Thrive Series- The Future of Young Adult Housing in Denver

The link above is for registering to attend in person. If you are unable to join us on campus but would like to participate virtually, please contact the event coordinator, Dee Dee Flynn, at spa.events@ucdenver.edu or deirdre.flynn@ucdenver.edu We will do our best to accommodate virtual participation where possible.

Featured Facilitators

Annie Miller, PhD (SPA Alum)

Associate Dean, Student Success and Strategic Initiative, CU Denver School of Public Affairs

Assistant Teaching Professor, CU Denver School of Public Affairs

Annie Miller serves as the Associate Dean, at the University of Colorado Denver School of Public Affairs. She is also an assistant teaching professor, was the Bachelor of Arts in Public Administration faculty program director, and leads Collaborative Management Consulting LLC. She is an active board member at the Laboratory to Combat Human Trafficking and the co-PI for the Colorado Project to Comprehensively Combat Human Trafficking. Formerly, she was an Assistant Professor at Washburn University, a Research Assistant Professor at the University of Denver in the International Disaster Psychology Department and served as Co-Founding Director of the Colorado Resilience Collaborative.

Her scholarship focuses on the effectiveness of networks and collaborations seeking to combat human trafficking and prevent targeted violence. She leads efforts aimed at improving nonprofit management and increasing capacity across networks and systems to end wicked problems. Her research and community-based efforts focus on supporting communities to reduce hate, discrimination, bias and identity-based violence by enhancing protective factors locally and globally. Dr. Miller holds master's degrees in Higher Education Administration and Political Science, and a doctorate in Public Affairs from the University of Colorado Denver. She was born and raised in southwest Colorado and was a high school football, swimming, and youth soccer coach, whitewater raft guide, and beertender at a local Denver brewery.

Ben Scanlan

PhD Student, CU Denver School of Public Affairs

Ben Scanlan is from a small suburban town located 20 miles south of Boston, Massachusetts. He completed his undergraduate education at the University of New Hampshire, receiving BAs in Psychology and Justice Studies.  

He moved to Denver in the summer of 2022 to enroll in the University of Colorado Denver’s Master of Criminal Justice program. The environmental change of moving from a suburban Massachusetts house with a two-car garage to a studio apartment in downtown Denver sparked Ben's interest in studying housing and homelessness.  

Ben's research focuses on understanding the social construction of homelessness, both a policy issue and a societal phenomenon. He aims to use these insights to reduce the exclusionary stigma surrounding homelessness and help build a more equitable housing future.

Britnie Smith

PhD Student, CU Denver School of Public Affairs

Britnie Smith completed her undergraduate studies at Rutgers New Brunswick where she got her BA with a double major in Political Science and Linguistics. She earned her MA in International Affairs and Policy Analysis from American University in addition to Graduate Certifications in Data Science and Social Innovation for Global Impact.

Britnie has worked across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors with a theme of combining empathy and analytics to create social equity and innovation. In the Public Affairs PhD program, Britnie researches systemic inequality.

Hope Yohn, PhD (SPA '26)

Teaching Assistant Professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Hope Yohn defended her PhD in Public Affairs at the University of Colorado Denver School of Public Affairs in summer 2026. She previously graduated from Regis University with a BS and MS in Criminology. She also has extensive management experience and is a Training, Learning, and Organizational Development professional, informing her passion for organizational behavior and effective management.

Her research interests include the organizational culture of criminal justice institutions, including organizational barriers to employee wellness, crime prevention, rehabilitation, and effective policy implementation. Hope volunteers as a victim advocate for a local police department and facilitates trauma-informed workshops on nonviolent conflict resolution in prisons and community groups through the Alternatives to Violence Project.

Funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication/program/exhibition are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department of Justice. Grant #15PJDP-23-GK-06128-Building Local Continuums of Care to Support Youth Success: Denver Supportive Housing Models for Healthy Youth

About the Center for Community Safety and Resilience

The Center for Community Safety and Resilience (CCSR) at the University of Colorado Denver School of Public Affairs envisions thriving individuals and families in safe and supportive communities. CCSR advances that vision through research-based evidence and practice toward individual and community safety, resilience, and justice. CCSR is dedicated to effective programs, practitioner and community education, and public policy advocacy and analysis.

CCSR broadens and deepens work on interpersonal violence to advance social justice, increase public safety, eliminate individual and societal violence, and strengthen community resilience. We: 

• Bring diverse, intersectional, and intersectoral issues front, center, and woven throughout.
• Focus on social determinants of health and community determinants of violence.
• Examine individual and community resiliency to violence, trauma, and crisis.

CU Denver Security and Safety Information

The security and well-being of our campus community is absolutely our top priority. We continue to do many things to ensure the campus is safe for our students and community. If you would like to receive emergency notifications for the Auraria Campus, please text “Auraria2026” to 67-283. Your enrollment will last until Dec. 31, 2026, unless you opt out sooner. If you are on campus after this date and would like to receive alerts, please contact us and we will provide the latest keyword to sign up again.