The Climate Adaptation Partnership (CAP)
The Climate Adaptation Partnership (CAP) works to foster collaborations among CSU researchers and center leaders that work on climate adaptation with two core emphases: 1) supporting interdisciplinary research efforts to address the complex challenges of climate adaptation and 2) building connections among researchers and policymakers to facilitate the 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 Center, Department of History

Tamera Breidenbach, Program Manager, and Graduate Student, Department of Forest and Rangeland Stewardship

Clint Carney, Post-Doctoral Scholar, Public Lands Policy Group

Niki vonHedemann, Research Associate, Public Lands Policy Group, Department of Forest and Rangeland Stewardship

Peter Backlund, Associate Director, School of Global Environmental Sustainability

Beth Conover, Director of the Salazar Center, Office of Engagement and Extension

Hailey Doucette, Graduate Student, Department of History

Mireille (Ray) Gonzalez, PhD Candidate, Human Dimensions of Natural Resources

Caroline Havrilla, Assistant Professor, Department of Forest and Rangeland Stewardship

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 advances 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 contact csu_cap@mail.colostate.edu