Community-Engaged Research: Campus Supports and Resources

Co-hosted by the Center for Community Engagement and the Research Development Office.

Join us for this virtual panel discussion about community-engaged research at UMD. Associate Provost Tania D. Mitchell will overview the Center for Community Engagement supports and resources for this work, followed by an interdisciplinary discussion panel with community-engaged researchers from across our university.

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Tania D. Mitchell is the inaugural associate provost for community engagement at the University of Maryland-College Park. In this role, Mitchell leads UMD’s Center for Community Engagement, guides the development of a vision and mission for the center’s work, and collaborates with campus partners to expand and support community engaged research, teaching, learning and service activities. She also oversees the coordination of campus-wide community engagement efforts, elevating existing partnerships and creating new programs and initiatives.

Veronica Kang, assistant professor of special education in the Department of Counseling, Higher Education, and Special Education, engages with early intervention providers and children with disabilities from immigrant communities to learn from their lived experiences and co-facilitate culture and disability affirming practices.

Stephanie Lansing, professor in the Department of Environmental Science & Technology in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, engages with food pantries and food insecurity communities in app creation to find food resources, reduce household wasted food, determine the freshness of food, engage in educational opportunities, and learn/research composting or anaerobic digestion for food that is not suitable for consumption.

Amy Lewin, associate professor in the Department of Family Science in the School of Public Health has been working for more than a decade in partnership with Identity, Inc., a positive youth development organization serving primarily the Latino immigrant community in Maryland. Over this time the work has encompassed multiple projects, most recently focused on developing and evaluating a preventive mental health intervention for youth.

Sheila Somashekhar is director of the Purple Line Corridor Coalition at the National Center for Smart Growth, which is within the UMD School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation. She engages with community groups, public agencies, nonprofits, developers, lenders, and others to ensure that the transit project brings equitable benefits to communities along the line.

Sheena Erete, professor in the College of Information centers historically disinvested communities in the ideation, design, development, and evaluation of emerging technologies to support them in moving toward their desired futures. Learn more about her work here: The Community Research, Equity, and Design (CReED) Collective, and at http://www.sheenaerete.com/.