Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Community Engagement In the News

When covid-19 vaccines became available, Colorado public health officials initially relied on mass vaccination events publicized through Facebook, email, and texts, and required Coloradans to book appointments online. But when that go-big strategy drove large disparities in who was getting vaccinated, public health departments in the Denver area decided to go small instead.

 Dr. Jennifer Taylor-Cousar, a pediatric and adult pulmonologist at National Jewish Health, is committed to creating systemic racial change for patients in the medical field. 

Previous studies have reported high rates of death by suicide and drug overdose—including opioid overdose—in military service members with a history of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI).  A new study finds that those risks are highest among military members with mTBI who identify their racial/ethnic status as "Other," as opposed to standard racial/ethnic categories. The study is published in the Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation.

Carey Candrian knows there isn’t much space for art in medicine or academia.

Neudy Rojop, 29, stands on a bumpy, cobbled lane in Guatemala in the small rural village of San Rafael Pacayá. It leads to the home where she grew up and where she still lives today.

In June 2021, researchers at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Aurora turned a magnifying glass on Nature’s written journalism. Computational biologists Natalie Davidson and Casey Greene reported that most of the individuals we quoted were male.

After more than five decades of trying, the drug industry is on the verge of providing effective immunizations against the respiratory syncytial virus, which has put an estimated 90,000 U.S. infants and small children in the hospital since the start of October.

In 2021, 56% of LGBTQ+ adults reported experiencing some form of discrimination from a health care provider. For those who are transgender or gender non-conforming, the rate of discrimination from health care providers vaults to 70%.

After living in the closet for more than 40 years, ​Cynthia Johnson left her marriage with her high school sweetheart and embarked on a new life. She started dating women, continued to pursue a career in ministry and learned to be on her own for the first time.

A federal judge agreed with the University of Colorado that a longtime cancer researcher failed to show he was subjected to a hostile work environment based on his race, religion or national origin, or was otherwise threatened with termination.

Despite major U.S. civil rights advancements over the last decade, most LGBTQ+ patients have lived a lifetime under legal discrimination and often still struggle to access medical care, according to Carey Candrian, PhD, an associate professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Denver.

Experiences of discrimination in healthcare leave some sexual and gender minority (SMG) adults in doubt that their preferences will be considered in end-of-life care, a new study finds.  Investigators surveyed 201 SGM and 402 non-SGM adults, and conducted qualitative interviews with a subset of the SGM group. A validated measure, the Advance Care Planning (ACP) Engagement Survey, was used to capture experiences of discrimination. 

Newborns of mothers with disabilities were found to be at mildly to moderately increased risk of several birth complications, a cohort study reported.

In countries where practices are permitted before adulthood, the number of children and adolescents undergoing treatment aimed at delaying or with a view to transition is increasing. Although reliable data is limited, the quest for gender identity appears to be more widespread with greater social acceptance of gender dysphoria manifesting in individuals who feel their biological sex does not match their gender identity. But hormonal treatments are not without effect on the growing body of children and adolescents. For example, transgender youth who receive hormone therapy aimed at delaying puberty or gender reassignment have lower bone mineral density (BMD) than expected for their age, regardless of gender assigned at birth.

Hannah Anderson doesn’t want children.  The 27-year-old Coloradan wants to be able to hop on a plane when wanderlust calls. She wants a financial cushion free of child-related costs. She dreams of dedicating time and energy toward fostering animals.  Over the years, Anderson cycled through numerous birth control options — intrauterine devices and contraceptive injections — that caused her negative side effects and distress. A couple of years ago, when Anderson was sure she desired a child-free future, she told her doctor she wanted permanent birth control: sterilization.  Anderson’s doctor refused, saying someday she might have a husband who wants kids.  “It’s very demeaning,” Anderson said. “I felt like, ‘Are they allowed to say this? Am I being punked?’ If my future husband wants kids then that’s not the right person for me.”

One in four Americans live with some form of physical, mental, or developmental disability. Despite the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) 32 years ago, a recent study finds many people don’t know much about this law — including the majority of doctors!  Society might expect the medical field to be an oasis in an otherwise cold world, but researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) found that this is simply not so. Many practicing physicians do not have a basic understanding of their legal obligations under ADA and 70 percent don’t know who decides what constitutes a “reasonable accommodation” for a person with disabilities.

