Colorado’s transportation system is at a pivotal moment. With a rapidly growing population, increased demand for recreational access, and the need for sustainable, multimodal solutions, the state’s infrastructure is under pressure like never before. Projections indicate the state’s population could rise to 8 million by 2050 —and in 2022, Denver drivers spent an average of 54 hours in traffic.
The challenge now is how to meet the diverse needs of drivers, cyclists, pedestrians, and transit users while preserving Colorado’s natural beauty and fostering long-term economic growth.
Daniel Estes and other Floyd Hill project team members visiting the site.
At CDR Associates, we are uniquely positioned to help agencies and communities across the state navigate these challenges. As facilitators, we play a critical role in building consensus among the many voices involved in shaping the future of Colorado. Two of CDR’s current projects underscore the evolving nature of Colorado’s transportation network and the need for ongoing, strategic collaboration: The I-70 Floyd Hill Project and the Jefferson County Clear Creek Trail Master Planning effort (formerly known as the “Peaks to Plains Trail”).
Floyd Hill—a notorious bottleneck between Evergreen and Idaho Springs—has long been a source of frustration for commuters and travelers alike. With traffic congestion, sharp curves, and limited opportunities for passing, this stretch of road has proven difficult for both drivers and freight carriers, especially during peak travel times. The Floyd Hill Project addresses these issues head-on, aiming to significantly improve traffic flow, safety, and access for all types of travelers, from private vehicle users to cyclists and public transit passengers.
At CDR Associates, we are proud to be part of this transformative project. Our role focuses on facilitating the Context Sensitive Solutions (CSS) process, a collaborative and inclusive approach designed to ensure that community values, environmental concerns, and transportation needs are all addressed throughout the planning, design, and construction phases. As facilitators of the Technical Teams and Project Leadership Team, we work to ensure that all perspectives are considered, and that solutions are developed in a way that balances the interests of multiple user groups and impacted parties, including drivers, cyclists, pedestrians, environmental advocates, local businesses, and communities along the corridor.
Similarly, our work on the Clear Creek Trail project (formerly the “Peaks to Plains Trail”) is a testament to CDR’s commitment to enhancing multimodal access across the state. The Clear Creek Trail is an ambitious effort to create a 65-mile route connecting the Colorado Front Range to the Continental Divide, providing both recreational and commuter opportunities for cyclists and pedestrians. The Clear Creek Greenway, part of the mountain segment of the Clear Creek Trail, exemplifies the tangible connection between the Floyd Hill project and the Clear Creek Trail initiative, as both projects are integral to improving connectivity and access in the region. CDR’s role on the Clear Creek Trail has been multifaceted, including supporting strategic planning efforts for a multi-jurisdictional coalition of stakeholders, as well as supporting decision-making related to branding and wayfinding.
As of this writing, several segments of the Floyd Hill project have already commenced with construction, while the most technically complex section, the Central Section, is slated to begin in the coming months. We at CDR look forward to supporting CDOT, the Floyd Hill Project Team, and Clear Creek Trail stakeholders in delivering lasting solutions for Colorado’s transportation future.
CDR has long enjoyed strong relationships with mediators and other stakeholders in Sri Lanka, where a well regarded national mediation program supports communities through local challenges. Our team recently worked with local organizations to update the program’s training approach and is proud of our continued role in its further development and expansion.
Our efforts to update and improve existing training materials and approaches built on content from 2009 and 2023 and incorporated insight from the Mediation Training Officers (MTOs) responsible for the hands-on delivery of the training to public mediation program’s newest mediators.
The Colorado Forest Collaboratives Network (CFCN) completed is annual Forest Collaboratives Summit in La Plata County in September. Organized by CFCN Coordinator Katie McGrath Novak and CSU CCC intern Priscila Santos Urteaga, the event focused on “Scaling and Sustaining Local Impact;” speakers and topics highlighted the successes of place-based collaboratives while recognizing the challenges of aligning goals and opportunities across local, regional, state, and national levels—a topic CDR is well acquainted with.
Melissa leads attendees through part of the CDR training.
CDR Program Manager Laura Hickey shares how projects, pedagogy, and passion all dovetailed at the event:
Projects
This year, the Colorado Forest Health Council prioritized the creation of a Forest Resilience Planning Guide, an initiative facilitated by CDR. The Forest Health Council serves as a volunteer stakeholder body, providing a collaborative forum to advise the Governor, through the Executive Director of the Department of Natural Resources, and the Colorado General Assembly on various issues, opportunities, and threats facing the state’s forests. The guide will assist local agencies, large landowners, and place-based collaboratives in better coordinating forest management strategies and leveraging resources to mitigate and recover from common disturbances across counties and Tribal nations in Colorado. During the Summit, Laura facilitated three small group discussions focused on how the guide can enhance collaborative capacity and inform state programs and policies. The creation of the Forest Resilience Planning Guide exemplifies the State’s commitment to fostering coordination among local agencies and landowners, enabling them to collaboratively address common disturbances.
