Colorado-Wyoming Climate Resilience Engine Hires Dr. Jeni Cross as the Director of Co-Creation and Community Engagement
The Colorado-Wyoming Climate Resilience Engine (CO-WY Engine) is excited to announce the addition of Dr. Jeni Cross as the Director of Co-Creation & Community Engagement. At the CO-WY Engine, Dr. Cross will lead the CO-WY Engine’s efforts in co-creation, a collaborative approach to research and translation that she describes as “a spectrum of activities in collaborative research that is founded on co-equal creative processes that cross sectors while engaging researchers, community partners, and industry.”
Co-creation will benefit both the CO-WY Climate Resilience Engine as well as the Engine’s grantees, by establishing co-creative processes and structures that will help participants build trust and form new collaborations to quickly transform ideas into action.
Dr. Cross recently retired from Colorado State University where she was the Director of the Insititute for Research in the Social Sciences. Her motivation for joining the CO-WY Engine is straightforward, “I have always cared most deeply about doing research that has an impact, which is why I did applied research as a professor and why I accepted the role at the CO-WY Engine. Working on this project draws from my previous career while giving me the opportunity to be creative and focused on using social science to create impact.”
“The Co-Creation of solutions for community climate resiliency is a core function of the CO-WY Engine”, said Mike Freeman CEO. “Bolstering our capabilities with Jeni’s expertise ensures we have more resources to execute the Engine mission.”
Dr. Cross received her Bachelor’s of sociology from Colorado State University and her PhD in sociology from the University of California, Davis. For the last two decades, she has been at Colorado State University—where she designed community-based research classes, served as the Director of Reseach at the Institute for the Built Environment, and founded the Institute for Research in the Social Sciences. Her TEDx talk on the 3 Myths of Behavior Change has been viewed 1.4 million times and is used globally by scientists and practitioners in a variety of fields to improve the impact of their work.
About CO-WY Climate Resilience Engine:
Led by Innosphere and funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), the CO-WY Engine is a collaborative initiative focused on driving innovation in climate resiliency and sustainability across the Colorado-Wyoming region. The CO-WY Engine brings together a diverse network of partners to develop and commercialize technologies that address critical environmental challenges, foster economic growth and enhance community well-being. Visit www.co-wyengine.org for more information.