As COVID-19 consumed the U.S. in 2020, another health crisis was also raging: the drug overdose epidemic. Nearly 92,000 people died from drug overdoses that year, a 30% increase from 2019.  While overdose deaths rose across the population, the increase in deaths was far steeper among Black, American Indian, and Alaska Native people, according to data published July 19 in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Overdose deaths rose 44% among Black people from 2019 to 2020, and 39% among American Indian and Alaska Native persons, according to the CDC’s analysis of data from 25 states and the District of Columbia. For white Americans, they rose 22%.

The University of Colorado (CU) School of Medicine has announced the launch of its new Department of Biomedical Informatics (DBMI), which will focus on addressing health disparities and improving healthcare quality using big data and artificial intelligence (AI).

Among transgender youth who receive puberty-delaying or gender-affirming hormone therapy, bone mineral density (BMD) is lower relative to age-based norms, and this is true regardless of gender assignment at birth.

An online group coaching program that normalizes vulnerability and emotional processing can help fix burnout in female physicians, our study found. The doctors who participated in this program went from highly to only mildly burned out, while their peers who were not in the program became even more burned out.

While caring for his aging mother, Donald M. Bell, a 72-year-old gay man, began thinking about where he would spend his twilight years. “While mom and I were [in her long-term community], we were simply mother and son and I took care of her,” he said.

Colorado passed the Reproductive Health Equity Act to ensure abortion access would stay in Colorado once Roe v. Wade was overturned, but that access doesn't mean barriers don't exist. 

For years, Colorado lawmakers have worked relentlessly to reform the state’s health care system. But that work has often focused on just one narrow area: health insurance.  From expanding access to Medicaid, to setting up a state health insurance exchange, to engineering a complicated reinsurance program to creating the Colorado Option, a government-designed health plan, the brightest minds in health policy in Colorado have spent a lot of the last decade thinking about how to get more people covered at lower prices.

A new study finds some unvaccinated Latino patients hospitalized for COVID-19 were motivated to encourage vaccination after their illness. A team of Colorado researchers interviewed 25 unvaccinated hospitalized with the coronavirus and survived. Dr. Lilia Cervantes, one of the researchers, said before they got sick many felt COVID didn't exist or they didn't trust information about the virus.

Life expectancy dropped in Colorado for the second straight year in 2021. It’s the kind of decline, driven by the pandemic, not seen in decades, data from the state health department show.  The average life expectancy for Colorado residents fell to 78 years in 2021. That's slightly lower than 2020, the first year of the pandemic when it was 78.4 years, but the slide represents a persistent and significant drop of nearly three years compared to 2019. 

Fewer than half of transgender, nonbinary, gay, lesbian, and bisexual Colorado youth said they feel like they belong at their school, according to a biennial health survey. More than a quarter of transgender youth who took the survey reported attempting suicide in the previous year. 

In today’s episode of Moving Medicine, AMA Chief Experience Officer Todd Unger discusses the mistreatment and harassment of physicians and its effect on physician well-being with Lotte Dyrbye, MD, senior associate dean of faculty and chief well-being officer at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Denver.

Armando Peniche Rosales has a crooked toe that for years has predicted the weather, growing sensitive when rain or cold is coming.  “It never healed right,” said Peniche Rosales, who broke the middle toe on his left foot as a high school soccer player in Denver years ago and limped home without seeing a doctor. He was living in the U.S. without authorization at the time. From age 9, when he moved to Denver, until he was in his 20s, he didn’t have health insurance.

People with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) struggled with their mental health during the COVID-19-induced lockdowns and subsequent restraints on community services, according to a new study published today in Psychiatric Services.  Researchers evaluated nationwide survey data and found the most significant stressors were loss of access to programs and activities, such as volunteering and jobs, that provide opportunities to socialize. 

Hello. This is the American Medical Association's Moving Medicine video and podcast. In recognition of Pride Month, today we're joined by Dr. Carey Candrian, an associate professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Denver, who's going to discuss caring for LGBTQ seniors and addressing disparities during end-of-life care. I'm Todd Unger, AMA's chief experience officer in Chicago.