Pedagogy
Day three of the Summit showcased CDR’s legacy of facilitation and conflict management capacity-building. Melissa Bade and Laura Hickey led a half-day training session for participants from academia, government, and non-profit sectors. The training began with reflections on the benefits of collaboration in forest management, allowing participants to share insights about the value of shared learning, nimble implementation, and achieving goals that would be impossible to tackle alone. Ultimately, these experiences underscored the importance of enhancing collaborative capacity, emphasizing how effective teamwork can lead to improved outcomes for Colorado’s forests and the communities that depend on them. By strengthening these skills, stakeholders can navigate conflicts more effectively and foster a more inclusive approach to forest management, ensuring the long-term health and resilience of our vital ecosystems.
Passion
Before joining the CDR team, Laura spent five years researching the relationships between forest ecosystem structure, function, and resilience after various disturbances. At CDR, she has found a natural fit in convening natural resource stakeholders from diverse sectors to navigate the multifaceted issues posed by climate change, wildfires, and ecological threats—all while building collaborative capacity along the way. By harnessing shared knowledge and enhancing teamwork, we can work toward developing comprehensive, tailored resource management solutions that benefit the environment, local economies, and communities alike.
We are a facilitation and communications consulting firm in Boulder, Colorado. We help governments and communities make decisions on large, complex public projects. We provide facilitation, stakeholder engagement, communications, and dispute resolution services on transportation/mobility, public lands management, and water projects. Our role, as neutral facilitators, is to represent all interests of all stakeholders and advocate for a collaborative process, rather than a specific outcome.
Our projects range from short term, which may be single day retreats we facilitate, to multi-year design or infrastructure projects. Our partners are often architecture and engineering design firms. Our clients are often local jurisdictions, Colorado state departments, and federal agencies.
We’re looking for an early career-level Program Associate to join our team. Our group of 9 team members is a great match for professionals seeking values-based work, opportunities for growth, and a workplace culture that values individual perspectives and entrepreneurial proactivity. There’s flexibility in where you work – sometimes you work from home, sometimes in the office in Boulder, sometimes in client’s offices, and other times wherever you like to hang your hat.
ABOUT THE POSITION:
As a Program Associate, you will support a range of stakeholder engagement, communications, problem solving, and conflict resolution projects. You will work on projects in the transportation, water, and public lands management fields in Colorado as well as in the regional West. Reliable personal transportation is required; as consultants we’re frequently traveling to meet clients and partners.
Roles and Responsibilities include:
Administrative and Organizational Support
Manage organization email and phone accounts
Schedule and run organizational functions/internal meetings
Lead ad hoc special projects internally to support strategic growth
Marketing and Communications
Support marketing efforts (e.g. develop presentations and outreach materials)
Coordinate proposals and graphic design
Project & Facilitation Support
Manage meeting logistics and technology
Write, edit, and/or proofread project reports and meeting summaries
Develop meeting materials
Co-facilitate meetings and small group break-outs
Coordinate with clients
ABOUT YOU:
You have a master’s degree and one year of experience, or a bachelor’s degree and at least three years of experience. You also have an interest in multi-modal transportation, community and regional planning, natural resource management, and/or environmental public policy issues. Fluency in Spanish is highly desirable but not required. We are looking for someone who is comfortable managing projects virtually. Adobe Creative Suite experience, particularly with InDesign and Illustrator, is strongly preferred. You are:
RESULTS-ORIENTED: You are able to prioritize and multi-task to achieve great results. You value quality work, are able to manage short turnarounds, and can stay on time and on budget.
ORGANIZED AND DETAILED: You manage your projects and information in an organized way to ensure nothing slips through the cracks, and you pay close attention to detail.
CREATIVE AND FLEXIBLE: You can clearly, and graphically, communicate complex information in a creative way and are able to adapt to changing conditions easily.
COMFORTABLE WORKING IN STRUCTURED AND UNPREDICTABLE ENVIRONMENTS: You produce quality work independently and as a team. You take initiative and contribute to team dynamics by offering new ideas and creative solutions to unexpected or surprising challenges.
SELF-STARTER: You have an entrepreneurial mindset and are interested in future growth opportunities.
COMPENSATION
CDR offers a benefits package to employees including health insurance and paid vacation. Compensation will be determined based on the experience of the selected candidate but is expected to be in the low-mid $60K a year range, plus bonuses, with opportunities to advance.
