| Past Lynton Award Recipients |
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2009
As a reflection of this philosophy, Nick strives to unite engagement with the creative process in the courses he teaches. Since 2005, his course entitled "Detroit Connections," involves undergraduate and graduate students from the School of Art and Design in teaching art to fourth-grade children in underserved Detroit public schools. In preparation for the teaching experience, Nick requires his students to spend considerable time becoming familiar and interacting with the neighborhoods and communities in which the school children live. This experience, as one colleague commends, "gives [the] students a much deeper understanding of the cultural, environmental, educational, and economic environment that is shaping their [mentees'] lives." In a recently developed summer course, he and a group of undergraduates lived with families in Detroit while constructing an outdoor classroom at an urban farm run by a local soup kitchen. Nick also teaches a required course in which first-year Arts and Design students spend two weeks building 14-foot-tall puppets for the annual FestiFools Parade in downtown Ann Arbor, a festival that Nick co-conceived and co-founded. Students are organized into "mini-communities" and collaborate on the design and construction of each puppet, sharing resources and ideas within their groups and with other groups, and generating collective artistic philosophies during the creative process. As one Arts and Design professor noted: "The institutional impact of this experience is enormous. Every student who is part of our Arts & Design program by the end of their first year...will have experienced what it is like to work together on something larger than their private vision and desires. They come away with a concrete awareness that in every subsequent class they take, there is an expectation of developing a language that has larger resonance within ever expanding layers of community." Indeed, since its inception in 2006, the Festifools parade has become a community institution that draws hundreds of onlookers and participants each year, and has the enthusiastic support of Ann Arbor residents and business owners. Nick's academic and creative work also has international reach. After traveling to Suriname for a graduate exchange program, he returned the following year with a group of ten MFA students who spent six weeks working with undergraduate and graduate students at the Institute for Advanced Training of Teachers in Paramaribo. The following year he obtained grant funding to host two undergraduates and a faculty member from Paramaribo at the University of Michigan for a month. The undergraduates took classes with U of M students, and the faculty member was provided with studio space, conducted workshops, and lectured on his work. In a testimonial to Nick's impact on the School of Art and Design, his dean wrote, "Tobier continues to influence and shape the outreach focus of the School's curricula by identifying new and innovative ways to push students (and the discipline) beyond academic boundaries to create meaningful dialogue across socio-cultural-economic boundaries." He continued, "Professor Tobier's versatile artmaking practice, like his teaching, involves public interaction and inserts creative work beyond the gallery and into the streets (literally). His performances and performing objects foster profound contemplation and stimulate interactions across established social barriers-particularly those of class and race." As an example of his work, Nick's syllabus for his course, "Detroit Connections: In the Classroom," is available here. 2008
In her work with the Southeastern Connecticut Mental Health System of Care (SEMHSOC), Michelle calls upon her own networks in underserved communities to arrange dialogues between SEMHSOC members and individuals from the most underserved communities in the area in order to help the agency improve services to children of color. Her approach to education does not draw value distinctions between academic and nonacademic expertise. A director from the Connecticut Department of Children and Families testified to Michelle's skills at engaging "a community, the Department, a foster family, and DCF children in a process that brought about a solution which decreased the animosity and poor relationships that had developed." As part of this work, a research team made up of six undergraduate students, a Connecticut College alum, and a community youth is working collaboratively to collect and analyze data in a study geared toward gaining a better understanding of the personality and demographic variables that are associated with favorable and unfavorable opinions of minority family communication and discipline among professionals who work with minority families. The research team will also collaborate on conference presentations and scholarly publications emerging from this work. Her most recent publication (forthcoming, spring 2009) is a book co-authored with S. Evans, C. Taylor, and D. Miller, African Americans and Community Engagement in Higher Education: Perspectives of Race in Community Service, Service-Learning, and Community Based Research (NY: SUNY Press). 2007
