today—built over decades by faculty, staff, students, and community partners, so many of you in this room, who understood that our university's strength is measured not just by what happens within our campus, but by how we engage and learn alongside the many communities we serve. Your vision, dedication, and relationship-building made tonight possible. Thank you for joining us and for all you've done to bring us to this moment.

Now, let me share how �� Boulder is becoming a next-generation public flagship university. One that demonstrates national prestige and deep local engagement aren't in conflict, that they strengthen each other. And one that advances Chancellor Schwartz's vision that excellence isn't just an aspiration—it's an expectation we should meet through our community partnerships every day.

Part I: Our Legacy of Service

Our story begins in 1876. �� was founded through local philanthropy, state support, and federal land grants. The state constitution gave us a clear mandate. We were to serve all Colorado residents through education both practical and liberal, as well as through research and civic responsibility. This was our covenant with Colorado.

But today’s popular histories, which typically focus on competition among Colorado towns to host the university, and the powerful commitment of residents ofBoulder, miss a critical piece of the story. None of this could have been, had not the Enabling Act of 1875 allocated 43,000 acres of federal land to be leased or sold to support the State University. These lands, scattered across the U.S., had been taken from Indigenous peoples. Boulder itself was home to the Cheyenne, Arapaho, Ute, and other nations who were forcibly removed. We aren't a Morrill Act land-grant institution like CSU. But we are beneficiaries of federal lands taken through dispossession.

On Thursday evening in the UMC Aspen Rooms, we'll examine this history together. We'll explore our responsibilities to Indigenous peoples and all Coloradans, as well as how these land-grant origins informed the university’s public service mission. This conversation is essential. True engagement frequently requires facing uncomfortable truths. Please join us.

Through much of the 20th century, �� Extension did unique work, with a concentration on building civic infrastructure. We helped establish the Colorado Municipal League. Our faculty assisted communities with developing governance structures. This work shaped local government throughout the West. We supported chambers of commerce. We assisted health clinics and strengthened schools statewide. The community college system, with its first campuses in Trinidad and Grand Junction, was established with support of �� Extension.

In 1970, �� Extension was renamed Continuing Education. Three years later, state funding for �� Boulder outreach ended.

Meanwhile, in the decades after World War II �� Boulder became a major research university. We gained global recognition for breakthrough discoveries and world-changing technologies. But some Colorado communities wondered if we'd forgotten our founding purpose.

By the 2000s, many campus and community leaders concluded that we needed to reconnect. In 2007, the Flagship 2030 Strategic Plan called for renewed public service. In 2018, the Academic Futures plan elevated engaged scholarship as central to our identity. We declared that research excellence and public engagement work together, not against each other. For the past couple of decades, we have labored to create a new model for aligning our excellence as a national research institution with global reach and our responsibility to directly serve the residents of Colorado.

Part II: Where We Stand Today

This year brought exciting news. We submitted our first application for the Carnegie Elective Classification for Community Engagement. It's the gold standard for institutional commitment to community partnership.

Katie Kleinhesselink from the Office for Public and Community-Engaged Scholarship, or PACES, and Alicia Adelman from the Research and Innovation Office, referred to as RIO, led the application committee. This group studied how engagement is embedded across campus. The findings were impressive—and they demonstrate how community engagement directly supports our campus priorities of fostering the success of all students, faculty and staff, scaling research and creative work excellence, achieving global leadership in sustainability impact, and aligning our resources and infrastructure with our mission.

They discovered that community-engaged scholarship is everywhere at �� Boulder. Teaching, research, and creative work done for and with communities. Work that’s collaborative, respectful and genuinely useful. In 2023-24, we offered over 450 such courses across 80 of 96 degree-granting units. We invested $17.5 million in engagement-focused units. We have 63 full-time positions dedicated to this work. Faculty and staff secured over $4.5 million in external support.

Let me share what excellence looks like in practice. Physics created PhET Interactive Simulations. It has delivered 1.8 billion science simulations worldwide in 90 languages. That's Colorado innovation solving problems from Kiowa County to Kenya.

The Shakespeare and Violence Prevention program reached 16,500 Colorado K-12 students from 2021-2024, supporting their social and emotional wellness—essential to the student success that Chancellor Schwartz has made our foremost priority. Climate researchers help communities prepare for wildfire while shaping global policy, directly advancing our sustainability goals. Computer Science students work with 35-55 partners each year. Fiske Planetarium reached 15,000 K-12 students, including many in Title 1 schools. Journalism faculty help rural newspapers survive.

