Learning to Improve Program Systems While Navigating Program and Institutional Constraints

Many youth worker professional development (PD) efforts tend to focus on individualized skill development, rather than learning as a contextualized phenomenon that impacts youth workers’ everyday experiences in the field. Youth worker learning is fundamentally embedded in a broader ecosystem of programs, institutions, and systems that influence how they make sense of and implement their learnings. Examining institutionalized experiences and how they shape youth workers’ response to PD requires attention to the larger ecology of the contexts in which they work. In this paper, I analyze a PD initiative facilitated by a school district in the Rocky Mountain West. Data collected during the PD show that participating youth workers made changes to their program systems. At the same time, participants reported a range of institutional constraints that did not cohere with the PD. I bridge sensemaking theory to research on youth worker self-efficacy to unpack youth workers’ reaction to and implementation of the PD, and I discuss implications for youth worker PD. I propose that PD efforts could more closely attend to youth workers’ institutional contexts.

A Quantitative Comparison of Heavy Metal Concentrations in the Soils on Two Rocky Mountain West tribal Reservations

Native Americans have experienced a long history of environmental injustice, including natural resource exploitation and commercial activity with environmental impacts. A community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach was used to partner with two Rocky Mountain West reservations to conduct pilot-level assessments of potential soil contamination by heavy metals. The Community Advisory Board in conjunction with the research team selected residential areas and community sites for sampling. Samples were obtained, transported to a laboratory for dehydration and sieving, and were analyzed with a handheld X-ray fluorescence (XRF) tool for the presence of 24 heavy metals. Heavy metals concentrations were compared between reservations and were found to be statistically different from one another. Findings were also compared to levels recommended by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and World Health Organization (WHO) to determine possible hazards to human health. Concentration of Sr, Rb, and Th were well above acceptable EPA levels and require further analysis. High localized Pb levels were found in one area, while Hg levels were found close to EPA standards. CBPR was essential to understanding preliminary contamination patterns. In conclusion, even reservations with similar geographies and histories present with unique contaminations and require individualized study to determine possible environmental mitigation.

Indoor Air Quality Issues for Rocky Mountain West Tribes

Native American populations face considerable health disparities, especially among those who live on reservations, where access to healthcare, education, and safe housing can be limited. Previous research on tribal housing has raised concerns about housing construction, damage, and possible linkage to adverse health effects (e.g., asthma). This community-based participatory research (CBPR) project investigated indoor air quality issues on two Rocky Mountain west reservations. At the onset of the project, the research team formed a partnership with community advisory boards (CABs) consisting of representatives from tribal councils and community members. Research design, implementation, and dissemination all took place in full collaboration with the CABs following approval through official tribal resolutions. Residential homes were monitored for particulate matter with diameter <2.5 microns (PM2.5) and radon concentrations. Low-cost air quality sensors and activated charcoal radon test kits were placed in tribal households for 6-8 days. A large amount of data were below the sensor limit of quantification (LOQ), but several homes had daily averages that exceeded suggested PM2.5 guidelines, suggestive of the potential for high exposure. Additionally, nearly half of all homes sampled had radon levels above the EPA action level, with mitigation activities initiated for the most concerning homes. Findings from this study indicate the need for future community-wide assessments to determine the magnitude and patterns of indoor air quality issues.

Climate impacts of U.S. forest loss span net warming to net cooling

Storing carbon in forests is a leading land-based strategy to curb anthropogenic climate change, but its planetary cooling effect is opposed by warming from low albedo. Using detailed geospatial data from Earth-observing satellites and the national forest inventory, we quantify the net climate effect of losing forest across the conterminous United States. We find that forest loss in the intermountain and Rocky Mountain West causes net planetary cooling but losses east of the Mississippi River and in Pacific Coast states tend toward net warming. Actual U.S. forest conversions from 1986 to 2000 cause net cooling for a decade but then transition to a large net warming over a century. Avoiding these forest conversions could have yielded a 100-year average annual global cooling of 0.00088°C. This would offset 17% of the 100-year climate warming effect from a single year of U.S. fossil fuel emissions, underscoring the scale of the mitigation challenge.

Regional Climate Response Collaboratives: Multi-Institutional Support for Climate Resilience

Federal investments by U.S. agencies to enhance climate resilience at regional scales grew over the past decade (2010s). To maximize efficiency and effectiveness in serving multiple sectors and scales, it has become critical to leverage existing agency-specific research, infrastructure, and capacity while avoiding redundancy. We discuss lessons learned from a multi-institutional “regional climate response collaborative” that comprises three different federally supported climate service entities in the Rocky Mountain west and northern plains region. These lessons include leveraging different strengths of each partner, creating deliberate mechanisms to increase cross-entity communication and joint ownership of projects, and placing a common priority on stakeholder-relevant research and outcomes. We share the conditions that fostered successful collaboration, which can be transferred elsewhere, and suggest mechanisms for overcoming potential barriers. Synergies are essential for producing actionable research that informs climate-related decisions for stakeholders and ultimately enhances climate resilience at regional scales.

Grounded Globalism

This chapter explores the internationalization of higher education at four-year institutions in the Rocky Mountain West (Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico) through the lens of James Peacock's grounded globalism. As global forces increase and impose upon higher education, administrators and faculty must remain mindful of best practices in internationalizing curriculum. This chapter draws on surveys of senior international officers at four-year colleges in the Rocky Mountain West states. It examines existing literature to apply Peacock's concept of grounded globalism. The authors provide shared characteristics of states in the Rocky Mountain West to add context to the challenges and strengths of internationalization in this region. The authors provide recommendations for future research and best practices in internationalizing curriculum.