Data from letters of support from a faculty colleague with whom she co-teaches, community partners, and one of her students, as well as evidence from her syllabi combined to create a powerful narrative of engaged scholarship. Her faculty colleague writes that “the engagement in Lawrence is not simply a drop-in drop-out class for students, but an enduring commitment to combine technology, planning, institutional and political analysis and strategy to rebuilding the physical and social fabric of Lawrence’s poorest neighborhood.” MIT@Lawrence has resulted in a wide range of institutional relationships in Lawrence as well as within MIT. Recently Lorlene was awarded a Community Outreach Partnerships Centers Program (COPC) grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that integrates faculty from the Sloan School of Management, the Center for Real Estate, and the Media Lab and graduate and undergraduate students from across campus to work on projects in city administration, other nonprofits, schools, and local businesses. The letter signed by her community partners—staff of Lawrence Community Works, as well as residents of the neighborhood—attests to her skills as a facilitator, shepherding through “a multi-stakeholder and inclusive process unheard of in the city of Lawrence” which has resulted in a rezoning effort that mandated the inclusion of affordable housing, a “long-range anti-gentrification strategy of immense importance to the working families of Lawrence.” Further, they acknowledged the value of a sustained co-equal partnership to their community: “Those of us ‘in the trenches’ can count on students returning every year . . . This is a change in the way universities relate to communities insofar as we are less of a laboratory that benefits the students in their professional development and more of an equal partner in an ongoing practice and dialogue around effecting change in the city.” Her graduate student detailed how he experienced the cumulative process of students building on their predecessors’ work from year to year in the community: “It is a testament to Professor Hoyt’s persistent dedication to the city of Lawrence that these MIT@Lawrence projects build off the previous one in a sustained effort to engage the Lawrence community and offer a valuable learning experience to the students involved.” As a result of student work in required practicum for a Master’s in City Planning that is committed to work in Lawrence, he reported, the Lawrence City Council is debating an ordinance designed to improve the city’s public process disposition process. The syllabus of that practicum clearly identifies the course’s engaged underpinnings: “Unlike the conventional model of academic research and the most prevalent types of applied research, LCW members will not function as passive subjects, nor do students act as experts whose principle responsibility is to deliver a final product. Rather the practicum follows a participatory action research model whereby students work hand-in-hand with LCW members.” This commitment to working “hand-in-hand” is evidenced in her scholarship as well, with the forthcoming publication Voices from Forgotten Cities: Innovative Revitalization Coalitions in American’s Older Small Cities, co-authored with Andre Leroux from Lawrence Community Works. Click here to see more information on Lorlene Hoyt’s work.
In 2001 she co-founded DUSTY (Digital Underground Storytelling for Youth), a community technology center developed using a multi-disciplinary approach. Her graduate and undergraduate students work closely with children and youth, parents and community members, in creating multi-media stories about their communities, their families and their lives. Participating K-12 students, most of whom began the program with poor literacy skills, become highly motivated to read and write. In the process Hull’s students translate in-class explorations of educational problems into productive pedagogical strategies for addressing those problems. The “cascading leadership model” for service-learning in which graduate students work with undergraduate students who work with K-12 students has become a model for other academic service-learning courses at Berkeley. In collaboration with her graduate and undergraduate students and community members, Hull has published extensively on her work. She is recognized on her campus as having made substantial contributions to advance outreach and engaged scholarship at UC Berkeley, which now aims to have at least one academic service-learning course in every department.
Now in its eighth year, HOT engages eight graduate students and more than 200 undergraduates a year, along with faculty and staff, in developing standards-based curricula in history and literature in Santa Ana classrooms. K-12 student improvement has been documented using pre- and post-writing samples and standardized test scores. The program combines educational and civic goals including boosting reading, writing, and critical thinking skills through content-rich materials of historical, artistic, and scholarly significance and building academic, professional, and civic ties among universities and school districts through collaborative teaching and research. Through a partnership with GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awareness & Readiness for Undergraduate Programs) the program is being disseminated locally and nationally. As a direct result of Lupton’s work, UCI created for the first time a new category of distinction in the academic personnel process: excellence in public scholarship.
O’Donnell’s approach to pedagogy involves identifying a social need, gathering concerned students, and engaging them with community organizations to address the need. Throughout her project, she reflects about the experiences through scholarly writing and develops new courses that integrate the concepts and substance of community engagement. In the early 1980s, she focused on the integration of engaged students with communities to form community-action teams and praxis groups around the themes of social justice, reproductive freedom, and peace. This early work resulted in the birth of a Women’s Center on campus, a Women’s Studies program, and a number of new courses, including service-learning and interdisciplinary courses. Her work then expanded to include collaborations with local high schools, colleges, health organizations, and multiple community partners in the region. In the late 1990s O’Donnell replicated her integrative pedagogical model in Chiapas, Mexico in projects that included developing fundraising and service programs to assist school clinics, supporting the building of a natural dye production facility, and building an organic garden as well as a training and meeting center. O’Donnell’s advocacy efforts at Hartwick have had an institutional impact that resulted in the President creating an advisory group to assess strategies encompassing service-learning.
