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Second, this was an event to celebrate the mission and work of the Romer Institute of Evidence-based Policy. Founded in 2023, and elevated by our renaming as the Romer Institute of Evidence-based Policy in May of this year, our work is focused on incorporating into practice an approach to decision making that Governor Romer exemplified - supported by unbiased, evidence-based research; informed by practitioners and those impacted by decisions; anchored in a deep understanding of the budget, policy and operational landscape; and provided in real time to support the rapid pace of executive decision making (e.g., by Governors, Mayors, and County and City Managers). As Senator Hickenlooper said in his remarks, Governor Romer and the Romer Institute represent policy making that is evidence-based, data driven and rooted in empathy.
Third, this was an event to celebrate a valuable contribution to Colorado’s history - the donation of Governor Romer’s papers to MSU Denver. As MSU Denver President Janine Davidson said: “A new generation will have the opportunity… to learn from Governor Romer’s remarkable career. And apply those lessons to the challenges that lie ahead. For our students, these papers are much more than just a record of history. Combined with the case studies and oral history work being developed through this partnership, they will create a remarkable learning laboratory.”
President Davidson, drawing on her previous career as deputy assistant secretary of defense and a pilot in the Air Force, discusses her own evidence-based approach to highly consequential decision making in two influential publications - Mending the Broken Dialogue: Military Advice and Presidential Decision-Making (co-authored with Emerson T. Brooking and Benjamin J. Fernandes), and Lifting the Fog of Peace: How Americans Learned to Fight Modern War. Both provide valuable insights to improving decision making with general application beyond the military context. For example, in Mending the Broken Dialogue, Janine warns against “the tendency of decision-making groups in high stress, high-stakes environments to strive for unanimity at the expense of collective, creative inquiry.” She also provides a template for a more disciplined decision making process at the highest level, advising that “decision papers” for the president should include “a problem statement; a concept of operation (ways); required resources (means); opportunity costs; underlying assumptions; and a decision timeline.” In Lifting the Fog of Peace, Janine writes about the importance of “transferring new knowledge from the field to the rest of the organization” and “institutionalizing contemporaneous learning.”
Evidence-based Policymaking for a Better Future
We speak often of “unbiased, evidence-based research.” In practical terms, this means filling a gap that many of us have experienced first-hand in the type of research that will help an executive decision maker (Governor, Mayor, or County or City Manager) reach an informed decision for the best possible policy outcome for their residents. This requires four critical components. First, a deep understanding of the existing landscape in which the decision is being made - what has been done in the past in this area, the legislative and policy history, and the budgetary constraints. Second, what the best available research and experience in other jurisdictions can tell us, not favoring any one research for a pre-determined outcome but to “call balls and strikes” and present the clearest picture possible for the decision maker, including gaps in existing research. The third is primary research, speaking with practitioners and those directly impacted by a particular policy or legislation or proposed change, examining deeply not just what the policy says, but how it will be implemented. The fourth is providing this research in the right time, place and manner, so that it’s actionable.
While this work requires considerable discipline and effort, the upside is substantial. Even incremental improvements in decision making can make a big difference in the impact of decisions, spanning public safety, economic development, housing, health care, education and transportation.
Building Consensus
Another benefit of this evidence-based research approach is that it cultivates common ground. In the current starkly partisan environment where differences are amplified, evidence-based research presents an enormous opportunity to bring people together. If you look at our published research, you won’t see an agenda designed to appeal to one party or another, or one ideology or another, but to drive the best possible decisions by a thorough and honest look at the evidence of what works, what doesn’t, and what we still don’t have enough information to know.
Evidence-based research that is unbiased - rather than presented selectively with confirmation bias - sidesteps the visceral support or opposition that more partisan or advocacy-based reports typically generate.
Coloradans have cited political dysfunction and polarization as a primary concern, as reflected in the Colorado Health Foundation’s 2025 Pulse Poll. The nonpartisan Colorado Polling Institute in March 2026 found that 88% of Coloradans said they were “extremely concerned” or “very concerned” by the country’s political divisions. And, very significantly, 77% of Coloradans in a previous Pulse Poll expressed the opinion that increasing state policymaker access to nonpartisan information and analysis would be an effective solution. And according to a survey by the Colorado Polling Institute in November 2025, 74% of Coloradans believe that “we have more in common than what divides us.”
This is not a theoretical exercise, or one detached from the realities of our increasingly partisan and belligerent political dialogue. Once thing history shows is that the prevailing political practices can, and will, change. The zigs and zags in public opinion and political fashion in our nation’s history is a clear reflection of that.
As President Kennedy said in June 1963, “Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future."
Shepard Nevel
CEO, Romer Institute of Evidence-based Policy
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