Brave Ideas for Social Change

University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work alumna Nadine Bridges (MSW’ 2010) serves as executive director of One Colorado, the state’s leading advocacy organization dedicated to advancing equality for LGBTQIA+ Coloradans and their families. Bridges joined the organization in 2021, becoming its first female and Black leader. She discusses One Colorado’s work and the challenges she has faced as a queer Black woman in nonprofit leadership.

University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work alumna Nadine Bridges (MSW’ 2010) serves as executive director of One Colorado, the state’s leading advocacy organization dedicated to advancing equality for LGBTQIA+ Coloradans and their families. Bridges joined the organization in 2021, becoming its first female and Black leader. She discusses One Colorado’s work and the challenges she has faced as a queer Black woman in nonprofit leadership.

GSSW Board of Advisors Vice Chair Richard Lewis discusses the BIPOC Nonprofit Development Center he founded and ways that schools of social work can partner to better serve their communities.

Yesenia Silva Estrada graduated from GSSW’s Western Colorado MSW Program in 2017. Today, she practices as a macro social worker, serving as vice president of planning and chief of staff for Colorado Mountain College in Glenwood Springs. As a first-generation college student born outside of United States and raised in rural Colorado, she has a unique perspective on the role of social work in cultivating critical hope during our current times.

Breast cancer survivor Diane M. Simard is a member of GSSW’s newly established Board of Advisors and a friend to the University of Denver. She has been working to raise awareness about the unique mental health needs of cancer patients and to transform systems to better meet those needs. In 2016, she founded the Center for Oncology Psychology Excellence, or COPE, at the University of Denver Graduate School of Professional Psychology. COPE is now part of their behavioral health psychology curricul

GSSW Assistant Professor Tyrone Hamler discusses his work to advance health equity across the lifespan.