2004 Joseph A. Gardella, Jr. is Professor of Chemistry and Associate Dean for External Affairs in the College of Arts and Sciences at SUNY Buffalo. As an undergraduate at Oakland University in Rochester, MI, he completed a dual degree program in chemistry (B.S.) and Philosophy (B.A.) He received a Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from the University of Pittsburgh and spent a postdoctoral year at the University of Utah before coming to SUNY Buffalo (UB) in 1982. Dr. Gardella has received numerous awards for research and teaching including the SUNY Chancellor's Medal for Excellence in Teaching in 1996. 2002 Patricia A. Keener, M.D., Director for the Social and Community Contexts of Health Care Competency, Associate Chairman of the Department of Pediatrics, Clinical Professor of Pediatrics, and Assistant Dean for Medical Service-Learning at the Indiana University School of Medicine. Dr. Keener's various titles speak to the many areas that she has impacted over the past thirty years. The thousands of students, peers, community organizations and individuals that have been touched by the efforts that she has led or been involved with establishing, such as: the Indianapolis Campaign for Healthy Babies, the First Medical Director of the Wishard Memorial Hospital Community Health Centers, the Hispanic/Latino Health Access Initiative, the Hispanic Pediatric Clinic and Immunization Outreach, Safe Sitter, Inc., Laptop Kids, and the Office of Medical Service-Learning. Dr. Keener created Safe Sitter, Inc in 1980 as a national community-based resource for child-care/parenting education that is available at over 800 sites with over 4,000 trained instructors. The fact that over 300,000 young adolescents have successfully completed the training is evidence of the impact of this program. Each of the programs cited above have similar stories to tell of the dramatic and long-lasting impacts that have occurred due to Dr. Keener putting her professional service to work in her community. As noted by her nominator "her career could serve as a template for connecting the medical school to the university at large, for connecting the university to the local community and in the process forging a vital connection between herself and the community." 2001 Kenneth Reardon is an Associate Professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning at Cornell University (Ithaca, NY). Dr. Reardon is a leading practitioner in teaching, involving and leading his students in participatory action research methods to transform both the worlds of the university and the community with which they work. Dr. Reardon is constantly sharing his research and experiences through his invited lectures and publications that document the power of his efforts to empower residents and students alike. He shows what is possible through action research that builds racially diverse organizations capable of learning and acting on the world to improve local conditions of poverty, environmental and social decay, and governmental inefficacy. Through his professional service and academic outreach he has worked with individuals and organizations from grass-root organizations in East St. Louis, to the Office of University Partnerships at HUD, to the United Nations. Ching-chih Chen, is a Professor of Library Science at Simmons College (Boston, Massachusetts). Dr. Chen is a leading researcher in the use of cutting-edge technologies – microcomputers, digital imaging, optical technologies, multimedia, and current communications technologies. Dr. Chen utilizes her professional service and academic outreach to develop new technologies to better enable the practitioners of library science. In addition, she has brought the technology and her teachings to over 30 countries to provide training for the research and educational programs in the fields of library and information studies. Dr. Chen has published, presented, initiated projects that enable the development of, and has lead the effort to broaden the use of technology for the global internetworking of libraries. Dr. Chen has been recognized for her work on many levels including being appointed by President Clinton to the Presidential Information Technology Advisory Committee in 1997. Richard A. Couto is Professor and George Matthews and Virginia Brinkley Modlin Chair in Leadership Studies at the University of Richmond. He is being honored for integrating community-based, problem-centered teaching and research over the past 25 years. Linking participatory action research, community change, and policy is a cornerstone of each effort he undertakes whether at the local, national or international level. Dr. Couto along with his students, works with community groups through multi-site programs that contribute to the development of health services, social services, and community organizations in low-income, rural communities. Whether his work has influenced the scholarship of colleagues, court cases, public policy, foundation programs, community leaders or organizations, what stands out throughout his distinguished career is the impact on students whose lives are forever changed. Kathryn Pyne Addelson, Mary Huggins Gamble Professor of Philosophy, History of Science; andFrédérique Apffel Marglin, Professor of Anthropology, are the co-founders of the Center for Mutual Learning at Smith College, MA. Joseph Bathanti, Professor of English, Program Coordinator of the Humanities Division, and Writer-in-Residence at Mitchell Community College in Statesville, North Carolina. Dr. Bathanti's belief in the power of writing extends the walls of his classroom to encompass the community. It is in this extended classroom that his deep commitment to education as an avatar of social and intellectual change comes to bear. His work involves many groups that society often overlooks – prisoners, battered women, and the poor. Leonard Fleck is Professor of