Faculty & Staff

CU Engage is dedicated to supporting faculty and staff in community-based teaching and research.

We work to leverage the many resources of CU Boulder -- faculty (research and teaching), students, staff, programs and offices -- to work with community partners to facilitate sustained and high impact work on today's most pressing social issues. If you are looking for assistance, please reach out to us!

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We are currently accepting applications for the Experiential Learning Design Accelerator. Learn more here.

Here are some of the amazing educators in CU Engage:

Spotlight on Dr. Johanna Maes, Director of Multicultural Leadership Scholars, a pathway to the Leadership Studies Minor

Dr. Maes has twenty-five years of experience in k-12, higher education and in the non-profit sector, and an over 35-year-long relationship with CU Boulder. She has developed, implemented, and evaluated innovative curricula, experiential educational initiatives and trainings that focus on multiculturalism, inclusivity, gender bias, and culturally competent teaching methods for audiences ranging from k-12 and university students, to nonprofit and business executives, to school administrators. In her Ed Talk, she shares both about her deep history with CU Boulder-moving from Pueblo to Boulder in 1987 as the first in her family to go to college, to now being one of about a dozen Chicana/o faculty on campus-and about the political courage of her students who she mentors and supports, and who inspire her every day.

"I see proud Chicanx students who will not be silenced. I see proud Latinx students who will resist. I see in my students the same fighting spirit that Los Seis de Boulder had in the 70's. I see my fighting spirit in them."

Lifting as We Climb: Embracing Chicanisma in a White University

Publications by Dr. Maes:
Navigating the Perils of Emotional Labor: A Chicana Faculty perspective at a Predominately White Institution (PWI). 2019. In Case Studies in Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Higher Education: An Intersectional Perspective, Kendall Hunt Publishers.

Reflections about Latina/Chicana leadership in the Academy. In Journeys of Social Justice: Women of Color Presidents in the Academy. 2017. Black Studies and Critical Thinking Book Series, Peter Lang International Academic Publishers.

Spotlight on Enrique Lopez, Aquetza Co-Director and CU Engage Faculty Co-Director

Enrique’s research trajectory aims to understand students’ experiences in undergraduate science and their relationship to learning and achievement, particularly within the discipline of chemistry. Currently, his research focuses on the racial and ethnic identities of undergraduate Latina(o) students’ and their academic performance in first-semester general chemistry. Enrique's goal is to use data from rigorous investigations to create policies that support, encourage, and increase student achievement, especially among historically underrepresented students. He has been the co-director of the Aquetza program since 2016, and the faculty co-director for CU Engage since 2020. In his Ed Talk, he shares about how a practice of sharing stories in Aquetza gave him the courage to reflelct upon, and unravel the classroom experiences he had in his youth that effected how he felt about speaking Spanish.

"I realized that I had begun to associate speaking Spanish with feelings of shame or guilt, rather than love and affection, as I had once felt. If we are to work towards becoming more fully human, we start by looking inside. Only after we struggle to see past the smoke that clouds our true selves, can we reach a greater place of harmony. In Aquetza we strive to leverage youth's cultural backgrounds and language to promote an education that edifies the mind, heart and spirit."