The idea for the Collaboration in Practice: Building Thriving Communities Together workshop started in 2012, with CoCap’s Founder & Principal, Dr. Stephanie Bultema.

Dr. Bultema’s Story

Early in my public health career, I became enthralled with coalitions, collaborative networks, and collective impact. Anything that had to do with joining forces to make big and beautiful things happen had my attention. I supported education- and workforce development-focused collective impact initiatives, served as President of the School Health Care Association of Spokane County, led the first-ever health system assessment for Eastern Washington’s Accountable Community of Health, and served as a board member for Communities in Schools of Spokane County.

I experienced first-hand the complexity and lack of clarity that comes with coordinating diverse people, organizations, and groups to advance a common goal. After five years of working with numerous cross-boundary collaboratives, seeing the same challenges surface in each one, and finding a lack of evidence-based guidance on how to overcome those challenges, I decided to go back to school to fill the gaps in what we know about how to improve population health through cross-boundary collaboration.

Building the Evidence Base

The Collaboration in Practice workshop synthesizes the most impactful lessons learned while completing my Doctor of Philosophy in collaborative governance at the University of Colorado Denver’s School of Public Affairs. It also draws on three years of research on health-focused, cross-boundary collaboration that I led as Principal Investigator at the Population Health Innovation Lab (PHIL) through the Aligning Systems for Health (AS4H) initiative.

You can read the full overview of lessons learned in my dissertation, Linking Collaboration Dynamics and Outcomes in Collaborative Governance, which won the University of Colorado Denver (CU Denver) School of Public Affairs’ 2022 Best Dissertation of the Year Award.

The AS4H research team developed a cadre of resources that are integrated throughout the Strategic Collaboration workshop, including an interactive data walk, a toolbox for measuring cross-sector alignment, scholarly journal articles, research briefs, a comprehensive series of policy briefs, research reports, book chapters, web discussions, and conference presentations.

Early Workshop Development

The first version of this workshop was developed and delivered in partnership with PHIL. My abundant thanks go to Esmeralda Salas, Christina Olson, Cassandra Mohan, April Aihan Phan, Beverly Bruno, and Sue Grinnell for contributing to the initial planning, design, materials development, and financial investments to launch this workshop.

The PHIL team delivered the first iteration of this workshop in January 2025 with great success. One participant shared, “It was WONDERFUL…I can’t wait for the next workshop.”

But the resource investment was more than PHIL could bear and PHIL Leadership made the difficult decision to discontinue the workshop. CoCap pick up where PHIL left off to ensure all the collaborative learning goodness saw the light of day and was put to good use.

The CoCap training team (Stephanie Bultema, Esmeralda Salas, and Max Chavez) finished developing the workshop content and delivered the 2-day workshop in-person in Denver, CO with resounding success.

We listened to participant feedback and used their helpful recommendations to continue refining and improving the workshop content and structure. The CoCap team built on the strengths and incorporated valuable suggestions to turn the Strategic Collaboration workshop into an even more relevant and impactful offering: Collaboration in Practice: Building Thriving Communities Together.

Building Collaborative Capacity & Agility

The Collaboration in Practice workshop will demystify collaborative processes by connecting you with the evidence, resources, and connections you need to navigate complex collaboration dynamics. While you shouldn’t expect to leave with all the answers, you can expect to gain the capacity needed to navigate the ever-changing terrain of cross-boundary collaboration with confidence and grace.

Learn More & Register Here