The Climate Adaptation Partnership (CAP)
for Policy Innovation and Research Coordination
We will foster collaborations among CSU researchers and center leaders that work on climate adaptation with two core emphases: coordinating interdisciplinary research efforts and building connections between researchers and policymakers to facilitate application of climate adaptation research in policy venues.
The Climate Adaptation Partnership at CSU serves to coordinate and accelerate interdisciplinary research and to facilitate science-informed, just, and holistic, social and ecological adaptation policies in the face of a changing climate.
We envision a West and a nation where people can respond to climate change and use climate-driven disturbances as opportunities to improve their communities, where natural and social systems persist or adapt to new conditions, and where government provides leadership through inclusive processes and improved policies.
Leadership Team & Partners
Courtney Schultz, PI and Team Lead, Associate Professor and Director of the Public Lands Policy Group, Department of Forest and Rangeland Stewardship
Leisl Carr Childers, Team Lead, Assistant Professor and Faculty Council Member of the Public Lands History Group, Department of History
Tamera Breidenbach, Program Manager, CAP Program Manager, and Graduate Student, Department of Forest and Rangeland Stewardship
Peter Backlund, Associate Director, School of Global Environmental Sustainability
Beth Conover, Director of the Salazar Center, School of Global Environmental Sustainability
James W. Hurrell, Professor and Scott Presidential Chair in Environmental Science and Engineering, Department of Atmospheric Science
Hussam Mahmoud, George T. Abell Professor in Infrastructure and Director of the Structural Laboratory, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Nathan Mueller, Assistant Professor in Ecosystem Science and Sustainability and Soil and Crop Sciences
Camille Stevens-Rumann, Assistant Professor and Colorado Forest Restoration Institute Research and Monitoring Lead, Department of Forest and Rangeland Stewardship
Lindsey Schneider, Assistant Professor, Department of Ethnic Studies, Center for Environmental Justice
Brad Udall, Senior Water & Climate Research Scientist/Scholar, Colorado Water Center
The CAP will advance its own strategic work and serve as a hub for diverse expertise campus-wide. We foresee focusing the CAP’s early efforts across five themes, based on the existing work of our team members:
1. Climate adaptive public land policy and management, particularly around forest fire management
2. Strategies to support healthy air and watersheds
3. Integrated modeling systems that address social and ecological change over appropriate spatial and temporal scales
4. Climate adaptive agriculture and food security
5. Social and environmental justice to create thriving, inclusive communities in the face of the impacts of climate and demographic change
For more information about the Climate Adaptation Partnership for Policy Innovation and Research Coordination, contact Courtney Schultz, Tamera Breidenbach, or Leisl Carr Childers.