Kate Taylor, professional research assistant with the LifeSkills project, is our new Community, Culture, and Outreach (CCO) Director at IBS.
Prior to her work with LifeSkills, Kate was a school counselor, where she focused on connecting underserved and highly impacted populations with essential services, educational opportunities, and mentors. Her passion lies in promoting, supporting, and facilitating connections among individuals and communities that empower them to thrive.
As she steps into this role, Kate is committed to embedding inclusive values into her work, with specific goals that include fostering collaboration and mentoring opportunities, improving local outreach, recruitment efforts, and promoting our research. Kate’s position will be at 15% time so she can continue her work with LifeSkills.
Get to know more about Kate in our recent interview below:
- Why did you decide to apply for the CCO Director role?
First, the nature, mission, and vision of the work and the incredible people I’d get to support—that primarily inspired me!
Beyond that, I felt drawn to the opportunity to reinstate the CCO initiatives pioneered by the original and incredible IBS CCO Strategic Planning Committee a few years ago. I’m super honored and motivated to ensure the initial work they started continues to drive meaningful, and significant impacts for IBS faculty, staff and students.
- What are you most excited about in your new position?
I’m genuinely excited to get to know and learn from each individual IBS faculty, staff, and student, especially those outside the PSP program! Understanding unique perspectives and needs, and supporting them from the CCO lens and mission, is what energizes my daily tasks.
- Outside of IBS, what can we find you doing on weekends? Do you have a favorite hobby?
Always outside! Trail running, biking, climbing, skiing—I’m a basic Boulderite in that regard. Sometimes I try to sneak off to the ocean too!
- Where is your favorite place in Colorado or Boulder?
Boulder: Scrambling in the Flatirons. Colorado: Trail running in the San Juans.
- Have you attended any IBS lectures recently?
Yes! A notable one was the lecture by Dr. Melissa Walls, “Strengths-Based Research with Indigenous Communities.” The LifeSkills team recently held a follow-up PD session to reflect on and discuss the concept of ‘survivance’ introduced in her talk.
