Margaret Browne has more than 25 years of experience in policy, management, and financial analysis working for the City and County of Denver. During her tenure, she was appointed by two mayors to serve as the Director of Finance and Management. Prior to serving in this capacity, she worked in progressively more responsible positions within Denver government including a seven-year stint as Budget Director. Prior to joining the City and County of Denver, she worked as a research analyst for the Joint Budget Committee for the Colorado State Legislature. She was an active member of the Government Finance Officers Association National Budget Committee.
Ms. Browne holds a master’s degree in Public Administration from the University of Colorado Denver. She earned her B.A. degree from the University of California at Santa Cruz. She received a Gates Fellowship to the Program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government at Harvard University
Mark Collins is the Associate Vice President for Administrative Operations at the University of Wyoming. He also serves as an adjunct instructor in the University’s Political Science Department. He has over twenty five years of senior public management experience, including seventeen years as a city manager. In addition to his background in municipal management, he has extensive experience in parks and recreation administration and planning with both local agencies and the National Park Service.
He received a B.A. in History from Denison University, an M.S. in Parks, Recreation and Geography from the University of Wyoming and a Masters in Public Administration, also from UW.
Mark began his professional career as a secondary school teacher and has been an adjunct faculty member for the University of Colorado, Western State College and the University of Wyoming. He is a frequent presenter for the Colorado Municipal League, the Wyoming Association of Municipalities and numerous state and local leadership programs.
Maureen Ediger joined the School of Public Affairs in August of 2005. Currently, she is the Director of External Affairs. Since 2010, she has also directed the Denver Community Leadership Forum. In her capacity as Director of External Affairs, Maureen focuses her efforts on the school's advisory council, reaching out to SPA alums and resource development plans and programming, and marketing the school's programs. The favorite part of her job is meeting with prospective, current and former students who have a passion for public service. She earned her MPA from the SPA in the spring of 2005, concentrating her studies on higher education policy. In 1996, Ediger was elected to the CU Board of Regents and served a 6-year term, serving as the boards' chair 2001-02. Her background in education leadership and volunteerism is combined in her service on the boards and various committees at the schools of her 4 children.
Dr. Dallas Everhart improves team performance with custom on-site training and coaching in communications, finance, management and leadership skills. Dallas has worked as a finance director and city manager in local government, executive director in higher education, and consultant to private and public sector organizations. Dallas has the unique ability to identify the real issues and subsequently provide the effective coaching and training necessary to produce a sustainable improvement in performance.
In addition to his consulting work, Dr. Everhart teaches in the Monfort College of Business at the University of Northern Colorado and in the Colorado Certified Public Manager program at the University of Colorado Denver. Dr. Everhart received his BA and MBA from Western State College of Colorado and PhD from the University of Northern Colorado.
Dr. Jane Hansberry is an adjunct member of the faculty of the School of Public Affairs. From 1983-1987, Hansberry served as the General Manager of the Fraser Valley Metro Recreation District in Winter Park. From 1990-1999, she was the District Administrator for the Metropolitan Denver Scientific and Cultural Facilities District. She is the immediate past Executive Director of the Foundation for Human Enrichment (FHE), a Boulder-based somatic psychology training organization.
Dr. Hansberry holds an MPA from the University of Colorado and a Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh. Her dissertation focused on the effects of collaboration on organizational performance. Her current areas of research include the economic impact of arts and culture, nonprofit and public sector governance and organizational development, regional cultural asset districts, and the facilitation of collaboration.
Aden Hogan, Jr. is the City Manager for Evans. Before Evans, Aden served as the Town Administrator for Parker for nearly ten years. Prior to his tenure in Colorado, Aden was Assistant to the City Manager in Oklahoma City. Following the bombing of the A. P. Murrah Federal Building on April 19, 1995, Aden served as one of the directors of the City’s Multi-Agency Coordination Team during the 17-day response to that disaster.
Aden holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Mesa State College in Grand Junction and a Master’s degree in Public Administration from the University of Colorado. He is also an adjunct professor for the University of Colorado in public administration, disaster management and public policy, and is a frequent lecturer and keynote speaker on these topics for public and private organizations across the U.S. and Canada. He has received several national awards for program excellence.
Clint Kinney is the City Manager of Fruita. Prior to that, he worked for several cities including Durango, Lenexa (KS), and Arvada in a wide variety of departments and positions.
He has a Bachelor’s in Business Administration and a Master’s in Public Administration.
Jon Peacock joined Pitkin County in January of 2011 as the County Manager. Prior to that, he spent three years as the Assistant County Administrator and five years as County Administrator for Mesa County. In 2007, Jon was named "County Administrator of the Year" by the Association of Colorado County Administrators. Jon came to Colorado in 2002 from Columbus, Ohio, where he worked as a Fiscal and Policy Analyst for the State of Ohio. Jon previously taught Political Science and Public Administration at the University of Wyoming and worked for the City of Laramie, Wyoming. His education includes a Master’s degree in Public Administration and a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science, both from the University of Wyoming.
Gary L. Sears is the City Manager of Englewood. He has been in public management for more than 35 years in five communities—Loveland, Greeley, Silverthorne, Glendale and Englewood. He is past president of the Colorado City County Management Association and the Colorado Municipal League. He received the Leo G. Reithmeyer award from the University of Colorado in 2002 as the "Public Administrator of the Year." Sears is an Adjunct Professor with the University of Colorado’s Graduate School of Political Science. Sears has also published several articles and cases regarding his work in the municipal management profession.
Gary is a member of the Commission on Peer Review and Accreditation for NASPAA, where he has also served on several site visit teams to university programs throughout the U.S. Sears has a Bachelor’s degree from Monmouth College and a Master’s of Public Administration from the University of Colorado.
Jessica Sowa received a PhD in Public Administration from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University in 2003. Dr. Sowa’s research focuses on public and nonprofit management, with an emphasis on organizational effectiveness, collaborative service delivery mechanisms, and the management of human resources in public and nonprofit organizations. She has studied inter-agency collaborations in early care and education and economic development, state civil service systems, grievance procedures, and performance management systems in nonprofit organizations. Dr. Sowa’s work has been published in Public Administration Review, Administration and Society, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, and the Review of Public Personnel Administration. With Steven Hays, her work on state civil service systems was awarded best article for 2006 in Review of Public Personnel Administration, awarded by the Section on Personnel Administration and Labor Relations, American Society for Public Administration. She has contributed chapters in the Handbook of Human Resource Management in Government, 3rd edition (2010) and Public Personnel Administration: Problems and Prospects, 5th edition (2009). Current projects include research on communication processes and organizational effectiveness in nonprofit organizations, state leadership training programs, and HR capacity in small nonprofit organizations. Dr. Sowa is also the Chair of the Teaching Section of the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA).
Carolynne White is an attorney with the firm of Brownstein, Hyatt, Farber and Schreck where she specializes in matters of land use. Her practice includes zoning, the entitlement process, urban renewal, eminent domain, mixed use development, transit oriented development, PIFs and other financing tools, and historic preservation. She also handles municipal election matters, including initiatives and referenda.
From 1994-1999, she was staff attorney for the Colorado Municipal League. Before that she was staff attorney for the Denver Water Board. In addition to holding a law degree, Ms. White has a Master’s in Public Administration and a Master’s in Urban and Regional Planning.