University of Colorado Denver

Before joining the 2011 PhD Cohort he earned his MPA here at the School of Public Affairs and a BS in Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering from Oregon State University.  Immediately following the completion of his engineering degree he moved to Golden, CO and worked for Johns Manville as a research process engineer at their research and development facility in Littleton, CO for nearly four years.  The majority of his time with Johns Manville was spent working with their manufacturing facilities to improve efficiency and provide insight to the R&D group for future projects.  As a Masters student Sam interned and volunteered for the Housing and Urban Development Agency's Denver Multi-Family Hub as well as a local non-profit, the Community Resource Center.

Currently Sam works for the Buechner Institute of Governance as a project lead for hydraulic fracturing research partnered with the National Association of Regional Councils. The research is focused on local and regional social and economic effects of hydraulic fracturing based natural gas development in eight states and how policy makers in those areas are responding. He is also a graduate assistant for Dr. Ely with a focus on school choice and parental satisfaction. His research interests also include understanding policy change. He is currently combining his past experience with simulation with policy process research by creating a discrete event simulation of the Advocacy Coalition Framework with Dr. Weible, Dr. Nohrstedt, Jon Pierce, and David Carter (See WOPPR page).

Prior to this work, he has had the fortune to work with many other CU Denver professors and students. The research projects include: Analyzing and reporting survey data on the evacuation behavior and outcomes of families in various disasters with and without disabilities present with Dr. Gerber; Completing a needs assessment of the Colorado State Department of Human Services county offices with Dr. Goggin and Will Paterson; Analyzing and reporting on pre and post test data for the Center on Domestic Violence “END Violence” program; Researching the history of change of Colorado Water Policy (publication currently in the revise and resubmit phase) with Dr. Heikkila, Dr. Weible and Will Paterson and Vanessa Frank; and assisting the Policy Studies Journal with an analysis of the Journal’s prior publications (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1541-0072.2009.00349.x/pdf)