Philosophy and Medical Ethics in the Center for Ethics and Humanities and the Philosophy Department at Michigan State University. His special interests lie in medical ethics, and particularly, in issues of social and economic justice in the allocation of health care resources. Through the "Just Caring Project," he uses his skills as a philosopher-ethicist to facilitate community dialogs that bring together citizens and opinion leaders to determine moral values in health care. The ultimate goal is to create a more informed electorate to participate in political decision making about the future of health care. Peter Kiang is an Associate Professor in the Graduate College of Education and the American Studies Program at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Dr. Kiang is the founder of the University's Institute for Asian American Studies and the University's Center for Immigrant and Refugee Community Leadership and Empowerment. Currently, his work focuses on analyzing racial conflict in schools, developing leadership with Asian American youth and immigrant/refugee communities, and ensuring access by communities of color to the information superhighway. Mark Chesler, professor of sociology and project director of Center for Research on Social Organization at the University of Michigan. Working with students as co-investigators, Dr. Chesler’s service and participant-in-action research addresses issues involving in families with childhood cancer, racism, and social discrimination and injustice in organizations. He has directed community service learning courses for 20 years, and organized workshops to help faculty to improve teaching in areas of diversity. Maria deLourdes Serpa, Director of the Special Needs Program, School of Education, Lesley University, MA. An experienced classroom teacher in both general and bilingual special education, Dr. Serpa has worked in education at the local, state, national and international levels on literacy and language issues for underserved immigrant school populations and their families. She has been recognized for her service by the Massachusetts Commissioner of Education, and most recently, received the Commander of Public Instruction Award from the President of Portugal. Honorable Mentions Pennie Foster-Fishman, Associate Professor and Chairperson, Community-Ecological Psychology Program at Michigan State University and University Outreach and Engagement Senior Fellow. Pennie’s engaged work on how organizational, inter-organizational and community systems can improve to better meet the needs of children, youth, and families is exemplified in a seven-year partnership with SILC (Michigan’s State Independent Living Council) helping to enhance the collaborative capacity of the disability network in Michigan. At the center of her approach to inquiry is the full participation of community partners in the research and the linking of student work to community-identified projects. As a result of the capacity building and research efforts of Pennie and her students, SILC has created the largest, most diverse and perhaps most effective state-wide disability coalition in Michigan. Further, Michigan State University funded Pennie to develop its Faculty Learning Community on the Scholarship of Engagement for faculty from multiple disciplines, charged with understanding the implications of engagement and the engagement process for faculty work at a research-intensive university. This work produced several journal articles, a book chapter, multiple conference presentations and a book on reflective discourse as an approach toward understanding critical engagement. The book is being read by MSU faculty and graduate students and in a joint set of activities with HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities). Irma Ramirez, Assistant Professor, Architecture Department of the School of Environmental Design, California State Polytechnic University. Integrating community organizing into the design and construction process of sustainable communities, Irma has served as a co-principal investigator for much of the work done by the John T. Lyle Center for Regenerative Studies at Cal Poly Pomona in the deeply impoverished “colonias” in Tijuana as part of Habitat 21, the Center’s project for sustainable settlements. Working with Corazón, a non-governmental organization serving people who are poor in Tijuana, Irma’s students have collaborated with residents on the design and construction of “Info-Structures” which serve both as bulletin boards for Corazón to communicate with the community about their programs and as places where residents can congregate in landscaped civic spaces displaying public art. In the process, students revise their notions about the skills and abilities of local residents (typically women in the community) and the authority and power of residents is acknowledged as they use previously untapped assets necessary for local civic improvements. For Cal Poly Pomona students who are unable to participate in one of the university’s many international opportunities because of the cost or family responsibilities, work in Tijuana provides an international experience that is affordable and feasible. For more than two decades, Barbara Israel, Professor in the Department of Health Behavior and Health Education in School of Public Health at University of Michigan, has applied her public health expertise to the needs of under-resourced communities through community-based participatory research. Her students, drawn from a wide array of disciplines, work in teams with community members on projects that have often have a community organizing component. Nationally known for her scholarship of engagement, she organized and chaired a school-wide committee appointed by the Dean and which remains today as a standing committee to foster community-based teaching and scholarship throughout the school.