As Britney Taylor toured the Mama Bird Maternity Wellness Spa during its grand opening this spring, she reflected on the birth of her first child: a confusing and lonely experience that resulted in an unplanned cesarean section and an extended period of postpartum depression.

The stubborn problem of labor shortages has Colorado businesses looking at older workers who retired or lost their jobs during the pandemic and want back in the workforce and at changes in immigration policies that could help fill positions.

Drug overdose deaths among American Indians and Alaska Natives grew 43% between 2019 and 2020—the highest rate of deaths in 2020 and 30% higher than for White individuals.  Suicides were the second leading cause of death for that group in 2019, with a rate around 20% higher than that of non-Hispanic Whites.

As Britney Taylor toured the Mama Bird Maternity Wellness Spa during its grand opening this spring, she reflected on the birth of her first child: a confusing and lonely experience that resulted in an unplanned cesarean section and an extended period of postpartum depression.

Going to the doctor's office or hospital can be stressful, but a new study now quantifies how often physicians are mistreated by patients, and how it can lead to burnout.  “In order to care for our population, we need providers that love their job,” Dr. Cleveland Piggott, a family physician and assistant professor of family medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, said.

As Britney Taylor toured the Mama Bird Maternity Wellness Spa during its grand opening this spring, she reflected on the birth of her first child: a confusing and lonely experience that resulted in an unplanned cesarean section and an extended period of postpartum depression.

Rachel Hudson and her husband had their first serious discussion about leaving the country in the days following the leak of a draft Supreme Court opinion foreshadowing the reversal of Roe vs. Wade.  They’d tossed the idea around previously with each passing headline: attacks on voting rights, book banning, gun violence, housing price inequities. But the 37-year-old Northglenn resident said the notion of having a Constitutional right stripped away — thereby allowing the government to legislate control over her body — was almost insurmountable.

As Britney Taylor toured the Mama Bird Maternity Wellness Spa during its grand opening this spring, she reflected on the birth of her first child: a confusing and lonely experience that resulted in an unplanned cesarean section and an extended period of postpartum depression.  But here in this city abutting Denver, local families and smiling doulas wandered amid a bright space resonating with upbeat music where primarily women of color can get massages, meet with birth professionals and support groups, and attend classes on breastfeeding, childbirth, and infant care.

Gender-affirming care is not child abuse. So say experts from the nation’s leading organizations in the prevention and treatment of child abuse and neglect, including the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children and our nation’s oldest academic center in the field, the Kempe Center.

"Doctors, in general, have behaved as if they are 'superior beings,'" Pius Kamau said, "and they are treating the Black patient as if, first of all, you are doing them a favor to see them, and secondly, it's like … ‘Why are you here? You’re not worth it!’"

Ahead of Memorial Day, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs launched the Mission Daybreak challenge: a $20 million competition and accelerator program aimed at fostering innovation to decrease suicide deaths among veterans.

Most of us have experienced some form of medical imaging, whether it was at an eye appointment or after a broken bone.  These images might contain more information than meets the eye. Things artificial intelligence can detect.

Almost every one of us has a friend, family member or a loved one with Down syndrome. It’s estimated that there are over 400,000 Americans with Down syndrome. For me, it’s personal. Three and a half years ago, our world was blessed with a sweet baby boy named Andrew, and he has Down syndrome. His parents are my friends, and their world would not be the same without him.

In a recent survey of more than 6,500 physicians from across the United States representing a broad spectrum of racial and ethnic diversity, nearly 30% of respondents reported experiencing discrimination and mistreatment from patients or patients’ family members or visitors.

Nearly one-third of doctors in the United States have experienced mistreatment from patients or their families, including racist or sexist remarks, a study published Thursday found.

For many, coming out is arguably one of the scariest moments in a person’s life. And for some, the difficulties worsen with age — 66% of older LGBTQ+ adults fear experiencing insufficient support, and 75% of the 2.4 million LGBTQ+ adults 65 years or older in the United States will go back into the closet when they enter assisted living or senior living communities. 

A man may proceed with his "reverse discrimination" lawsuit against the University of Colorado after a federal judge determined Christian E. Sparks had plausibly claimed the Office of Equity discriminated against him because of his gender.

Racism in the medical setting caused emotional and physical stress for Black veterans with chronic kidney disease (CKD), as well as a high sense of distrust in the healthcare system, a qualitative study suggests.

