Awards and Honors
Michigan State University has earned the 2014 Michigan Engaged Campus of the Year Award from Michigan Campus Compact. The award, which was presented in April 2014 at the State Capitol, recognizes institutions of higher education for exemplary commitment to being an "engaged campus." Michigan Campus Compact is a coalition of college and university presidents who are committed to fulfilling the public purpose of higher education. MCC promotes the education and commitment of Michigan college students to be civically engaged citizens.
Burton A. Bargerstock, Director of the National Collaborative for the Study of University Engagement, Director of Communication and Information Technology, and Special Adviser to the Associate Provost for University Outreach and Engagement, has been elected Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of the International Association for Research on Service Learning and Community Engagement (IARSLCE). After his term is completed, he will advance to serve as Chair of the Board.
C. Kurt Dewhurst, Director of MSU Arts and Cultural Initiatives and UOE Senior Fellow, has received the Al White Community Service Award. The award, given annually by East Lansing Rotary, recognizes a person from the East Lansing community who has provided exemplary community service.
Hiram E. Fitzgerald, Associate Provost for University Outreach and Engagement and University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Psychology, has been inducted into the Academy of Community Engagement Scholarship (ACES). Fitzgerald was selected by peers in recognition of his long career and many accomplishments in collaborating with communities to address critical issues of societal and scholarly significance. ACES is an international academy of individuals deemed by their peers as having made significant contributions to the scholarship of engagement and the worldwide movement for university community engagement. Fitzgerald is among the inaugural members of the Academy.
Dr. Fitzgerald has also been appointed by Gov. Rick Snyder to the Michigan Early Childhood Investment Corp. Guadalupe Lara, of Allen Park, and Susan Broman, of Grand Rapids, were also appointed. The 18-member committee is the state's expert group for information on and investment in early childhood programs, helping to ensure that children enter kindergarten safe, healthy, and eager to learn. Appointees will serve four-year terms expiring July 22, 2018. Their appointments are subject to the advice and consent of the Senate.
Nicole Springer, Associate Director of the Center for Service-Learning and Civic Engagement, has received a 2013-2014 Faculty/Staff Community Service-Learning Award from Michigan Campus Compact. The award honors faculty and staff who use modeling, influencing, or instruction to engage or influence students to be involved in community service or service-learning. Each member campus has the opportunity to select one faculty or staff recipient per year.
Michael Wilson, a Ph.D. student in the African American and African Studies program with a specialization in art history, has been selected as the recipient of the 2014 Nelson Mandela Museum – MSU Museum Curatorial Fellowship. Wilson is researching the relationship between globalization, transnational identities, and visual culture. He is spending part of his fellowship based at the MSU Museum, where he assists on the research for a bi-national exhibition of quilts made by U.S. and South African quilt artists in tribute to Nelson Mandela. He is also working with the Nelson Mandela Museum in Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. While there, he aims to research collections management and to assist in creating a virtual gallery that contains artworks from the museum's collection.
Resources
UOE's Community Evaluation and Research Collaborative (CERC) is launching a new faculty learning community, Managing Complex Social and Environmental Problems through Collaborative and Systemic Approaches to Inquiry and Action. A key concern of this learning community will be how universities can form partnerships with communities to pursue collaborative and systemic approaches to tackling complex community-identified problems. Meetings will occur monthly from 12:00 to 1:30 pm on the third Thursday of each month in the Kellogg Center. Parking passes will be available and participants are invited to bring their lunches. For more information, contact Miles McNall, CERC director, at (517) 353-8977 or mcnall@msu.edu.
New Ventures
Funding Secured for MSU Food Processing and Innovation Center
Chris Peterson (Product Center; Agriculture, Food and Resource Economics), Bruce Hart (Packaging), Mathew Birbeck (Agriculture, Food and Resource Economics), John Melcher (UOE Center for Community and Economic Development), and Randy Bell (MSU Extension; Center for Regional Food Systems) have secured funding for the new Food Processing and Innovation Center. The $5,338,000 program is funded by an EDA grant of $2,669,000; $1,000,000 is from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation and $1,669,000 is from MSU. This project is a fine example of a cross-discipline effort between MSU Extension and University Outreach and Engagement to secure a facility that will benefit community business startups and generate scholarship for various MSU departments as well.
Transitions
In memoriam...
Celeste Sturdevant Reed, retired evaluator and engagement specialist with the UOE Community Evaluation and Research Collaborative, passed away peacefully at home on November 6, 2014. During her tenure at MSU, Reed worked on youth development, culture and arts, early childhood, community problem-solving, evaluation, and professional development initiatives. Most of her evaluation efforts focused on building the capacity of evaluation partners, carried out through formal training as well as individual consultation. She published articles on education, evaluation, and engagement in numerous journals, book chapters, and technical reports. Reed held a Ph.D. in social science (with a concentration in labor and industrial relations) from MSU.
Laura Bates, Research Assistant with UOE's Community Evaluation and Research Collaborative, retired in September 2014. Ms. Bates' work with community research and evaluation projects helped to make research accessible to policymakers and practitioners. She coordinated seminars for state legislators on family issues and wrote or edited a number of research briefs for policymakers and practitioners.
Ghada Georgis has accepted the position of Associate Director at UOE's Communication and Information Technology Department. Georgis joined UOE in 2003 as an information architect developing content for both UOE and MSU partners' outreach-related websites, using best practices related to web design and development and user-centered design principles. She co-manages a talented team of programmers, graphic designers, editors/writers, communication managers, and event planners.
Diane Doberneck has accepted the position of Assistant Director at UOE's National Collaborative for the Study of University Engagement. Doberneck's research interests include outreach and engagement in promotion and tenure processes; faculty integration of outreach and engagement across their teaching, research, and service responsibilities; graduate student and faculty pathways to careers as engaged scholars; international community engagement; and effective strategies for teaching and learning community engagement.
Miles McNall has accepted the position of Director of UOE's Community Evaluation and Research Collaborative. Dr. McNall joined UOE in 2005 as an evaluation research specialist and progressed to the positions of assistant director (2007) and associate director (2010) of CERC prior to accepting his current position as director. Dr. McNall has published his work in both scientific and technical reports, and since joining UOE has secured nearly $1.7 million in external funding.
Laurie Van Egeren has been named Assistant Provost for University-Community Partnerships. Dr. Van Egeren joined University Outreach and Engagement in 2005 as assistant director of University-Community Partnerships, and subsequently served as director of the Community Evaluation Research Collaborative and co-director of the National Collaborative for the Study of University Engagement. She has extensive experience in community-based research and scholarship, has published extensively, and since joining UOE has secured nearly $10 million of external funding. In her role of assistant provost, Van Egeren continues to provide support for MSU faculty and academic staff who seek to conduct their scholarship in diverse community contexts, and oversees UOE's active support staff focused on university-community partnerships.
Van Egeren succeeds Patricia Farrell, who retired from the position in December of 2013.
