The Public and Community-Engaged Scholarship team in the Office for Outreach and Community Engagement is pleased to announce the 2026-27 Tiers 3 and 4 grantees.

Tiers 3 and 4 fund faculty-led public and community-engaged scholarship that connects research, teaching and creative work with public needs and interests. Proposed projects must connect CU Boulder scholarship with the expressed needs, interests or activities of external communities and be aligned with the campus definition of outreach and engagement. The selection process is guided by the Public and Community-Engaged Scholarship Grants Committee.

Based on the committee’s recommendations 22 projects are receiving over $398,00 in funding this cycle. 

Tier 3 (formerly CU Boulder Outreach Award: Individual)
2026–27 Recipients

College of Arts and Sciences

Community-Engaged Language Revitalization
Ambrocio Gutierrez, Associate Professor
Department of Linguistics

Literacy Practicum
Rai Farrelly, Teaching Associate Professor
Department of Linguistics

Colorado Law

The Acequia Assistance Project
Gregor MacGregor, Assistant Teaching Professor
Masters of the Environment

Educating Colorado High School Students About Their Rights
Matthew Cushing, Assistant Teaching Professor

Increasing Native Access to Vote
Christina Stanton, Associate Professor
Clinical Education Program

School of Education

Mentor Advisory Boards: Bridging the Gaps in Our Teacher Licensure Programs
Karla Scornavacco, Director
Field Experiences

Reclaiming Heritage, Identity and Community
Andrea Dyrness, Associate Professor
Program in Educational Foundations, Policy and Practice

College of Media, Communication and Information

Colombia Infrastructure Updating for Displaced Communities 
Jota Samper, Assistant Professor
Program in Environmental Design

College of Music

Middle School Ensembles Program
David Rickels, Associate Professor
Department of Music Education

Tier 4 (formerly CU Boulder Outreach Award: Group)
2026–27 Recipients

AQuEEN Educators’ Network: Mutual Aid in Action
Elizabeth Meyer, Professor, Program in Educational Foundations, Policy & Practice
Bethy Leonardi, Associate Professor, Program in Educational Foundations, Policy & Practice

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

Astrosenderos: Cultivating Belonging Through Latinx Co-Created STEM Spaces
Marialis Rosario Franco, Teaching Professor, Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences
Seth Hornstein, Teaching Professor, Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences
John Keller, Director, Fiske Planetarium

Building AAC Capacity for Adolescents and Adults
Sherri Tennant, Clinical Assistant Professor, Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences
Christine Brennan, Assistant Professor, Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences

Building Community Infrastructure for Air Quality Monitoring at San Lazaro Mobile Home Park
Enrique Lopez, Associate Professor, Program in STEM Education
Shelly Miller, Professor Emerita, Department of Mechanical Engineering

Collaborative Research with/for Multilingual Youth: Adams12 MLSAC
Deborah Palmer, Professor, Program in Equity, Bilingualism & Biliteracy
Michelle Renée Valladares, Faculty Affiliate, Program in Educational Foundations, Policy & Practice
Adria Padilla-Chávez, Assistant Teaching Professor, Program in Equity, Bilingualism & Biliteracy

CU Children's Book Festival 2026
Adam Crawley, Associate Teaching Professor, Program in Literacy Studies
Natalia Umaña, Assistant Professor, Research and Collections Engagement

Indigenous Connections and the Sand Creek Massacre Foundation
Brooke Neely, Research Fellow, Center for the American West
Thomas Andrews, Professor, Department of History
Andrew Cowell, Professor, Department of Linguistics

Listening to Communities: Co-developing Toolkits to Measure Sound and Air Pollution
Evan Coffey, Research Faculty, Department of Mechanical Engineering
Ellen Considine, Assistant Professor, Department of Geography
Shalom Ruben, Teaching Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering

Pilot Monitoring of Urban Pesticides for Human Health and Biodiversity Protection in Boulder, Colorado
Riley Mulhern, Assistant Professor, Department of Environmental Studies
Karen Bailey, Assistant Professor, Department of Environmental Studies
Shelly Miller, Professor Emerita, Department of Mechanical Engineering

SCENIC26: Environmental Sustainability Through Rural School Wildfire Inquiry
Daniel Knight, Associate Research Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering
Michael Hannigan, Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering
Joseph Polman, Associate Dean, Program in Learning Sciences & Human Development

Seeing Justice: Video Evidence in Tribal Courts
Sandra Ristovska, Associate Professor, Department of Media Studies
Christina Stanton, Associate Professor of Clinical Law, Colorado Law

Training Lived Experience Experts as Community Researchers
Dave Ciplet, Associate Professor, Department of Environmental Studies
Riley Mulhern, Assistant Professor, Department of Environmental Studies