PACES-supported projects alone reached 136,000 Coloradans during this period. These aren't just statistics. They represent real impact in real communities—the kind of excellence that defines who we are.

Our students show remarkable engagement in work that prepares them as citizens and leaders. Over 80% voted in 2020, earning the campus a platinum award from the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge.

And while such engagement matters for and is open to all students, research on activities like service-learning has consistently found that such practices benefitstudents from underrepresented backgrounds even more significantly. This seems to be true on our campus, as well, as our Carnegie self-study found that 63% of Black students participate in these, compared to 46% of students overall. This isn't just engagement—it's a pathway to the improved retention and graduation rates we're achieving. Our first-year cohort just reached a 91.2% second-fall retention rate for the first time on record. Community engagement is part of that success story.

Part III: Recognition and Responsibilities

This month brought an announcement we'd hoped for. The American Council on Education and Carnegie Foundation awarded us the 2026 Classification for Community Engagement.

This isn't just another award. It confirms that excellence in community engagement is central to who we are. We're living public university values through genuine partnerships. Partnerships that honor community wisdom and build trust statewide.

Carnegie recognized something important. Modern flagship universities must be grounded locally and connected globally. Thus, local and state-level engagement work aligns with, as well as balances, the global engagement initiative that Chancellor Schwartz has asked me to co-lead with Vice Chancellor D’Andra Mull and Professor Seth Marder. We're working to ensure that international students and scholars are supported, valued, and respected, while expanding opportunities for all our students to engage globally.

We also now host the Carnegie Elective Classification for Sustainability. This dual role positions us to lead on both community engagement and environmental stewardship—two of our core institutional priorities that naturally reinforce each other.

Consider the Mortenson Center in Global Engineering. Students developed water systems with Rwandan communities. Then they applied those innovations in rural Colorado. Knowledge flows from Boulder to Kigali to the San Luis Valley and back. That’s the future of sustainable, globally connected engagement.

Part IV: Honest �� Our Challenges

Let’s be candid. Our Carnegie application and Chancellor’s Task Force identified a number of real challenges.

Our decentralized structure creates problems. Partners don't know whom to contact. Different units duplicate work. We have what Carnegie called a “loosely coupled infrastructure.”

Too many programs run on soft money. When grants end, programs end. Communities can lose trust. Especially communities already skeptical of large institutions.

We don't systematically gather partner feedback. We count participants but often fail to measure real impact. We rarely ask, at an institutional level, what ourvarious partners need and how we're doing.

Faculty worry engagement won't count for tenure. Yes, 27 of 43 responding units report that they recognize the engaged scholarship of their faculty. Nevertheless,the perception remains that such work is less valued than traditional research.

While outreach activities are relatively strong in Boulder, Denver, some mountain communities, and the Front Range corridor, this is less the case in rural Colorado, especially the Western Slope and Eastern Plains. Some communities feel overlooked. Others find us inaccessible. Yet as Chancellor Schwartz has made clear: everyone means everyone. All of Colorado, all Coloradans, all our communities.

Part V: Building the Future—Opportunity Through Engagement

Convened during the spring and summer of 2025, the Chancellor's Task Force on Outreach has mapped our path forward. Chancellor Schwartz charged us with making �� Boulder "a university for all of Colorado." The CTFO took that charge seriously, and its recommendations have now officially been adopted.

We're moving from scattered efforts to coordinated action. Not centralization—coordination. Academic units keep their autonomy and innovation. But now they'llhave infrastructure support. The new Office of Outreach and Community Engagement serves as the hub. It brings together previously separate functions, including PACES. Partners will have a clear front door. Faculty and students will have better support.

We're guided by clear principles that directly support our institutional priorities. First, a “One University Approach.” We will clarify and operate upon shared values. We'll see our various communities as connected circles of engagement. This means urban, suburban, and rural. From longtime Coloradans to first-generation immigrants to international scholars. Everyone means everyone. This includes Indigenous peoples whose connections to our place and our land-grant origins predate the university.

Second, “Civically Engaged Students.” Students aren't just recipients of outreach. They're co-creators of educational experiences and community solutions. Through civic learning and community partnerships, they develop skills for lifelong impact. Engagement directly supports student success—academically, socially, and emotionally.