Elizabeth Paul, Associate Professor of Psychology at The College of New Jersey, involves undergraduates in providing program and evaluation services to enhance the lives of children living in poverty in the Trenton area. Through her projects and courses, students receive training in both applied social research and the skills necessary to produce a professional research report. Beyond this, the experience allows for intensive career exploration which interests many of her students in the fields of public health, public policy, social work and applied psychology and positions them to become the next generation of community leaders and activists to serve the public good. 2005 Greg Lindsey is Associate Dean of the School of Public and Environmental Affairs and the Duey- Murphy Professor of Rural Land Policy at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). He is an environmental planner who explores ways for the university to harness its assets to assist local, regional, and state leaders in solving problems and improving the life of Indiana residents. He works with agencies at the state and local levels to increase their understanding of complex problems and to create new state legislation and policy. Dr. Lindsey’s approach to service-learning provides students with opportunities to learn through practice and to enter into the world of professional service by working on problems ranging from financing municipal stormwater programs to abatement of lead poisoning in inner city youth to establishing an immigrant welcome center for new migrants to Indianapolis. He has also co-authored publications, many of them accepted in peer-reviewed journals, with students. Dr. Lindsey was the inaugural recipient of the Chancellor’s Faculty Award for Excellence in Civic Engagement at IUPUI. Clement Alexander Price is the Board of Governors’ Distinguished Service Professor of History, Director and Founder of the Rutgers Institute on Ethnicity, Culture, and the Modern Experience at Rutgers University, Newark Campus. Dr. Price’s career is marked by a blend of traditional and public intellectual work that brings scholarship and scholars to a cross section of citizens and communities in Greater Newark. He is among the first scholars in Newark to dramatize the role of the public intellectual in ameliorating racial discord, shedding light on historical memory, dignifying the bittersweet narratives of African Americans in modern history, and leading public and private institutions toward a higher standard of public service. The work of the Rutgers Institute on Ethnicity, Culture, and Modern Experience Rutgers-Newark brings faculty together with teachers in the K-12 system in the Teachers as Scholars initiative, brings community leaders into campus as part of the Newark Reads DuBois project, and provides cultural awareness training for Newark State Police. 2004 Marybeth Lima, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering at Louisiana State University. Through her service-learning classes, Dr. Lima has worked alongside her undergraduate students to design, implement, and raise funds for "dream playgrounds," butterfly gardens, and even an outside classroom for elementary school students. Working in collaboration with teachers and community partners, Dr. Lima's goal is to build a safe playground for every public school in Baton Rouge, all of which will be accessible for physically challenged children and will incorporate the children's own creativity. Dr. Lima widely disseminates what she has learned about engineering and community development through publications and presentations. Her commitment extends not only to the higher education community but also to primary and secondary science teachers through a statewide workshop called "Experience Science Saturday" and to various community organizations. Shirley Tang, Ph.D. is an assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston where she holds an unprecedented joint appointment in American Studies and Asian American Studies. Dr. Tang has rich experience working in and with immigrant and refugee communities; she has organized various advocacy efforts in Southeast Asian American communities and has led collaborative research projects in the Boston area. Her teaching and research interests include: Asian immigrant/refugee community research; women of color/youth expressive culture; and comparative race/ethnicity/culture. Dr. Tang is currently engaged in a number of research projects, including a manuscript based on her extensive fieldwork as a street outreach worker working with gang-involved youth. Richard Eberst, Ph.D., Director, Community-University Partnerships, Professor and Past Chairs, Health Science and Human Ecology at California State University San Bernardino. Dr. Eberst is being recognized for his career spanning work in improving the over-all quality of life and health in the region. Projects have included the creation of Community-University Partnerships (CUP), a unit at the university that spans all five Divisions and works to serve a huge geographical area comprised of one of the most diverse populations in the United States; "Focus 92411," a community outreach partnership among the residents of the 92411 zip code involving the community hospital, public health department, the university and many local community-based organizations to improve the overall quality of life for those who work and live in that zip code; and the "African-American Health Initiative" to address the health disparities that exist between African-Americans and other groups in the county. In addition to his own scholarship reflecting the learning of these partnerships, hundreds of colleagues, students and community partners have studied, and developed policies and action agendas through them as well. Ira Harkavy, Ph.D., Associate Vice President and Director, Center for Community Partnerships at the University of Pennsylvania. From the formation of the Office of Community-Oriented Policy Studies in the early 80's, to the development of Penn Program for Public Service in the School of Arts and Sciences, and the creation of the Center for Community Partnerships in the Office of the President, he