For many, coming out is arguably one of the scariest moments in a person’s life. And for some, the difficulties worsen with age — 66% of older LGBTQ+ adults fear experiencing insufficient support, and 75% of the 2.4 million LGBTQ+ adults 65 years or older in the United States will go back into the closet when they enter assisted living or senior living communities. 

A coaching program to reduce burnout for female physicians “significantly reduced emotional exhaustion” over a six-month period, according to a new study.  Researchers found participants in a web-based coaching program reported lower levels of emotional exhaustion (EE), or feeling emotional exhausted from work, and of imposter syndrome, the feeling of doubt about one’s skills or being undeserving of accomplishments.

U.S. death data show the burden of ischemic heart disease, cerebrovascular disease and HF deaths vary significantly across Asian American subgroups, emphasizing the importance of tailoring CVD prevention and management strategies.

When it came to COVID-19 rates, unhoused people living in encampments had fewer cases than those living in overnight shelters, according to a report in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.

The high cost of prescription drugs is a big issue for many people not just in Colorado, but nationwide.  The Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing lists several resources consumers may not know about, including a savings program through GoodRx.

Billboards screaming about abortion pills. More “sidewalk counseling” and protesters outside clinics. More out-of-state money, more volunteers, more patients traveling to Colorado to seek abortions. This is what the future of the abortion battle will look like in Colorado, predicted advocates on both sides Tuesday after a leaked U.S. Supreme Court draft opinion striking down Roe v. Wade became public. 

Between the golf club at Heather Ridge and Interstate 225, Erin Kay and Mikhail Smith pause to introduce themselves to the residents of a small tent encampment nestled against the chain link fence bordering the highway.  They’re there that morning to warn the inhabitants that the encampment has been flagged for abatement in the near future, and to ask if the people living there need anything from a pair of warm socks to information about how to enter a drug treatment program.

Latino family members of Covid-19 ICU patients face a higher risk of developing PTSD symptoms than other groups, according to a study published Monday by JAMA Network. 

It’s not the kind of thing you would normally expect to see in a classroom, but Aurora Science and Tech isn’t a normal school. On Monday morning, a classroom of eighth graders practiced emergency first aid on fake arms as part of a hands-on lesson delivered by nurses at the Anschutz Medical Campus about how to stop bleeding.

Amy Kilpatrick was attending a cardiac rehabilitation clinic when the COVID-19 pandemic hit Colorado in 2020. Kilpatrick had struggled with heart issues for years, but the doctors were finally discovering answers and working on solutions for Kilpatrick, a Commerce City resident, to manage it.  Then COVID-19 arrived, and Kilpatrick’s world seemed to be turned upside down and filtered through a machine of worst-case scenarios.

Academic researchers are calling for new healthcare guidelines for treating obesity, hypertension and diabetes in women. Currently, there are no sex-specific guidelines for treating or preventing these health conditions, potentially limiting the medical care available to women.

Sophia Whitten is a high school senior who loves music and famous singers.  “Ed Sheeran, Dolly Parton, Miley Cyrus and many more,” Whitten said.  In fact, she just recorded her first single in Nashville titled "Sorry."  Her mother, Michelle Sie Whitten, says she’s quite similar to other teenagers, but she faces some challenges that are unique because she has Down syndrome.

"I have patients who tell me … 'I am so glad to see a Black woman as my provider.'"  Salwa Mourtada Bamba has been a fighter ever since she was a young girl. Growing up in what she described as the “war-torn” country of Liberia, she said it has always been a lifelong dream of hers to become a medical professional. It's a dream that she is living now out in Colorado.

A federal judge denied the University of Colorado's request to dismiss a medical professor's disability discrimination lawsuit, which alleged that the school suspended her because it perceived she was cognitively impaired.  Robin Slover, a professor of clinical practice in anesthesiology at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus who has worked for the university on-and-off since 1975, leveled a variety of accusations against her employer. She asserted that she experienced discrimination based on her age and religion, and she was subjected to a hostile work environment.