Third, “Data-Informed Outreach.” We'll use multiple forms of knowledge—community wisdom, cultural context, qualitative and quantitative data. Communities will help define what success looks like. This ensures that we meet standards of excellence in everything we do.

As David Meens, executive director of PACES has recently noted, we're uniquely positioned to do this work. We're a broad-access institution with an unparalleled research portfolio. We can show that excellence and engagement strengthen each other.

Part VI: Action Steps Underway—Engagement Excellence Every Day

We are at work right now to move this vision forward. Several initiatives are already happening that advance the Chancellor’s four core priorities through community engagement.

We're creating an Executive Advisory Council for Outreach and Engagement. It brings together leaders from across campus, representing engaged scholarship and academic affairs, enrollment management, public partnerships and research development, sustainability, and advancement. This group will help ensure coordination and alignment.

We will soon launch multiple new recognition programs. Engaged Scholar Awards. Staff Awards. Community Advocate Awards. We want to celebrate this work because we know excellence deserves recognition.

We're investing in professional development. Look no further than this week’s activities, for which we’re honored to welcome national experts and trainers Patti Clayton and Diane Doberneck to campus. They're teaching partnership development, engaged research, and promotion strategies for engaged scholars. They'reintroducing tools like the Transformational Relationship Evaluation Scale. These help partners reflect on how they share power and make decisions together.

We are at work building a comprehensive inventory of all engagement activities. This inventory maps both Colorado partnerships and global connections andenables us to identify gaps and opportunities. It supports both our local mission and the global impact initiative we're developing.

Taken together, these activities advance our vision of networks linking Colorado communities to global partners; of programs preparing students for both local citizenship and global contribution; and of research addressing Colorado challenges that also have worldwide relevance. We aspire to establish a meaningful presence in every Colorado county through partnerships tailored to each community and developed through equitable collaboration.

Part VII: Why This Matters and How We Move Forward

Why prioritize this now? Higher education faces a daunting near- and mid-term landscape, fraught budget pressures, enrollment challenges, and political complexity. But engagement isn't a distraction from these challenges. It's an essential element of the solution.

Community engagement rebuilds trust. When rural communities see faculty helping main streets thrive, when parents watch children light up at Fiske presentations, when businesses solve problems with our students—the university becomes real. It becomes theirs. This is how we demonstrate that excellence isn't abstract—it'stangible, it's local, it's personal.

Engagement bridges divides. Our work spans Colorado—red and blue, urban and rural, affluent and economically struggling. We can demonstrate, through engagement, that we truly are a resource for everyone. This is opportunity through expanded access and inclusion in action.

Our students crave purpose now, not someday when they’ve graduated and are out in the “real” world. Engagement enables them to contribute immediately through activities that support their academic success and personal growth. It prepares them to be thoughtful, civically engaged leaders. In combination with efforts like the Crown Institute's Student Flourishing initiative, community engaged-learning opportunities demonstrate how we support students holistically—exactly what manyneed to help them succeed.

The local and global are connected, now more than ever. Colorado clean energy startups address climate change worldwide. International students become Colorado ambassadors. They start businesses here. They create jobs. They build lasting connections. This is sustainability and securing the future—economic and ecological benefits existing together.

The work of the Chancellor’s Task Force on Outreach revealed profound commitment and passion for this work, alongside real concerns and persistent frustrations; above all, it surfaced incredible opportunities to deepen our engagement with communities here in Colorado and across the world.

Community Engagement Week comes at the perfect moment. The Carnegie Classification provides external validation. The Task Force gives us a roadmap. But the realization of our vision for engagement requires all of us.

To our faculty: Keep connecting knowledge with community needs. We're working to better recognize and reward this vital work.

To our staff: You make partnerships succeed day by day. Your dedication is essential.

To our students: Your energy and fresh perspectives inspire us. Dive in. Help us expand what's possible.

To alumni and donors: Your support makes this work sustainable. Help us tell these stories.

To community partners: Thank you for your trust, partnership, and patience. Keep telling us what you need and asking what we can do. Hold us accountable.

To all Coloradans: This is your university. We exist to serve you, learn from you, and work alongside you.

Conclusion

�� Boulder stands at a pivotal moment. As we approach our 150th anniversary, we're renewing our covenant with Colorado—a covenant built on lands taken from Indigenous peoples, and the trust invested by the people of our state. We acknowledge this history and commit to serving all who call Colorado home.

