University of Colorado Boulder

Heidi G. Loshbaugh, Ph.D., University of Colorado Boulder, Senior Research Associate and Affiliate Faculty, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, is passionate about higher education’s role in serving the public good. She has taught, conducted research, served as a college administrator, and an implementer of research-based change. She maintains a keen focus on improving culture, climate, and systems to deepen belonging, quality, and relevance for students, faculty, and staff. She is a Co-PI for a Sloan Centers for Systemic Change award to CU’s Graduate School. The projects focus is implementing systemic change to support improved degree completion for doctoral students in STEM. She is also Co-PI for an NSF award to improve community-college transfer success into the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Recently, she concluded work as the project lead for transformation of evaluation of instruction for faculty in the College of Arts & Sciences. As the Dean for the Center of Math & Science at Community College of Denver in Denver, Colorado, she was principal investigator for ‘STEM Sirviendo,’ a $3M U.S. Department of Education award to transform STEM education. Professional development for faculty to teach STEM in a Hispanic-Serving Institution and strengthened transfer partnerships with four-year campuses were grant deliverables. Her implementation of math corequisite instruction at scale led the Gates Foundation to fund a return-on-investment study. The study revealed gains including timely completion of gateway college math credits for Black, Hispanic, and Pell-eligible students and cost savings of approximately $7,000 for all students. At Colorado School of Mines, an engineering institution in the foothills of Denver, Colorado, Heidi served the college president as the first administrative faculty member focused on diversity. In that role, she wrote the first campus-wide diversity plan focused on better recruiting and retention of diverse students, faculty, and staff. She enthusiastically consults with states and institutions to improve student success in college, particularly with Complete College America, and has supported the Charles A. Dana Center at University of Texas to write white papers about programs and institutions that have transformed teaching practices. In any work, Heidi focuses not only on change implementation but on ongoing improvement. With any project, she supports stakeholders to embed regular review, analysis, and planning of what the team will do next to continue to do better. A fourth-generation Coloradoan and educator, she lives in Denver, Colorado with her husband and a pampered rescue dog. Her son recently graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry and her daughter is pursuing a degree in English.