Community Engagement Collaborative

About the Collaborative

The Vanderbilt Community Engagement Collaborative serves as a campus-wide forum to establish shared knowledge, structures, processes and guidelines to inform Vanderbilt’s work in the Nashville and Middle Tennessee communities.

Membership in the Collaborative, which touches nearly all corners of campus, is comprised of faculty and staff with some level of administrative or leadership responsibilities for community outreach and programs. The Collaborative is a network to extend practices and learning more broadly across campus and seeks to identify platforms and resource-sharing methods that facilitate collaboration aligned with shared guiding principles for community engagement.

Purpose: The Community Engagement Collaborative serves as the driving entity for authentic community collaboration and projects that are co-created through relationship building, informed by community need, and aligned with Vanderbilt University’s mission and goals to foster innovation and shared learning.

Core Objectives:

To serve as a working group to build a “Vanderbilt Way” that guides community engagement with an eye toward best practices and evidence-based approaches
To offer support, feedback and communication to ensure the strongest impact and best use of Vanderbilt’s resources, offerings and gifts
To build connections and communication within campus
To establish shared and accessible language, principles and resources

For more information, contact Kathleen Fuchs Hritz, Senior Director of Community Relations in the Division of Government and Community Relations and lead for the Community Engagement Collaborative.

Guiding Principles for Community Engagement

Vanderbilt University is a research institution dedicated to learning for all ages. Within that institution, we comprise the Community Engagement Collaborative, a number of community-facing groups focused on using our resources for positive social impact beyond the bounds of education.

Reflective Learning

We commit to fostering curiosity, encouraging questions, supporting learning, and building and amplifying evidence to further reflect our institutional commitment to community engagement, teaching, and research.
Authentic Relationships

We commit to creating trustworthy and equitable structures, respectful processes, and relationships with our community partners toward a just society.
Impact

We commit to co-creating mutually meaningful work that has a strong impact on the needs defined by the community. We aspire to take risks together and invite challenges to support transformative justice.
Continuous Work

We commit to utilize our capacity for more meaningful engagement, the long term sustainability of the work, and the transparency needed to build trust and increase knowledge.
Systems Thinking

We recognize the systemic barriers that exclude and marginalize individuals and communities. We commit to more fully understanding these barriers, to repairing inequities, and to support the creation of more participatory institutions, communities, and systems.
Collaboration

We commit to mutually beneficial collaboration. We invite the expertise, perspectives, and experiences of our community all as equal partners in co-creating spaces of respect, reciprocity, humility, and inclusion.

Current Members

Vanderbilt University Staff
- Claire Campbell, Program Coordinator, Arts and Libraries, Office of the Provost
- Laura Cheifetz, Assistant Dean of Admissions, Vocation and Student Life, Divinity School
- Aaron Conley, Executive Director of Leadership Programs, Development and
  Alumni Relations
- Jennifer Doersam, Senior Institutional Research Analyst, Office of Data and Strategic
  Analytics
- Joanna Echols, Director of HR Strategic Initiatives, Human Resources
- Carolyn Floyd, Senior Director of the Office of Experiential Learning and Immersion
- Amanda Hellman, Director of Fine Arts Gallery
- Cara Ince, Director of Research and Innovation Public Partnerships, Office of the Vice
  Provost of Research and Innovation
- Miriam Leibowitz, Commute Concierge Manager, Transportation and Mobility Office
- Mecca Lennon, Community Engagement Coordinator, Vanderbilt Athletics
- Luisa Mattos da Costa, Program Coordinator, Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and
  Latinx Studies
- Jaclyn Mothupi, Director of Social Innovation, The Wond’ry, Vanderbilt’s Innovation
  Center
- Leshuan Oliver, Captain, Public Safety, Vanderbilt Police Department
- Traci Ray, Assistant Dean for Student Engagement and Leadership, Office of the Dean of
  Students
- Melinda Rogers, Senior Communications Strategist, Marketing & Communications
- Roshaunda Ross-Orta, Director of Student Transitions & Community Engagement, Office of the Vice Provost
- Matt Seaton, Director of Corporate Partnerships, Career Advancement & Engagement
- Marissa Shapiro, Director of Communications, School of Medicine Basic Sciences
- DeAnte' Smith, Director of Student Organizations, Leadership & Service, Student Affairs
- Jermaine Soto, Director of Faculty Development, Office of Faculty Affairs
- Jill Stratton, Assistant Provost for Academic Support and Community Engagement, Office
  of Undergraduate Education
- Rachel Thompson, Program Manager, Curb Center for Art, Enterprise & Public Policy
- Presley Townsend, Program Manager, Blair School of Music
- Meg Vaysben, Director of Planned Giving, Development and Alumni Relations
- Celia Walker, Associate University Librarian for Distinctive Collections, Engagement and Strategic Assessment; Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries
- Amanda Wood, Project Coordinator, Project on Unity and American Democracy
- Laine Walters-Young, Assistant Director, Cal Turner Program for Moral Leadership,
  Divinity School
- Katelen Watkins, Assistant Director, Student Athlete Development, Vanderbilt Athletics
Vanderbilt University Faculty
- Mario Avila, Director, Turner Family Center for Social Ventures; Professor of the Practice of Management; Owen Graduate School of Management
- Joe Bandy, Interim Director, Center for Teaching; Principal Senior Lecturer, Department of Sociology
- Beth Cruz, Assistant Dean and Martha Craig Daughtrey Director for Public Interest,
  Vanderbilt Law School
- Amy M. Johnson, Assistant Provost for Immersion and Experiential Learning; Faculty Head of Warren College; Professor of the Practice of American Studies, College of Arts and Sciences
- Leah Lowe, Director, Curb Center for Art, Enterprise & Public Policy, Associate Professor, Theatre
- Elizabeth Meadows, Associate Director, Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities; Principal Senior lecturer in English, College of Arts and Science; Faculty Head of East House, The Martha Rivers Ingram Ingram Commons
- Hasina Mohyuddin, Assistant Dean for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, Peabody College
- David A. Owens, Evans Family Executive Director, The Wond’ry, Vanderbilt Innovation
  Center
- Carrie Plummer, Associate Professor of Community and Population Health, School of Nursing
- Graham Bradley Reside, Executive Director, Cal Turner Program in Moral Leadership for the Professions; Assistant Professor of Ethics and Society, Divinity School
- Marcy Singer-Gabella, Faculty Director, Nashville Partnership for Educational Equity Research, Professor of the Practice of Education, Department of Teaching and Learning, Peabody College
- Julie Vernon, Associate Dean for Academic Success & Associate Professor of the Practice
  Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Executive Director of SCI-STEPS, School of Engineering
Division of Government and Community Relations Staff
- Elizabeth Bumpas, Community Impact Officer, Government and Community Relations
- Eben Cathey, Senior Director of Local Government Relations, Government and Community Relations
- Casey Gymrek, Community Relations Coordinator, Government and Community Relations
- Kathleen Fuchs Hritz, Senior Director of Community Relations, Government and Community Relations
- Midori Lockett, Chief Community Impact Officer, Government and Community Relations
- Donovan Sheffield, Local Government Relations Coordinator, Government and Community Relations
- Jessica Steen, Communications Strategist, Government and Community Relations