The Carnegie Classification isn't an endpoint. It's a beginning. It declares that we take our role seriously as Colorado's flagship, connecting our state to the world while solving problems that matter.

We're becoming a next-generation public flagship—deeply rooted in Colorado, contributing globally. We prove that excellence isn't just aspiration but daily practice. That local impact and global reach strengthen each other. That serving Colorado well means both bringing knowledge home and sharing our innovations worldwide.

This path requires humility—entering communities as learners, not just teachers. It demands persistence—maintaining partnerships even when funding is uncertain. It insists on rigor—the same excellence in community work that we bring to everything we do.

This is our moment. Together, we'll build �� Boulder as a university for all Colorado and a resource for the world. We'll put knowledge to work. We'll prepare engaged citizens. We'll advance every core priority—student success, sustainability, opportunity, and excellence.

Thank you for being part of this journey.

Together, we are �� Boulder. We serve Colorado. We engage the world.

Thank you.

Off

Traditional

White

Ann Schmiesing delivers remarks at the opening evening panel of Community Engagement Week, Jan. 27, 2026

�� Boulder celebrates its public outreach efforts, community action

Arielle Wiedenbeck — Wed, 04 Feb 2026 19:02:14 +0000

�� Boulder celebrates its public outreach efforts, community action Arielle Wiedenbeck Wed, 02/04/2026 - 12:02

�� Boulder held its first Community Engagement Week, exploring ways to deepen, extend public outreach moving forward

Off

Traditional

White

Q & A: �� Boulder’s First-Ever Community Engagement Week

Arielle Wiedenbeck — Mon, 08 Dec 2025 21:51:27 +0000

Q & A: �� Boulder’s First-Ever Community Engagement Week Arielle Wiedenbeck Mon, 12/08/2025 - 14:51

Gretchen Minekime

�� Boulder will soon celebrate its 150th anniversary as Colorado’s public flagship and comprehensive research university. Part and parcel with this anniversary is our campus’s commitment to making a difference in the lives of Coloradans through campus-community partnerships in research, creative work or teaching and learning.

To share and celebrate this community-engaged scholarship, and to build skills for future work, the Office for Public and Community-Engaged Scholarship (PACES) will host �� Boulder’s first-ever Community Engagement Week, Jan. 27-29, 2026.

Senior Vice Chancellor for Strategic Initiatives Ann Schmiesing; Associate Vice Chancellor for Leadership Support and Programming David L. Humphrey; PACES Executive Director David Meens; and PACES Director for Strategic Initiatives Katie Kleinhesselink share why Community Engagement Week feels timely and what it will offer the public and �� Boulder’s faculty members, students and staff members.

What is special about this moment in �� Boulder’s outreach and community engagement work?

Senior Vice Chancellor for Strategic Initiatives Ann Schmiesing:

This is a transformative moment for �� Boulder’s longstanding commitment to outreach and community engagement. Driven by Chancellor Schwartz’s priority to strengthen relationships with Colorado communities, the Chancellor’s Task Force on Outreach (CFTO) set forth a vision in August 2025 that shines a light on the excellent outreach and engagement work already happening across campus and identifies new opportunities to increase strategic direction and coordination. Outreach and engagement at �� Boulder are multifaceted, encompassing engaged scholarship, external partnerships, student recruitment, alumni relations, government relations, and more, and these activities are deeply woven into the university’s identity. We’ve taken a meaningful step toward realizing the CTFO’s compelling vision by forming the new Office of Outreach and Community Engagement, �� Boulder’s strategic hub for coordinating and supporting campus engagement with external communities. By focusing on teamwork and expanding the lens of what engagement means, �� Boulder is operating with shared campus and community principles, centering data-informed outreach, civically engaged students, and its mission as Colorado’s flagship public research university.

These principles have guided Community Engagement Week, which was already in the planning stages before the CTFO finalized its recommendations. Energized by the CTFO’s vision and the campus’s celebration of its 150th anniversary, Community Engagement Week is taking place at an ideal time. It offers a powerful opportunity for us to further enhance and highlight our commitment to community engagement –specifically engaged scholarship—by bringing together engaged scholars, professionals and community partners to learn, collaborate and build momentum for future work.

How does outreach and community engagement work support other campus priorities and goals? How can this work best express our campus values?

