• MPP, Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School
• BS, Human Biology and Society, University of California, Los Angeles
  

Colleen is currently supporting a large philanthropy to design and launch the Community Funding Accelerator, which aims to uplift community organizations, education agencies, researchers, and coalitions to unlock the transformative power of federal funding. She oversees the program’s Department of Education and National Science Foundation grant portfolios, providing support for communities across the U.S.

Colleen has supported other large-scale, philanthropy-funded programs such as the American Cities Climate Challenge, where she worked alongside four U.S cities to implement policies and programs to support achieving their ambitious greenhouse gas emission reduction goals. This work included standing up a new green workforce program, establishing an electric vehicle car-sharing program, and helping teams navigate mayoral transitions.

She also worked with U.S. cities on their COVID-19 response and recovery plans by helping them access new data sources to improve data analysis and visualizations, and by working with public health experts to develop a vaccination toolkit for the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

Prior to joining DA, Colleen worked with U.S. local and state governments on equitable emergency management and response policies. She partnered with the UN Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC) to publish a report on how to scale community-based flood early warning systems in the Himalayas. This work was anchored in findings from community-based interviews with residents in Nepal, Pakistan, and India to better understand the most consequential barriers to early flood warnings in the region.