As we get older, things change. Our priorities shift, viewpoints and opinions evolve, and our bodies—and brains—age.  

Many of these changes are good—we can celebrate the process of aging as one that invites wisdom and joy. But there are natural consequences of getting older, and one of those consequences is cognitive decline. 

Eric Chess is a former medical doctor who has also earned degrees in law and business. Chess is the director of the Paul Freeman Financial Security Program at DU. He seeks to identify the earliest signs of cognitive impairment—and works to protect the lives and financial assets of older people experiencing cognitive decline. 

Dr. Eric Chess is a physician, lawyer and professor with a focus on prevention, comprehensive well-being, financial security and older adults. He has over a decade of experience in internal medicine practice (board certified), as a hospitalist and as an outpatient physician. He is currently a Clinical Professor at the University of Denver's Knoebel Institute for Healthy Aging, serving as the founder and director of Aging and Well-being/The Paul Freeman Financial Security Program. Additionally, he serves as an adjunct Professor at the University of Denver's Sturm College of Law and Daniels College of Business. Dr. Chess has an undergraduate degree in economics and political science, and a graduate law degree with experience as an attorney and economic consultant. 

The Knoebel Institute for Healthy Aging creates and implements solutions for aging issues through multidisciplinary research, education and outreach by serving as an information clearinghouse for media on matters related to aging; educating and training a diverse workforce to serve a rapidly aging population; and promoting innovation, research and business development related to aging. 

The Paul Freeman Financial Security Program combines the expertise of faculty, researchers and students at the University of Denver. Their interdisciplinary team of researchers in law, finance, psychology, social work, business, neuroscience, and medicine is led by Eric Chess, MD, JD. Goals of impact include four main areas: Research and Development; Outreach and Collaboration; Education; and Policy. Part of the program’s core mission is to address the need for more impactful solutions regarding financial exploitation and fraud of older adults. Target areas currently include developing a financial vulnerability scale, leading a state-wide collaboration, developing a financial-protective team legal instrument, and addressing the significant transfer of wealth affecting older adults and potential future generations and clients. 

Since 2021, when DU was designated as an R1 research institute, the University has been full speed on groundbreaking research locally and globally in psychology, engineering, education, natural science, mathematics and more. 

And no one knows that better than Corinne Lengsfeld, senior vice provost for research and graduate education, whose tenure at the University tells the story of DU’s research journey. 

RadioEd co-hosts Emma Atkinson and Jordyn Reiland sat down with Lengsfeld earlier this month to chat about research: Why it matters, Lengsfeld’s own projects and more. 

Corinne Lengsfeld serves as the Senior Vice Provost for Research & Graduate Education at the University of Denver. As the chief research officer, she is the primary advocate for the University's research mission and is charged with understanding, celebrating, leading and enhancing all forms of scholarship to foster professional growth of the faculty, advancing knowledge, enriching the student experience, and enhancing University visibility. Lengsfeld oversees all internal support for research, the management of external grants and contracts, research integrity and protection, intellectual property and technology transfer and some multidisciplinary research institutes/core facilities. 

What makes you feel safe? Is it a familiar voice on the phone, a particular place, friends or family by your side, your spiritual beliefs or even a favorite blanket? 

What about a person outside your personal circle, like a paramedic, a lifeguard, a firefighter or a police officer?

20-year-old Joseph said that people should feel safe around police officers, but that isn’t always the case in Durham, North Carolina—where he lives—and elsewhere.

He says, “I think that police officers almost have to have a—not necessarily nurturing aspect, but kind of like a—sense of safety about them. Because you should feel safe around police officers, you know? I don’t necessarily know how to put that in a word, but I think that you should definitely just feel safe around police officers.”

So how can police departments increase safety and earn trust in the communities where they work? 

University of Denver Assistant Professor of Public Policy Ajenai Clemmons’ research answers these questions that can extend beyond North Carolina.

On this episode of RadioEd, co-host Jordyn Reiland chats with Clemmons about how the men she interviewed made sense of policing in their neighborhood—and what they needed to both be safe and feel safe.

More information:

What the Durham Police Department Can Do to Enhance Safety and Earn Trust

Our lives are made up of the experiences we’ve had. And those experiences stick with us, particularly the good ones. 

When we look back on our lives, it’s easy to feel as though things were better in the past. We long for the “good ‘ol days,” as it were. 

There’s a word for this feeling: Nostalgia.  

And nostalgia, like many other human emotions, has been commodified. That’s right: Advertisers, marketers and even politicians know people yearn for bygone times, and they know just how to take advantage of it.  

Ana Babic Rosario, professor of marketing at the University of Denver, studies what’s called “nostalgia marketing." She says that nostalgia is complex; it’s about more than just longing for the past. 

