Our Team

Dr. Karen Ramirez is the Director of the CU Dialogues Program. She is also a faculty member at CU-Boulder, serving as the Assistant Director for Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences Program Development for the Miramontes Arts and Sciences Program, which serves underserved students in the College of Arts and Sciences. She received a 2018 Boulder Faculty Assembly Award for Leadership and Service. In 2017 she received the Student Involvement Center's...

Nancy Maingi Ngwu is a PhD student in the Department of Communication at CU. She studies organizational communication. Her research generally engages how organizational actors at the margins of society communicatively organize to manage, resist, and remake oppressive structures. As a practitioner, she designs dialogues on systemic inequities and trains organizational members/leaders to dialogue on and organize toward equitable, diverse and inclusive practices, policies, and procedures. She is currently a...

Jennifer Pacheco is a PhD candidate in Learning Sciences and Human Development at the University of Colorado Boulder. Her interests include understanding critical dialogue as a context for learning; de-colonizing dialogic processes in community-based research; and Participatory Design Research for social change making. Jennifer has led critical dialogue in local manufactured home communities, facilitated a school-based Photovoice project with Latina mothers, and taught an undergraduate Dialogue Across Difference course. Currently,...

Stephen Sommer is a dual doctoral candidate in the Learning Sciences and Human Development Program (Education) and the Institute of Cognitive Science at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He is one of the co-facilitators of the DEI-Informed Dailogic Pedagogy Micro-credential.

Karla Trujillo is passionate about ecologies of learning that prioritize the transformative power at the heart of interaction. She aims to achieve lifelong wellness through dialogue, storytelling, and movement. Trujillo sees dialogue as a creative endeavor grounded in hope, fostering dynamic conversations that empower people to challenge systemic barriers and dismantle inequities. Making use of dialogue to name the world and take actionable steps in building trust with others, she...

Lex Hunter is a PhD student in the School of Education at CU Boulder. Her work is at the intersections of race, healing, and activism and explores how youth of color are conceptualizing healing and working toward collective liberation. Lex is a part of the assessments team for CU Dialogues and designs surveys that offer opportunities for critical reflexivity and continued accountability.

Melissa Rubin is the Budget Manager and Project Coordinator for CU Engage. Melissa has worked at the University of Colorado for over 15 years doing Administrative and Organizational support for programs focussed on Community-Based and Engaged learning. She completed her BA in Religious Studies and a Certificate in the Study and Practice of Leadership through the INVST Community Leadership Program.

Allie is an Assistant Professor of Teaching for CU Engage. In her 7-year tenure at CU Boulder, she has taught and developed courses for the INVST Community Studies program, Puksta Scholarship program, Leadership Studies Minor, and Elementary Education program. She is dedicated to designing and facilitating equity centered curriculum in CU classrooms, while supporting community leaders in developing a sense of self and well-being to work towards collective liberation for...

Maria G. Vielma is a Ph.D. student in Educational Foundations, Policy, and Practice at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Her research has largely centered on the lived experiences of Latinas and women of color within higher education themes like femtorship and confianza. Her work with CU Dialogues focuses on dialogue curriculum design.