Calling it part of an ideological evolution, leaders at Hennepin Healthcare say the system will end its contract for medical instruction with Minneapolis police and prohibit its doctors from moonlighting as law enforcement agents.  Interim Chief Medical Officer Dr. Daniel Hoody announced the latter policy in an internal newsletter to staff on March 14, explaining the dual professions of some doctors with police agencies is harming patient trust.

The total treatment costs for American Indian and Alaska Native older adults with dementia are US$2,943 higher than for those without dementia because of higher hospitalization costs, according to our new study published recently in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia.

A new initiative in the form of three bills was unveiled by Colorado lawmakers on Tuesday. The measures will boost investments in education and training for residents to address the state’s labor shortages.  Despite a recovery from 2020 lows, private health care and social assistance occupations still face a 13% shortfall from pre-pandemic staffing levels, a concern for dealing with future outbreaks and caring for one of the fastest growing state populations in America.

Jenneh Rishe could easily run six miles in under 45 minutes — until suddenly she couldn’t. In the spring of 2019, Mrs. Rishe, now 35, began finding her daily jogs a struggle.  Years earlier, she had been diagnosed with two congenital heart conditions that, she said, doctors told her would not affect her daily functioning. Yet she was getting worse: Intense chest pains woke her up at night, and she started using a wheelchair after passing out too many times.

DENVER — Colorado lawmakers are taking a huge step toward expanding Medicaid on Friday.  The House Public and Behavioral Health and Human Services committee voted 8-4 to move forward HB22-1289, which would expand coverage to pregnant women and children, regardless of immigration status. It also aims to improve access to health benefits for economically insecure Colorado families among other things.

Julissa Soto arrived at the church early on Ash Wednesday, as good a day as any for her to urge people to think about mortality.  She’d been in church a lot lately, part of a job that she, a devout Catholic, had come to see as its own kind of spiritual calling. So, when the priest stepped forward during Mass to begin the distribution of ashes and nodded in her direction, she did not hesitate.

The main floor of Bre Stafford's home in northeast Colorado Springs is strewn with boxes, filled with her belongings, as she’s preparing to move to a different residence.  The basement of the house, which she shares with three roommates, is packed with boxes and packages of an entirely different sort. Stafford, a third-year medical student at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, has been on a mission over the past few weeks, collecting an array of medical supplies for a humanitarian shipment to Ukraine.

As tears trickled down his face, Xavi Saenz asked himself why it took 43 years for him to live authentically as a transgender man.  Born and raised in the small, conservative town of Delta, Colorado, Saenz identified as a lesbian woman for most of his life. The title fit him while he presented as a woman, but he still felt something was missing.

The number of colleges and universities that are Hispanic Serving Institutions fell as Latino enrollment declined during the pandemic, according to new data from Excelencia in Education, a Latino higher education research and advocacy group.

UCHealth Colorado donated $200,000 worth of medical supplies to Project C.U.R.E. — all to help Ukrainian refugees fleeing war in their country. The supplies left for Ukraine on Tuesday morning.

We have countless impactful women in the Mile High. We asked you to nominate the woman who most makes a difference in your life, and you did.  One of our finalists, Josina O’Connell is inspiring others through her refusal to accept “no” for an answer.

Matthew Wynia, MD, MPH, of the University of Colorado’s Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, discusses his article in the Annals of Internal Medicine on the ethics of treating hunger-striking detainees and gives advice to physicians who may be pressured to make difficult ethical decisions.

Dr. Warren Hern doesn’t have to imagine what could befall many women in America if the Supreme Court strikes down Roe vs. Wade.  In 1963, he was a medical student working nights at Colorado General Hospital in Denver. Women would arrive in septic shock, some probably hours from death.

More than 12 months since the COVID-19 vaccine first arrived in Colorado, the vaccination rate for Hispanic residents is almost half what it is for white residents.

Dr. Josh Barocas, with the CU School of Medicine, is a public health researcher. He says there's an erroneous belief that most people on the street are harmful.

On the eve of travelling to Beijing to compete in her first Winter Paralympics, Dr Pam Wilson's heart melted when a three-year-old patient came into her clinic wearing a "Go Team USA" t-shirt.  At 66, Wilson is the oldest competitor at the Beijing Paralympics, and hopes to bring home gold in wheelchair curling to inspire her young patients living with diabilities.