Associate Vice Chancellor or Leadership Support and Programming David L. Humphrey

Our actions as a university are inseparable from our identity, and outreach and community engagement are central to how �� Boulder lives its mission. As Colorado’s flagship public university, outreach enables us to share the intellectual, cultural and creative energies of our campus – cutting-edge research, excellent teaching and transformative student experiences – with the communities that shape and support us.

Community Engagement is an expression of who we aspire to be: a university rooted in learning, reciprocity and relationship-building. It connects academic knowledge with lived experience, honors community wisdom and strengthens trust across the state. Grounded in �� Boulder’s vision to “authentically reflect and serve Colorado,” this work uplifts diverse voices and lived experiences, advances the public good, and prepares students to engage as thoughtful, civically-engaged leaders.

Outreach and engagement also deepen campus priorities by enriching student success through experiential and community-engaged learning; expanding the reach, relevance and responsibility of research; advancing inclusive excellence; and cultivating partnerships that respond to community-identified needs. This work strengthens the university’s commitments to workforce development, statewide service, leadership capacity-building and organizational effectiveness – ensuring �� Boulder’s impact is both locally rooted and nationally resonant.

At its best, outreach is carried out with rigor, responsiveness and an explicit commitment to equity. Effective outreach is crafted with intention, informed by multiple forms of knowledge – including community memory and wisdom, cultural and historical context, and qualitative and quantitative insights and metrics – and supported by transparent practices and shared accountability. When grounded in long-term, co-created partnerships, outreach becomes a way of building capacity across the university and within the communities we walk alongside. Approached with collaboration, cultural responsiveness and reciprocity, outreach reflects our deepest values and embodies our commitment to continuous learning, public impact and shared flourishing.

Who is Community Engagement Week for and what programming will be available to them?

PACES Director for Strategic Initiatives Katie Kleinhesselink:

Community Engagement Week is for anyone who thinks higher education has a role in solving public problems and addressing community-identified priorities through teaching, research and creative work. PACES has worked hard to ensure that there’s something for everyone including faculty, staff, students and community partners. Additionally, all of Tuesday’s events and the Thursday evening panel are also open to the public so that community members can connect with the ideas, people, and partnerships that shape �� Boulder’s engagement work.

The week focuses on community-engaged scholarship, which at its core is teaching, research and creative work done for and with communities in ways that are collaborative, respectful and genuinely useful. The programming reflects that spirit. Participants can attend introductory and advanced workshops on community-engaged teaching, partnership development and ethical research practices. There are sessions on writing and publishing engagement-based scholarship, navigating reappointment and promotion as an engaged scholar, and supporting graduate students who want their work to make a public impact.

The schedule also includes a campuswide showcase, a funding workshop for public scholarship, individualized consultations, a full-day partnership retreat using the Transformational Relationship Evaluation Scale (TRES) framework, and a reflective session on civic joy, hope and love. It is a week designed to build skills, spark new collaborations and help people see what is possible when universities and communities learn together.

Two preeminent scholars in the engagement scholarship field, Patti Clayton and Diane Doberneck, will play a significant role during the week. How so, and what’s special about this opportunity for our �� Boulder community?

PACES Director for Strategic Initiatives Katie Kleinhesselink:

Having Patti and Diane with us for the week is a big deal—a rare opportunity for people across the university to learn from two of the most respected scholars in community engagement. Both have shaped national conversations about engaged scholarship for decades, and their shared commitment to accessible and collaborative learning makes their presence especially meaningful for our campus and community partners.

Patti will offer workshops on community-engaged teaching and practices that support strong, equitable partnerships. She’ll also facilitate a full-day retreat for university folks and their community partners on the Transformational Relationship Evaluation Scale (TRES), an evidence-based framework that helps partners reflect on how they share power, make decisions, communicate and grow together. I’mespecially excited for her session about cultivating civic joy, hope and love—an urgently needed conversation in this moment.

Diane will lead sessions and provide individual consultations on community-engaged research; publishing engaged scholarship; navigating reappointment and promotion as an engaged scholar; and supporting graduate students who want their work to make a public impact. She is also an expert in designing policies that recognize and reward high-quality engagement and will be available to consult with departments interested in revising their RPT guidelines.

What makes this week so special for �� Boulder is the chance to learn from two leaders whose expertise spans the full ecosystem of community-engaged scholarship. Their combined presence brings national-level insight directly to our campus as we renew and strengthen our public mission. Patti and Diane’s involvement creates a meaningful opportunity for all of us—faculty, staff, students and community partners—to build shared skills, deepen relationships and imagine new possibilities for community engagement.

