Katie Knobloch is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Studies and the Associate Director of the Center for Public Deliberation at Colorado State University. Her teaching, research, and practice focus on public participation and deliberative democracy, particularly on the design and impact of community engagement programs. She earned her BA and MMC from the Manship School of Mass Communication at Louisiana State University and PhD from the Department of Communication at the University of Washington. She has received National Science Foundation funding to study the expansion of the Citizens’ Initiative Review and the implementation of deliberative pedagogy in chemistry classrooms and has led the development of local programs that center underrepresented communities in public decision making. Her work has appeared in The Journal of Applied Communication Research, Political Studies, American Politics Research, Public Administration, The Journal of Deliberative Democracy, and The International Journal of Communication. With John Gastil, she is the author of Hope for Democracy: How Citizens Can Bring Reason Back into Politics (Oxford, 2020).

Selected Engagement Efforts:

Community Guides. An deliberative engagement program developed an implemented in partnership with the City of Fort Collins. Community members are trained in facilitation and engagement techniques and then asked to host conversations with others in their communities about issues of public policy. Information from those conversations are then used to frame and shape policy proposals.

The Community Collaborative. A public works program developed and implemented in partnership with the Reilly Center for Media & Public Affairs at Louisiana State University. Emerging civic leaders are trained in engagement, grant writing, and public work and then asked to develop minigrants for community-led projects. Four grantees are chosen and then work with a community advisor to implement their proposals.

Public Achievement. A civic engagement program conducted in partnership with schools in Poudre School District. This program connects CSU students with local high schoolers to offer training in advocacy, deliberative facilitation, and public work. High school students work to identify issues in their community related to equity and inclusion and then work together to develop and implement plans aimed at creating a more inclusive environment.