Colorado State University President Amy Parsons has selected Dr. Mordecai Brownlee to be the next vice president for Denver metro engagement and executive director of CSU Spur, beginning Jan. 1. Brownlee joins CSU from the Community College of Aurora, where he has served as president since 2021.
Dr. Brownlee succeeds Rico Munn, who previously held the role. Munn now serves as executive vice chancellor of the CSU System and will become System chancellor on July 1, succeeding Tony Frank. The position has been restructured to pair the vice president’s regional strategy portfolio with day-to-day operational oversight of CSU Spur, the university’s public-facing campus at Denver’s National Western Center.
The appointment brings together two positions previously held by Munn and by Jocelyn Hittle, who led CSU Spur’s development before leaving the university in 2025. As vice president, Dr. Brownlee will serve as the president’s senior representative in Colorado’s largest metropolitan area, leading a strategy that expands access to CSU, advances new approaches to education and research, and connects the university more directly to Denver-area communities and partners.
“Mordecai knows Colorado, he knows the Denver Metro region, and he has spent his career opening doors to education and economic opportunity,” Parsons said. “This is an exciting step for Spur because Mordecai has the vision and relationships to expand CSU’s reach across the Front Range and build on Spur’s promise as a bold, highly visible platform for innovation, access and impact.”
Dr. Brownlee earned his doctorate in educational leadership from Lamar University; a master’s in human resource management and a bachelor’s in mass communication and political science from Houston Christian University; and an associate degree from Lone Star College.