has helped Penn shape an infrastructure to support the scholarship of engagement by faculty and students. He has written extensively on the issues of engaged scholarship for more than a decade, helping us all think more clearly on the "why" as well as the "how" of civic engagement. Dr. Harkavy's writings are frequently cited in the literature on service-learning, democratic pedagogy, community-university-school partnerships, community-based action research, and university civic engagement. Dr. Harkavy is being honored for his contributions to scholarship, the community, and society through his creative integration of research, teaching and service. Kathleen A. Staudt, Ph.D., Professor of Political Science and Director, Center for Civic Engagement (CCE) at the University of Texas at El Paso. We honor Dr. Staudt for her work with schools, families and numerous institutions in the El Paso area. Through her work at CCE, Dr. Staudt has aimed to create a model for the engaged university, providing opportunities for faculty members and students to partner with the community through community-based research and service-learning. Dr. Staudt has consistently invited graduate and undergraduate students to present with her at local state and national conferences. Out of her work with the community she has published numerous books and articles, frequently engaging in joint topics concerning human rights and social justice with students, colleagues and community partners. Dr. Staudt's influence and impact are multiplied as like-minded faculty have been enabled to pursue their outreach interests with institutional support. Her mentoring and support has enabled junior faculty to undertake new challenges and projects, and senior faculty to further develop some of their preexisting programs. Francisco H. Vázques, Ph.D., Professor, Hutchins School of Liberal Studies and Director, Hutchins Institute for Public Policy and Community Action, Sonoma State University. Dr. Vázques is honored for his work on democratic citizen participation among Latinos. He created the Latino Student Congress, a program that gave Latino students a voice in expressing the issues that mattered most to them. The objective was for students to go beyond discussing the issues that they confronted and formulate policies that would address them. Dr. Vázques has received grants to improve the attrition rates of migrant students, and to study the practice of and beliefs regarding civic engagement among Latino High School students in Sonoma County. He co-authored Latino/a Thought: Culture, Politics and Society (2003) which addresses issues of public citizenship, and the rights of people regardless of their geographical or cultural locations. The book is designed for young people, with a special introduction on power, knowledge, language and every day life and with exercises and guidelines to become a community organizer and active citizen. 2002 Richard Cherwitz, Ph.D., Associate Dean of the Graduate College and Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Cherwitz is being recognized for the innovative program entitled the Intellectual Entrepreneurship Program. This program involves faculty and graduate students from across the campus in developing innovative, collaborative and sustainable ways for universities to work with their communities to solve complex problems. Each year hundreds of students and faculty are involved in their community and are putting the knowledge that is created to work to benefit the larger society. Robert A. Findlay, Ph.D., FAIA, Professor of Architecture at Iowa State University. Dr. Findlay is being recognized for his thirty years of local to international work related to design education and disaster management for sustainable community design. He has engaged his students with a focus on the social purposes and impacts of designed environments. His use of an innovative methodology that enables egalitarian exchanges between community participants, design practitioners and students has transformed his courses and those of his peers. Sherril B. Gelmon, Dr.P.H., F.A.C.H.E., Professor of Public Health, Division of Public Administration, Mark O. Hatfield School of Government and School of Community Health, College of Urban and Public Affairs at Portland State University . Dr. Gelmon is being recognized for her sustained commitment to teaching, scholarship, community development, consultation, and volunteer activity that blends her professional service with service to the institution, the students and the community. Her efforts to put her disciplinary expertise to work have resulted in addressing many important social concerns such as community health improvement, breast cancer, rural access to health care for the elderly, homeless youth and community collaboration. Joann Keyton, Ph.D., Faculty Ombudsperson in Academic Affairs and Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Memphis. Dr. Keyton is being recognized for her committed effort to put her professional service into action by providing analytical abilities and facilitated training workshops for nonprofit leaders and practitioners throughout the region. She has utilized her research to benefit the community for both area governmental and nonprofit organizations. Her students have been intricately involved with designing and conducting research projects that have identified ways in which the organizations could improve delivery of their service activities and determine the effectiveness of training programs. Ram L. Chugh, Ph.D., Distinguished Service Professor of Economics, Director of the Merwin Rural Services Institute, and Special Assistant to the President for Public Service at the State University of New York at Potsdam. Dr. Chugh is being recognized for his long-standing efforts to integrate his research, students, and expertise with the regional social and economic development in upstate New York. His research has focused on the rural economy and the real world problems that are faced by the people who live and work in his region. The institution and SUNY system have been impacted by his ability to put things into practice through developing strategic partnerships that sustain the emerging products or services. 