WHAT’S NEXT
Send us (1) a one-page resume, and (2) an info-graphic – you create – that describes something important to you. Please do not send any cover letters. Please note that you are allowed to redact information that identifies your age such as your birth date, or dates of schooling.
We’ll be reviewing and engaging with applicants on a rolling basis. Correspondence can be sent to careers@mediate.org. Please write “CDR 2024 Program Associate Application_[First Name] [Last Name]” in the subject line of the email.
Research suggests that women and BIPOC individuals may self-select out of opportunities if they don’t meet 100% of the job requirements. We encourage anyone who believes they have the skills and the drive necessary to succeed here to apply for this role.
This is a first-hand account of CDR Associates’ visit to the Alaska Native Village of Kipnuk as part of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Community Change Grant Technical Assistance Program.
Text and photos by Audrey Clavijo, CDR Program Associate
Marveling at the Kugkaktlik River from the air.
We arrived in Kipnuk mid-morning on Monday, March 18, after a smooth ride from Bethel. As the tiny plane approached the Village of Kipnuk, we could see colorful snow-covered homes, criss-crossing tracks from a season of innumerable snowmobile trips, the wide meandering path of the frozen Kugkaktlik River, and the Chief Paul Memorial School positioned squarely in the center of the village.
This was my first time in the arctic tundra; it surprised me how barren the land seemed, how improbable that any species could live in a frozen desert of snow and ice. Jonathan and I stepped out onto the tarmac. We had no phone service and no idea which way to begin our trek in the cold. Noticing our looks of disorientation, a local man already at the airstrip offered us a ride on the back of his ATV and drove us to the Qanganaq Building. Jonathan and I thanked the kind stranger and entered the large, red structure, which sits alongside a tributary of the Kugkaktlik River and houses the Tribal offices. Inside, we met Chris, a member of the Kipnuk Environmental Team and the Kipnuk Permafrost Pathways Liaison, who took us on his snowmobile to meet the rest of the team at the Teacher Housing.
The Teacher Housing, attached to the school by boardwalk, is one of the few buildings in the village with access to running water and plumbing. The majority of Kipnuk’s teachers are seasonal, living in the Teacher Housing throughout the school year and returning home—typically to the lower 48—for the summer; this is also where we would be lodging for our one night in the village. To bathe and do laundry, some locals go to the Kipnuk “washeteria,” which offers paid showers and laundry. Others in the village use maqivik (steam baths) to bathe. The washeteria also has a water treatment system that is used to treat the water used in the facility. During the winter months, individual households must obtain water by collecting chipped ice, which they melt in large water buckets; in the warmer months, they obtain water through water catchment systems. Household sewage is collected in honey buckets and emptied in the lagoon.
Kipnuk has been requesting a piped water and sewer system for decades. Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (ANTHC) recently informed the Tribe that although ANTHC has the village on the schedule for installation of piped water and sewer infrastructure, it will be another five to ten years before that installation is complete.
Enjoying the sunrise from the airport.
Traversing the village in snowmobiles.
At the Teacher Housing, we met the full Kipnuk Environmental Team—Rayna, Andrea, and Chris—and Sheryl Musgrove, the Climate Justice Director at the Alaska Institute for Justice (AIJ). After a series of zoom calls and meetings, this was the first time we had met in person. We shared snacks, verified the agenda for the one-day site visit, and discussed the general outline of the Community Change Grant (CCG) Technical Assistance Program. Afterwards, Rayna, Andrea, and Chris invited us onto their three snowmobiles to tour the village. Despite the snow and the frozen waterways, we could see how much of the town—including several large buildings, homes, fuel tanks, and other infrastructure—sat precariously close to the slope of the riverbank. They explained that each spring, the melting of the river ice, called “breakup,” removes large chunks of the riverbank, exacerbating the gradual erosion caused by constant currents, daily tides, and frequent storms. We passed by the barge landing, where Conex containers act as a staging area, storing equipment, construction materials, shipped goods, and hazardous waste. We then visited one of five local grocery stores, the mechanical shop (responsible for fixing just about anything that breaks down in Kipnuk), the washeteria, the landfill, the reservoir, and the Chief Paul Memorial School.
At the school, we met with the high school students—about 50 youth—to give a short presentation on the EPA, local impacts of climate change (i.e., permafrost thaw, subsidence, flooding, increasing sea level), the Community Change Grant, and our plans to apply for funding to mediate river erosion in Kipnuk. When we asked the students what they would do with the CCG funding to help their community, one advocated for the installation of running water and plumbing. Another group of girls mentioned relocating the village, a solution which several nearby villages have already turned to.
