Governor John Hickenlooper, CFWE’s Nicole Seltzer, Nivin Elgohary and Chris Shaffner from CoBank, and Board President Eric Hecox take a moment to celebrate

At CFWE’s recent President’s Award Reception, I was pleased to join Nivin Elgohary, Senior Vice President at CoBank, to announce a new partnership between our organizations.

CoBank, as an integral member of the United States’ Farm Credit System, serves as a dependable provider of credit and other financial services to benefit rural America, and is based in Denver. We speak the same language: CoBank is committed to supporting knowledge-sharing on current trends to its customer base in rural America, and CFWE realizes that the scarcity of water requires high-quality and far-reaching education. Together, we will raise the water literacy of community members, professionals, and decision-makers by providing meaningful engagement opportunities about Colorado water.

Our partnership started because CoBank recognized the value of CFWE’s high-quality water information programs. We’ve since worked on reports focused on managing water scarcity for agriculture and the Colorado River basin. The funds from CoBank provide much needed support for CFWE’s peer-reviewed journalism on water. Since then, our partnership has grown to include support for increased public radio programming and ensuring Colorado’s water educators have the tools they need to do their jobs well.

By supporting CFWE, CoBank makes a  commitment to Colorado’s most valuable resource and a significant contribution to collective understanding of its future. We are gearing up for more reports in the coming months, and I look forward to working more closely with their water team based in Denver.