DU Welcomes Ninth Cohort of Public Impact Fellows

The University of Denver is happy to announce the 2026-2027 cohort of Public Impact Fellows. The fellows program is a cooperative effort between the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs and the Division of University Relations.

The program is designed to help faculty share their groundbreaking research beyond the classroom and the lab. Fellows learn how to tell the story of their work through media interviews, opinion pieces, social media, and more. Over the course of the year, participants meet regularly and have opportunities to connect with journalists, community leaders, and University leaders.

Read on to learn more about the newest Public Impact Fellows.

Erin Anderson-Camenzind is a professor of communication studies in the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences and the director of faculty innovation for the 4D Experience. Her work seeks to answer this question: How can we engage narrative, art, sport, and play to cultivate well-being, creativity, compassion, and community in the face of illness, death, and loss?

Stefan Chavez-Norgaard is a teaching assistant professor at the Douglas and Mary Scrivner Institute of Public Policy in the Josef Korbel School of Global and Public Affairs. His research lies at the intersection of procedural justice and urban development, with an eye toward equity.

Doina Chichernea is an associate professor in the Reiman School of Finance at the Daniels College of Business who focuses on empirical asset pricing. She uses empirical tests and data analysis, rather than pure theory, to explain price movements in asset classes including equity, fixed income, and real estate.

Hillary Hamann is a teaching professor of geography in the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics whose interests include hydrology, geomorphology, and water resources. Her research has focused on runoff flow paths, water quality, and the effects of disturbances—such as pollution, climate change, and wildfire—on alpine and tropical watersheds.

Amy He is an associate professor in the Graduate School of Social Work and a faculty affiliate at the Butler Institute for Families. Her work focuses on supporting social workers and other human services professionals—using research to build better support, stronger organizations, and more humane systems.

Tim Holbrook is the Robert B. Yegge Endowed Distinguished Professor in the Sturm College of Law and an internationally recognized patent law and intellectual property scholar. His recent work has explored the impact of 3D printing on patent law, the extraterritorial reach of U.S. patent and trademark laws, and the function of patent disclosures.

Elizabeth Jordan is an assistant professor of law and director of the Immigration Law and Policy Clinic in the Sturm College of Law. Her teaching and scholarship focus on advancing human rights in the U.S. legal system trough trauma-informed, cross-cultural representation of clients.

Amy Krueger McDiarmid is a clinical assistant professor in the Morgridge College of Education whose specializations include school psychology, crisis prevention and intervention, and adolescent addiction. Her research interests include equity in student voice, choice in academic and social-emotional learning, and authentic relationship development within a school climate.

Markus Schneider is an associate professor of economics in the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences who focuses on the distribution of income between individuals as well as between groups. He is interested in the measurement of income inequality in addition to its causes and implications. 

Talia Thompson is an assistant professor in the Graduate School of Professional Psychology. She leads the Child Adolescent Behavioral Health and Development Lab, which focuses on community-engaged research to inform evidence-based psychological assessment and intervention practices for youth and families navigating complex health and developmental challenges.

Benjamin Xie is an assistant professor of computer science in the Ritchie School of Engineering and Computer Science. His research interest is designing critical and equitable human-data interactions for educational and environmental outcomes. He also engages with computing education, human-computer interaction, and AI ethics research.