On this episode of RadioEd, Emma chats with Rosario about the good, the bad and the ugly of nostalgia marketing—and finds out who’s most susceptible to it. 

In 1987, 17% of people had an unfavorable view of the Supreme Court.

Now, in 2024, 51% of people say the same thing.

That’s a 200% increase in just 37 years, according to analysis of Pew Research data. So why have American's opinions of the court's declined so significantly?

In this episode, new co-host Jordyn Reiland chats with Assistant Professor Phil Chen about how trust and legitimacy in the Supreme Court and federal judiciary more broadly is contingent on more than just descriptive representation—otherwise known as demographic diversity. Americans also want to see substantive representation, effectively whether your specific policy interests are being met.

Phil Chen is an assistant professor of political science in the College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences. His research delves into race, ethnicity, gender, and partisanship in political psychology, as well as political communication and how voters interpret and react to appeals from politicians and the media. Chen teaches classes on campaigns and elections, race and ethnicity, political polarization, media and politics, political psychology, and political participation.

More information:

Amy Coney Barrett is Not Enough: How Descriptive and Substantive Representation Shape Trust and Legitimacy of the Federal Courts by Phil Chen and Amanda Savage

Favorable views of Supreme Court remain near historic low

Most of Biden’s appointed judges to date are women, racial or ethnic minorities – a first for any president

In the six years that Chancellor Jeremy Haefner has helmed the University of Denver, much has changed—and research at DU has truly blossomed.

DU was awarded R1 research status in 2021, making it the fourth university in Colorado and the only private institution in the Rocky Mountain Region to have achieved the classification. Since then, the research being done by faculty and students across DU has only gotten more exciting.

As we head into the 2024 school year, with more to come from DU’s stellar researchers, we sat down with Chancellor Haefner to chat about why research is such an integral part of the DU identity.

Women make up just 34% of the workforce in professional STEM fields. In college, too, women are underrepresented: about 21% of engineering majors are women and around 19% of computer and information science majors are women. 

So, the question is: Why does this happen? Are women just less interested in these fields? 

Jennifer Hoffman, Shannon Murphy and Robin Tinghitella, all faculty in the University of Denver’s College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, answer that question with a resounding “NO.” 

Together at DU, Shannon, Jennifer and Robin co-host science summer camps for middle-school girls. And they are not only providing opportunities for girls to become acquainted with STEM fields, they’re also studying the campers’ relationships to science.   

In a recently published paper, the trio, along with outside colleagues, examine the effects of these science summer camps on girls’ relationship with science and their scientific self-efficacy by asking the girls a series of questions before and after their camp experiences. 

In this episode, Emma chats with the three female scientists about their experiences as women in STEM and why it’s so important to get girls interested in the sciences early in life. 

Jennifer Hoffman is a professor of physics and astronomy in the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics at the University of Denver. She holds the Womble Chair of Astronomy and directs DU's historic Chamberlin Observatory. Her research interests focus on the late stages of massive stellar evolution, in particular on the role of binary stars in shaping supernova explosions. Hoffman uses a combination of observational spectropolarimetry and 3-D computational modeling to explore these research questions. She sees her roles as an educator and mentor as a vital part of her scholarship. In all these arenas, Hoffman works to expand opportunities and remove barriers to participation in physics and astronomy for people from historically underrepresented groups. 

Robin Tinghitella is an associate professor of biological sciences in the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics at the University of Denver. As a behavioral ecologist, she works to understand how rapidly changing environments alter animal communication, particularly interactions between males and females. Researchers in her animal behavior lab use both insect and fish model systems and are supported by the National Science Foundation, the Morris Animal Foundation, the Society for the Study of Evolution, and the Animal Behavior Society (amongst others).  

Shannon Murphy is a professor of biological sciences in the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics at the University of Denver. She studies the ecology and evolution of interactions between plants and insects. Murphy works side by side with students to investigate how these plant-insect interactions are affected by global change. She works closely with undergraduate and graduate students to both teach them about and study the ecology and evolution of interactions between plants and insects, and together they investigate how these interactions are affected by global change. 

More Information: 

“STEM Summer Camp for Girls Positively Affects Self-Efficacy" by E. Dale Broder, Kirsten J. Fetrow, Shannon M. Murphy, Jennifer L. Hoffman, Robin M. Tinghitella 

AAUW: “The STEM Gap: Women and Girls in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics” 

Much of sports is a gamble. There’s a saying: “Any team can win any game on any given day.” Almost nothing, no outcome, is guaranteed in sports—and that’s part of the fun of watching and playing. 

