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Emily CoBabe-Ammann announced her planned retirement as Research & Innovation Office Senior Advisor and Executive Associate Director (Acting), Center for National Security Initiatives, effective January 1, 2025.

Emily CoBabe-Ammann

CoBabe-Ammann has been with CU Boulder’s Research & Innovation Office (RIO) since the fall of 2015, when she was hired to lead the university’s Grand Challenge, Our Space, Our Future. Before joining the Research & Innovation Office, she served as director of UCAR Community Programs.

CoBabe-Amman’s work with RIO spanned the entire campus. In recent years, she worked extensively with the Center for National Security Initiatives (NSI), including dedicated emphasis on the multifaceted work transitioning the campus towards approval to work on classified research and working to move NSI to become a sustainable institute. She also provided support for the CUbit Quantum Initiative during a critical strategic and leadership transition, paving the way for the campuswide momentum currently underway in quantum science and technology.

“I’m so appreciative of the Emily’s contributions to the advancement of the strategic goals of RIO and the university, and for her help in many outstanding achievements through this often complex and exciting, and always important work—work that Emily was uniquely suited to tackle and accomplish,” said Massimo Ruzzene, vice chancellor for research and innovation and dean of the institutes. “We would not be the same without her contributions, and we wish her only the best in this next phase of her life.”

For nearly a decade, CoBabe-Ammann played an important role in a wide range of strategic initiatives. Her initial focus upon joining CU Boulder was spearheading the nascent Grand Challenge Initiative, which was established through the bold aspirations of then-chancellor Phil DiStefano, Provost Russ Moore and then-CFO Kelly Fox. The initiative spawned an extraordinarily influential cohort of research and innovation programs such as Earth Lab, IRIS, the Space Minor, NEST Studio for the Arts, the Space Weather Technology, Research and Education Center, and more. While the overarching initiative that seeded these programs was officially decommissioned in the summer of 2024, the programs cultivated through the Grand Challenge led to new discoveries, new collaborations and several new entities that have become longstanding, self-sustaining and influential organizations on campus. 

In addition to focusing on a campuswide strategic initiatives portfolio, CoBabe-Ammann contributed critical leadership to strategic revisioning work in areas as disparate as the Center for Humanities & the Arts, the College of Engineering & Applied Science, the University of Colorado Art Museum, the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History and the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute (RASEI).

She co-led the campuswide Academic Futures visioning process with Jeff Cox, then the associate vice chancellor for Academic Affairs, helping reimagine future of CU Boulder’s education and research, leading to significant outcomes including online and distance learning, interdisciplinary approaches in research and education, and the eventual creation of the Center for Teaching and Learning.

"Perhaps more than any single figure, Emily has been at the center of CU Boulder's most important academic transformations over the last decade," said CU Boulder Provost Russ Moore. "Her abilities to identify complex problems, work in partnership to untangle them, and communicate clearly to leaders and constituents about paths forward, is unmatched among the many colleagues I've worked with. Her service to the university has been immeasurable and has occurred at a vital moment in CU Boulder's history. We will miss her, and we wish her all good things in her new life adventures." 

CoBabe-Ammann plans to spend the first half of 2025 experiencing life overseas, starting with several months in Italy. Other than spending more time with her family, she is excited about traveling and seeing as many F1 races as she can manage. CoBabe-Ammann is looking forward to saying farewell in individual conversations over the next few months in lieu of a public gathering.

“It’s been such a privilege to be able to work across CU Boulder, supporting and expanding the research enterprise as it moves in important new directions,” said CoBabe-Ammann. “The freedom afforded to me by Provost Russ Moore, former Vice Chancellor for Research & Innovation Terri Fiez, and current Vice Chancellor for Research & Innovation Massimo Ruzzene, to support efforts and units across campus is a rarity in academia. I want to thank them, the RIO leadership team, and the people across the campus that made this such a wonderful experience.”