A Letter from Guest Publisher Blake Naughton

Extending Our Reach. That’s our commitment as a land-grant university to offer access, inclusion, and opportunity to the University’s educational programs, resources, and services. As the Office of Engagement and Extension, we support and enable this mission for all Coloradans and audiences beyond our state to empower individuals and communities to thrive from learning.  

This year, we completed a statewide community needs assessment designed to understand changing needs across Colorado and our potential for an even more significant impact in the future. These new insights and enhanced understanding will support conversations and co-creation with our Colorado State University and external partners on future scholarship priorities and plans.

With this awareness of the issues our communities face at our CSU campuses, centers, and Extension offices across the state, we bring the community to the table at the start, working together in research that is relevant locally. We also serve as the bridge to the engaged research and scholarship conducted at the Fort Collins campus, providing access to all of CSU’s resources and expertise to communities across Colorado. With each conversation, new opportunities are identified to continue to grow community connections.

Our faculty lead the way in community-based research. In 2019, the Provost’s Council for Engagement introduced a “Continuum of Engaged Scholarship” framework to identify the breadth of engaged research, teaching, and service activities that move us from outreach to engagement. This model of co-creation with the community enables us to realize even greater levels of innovation.

To take a line from our Courageous Strategic Transformation framework, we have a tremendous opportunity to build on our greatness – the accomplishments and outcomes that our research has brought to communities – and to rise to new challenges. This is the heart of our land-grant mission.