Bio
Andy Pattison received his B.A in Ecology, Evolution, and Animal Behavior from Skidmore College in 1999 and went on to work as a conservation Biologist for the State of New York and The Nature Conservatory. Andy later taught Biology and Environmental Science at a progressive charter school in Santa Fe, NM and was the Science Program Coordinator at Blue Academy, a non-profit eco-tourism company he helped launch in the U.S., Costa Rica and Fiji.
Andy later moved to Denver in order to complete a Master in Public Administration (MPA) with a focus in Environmental Policy, Management, and Law from the School of Public Affairs (SPA) at the University of Colorado Denver (UCD). While doing so, Andy worked as a researcher at the Wirth Chair in Environmental and Community Development Policy supporting the Wirth Chair's efforts in local and statewide sustainable development policy advocacy. Andy's Master's thesis involved working with the Colorado Municipal League and dozens of Colorado municipalities to develop and author a book entitled "Energy Management and Conservation: Municipal Best Practices".
Research
While pursuing his PhD in Public Affairs at UCD under the IGERT program Andy is continuing his research in municipal-scale sustainable development policy centered on energy and climate issues. The working title of his dissertation is “Beliefs, Learning, and Policy Entrepreneurs: A Examination of Local Climate Policy Development”.
Non-research highlights
Andy is also a fellow in the Center for Progressive Leadership’s Colorado Political Leaders Fellowship program and a fellow in the Denver Community Leadership Forum. In Dec 2009, after over four years of advocating for progressive sustainability policy at UCD and on the Auraria campus Andy was hired to be the Sustainability Officer for the Auraria Higher Education Center (AHEC) where he directs all greenhouse gas inventory work, climate action planning and other sustainability projects and on the Auraria Campus, the largest urban campus in the nation.
He also now teaches at SPA in the MPA program and currently serves on: 1) the Governor’s Pollution Prevention Advisory Board, which provides overall policy guidance, coordination, and advice to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment on pollution prevention activities, 2) the Board of Directors of New Era Colorado, a non-profit organization dedicated to fostering political awareness and activity among young adults in Colorado, and 3) the Board of Directors of Colorado Conservation Voters, a non-profit that works to educate the public about the conservation positions of candidates and elected official and to hold elected officials accountable for their environmental records.
Andy has worked and volunteered on dozens of local, state, and national political campaigns in Colorado and the rocky mountain region. He is an avid hiker, backpacker, and naturalist and plays ultimate Frisbee here in Denver.