People

The faculty and staff of the Scrivner Institute are defined by their passion, expertise and dedication to using public policy as a tool to create a more just, equitable and healthy world. Learn more about them and how they're advancing positive public policy solutions below.

Scrivner Institute Team

Naazneen Barma

Director

Naaz Barma

Naazneen H. Barma is Director of the Doug and Mary Scrivner Institute of Public Policy, Scrivner Chair, and Associate Professor at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver. She is a political scientist whose work spans topics including peacebuilding, foreign aid, the political economy of development, and global governance. She is currently working on a collaborative project that aims to develop a principled and pragmatic roadmap for a modern global liberalism. She is author of The Peacebuilding Puzzle: Political Order in Post-Conflict States (Cambridge University Press 2017), co-author of Rents to Riches? The Political Economy of Natural Resource-Led Development (World Bank, 2011), and co-editor of Institutions Taking Root: Building State Capacity in Challenging Contexts (World Bank, 2014) and The Political Economy Reader: Markets as Institutions (Routledge, 2008). Prior to joining the Korbel School faculty, she was Associate Professor of National Security Affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School from 2000–2010 and previously worked from 1998–2001 and 2007–2010 as a development practitioner at the World Bank.

Rebecca Montgomery

Director of Democracy and Civil Discourse Initiatives

Rebecca Montgomery

Katie Aker

Assistant Director

Katie Aker

Katie Aker is the Assistant Director for the Scrivner Institute of Public Policy. She has a Master of Public Administration and a Master of Arts in International Education Management from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies. Katie has previously worked as a program manager and coordinator for several social impact initiatives, including programs related to university-community engaged research, ocean conservation and social enterprise, and sustainable agriculture action research. Prior to graduate school, Katie served as a community economic development volunteer with the Peace Corps in Peru and completed her undergraduate degrees in Business Administration and Spanish at Colorado State University.

Scrivner Affiliated Faculty

Lapo Salucci
Lapo Salucci

Teaching Associate Professor

Expertise: Urban Politics and Policy, Demographics, US Policy, Methodology, Statistics

 
 
 
 
Ajenai Clemmons
Ajenai Clemmons

Assistant Professor

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tamra Pearson d’Estrée

Tamra Pearson d’Estrée

Professor

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kaitlyn Sims

Kaitlyn Sims headshot

Assistant Professor

 

Martin Rhodes
MArtin Rhodes

Professor

 

 

 

 

 

 

Frank Laird
Frank Laird

Associate Professor

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hinckley Jones-Sanpei
Hinckley Jones Sanpei

Professor

 

 

 

 

 

 

Matt Kazan
Matt Kazan

Associate Professor of the Practice

 

Faculty Advisory Committee

Our Faculty Advisory Committee helps guide our research, education and programming, and comprises faculty from across the University. Their wide-ranging expertise ensures we approach all aspects of our work from an interdisciplinary perspective, which is imperative for developing effective policy solutions.

Member Listing

Ex Officio

Naazneen Barma
Director, Scrivner Institute of Public Policy

Fritz Mayer
Dean, Josef Korbel School of International Studies

Advisory Committee

Jennifer Greenfield, chair
Graduate School of Social Work

Deborah Avant
Korbel School of International Studies

Rachel Epstein
Korbel School of International Studies

Andrew Goetz
College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics

Rafael Ioris
Dept. of History, College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences

Frank Laird
Korbel School of International Studies

Govind Persad
Sturm College of Law

Chiara Piovani
Dept. of Economics, College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences

Martin Rhodes
Korbel School of International Studies

Lolita Tabron
Morgridge College of Education

Kimon Valavanis
Ritchie School of Engineering and Computer Science

Ellen Winiarczyk
University College

pattern

Support the Scrivner Institute's mission to explore how public policy can help address our most pressing collective problems

Give Now