Even if you haven’t met JáNet Hurt yet, you’ve probably been impacted by her work at CU Denver and the CU system. Hurt has been championing inclusive excellence throughout her career at the university—which might explain part of why she was the first staff recipient of CU Denver’s Inclusive Excellence Award in 2023.
Day to day, Hurt supports the School of Education & Human Development (SEHD) as operations and events manager, a position she and Dean Marvin Lynn created to maximize the best use of her talents. For the preceding 21 years of her service to CU Denver, she’s been the assistant or executive assistant to SEHD deans. “[What I love most about CU Denver] would definitely have to be the people,” Hurt said. “I’ve worked with quite a lot of amazing people over the years.”
But her contributions extend far beyond her primary role. She’s been an active member of CU Denver’s Staff Council since 2012. Recently, she also served on the Strategic Plan Engagement and Advocacy Committee (SPEAC). In 2022, Hurt was elected co-chair of the system-wide University of Colorado Staff Council (UCSC), a two-year term position. She was re-elected in 2024. She is also currently serving as parliamentarian for the CU Denver Staff Council.
Hurt said this is some of the work that she’s most proud of, especially the progress that’s been made during her tenure to ensure staff voices are heard in major decisions. “We now have regular meetings—where we didn’t always have that—with campus leadership, and we’re regularly included in leadership searches,” Hurt said. She also pointed to progress on the staff leave policy, changes to the employee tuition assistance benefit, and the creation of the Staff Excellence Awards, which she believes are an important way to recognize specific staff accomplishments, as some of the work she’s most proud of contributing to. “Those five, now annual, awards were a direct result of continually asking for staff-specific recognition to highlight staff excellence in the same way there are faculty and student awards,” Hurt said.
Hurt also spearheaded the addition of the Board of Regents Policy 6.E, which states that staff should participate in shared governance of the university.
She’s also proud of her service as a staff advisor for the Black Graduate Student Association (BGSA) and as a founding member of the Black Faculty and Staff (BFSA) Affinity Group.
Making sure everyone’s voice is heard is her main motivation. “I just really want to help the work environment for staff and others to be as positive as possible,” Hurt said. She was inspired, in large part, by SEHD’s late Dean Rebecca Kantor. “One of the big reasons why I initially got involved in Staff Council was because I wanted everyone to have an experience like I had,” Hurt said. “Rebecca Kantor was so incredibly supportive of me. She always made me feel valued and heard.”
Hurt has taken on numerous extra roles to extend that spirit of inclusivity throughout CU Denver. When the pandemic shut down in-person activities on campus, Hurt worked to support her colleagues and students. She was SEHD’s COVID-19 coordinator and was appointed to the Return-to-Work Task Force to create policies and procedures for employees. In 2021, she was a founding member of UCSC’s Diversity, Equity & Belonging (DEIB) committee, which was created to support CU System’s Strategic Plan. And she served on the CU Denver Equity Task Force.
For Hurt, the drive to lead and give back is all about supporting those around her who are struggling to advocate for themselves. “My number one priority is making sure that people feel seen and heard,” Hurt said. “And, if they don’t feel that they are able to advocate for themselves, I’m comfortable and more than happy to step into that role as an advocate.”