Despite their young age, it was clear the youth of Kipnuk are fully aware of the risks and challenges that currently face their community and will continue to worsen in the future. These students exude respect, resiliency, and awareness—not only for their culture, language, lifeways, and elders, but also for us as strangers and the information we shared. Furthermore, the school itself was beautiful, featuring walls covered in colorful portraits of Kipnuk’s elders and glass displays of Yup’ik art, regalia, and traditional fishing and hunting tools. Our time at the school was my personal highlight of our time in Kipnuk.
Murals and displays at the Chief Paul Memorial School.
Audrey and Jonathan with the Kipnuk Environmental Team and Sheryl from AIJ.
After our presentation to the students, a few of us went to visit a Kipnuk elder and Tribal Council member, Peter, who was unable to attend the in-person meeting the subsequent day. He and his wife, Liz, were incredibly gracious and hospitable, welcoming us into their home. Peter told us a bit about himself, his large family of children and grandchildren (whose photos cover the walls), and his time in the US military. Liz invited us to eat and fed us stew with seal oil, dried halibut, and white fish, and frozen salmon berries harvested the past summer. While we ate, she showed us the traditional art she’d been working on: a beautiful woven seagrass basket with ornate bird designs, a fuzzy seal and beaver fur hat, and a roll of dried seal intestine to be made into a traditional Yup’ik rain jacket. As we admired her incredible work, I could not ignore the water stains on the walls, evidence of extreme flooding and water damage left by Typhoon Merbok in November 2022. Since then, the Tribe and AIJ have been working tirelessly to file paperwork and fulfill other requirements to access FEMA’s disaster relief funding to repair homes and other infrastructure destroyed by Merbok. Complicated documentation requirements and a lack of translation services, however, have made this a slow process at best and, at worst, an impassable barrier for elders in the community who speak only Yup’ik.
Outside, the wind was howling and the blizzard made it impossible to see through the windows. A young man, presumably one of Liz and Peter’s grandsons, entered the kitchen bundled in snow gear and said he was going out to chop firewood. With full stomachs and happy hearts, we thanked our gracious hosts and braved the blizzard to return to the Teacher Housing for the night. We passed a couple holding hands as they enjoyed a walk, and we saw Chris’ son wrestling in the snow with a village pup. Although the storm made it difficult to see, we pushed forward against the wind and made our way in a straight line to where we knew the school stood.
Once back in the warmth and comfort of the apartment, I thought of our arrival only a few hours earlier. I reflected on my first impression of the landscape: how improbable it seemed for people to live in such a cold, deserted place. From just a few hours with Rayna, Andrea, and Chris, the students and teachers, and the various friendly and hospitable community members we had met, it was clear to me that it takes a certain kind of resilience to live in the Alaskan tundra—and that the people of Kipnuk were likely the most resilient, resourceful, persistent, and kind people I had yet to meet.
Approaching the Qanganaq Building in windy conditions.
On October 16 & 17, the Colorado Wildlife & Transportation Alliance, in partnership with Colorado Parks and Wildlife and the Colorado Department of Transportation, held the second Colorado Wildlife & Transportation Summit in Castle Rock, CO. Objectives of the 2023 Summit included highlighting successes of the Alliance since its creation in 2018, capitalizing on the momentum of recent policies, and identifying needs, gaps, and opportunities for long-term and proactive approaches to wildlife-vehicle collision mitigation in Colorado. CDR’s Melissa Bade, Daniel Estes, and Julia Oleksiak led planning efforts and helped to implement the Alliance’s vision for a successful Summit.
Dozens of participants seated during a presentation. (Credit: CWTA)
The Summit brought together partners from several federal, state, and local agencies, tribes, and organizations—including Summit sponsors GOCO and Muley Fanatic Foundation. Over two days, the Summit provided attendees with educational presentations, facilitated discussions, a field trip to two wildlife underpasses in the I-25 corridor between Colorado Springs and Castle Rock, and opportunities to build meaningful partnerships.
This event included:
110 attendees
20 presenters
45 different organizations/agencies represented (including 4 other states, the Southern Ute Indian Tribe, FHWA, BLM, NPS, USFS, USFWS, and a number of counties)
2 field trip locations along the I-25 Gap Project
As presenter Dan Gibbs, Executive Director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, summarized, “It was exciting to see the diverse partners come together and hear about their interest, passions, and commitment to help the state of Colorado address the drastically high rates of wildlife-vehicle collisions.”
Summit attendees approaching a wildlife crossing. (Credit: CWTA)
Leading up to the event, CDR facilitated Summit Planning Committee meetings, coordinated with Alliance co-chairs, and supported event logistics. CDR has been involved in the collaboration and coalition-building between wildlife and transportation officials in Colorado since the first Summit in 2017, which resulted in the formation of the Colorado Wildlife & Transportation Alliance. CDR is proud to continue to support these efforts leading to the safe passage of people and wildlife in Colorado and beyond.
