How $1.3 Billion Makes Its Way Across Colorado: An Interview with Natriece Bryant '02, MA '07, MCJ '09
Natriece Bryant, President of the CU Denver Alumni Board, Describes Her Work Supporting Colorado’s Economic Recovery—Work That’s Gaining National Recognition
Jun 22, 2022
As a leader in Governor Jared Polis’s administration, Natriece has made an impact in communities across Colorado. In 2020, she was named deputy chief customer officer in the Governor’s Office of Information Technology. On top of this role, last year when Colorado received $1.3 billion from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) to distribute across its 64 counties, the governor tasked Natriece with helping lead the charge. Her success in these dual roles has opened even more doors for Natriece: In June 2022, she stepped into a new role as Public Private Partnership Director at the Colorado Department of Personnel & Administration.
Natriece’s ability to make an impact draws on her full breadth of experience and training, beginning with the communications skills she developed as an undergraduate at CU Denver. Natriece credits her bachelor’s in communications with honing her ability to forge strong community connections, create forums for public dialogue, and spark conversations across diverse stakeholders. She continued her education at CU Denver with master’s degrees in sociology and criminal justice, then earned an MBA from Regis University, which together laid the foundation for a career in city and state government that’s spanned nearly 15 years.
This spring, Natriece’s far-reaching contributions across Colorado earned her a 2022 “State IT Leadership of the Year” award from StateScoop. The annual StateScoop 50 Awards recognize “the most influential people in the state government community and the most innovative projects that advance services and solutions for residents.” We sat down with Natriece to learn about the work that led to the award, the conversations she’s been having around the state, and the impact the ARPA is making in Colorado communities.
What approach have you and the Governor’s administration taken to distributing this $1.3 billion in ARPA funds across Colorado?
Historically, government has had a reputation of doing things for the community without fully engaging the community. Well before the ARPA, we’ve been working to challenge this reputation by going directly to local governments, school districts, housing authorities, nonprofits, and other philanthropic stakeholders to ask: What’s going on out there? What projects are school districts working on that need additional support? What do funding processes look like for local governments? What legislation is needed to direct resources toward the most significant gaps?
We’ve always had those conversations, but the hurdle we continuously face is funding. The opportunity provided by the federal government through the ARPA funds means we now have the money to make significant dents in the challenges we’ve seen across the board. So, part of my role was to ensure we listened to the community to understand what projects were coming down the pipeline that could align with the Governor’s priorities, as well as federal compliance with distribution of the funds. That’s the strategy we took: talking to all the counties and municipalities, presenting to elected officials, visiting projects around the state to see what’s going on out there that could be eligible for this funding. That stakeholder engagement process is a key component in how the money will be distributed.
Ultimately, this groundwork helped us identify three major areas where the funding could really help our state “build back better”: affordable housing and homelessness, workforce development, and behavioral and mental health. We formed task forces on each of these with experts in the fields who provided us insights, saying “here’s what our community needs and here’s how we could work on legislation to help get the dollars distributed accordingly.”
So in addition to legislation at the federal level—the American Rescue Plan Act—further state legislation is needed to distribute these funds to projects on the ground?
Correct, so the money comes from the federal government to the state, which then has to allocate and distribute it based on state legislation. We have state legislation that tells us what we can and can’t do with the funding. We started by working with local legislative officials to understand: What does a bill need for us to push the money to local governments, to school districts, to nonprofits, and other key partners in ways that meet statewide objectives? Through the legislative process, bills were passed and ultimately signed by Governor Polis.
Once we have the legislation, the next step in distributing the funds is creating competitive grant programs through some of our state departments. There are multiple departments that will receive portions of that funding, which will set up grant programs that allow for applicants –which include local governments, community partners, school districts, housing authorities, Tribes, Councils of local governments, and regional planning commissions, just to name a few—it all depends on the nature of that particular bill. These entities apply for grants, then that money goes to the winning award recipients across the state.
It sounds like a lot of thoughtful work has been done to ensure the funding is distributed in areas our state needs it most. Are you already seeing impacts of these efforts?
Well, some of the $1.3 billion that came to the state went to more immediate public health responses to the ongoing pandemic—things like covid tests, keeping testing facilities open, getting tests to homes, implementing the digital vaccination card. About $700 million is going to the longer-term economic recovery, and most of these dollars won’t be available for grant programs until the new fiscal year, starting July 1. But having this new funding on the horizon is already making new ideas and new collaborations possible.
What we have seen already from these efforts are more conversations, more communities coming together across the state, which is a beautiful thing. We’ve got local governments talking to other local governments, saying “we’re neighboring counties, why don’t we work on this together.” We’re seeing school districts partnering on building their workforce together or buying buses to put a transportation mechanism in place, so a student can get from one school district to another to take advantage of different training opportunities available.
True transformational change really requires a regional effort. In these conversations we’ve had access to all 64 counties, through our partnership with Colorado Communities Inc. (CCI), and our municipalities, through our partnership with Colorado Municipal League (CML). We’ve been given the opportunity to talk about why it’s important for us to partner. I think a lot of times we do things to make sure that our individual community is taken care of—but this broader approach allows for the whole region to be taken care of. That’s what we’re looking for through these transformational projects: to ensure that we have a broader cross-community impact.
To close on a more personal note, how would you say your CU Denver education has helped prepare you for your leadership positions in Colorado government?
Well, some of the $1.3 billion that came to the state went to more immediate public health responses to the ongoing pandemic—things like covid tests, keeping testing facilities open, getting tests to homes, implementing the digital vaccination card. About $700 million is going to the longer-term economic recovery, and most of these dollars won’t be available for grant programs until the new fiscal year, starting July 1. But having this new funding on the horizon is already making new ideas and new collaborations possible.
What we have seen already from these efforts are more conversations, more communities coming together across the state, which is a beautiful thing. We’ve got local governments talking to other local governments, saying “we’re neighboring counties, why don’t we work on this together.” We’re seeing school districts partnering on building their workforce together or buying buses to put a transportation mechanism in place, so a student can get from one school district to another to take advantage of different training opportunities available.
True transformational change really requires a regional effort. In these conversations we’ve had access to all 64 counties, through our partnership with Colorado Communities Inc. (CCI), and our municipalities, through our partnership with Colorado Municipal League (CML). We’ve been given the opportunity to talk about why it’s important for us to partner. I think a lot of times we do things to make sure that our individual community is taken care of—but this broader approach allows for the whole region to be taken care of. That’s what we’re looking for through these transformational projects: to ensure that we have a broader cross-community impact.
To close on a more personal note, how would you say your CU Denver education has helped prepare you for your leadership positions in Colorado government?
Every degree I received from CU Denver put me in a new position to take on a strategic role or make a policy change that put my education into practice. My bachelor’s is in communications, and I worked in communications for years in state government. My classwork really did help me understand how to talk to people, how to understand the things they need.
My sociology degree helped me understand social dynamics, how people engage with one another, what community engagement really looks like. And through the degree in criminal justice and my classes in the School of Public Affairs, I learned about policy and public administration, which set me up for success in the types of community conversations I’ve been having. It’s really bringing it all together—using all of my education to push this work forward in a successful manner.
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