2001 Nicholas Cutforth is an Associate Professor of Curriculum and Instruction in the College of Education at the University of Denver. Dr. Cutforth's areas of academic outreach have included urban education, school-university collaboration, ethnographic research and program evaluation. Dr. Cutforth is being recognized for his efforts to utilize physical education and recreation as a means of improving youth development and as a bridge between universities and communities. Kathleen Farber is an Associate Professor of Educational Foundations and Inquiry/Women's Studies and Director of Partnerships for Community Action at Bowling Green State University (Bowling Green, OH). Dr. Farber is being recognized for her efforts to integrate professional service and academic outreach with the research efforts of university faculty and expanding the educational opportunities available to students and community members. The partnerships that she facilitates are dedicated to redefining the relationship between the university and the broader community through building and sustaining projects that enhance equal educational opportunity, economic development, health and wellness, and cultural awareness in Northwest Ohio. Pierrette Hondagneau-Sotelo is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Southern California. Dr. Hondagneau-Sotelo is being recognized for research efforts and involvement of her students in the study and understanding of the lives of the poorest and most disenfranchised immigrants. She not only challenges herself and her students by increasing the data documenting this population, but she also challenges people to become advocates on the behalf of this population. Rose Jensen is the Director of the Beard Center on Aging and Associate Professor of Sociology at Lynchburg College (Lynchburg, VA). Dr. Jensen is being recognized for her efforts to combine her teaching, learning and research on the complexity of the aging experience and to promote positive aging, socialization and relationships across generations. Her ability to combine her students' learning and her research has expanded the opportunities available to the senior population in her region of the country. Judith Primavera is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Fairfield University (Fairfield, CT). Dr. Primavera is being recognized for her efforts to develop, lead, and sustain the teaching and research efforts associated with the Adrienne Kirby Family Literacy Project. This project is a true partnership that links Fairfield University and Action for Bridgeport Community Development in a "resource exchange network" that enables university students, community members and faculty members to utilize one anothers' expertise talents in mutually beneficial ways. Jean Trounstine is Professor of Humanities at Middlesex Community College (Bedford, MA). Professor Trounstine is being recognized for her efforts to empower and challenge both her students and women in prison through English composition and Drama. Her research and teaching have enabled students to reach new levels of development and have taught them how to utilize their voices to address social concerns. Her book, Shakespeare Behind Bars: The Power of Drama in a Women's Prison, based on this work and one of her courses, will be published this year by Saint Martin's Press. Fran Ansley is a Professor in the College of Law at the University of Tennessee Knoxville (UTK). A founder of the Community Partnerships Center at UTK, Dr. Ansley and her students have conducted community-based research on issues related to welfare reform and empowering recent immigrants in the state of Tennessee Gail Della Piana is an Associate Professor in the Department of Architecture and Interdisciplinary Studies at Miami University in Ohio. She has developed exchange programs and innovative collaborations between Miami University and universities and village communities in Ghana. Brenda Jarmon is an Assistant Professor and the Associate Director of the Undergraduate Program in the School of Social Work at Florida State University. Focusing on the needs of the Tallahassee, Florida community, particularly in the area of teen pregnancy prevention, Dr. Jarmon has demonstrated a passion for educating and inspiring others. Kenneth Reardon is an Associate Professor in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This year he is also a Visiting Associate Professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning at Cornell University. His work in East St. Louis, Illinois links his academic research and teaching of architecture and urban planning with revitalizing a disadvantaged community. Steven Zuckeris the Director of the Area Health Education Centers Program and a Professor in the College of Osteopathic Medicine, the College of Allied Health, and the College of Dentistry at Nova Southeastern University. Dr. Zucker's research and teaching efforts have improved the access to and quality of health services for isolated and remote rural communities, inner-city communities, and minority groups on a local, state, and national level. Clint Gould, Associate Professor, Humanities; and Coordinator, AIDS Education Program, Community College of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for his work in HIV/AIDS education, prevention, policy and research. Meredith Minkler, Professor and Chair, Community Health Education Program, Division of Health and Medical Sciences, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, for her work in fostering the development of healthy communities. Mary Morton, Associate Professor, Biology; Charles A. Dana Faculty Fellow; and Science Projects Coordinator, College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, for her work with K-12 public school teachers and students on innovative biology curricula and pedagogy. Thomas O'Toole, Assistant Professor, Division of General, Internal Medicine; Associate Director, Division of General, Internal Medicine Fellowship Program; and Course Co-Director, School of Medicine, Ambulatory Care Course at the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for establishing clinics that provide healthcare to