Tim O'Neil Photo
UROP and PACE Director
timothy.oneil@colorado.edu
303 492 2596

Tim manages the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) and the Professional and Academic Conference Endowment (PACE), which support more than 400 student-faculty partnerships annually while hosting UROP's experiential learning workshop series The Curiosity Lab. 

In collaboration with campus and global partners, Tim enables transformative learning by connecting students to the academic and creative lives of their campus communities, cultivating culturally responsive mentorship and creating inclusive pathways with innovative campus programming. As a first-generation student, he is sensitive to the egalitarian potential of a university education and considers it a privilege to participate in the academic and creative life of the global community of scholars.  Because inequities in higher-education persist, Tim recognizes the need to increase efforts to make research more accessible and inclusive.

Tim has been developing university programming since 2008 and joined the ¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉä Boulder community in 2016 as the Assistant Director of Special Undergraduate Enrichment Programs, where he managed UROP and PACE while providing support for the Norlin and Boettcher Scholars programs. He developed UROP's Pathways Initiative in 2017 to broaden participation on the Boulder campus. In response to the pandemic’s shift to virtual learning, he created the Curiosity Lab virtual workshop series and UROP’s Mentoring Guide. Tim also developed UROP’s Sidewalk Symposium and the Lightbulb Moment Storytelling Initiative to recenter the conversation about student success.

Since 2020, Tim has served as a Division Representative on the Undergraduate Research Programs division of the Council on Undergraduate Research (¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉäR) (2020-2023; 2023-2026), currently co-chairs ¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉäR’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee (Feb. 2024-May 2025) and previously served on the Task Force for Facilitating Interdisciplinary Research in Undergraduate Education (2023).  In partnership with ¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉäR, he regularly facilitates workshops on program design and management, culturally responsive mentorship, and advancing equity with inclusive outreach.