COVID-19 has sent nearly 900,000 Americans to the hospital in the past two years. A new study shows that the ZIP codes they came from had a lot to do with how sick they were when they got to the hospital, and how much care they needed once they were there.

Colorado Paralympians are ready to make a splash of their own in the wake of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.  Sixty-seven people, including two guides, will represent Team USA at the Winter Paralympics, with 10 from Colorado. Colorado is sending more people to the Winter Paralympics than any other state.

A multilevel program that provided support and resources to rural primary care practices was associated with an increase in buprenorphine prescriptions, data show.  Prior to the study, very few health care providers in rural Colorado, where the study was conducted, had the Drug Enforcement Administration’s waiver to prescribe buprenorphine for opioid use disorder, study co-author Linda Zittleman, MSPH, a senior instructor in the department of family medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, told Healio.

American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) adults are at high risk for Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD), yet little is known about resources allocated for their treatment.  In a new peer-reviewed paper published today in the Alzheimer's & Dementia, scholars and healthcare experts present first of its kind research focused on dementia among AI/AN adults and the costs of treating this disease within the Indian Health Service (IHS) and tribal health programs.

Pediatric allergy clinics can use telemedicine to increase accessibility, with subsequent in-person visits scheduled for necessary testing, according to a study published in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice.

One of Colorado’s largest health systems has budgeted $50 million to pay for its employees to further their education in hopes to attract and retain workers.

Pandemics and recessions have the potential to exacerbate existing health inequalities between men and women.  Many social factors can put women at a higher risk of infection during a pandemic. In almost all societies, women assume the role of primary caregiver when family members fall ill. They are also more likely to be front-line health care workers.

A toxicologist testified Wednesday at the federal trial of three former officers charged with violating George Floyd’s civil rights that it wasn’t drug use, heart disease nor an agitated state known as “excited delirium” that caused Floyd’s death after officers pinned him to the pavement in May 2020.

A new partnership between Fort Lewis College and the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus to develop a four-year undergraduate nursing degree program in Southwest Colorado is underway.

Researchers at the Colorado School of Public Health are investing resources their energy into Colorado schools. They hope a new COVID study will not only result in safer hallways, but a larger impact when it comes to detection of respiratory illnesses across the world.

The Older Coloradans Act might be getting a significant update by the end of the year, with a new bill in the Colorado Legislature seeking to modify the Colorado Commission on Aging, make changes to the Colorado Office of Aging, and establish a new “Lifelong Colorado” initiative.  Bill sponsors Reps. Mary Young (D – Greeley) and Mary Bradfield (R – Fort Carson) introduced House Bill 1035 last week in hopes of making the 59-year old statute more applicable to the current needs of Colorado’s older population.

A new partnership between two Colorado higher education institutions aims to tackle a shortage of Indigenous nurses while bolstering rural health care in the Four Corners region through a novel, culturally-competent four-year nursing degree at Durango’s Fort Lewis College.

A new partnership between two Colorado higher education institutions aims to tackle a shortage of Indigenous nurses while bolstering rural health care in the Four Corners region through a novel, culturally-competent four-year nursing degree at Durango’s Fort Lewis College.

UCHealth, based in Aurora, Colorado, is partnering with HealthRhythms, a digital mental health startup, to offer an artificial intelligence-based digital platform to millions of mental health patients.  HealthRhythms' app uses smartphone sensors to passively measure behavior relevant to mental health through daily activity and periodic surveys, leveraging AI to examine an individual’s mental health status. The technology then uses that data to deliver personalized, timely interventions to improve mental health.

A new partnership between two Colorado higher education institutions aims to tackle a shortage of Indigenous nurses while bolstering rural health care in the Four Corners region through a novel, culturally-competent four-year nursing degree at Durango’s Fort Lewis College. The program, expected to begin in the fall of 2023, will bring the nursing curriculum and professors from the University of Colorado’s Anschutz Medical Campus to the Indigenous-serving college in southwest Colorado, said Amy Barton, CU Anschutz senior associate dean for faculty and students in the College of Nursing.

Gary Jackson, a former senior judge in Denver County court, was inducted Saturday into the Blacks in Colorado Hall of Fame.  Jackson, who practiced as a lawyer for 43 years and who served as a county judge for eight years until his retirement in 2020, is the seventh African-American judge to be inducted into the hall.