About COYAC

Sarah Moss once dreamed of being the first woman to play in the NBA, preferably for the Denver Nuggets, but she discovered she wasn’t very good at basketball. Instead, she became a civic dreamer and doer and a strategist solving policy and political puzzles. (She remains a lifelong Denver Nuggets fan.) Moss has more than 20 years of experience ranging from local government, to political and public awareness campaigns, to serving as a White House appointee in the Office of Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice. Her first job in high school was inspecting coolers and backpacks at the front gate of Hyland Hills WaterWorld.

The Denver native has lived in Washington, DC twice. Moss is a two-time fellow of the Bighorn Leadership Program (in economic development and Colorado’s energy future) and a Truman National Security Project Security Fellow. She is an active member of the Colorado City & County Management Association and Engaging Local Government Leaders. A lifelong learner, she earned a Denver Peak Academy black belt in Lean process improvement, an Executive Master of Public Administration from the University of Colorado Denver, a B.A. in Public Communication from American University, and a yellow belt in Krav Maga.

Brenda Morrison founded and chairs the Bighorn Leadership Program and Civic Innovators, LLC, a company specializing in public engagement and policy/advocacy training. She is best known for her role in creating several of Colorado’s state-wide public engagement campaigns on complex public policy issues for clients such as The Women’s Foundation of Colorado, TBD Colorado, and Colorado’s Future. She brings extensive experience in public policy development and implementation both on the state and local levels given her past work with community development organizations and as the Associate Director of the Bighorn Center for Public Policy. Brenda is a sought-after trainer in public engagement and has taught workshops in such locations as Jordan and Tunisia. In addition, she has extensive expertise in the nonprofit sector. A graduate of the University of Colorado and the University of Denver, Brenda has published several articles on women’s history and social movements that demonstrate the intersection of Colorado history and public policy.