After leading the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce for 12 years, Kelly Brough is headed to Metropolitan State University of Denver, where she will serve as chief strategy officer – a new role for the university.

When announcing her resignation from the chamber earlier this year, she said two issues mattered deeply to her: housing and education.

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After exploring options in both areas, she chose MSU Denver because of the possibilities of the new role.

“Choosing MSU Denver was very intentional,” she said in an interview with The Denver Gazette. “It’s an open access institution. It’s committed to people who want to advance their lives and opportunities, and education can help them access that. … It’s also the largest Hispanic population serving institution. In Colorado, that’s a big part of our future economy.”

University officials said they’re getting a proven leader who is well-connected to Denver’s business leaders, legislators and community leaders.

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“Kelly has been an influential and widely respected leader in the Denver community and beyond for years, and we are so excited to have her experience and expertise at MSU Denver,” President Janine Davidson said in a statement. “At MSU Denver, Kelly will have the opportunity to continue her efforts to enhance education opportunities for students of all types in Denver and beyond.”

Brough said she expects to work with state lawmakers in her new role.

“The policy work I did for the chamber is going to be valuable here,” she said. “One of the things about the state of Colorado is we’re building an economy that requires the most educated workforce in the nation. And those higher paying jobs mean a better quality of life. Meanwhile, our funding for higher education is a joke. … I’m going to make sure people understand that we’ve upgraded a recipe for disaster here if we don’t change” the way we fund higher education.

Published reports repeatedly rank Colorado among the bottom 10 states for higher education spending. Colorado’s per-capita support for higher education ranked 47th in the nation a few years ago.

“Our employers are requiring most people go to post-secondary education, but we’re not giving the money to those institutions,” Brough said.

In her new role, Brough will help implement the university’s 2030 strategic plan and evaluate new and existing programs, partnerships and projects, according to a release.

“President Davidson gave me a long list of stuff we want done, but two big areas stand out – one is the physical campus here,” Brough said. “We want to maximize the space and work better with our partners” – the University of Colorado Denver and Community College of Denver.

The 150-acre Auraria campus serves around 38,000 students and 5,000 faculty and staff in the city’s central business district.

Brough said she looks forward to working with Davidson.

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“Who you work for is way more important than your title,” she said. “Working with Dr. Davidson is a big part of the attraction. I saw what she did at the institution. She had an interim working in this (strategy) space, who worked on a loan basis. He helped build it out, then they advertised for a full-time position to advance that work.”

“You read about all the ACT and SATs, all those tests I’m bad at taking, who decides who gets to go to which college. We’ve known for 20 years that’s not a great predictor of people’s success,” she continued. “The top predictor is actually grit. And that’s a huge part of what the MSU Denver population brings, with a higher emotional intelligence. Employers benefit greatly from having employees like that.”