The week sounds like a nice blend of past, present and future, as well as local, state and national. How does �� Boulder fit into the wider field of engagement scholarship?

PACES Executive Director David Meens:

I love this question. �� Boulder has a fascinating history of public and community-engaged work that deserves to be better known today. From the institution's founding—because of a distinct mix of local philanthropy, state support and a federal land grant—to its statewide cooperative extension work throughout much of the 20th century, our public service legacy represents a fairly unique approach to direct community engagement alongside leadership in research and education.

As the university grew and diversified through the creation of �� System campuses and expanded partnerships with federal agencies, our direct community engagement naturally evolved and took different forms. Our statewide presence shifted during this period of institutional growth and changing priorities.

Community Engagement Week, and the entire sesquicentennial anniversary, offer a wonderful opportunity to reflect on this history, revisit our institutional values related to service, and re-envision what our public mission requires going forward. National prestige and deep commitment to local and state-level engagement are not in conflict. We are exceptionally well positioned—and Chancellor Schwartz and other leaders like Senior Vice Chancellor Schmiesing are fully committed—to once again integrate these two aspects of our identity, ensuring our research and educational excellence directly benefit all the residents of our state through innovative community engagement and public service.

This is the combination that I believe will define the next-generation public flagship university that can meet the moment and shape the future. As a broad-access institution with a nearly unparalleledresearch portfolio, �� Boulder is uniquely positioned to lead the way—and Community Engagement Week is an important step in building the relationships, momentum and shared vision to make this future real.

______________________________________________________________________

Details and registration for Community Engagement Week events are here.

More about the Office for Public and Community-Engaged Scholarship.

�� Boulder will soon celebrate its 150th anniversary as Colorado’s public flagship and comprehensive research university. Community Engagement Week 2026, hosted by PACES, will honor �� Boulder's commitment to making a difference in the lives of Coloradans through campus-community partnerships in research, creative work or teaching and learning.

Off

Traditional

White

Community Engagement Week

Community Engagement Week Re-cap: Celebrating 150 years of Service and Engagement

Off

A University for All of Colorado, A Resource for the World: Outreach and Community Engagement at ���������� Boulder Today

Remarks by Ann Schmiesing, senior vice chancellor for strategic initiatives.

Part I: Our Legacy of Service

Part II: Where We Stand Today

Part III: Recognition and Responsibilities

Part IV: Honest ���������� Our Challenges

Part V: Building the Future—Opportunity Through Engagement

Part VI: Action Steps Underway—Engagement Excellence Every Day

Part VII: Why This Matters and How We Move Forward

Conclusion

Off

���������� Boulder celebrates its public outreach efforts, community action

Off

Q & A: ���������� Boulder’s First-Ever Community Engagement Week

What is special about this moment in ���������� Boulder’s outreach and community engagement work?

Senior Vice Chancellor for Strategic Initiatives Ann Schmiesing:

How does outreach and community engagement work support other campus priorities and goals? How can this work best express our campus values?

Associate Vice Chancellor or Leadership Support and Programming David L. Humphrey

Who is Community Engagement Week for and what programming will be available to them?

PACES Director for Strategic Initiatives Katie Kleinhesselink:

Two preeminent scholars in the engagement scholarship field, Patti Clayton and Diane Doberneck, will play a significant role during the week. How so, and what’s special about this opportunity for our ���������� Boulder community?

PACES Director for Strategic Initiatives Katie Kleinhesselink:

The week sounds like a nice blend of past, present and future, as well as local, state and national. How does ���������� Boulder fit into the wider field of engagement scholarship?

PACES Executive Director David Meens:

Off

A University for All of Colorado, A Resource for the World: Outreach and Community Engagement at �� Boulder Today

Part IV: Honest �� Our Challenges

�� Boulder celebrates its public outreach efforts, community action

Q & A: �� Boulder’s First-Ever Community Engagement Week

What is special about this moment in �� Boulder’s outreach and community engagement work?

Two preeminent scholars in the engagement scholarship field, Patti Clayton and Diane Doberneck, will play a significant role during the week. How so, and what’s special about this opportunity for our �� Boulder community?

The week sounds like a nice blend of past, present and future, as well as local, state and national. How does �� Boulder fit into the wider field of engagement scholarship?