the homeless. Robert Prigo, Professor, Physics, Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vermont, for his work with local K-12 teachers and administrators on inquiry-based, science teaching and learning. Linda Silka, Professor, Regional Economic and Social Development and Director, Center for Family, Work, and Community, University of Massachusetts Lowell , for her efforts to promote and enhance skill building with local immigrant groups. Robert Sykes, Associate Professor, Department of Landscape Architecture, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, for his work that integrates design principles for physical space with new political and institutional frameworks for community building. Ann Withorn, Professor of Social Policy, College of Public and Community Service, University of Massachusetts Boston , for her work on welfare rights and social justice. Albert Camarillo, Professor of History, Stanford University for his work on poverty and homeless issues. Hiram Fitzgerald, Professor of Psychology and Chair, Applied Developmental Science Program, Michigan State University for his work on infants, and model university-community programs. Frances Johnston, Professor, Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania whose academic outreach is in nutrition both locally and in Guatemala. Patricia O' Connor, Assistant Professor of English, Georgetown University for her work with prison inmates. David Orr, Professor and Chair, Environmental Studies and Politics, Oberlin College for his work on the environment. Geneva Smitherman, Professor of English and Director of African-American Language and Literacy Program, Michigan State University for her work on the relationship between community relations and community speech, and language and literacy programs. Bird Stasz, Director of Elementary Education, Wells College for establishing the student literacy corps, and outreach in community based literacy and adult education. |
Michelle Dunlap, associate professor of human development at Connecticut College, understands that scholarship of integrity is grounded in formal obligations and long-term commitments met though fully engaged citizenship in the communities in which one lives and with which one works-neighborhood and college alike. Describing her theory of practice, she writes, "I believe that until opportunity and equity have been reached for all people-until social challenges such as poverty, racism, sexism, and homophobia have been eliminated-until we all have equal access to education and some semblance of socioeconomic stability-until then, a scholar's life, career, teaching, research, and service is not their own. But rather, our life belongs to the community."
Lorlene Hoyt, Assistant Professor, Urban Studies and Planning at MIT, has developed broad and deep relationships with residents, non-profit organizations, city employees, and private sector developers in the City of Lawrence in northernmost Massachusetts over the past four years. Through the multiple projects of MIT@Lawrence, Lorlene’s work involves generating affordable housing, asset building, youth development, and sustainability in the poorest areas of an economically depressed and racially divided post-industrial city.
Glynda Hull, Professor of Language, Literacy, and Culture in the Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Berkeley, has deepened the development of the scholarship of engagement and helped to institutionalize academic service-learning on her campus. She incorporates challenging community-based experiences with in-class instruction as a means for students to explore important, complex social issues.
Julia Lupton, Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Irvine, translates theoretical academic research in British Renaissance literature into terms and activities that make sense to teachers, students and community members outside the university. She is the founding director of Humanities Out There (HOT), an educational partnership involving students and faculty from the University of California, Irvine and K-12 students and teachers from the Santa Ana Unified School District (SAUSD), a low performing, largely Latino/a urban school district.
Katherine O’Donnell, Professor of Sociology at Hartwick College, is a faculty member whose collaborative community-based scholarship and integrative pedagogical approaches span three decades. Her work has had a strong institutional impact through the development of new courses, programs, and centers.
Marybeth Lima, Ph.D., an Associate Professor in the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering at Louisiana State University, became an engineer because she wanted to make the world a better place. She found as a student and professional that engineering often boasts of serving society, but in reality it serves entities such as private commercial interests that often overlook societal concerns. Since coming to LSU, Dr. Lima has employed service-learning in her classes, a pedagogy through which she cultivates in engineering students an understanding of the social and historical aspects of people, culture, and society that are central to the design process and vital to success.Dr. Lima’s goal is to guarantee that every child in public elementary schools, beginning locally in Baton Rouge and aiming nationwide, has access to a playground. Just as she conceptualizes her teaching with an eye toward fostering democratic sensibilities, she frames her professional service in engineering problem solving from multiple perspectives with an emphasis on equality, dignity, and respect for all partners involved in the design process and works in close collaboration with undergraduate students, teachers, and community partners in all aspects of the process including design, fundraising, and implementation. As LSU’s first Service-Learning Faculty Fellow, Dr. Lima is endeavoring to establish an infrastructure and policies to support service-learning campus-wide with particular attention to promotion and tenure issues. Through work that seamlessly combines the scholarship of teaching, research, and professional service, Dr. Lima truly embodies the notion of the engaged scholar.