But players and coaches want to eliminate as many variables as possible, trying to leave less up to chance. And that is where statistics come in. 

It might seem like a good idea to call a timeout in the NBA when the opposing team is on a scoring run—it could slow their momentum, change the energy of the game, right?  

Research from a University of Denver data analytics professor indicates otherwise. 

In this episode, Emma chats with Daniels College of Business professor Ryan Elmore about his work in sports analytics—and why taking a timeout in the midst of an NBA game might not be the solution to slowing an opposing team’s momentum.  

Ryan Elmore is an associate professor in the Department of Business Information and Analytics at the Daniels College of Business. Prior to Daniels, he worked as a senior scientist in the Computational Sciences Center at the National Renewable Energy Lab in Golden, Colorado. He has also held positions at the Australian National University, Colorado State University and Slide, Inc. 

Elmore’s research interests include statistics in sports, nonparametric statistical methods, and energy efficient high-performance computing. His work in sports statistics has led to the position of Associate Editor for the Journal of Quantitative Analysis of Sports (2015–present) and consultant to the Denver Nuggets professional basketball team. 

More Information: 

“The causal effect of a timeout at stopping an opposing run in the NBA”  

“Bang the Can Slowly: An Investigation into the 2017 Houston Astros” 

​

This episode of RadioEd is about suicide and how people can help those they love who might be experiencing suicidal thoughts. 

We know it’s a heavy topic. In many cultures, suicide is taboo—and in some countries it’s illegal. People don’t like to talk about it. 

But, as University of Denver associate professor of social work Stacey Freedenthal says, asking a friend or family member if they’re experiencing suicidal thoughts is really, really important.  

Suicide is one of the leading causes of death among adults in the United States, with nearly 50,000 dying by suicide in 2021. In that same year, 12.3 million adults seriously thought about suicide.  

And it’s not just adults. Suicide is the second leading cause of death among people between the ages of 15 and 24 and the eighth leading cause of death among children aged 5 to 11.  

So why should we ask our at-risk loved ones about potential thoughts of suicide? Freedenthal says she's often heard a slogan: “Prevent suicide with your ears.” And while it’s not quite as simple as that, Freedenthal says listening to those we love is a good first step in stopping someone from taking their own life. 

In this episode, Freedenthal draws on her personal and professional experiences to share how best to support the people we love when they may be experiencing suicidal thoughts.  

Stacey Freedenthal is an associate professor of social work at the University of Denver. A licensed clinical social worker, Freedenthal has a small psychotherapy and consulting practice in Denver. She also provides training and consultation to social workers and other professionals who treat clients at risk for suicide. 

Freedenthal has worked in the field of suicide prevention since 1994, when she volunteered at a suicide hotline. Subsequently, she earned a master's degree in social work from the University of Texas at Austin. She held clinical positions in psychiatric emergency settings before returning to school to earn a PhD in social work from Washington University in St. Louis. Before she became a social worker, she worked as a journalist for The Dallas Morning News. 

She coordinates the mental health concentration at the Graduate School of Social Work. The courses that she teaches include Suicide Assessment and Interventions, Assessment of Mental Health in Adults, Clinical Social Work Theory and Practice, and Social Justice Challenges in Mental Health Practice. 

988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline 

“A Suicide Therapist’s Secret Past” by Stacey Freedenthal for the New York Times 

CDC Suicide Data and Statistics 

AACAP Suicide in Children and Teens 

“Loving Someone with Suicidal Thoughts: What Family, Friends, and Partners Can Say and Do” by Stacey Freedenthal  

Stacey Freedenthal website 

​

An anonymous quote claims that “war does not determine who is right—only who is left.” 

And in many cases, women are the ones who are left to pick up the pieces after war. They must deal with changing power dynamics, laws and norms while simultaneously trying to recover from the trauma of armed conflict—even if they weren’t the ones on the battlefield. 

So where do women stand after war? 

University of Denver professor Marie Berry, who teaches in the Josef Korbel School of International Studies, is working to answer that question, examining the rights of women after war in countries around the world. 

More information 

Marie Berry is the director of the Sié Chéou-Kang Center for International Security and Diplomacy and an associate professor at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver. She is also the co-founder and convener of the Inclusive Global Leadership Initiative (IGLI), an effort to elevate and amplify the work that women activists are doing at the grassroots to advance peace, justice, and human rights across the world.  

Her award-winning book, “War, Women, and Power: From Violence to Mobilization in Rwanda and Bosnia-Herzegovina,” examined the impact of mass violence on women’s political mobilization in Rwanda and Bosnia. Together with Dr. Milli Lake (LSE), she runs the Women’s Rights After War Project.