Inaugural group of proposals was ‘universally strong and worthy,’ Dean Glen Krutz notes

Dean Glen Krutz recently asked the college for innovative ideas, and this week he announced 17 winners of the first Dean’s Innovation Fund awards, with funding totaling $317,896, at the University of Colorado Boulder’s College of Arts and Sciences.

Krutz created the Dean’s Innovation Fund in late 2022 with the goal of funding new ideas and innovations for the college. He solicited proposals related to spawning new cross-disciplinary research projects, ventures to develop and retain faculty and staff, projects that link more strongly to the community, fresh thinking about how A&S might reduce its carbon footprint, and projects promoting justice, equity, diversity and inclusion efforts to improve student, staff and faculty access to and/or retention in A&S. 

“I was thrilled with the applications we received in this first cycle of the A&S Dean’s Innovation Fund, which will be an annual process,” Krutz said, adding: 

“We had an overwhelming response, with 74 completed applications from across the college. The response and the innovations were truly inspiring! The proposals were universally strong and worthy.” Selecting the initial slate of projects was extremely difficult, and the college encouraged applicants to reapply in the next cycle, Krutz said.

This year, one-time awards range from $2,500 to as much as $40,000. 

Projects receiving 2023 funding from the Dean’s Innovation Fund are:

• Uplift: A STEM Research Scholarship for Underprivileged Undergraduates at CU; submitted by Edward Chong and Lee Niswander: $40,000. 
• Creating a New Curriculum for Latinx in Colorado and Beyond; submitted by Leila Gomez, Arturo Adama, Gerardo Gutierrez, Natalie Avalos, Doris Loayza, Lorraine Bayard de Volo, Gabriela Rios, Jessica Ordaz, Betty Leonard, Celeste Montoya, Marcos Steuernagel, Tracy Quan, Kristie Soares, Elika Ortega, Maria Windell and Megan K. Friede: $40,000.
• Racial Literacies; submitted by Kirk Ambrose, Jennifer Ho and John-Michael Rivera: $39,767.
• Building Inclusive Pathways: A Collaboration Between MASP and the Natural Sciences, submitted by Celeste Montoya, Katherine Semsar and Stephanie Montoya: $39,560.
• Belonging as a Protective Factor for Minoritized Identity Students, submitted by Chelsea Killmnick, Donna Mejia, Teresa Wroe and Julie Volckens: $35,750.
• Partnership with BVSD: Supporting and Mentoring Students of Color, submitted by Aun H. Ali, Stephanie Su, Cecilia J. Pang, William Wei, Celine Dauverd, Kieran Marcellin Murphy, Enrique Sepulveda, Marissa Ehringer and Benjamin Brown: $35,500.
• New Frontiers in Teaching Public Health: Innovative Course Design and Community Engagement in Public Health for CU Students, submitted by Colleen Reid, June Gruber and Maureen Floriano: $21,149.
• Staff Professional Development Fund, submitted by Bernadette Stewart: $10,000.
• Protest Through Poetry-Boulder, submitted by Marisa Tirado and Laurie Gries: $10,000.
• Peer Mentoring Pilot Program, submitted by Angela Watts: $8,980.
• Improved STEM Mentoring for Under-Represented Graduate Students at CU-Boulder, submitted by Andrew Cowell, Christopher Lowry, Dana Stamo and Saydie Sago: $8,440.
• Mathematics Preliminary Exam Mentoring Program, submitted by Rachel Chaiser and Kyle Luh: $7,000.
• My Voice Matters: Program for Underrepresented Students to Serve as Mentors and Leaders in the Office of Pre-Health Advising, submitted by Katie Chang: $6,000.
• Helping Them Get Started: Funding Entry-Level Allied Health Professions Exam Fees for Pre-Health Students, submitted by Dana Parcher: $6,000.
• Disability Symposium, submitted by David Braz and Gavin Lang: $5,000.
• Address the Lack of Support for, and Attention to Undergraduate Students in Arts & Sciences from Rural and Small Towns, submitted by the CU Boulder Rural Network: $4,250.
• Staff Innovation Spot Awards, submitted by Jessica Brunecky: $2,500.