Paul V. Kollman, CSC, Ph.D., is an associate professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame. Kollman serves in the areas of history of Christianity and World Religions/World Church. His research focuses on African Christianity, mission history, and world Christianity, and he has carried out research in Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania, as well as in archives in Europe and the US. He has also taught at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago and the Philosophy Centre in Jinja, Uganda, and was previously a fellow of the Erasmus Institute at Notre Dame and a Lilly Fellow for Theological Education at the University of Chicago. He has published articles and reviews in a variety of journals in theology, religious studies, and African studies, including Theological Studies, The International Bulletin of Missionary Research, The Journal of Religion, African Studies, The International Journal of African Historical Studies, and Mission Studies. In 2005 he published The Evangelization of Slaves and Catholic Origins in Eastern Africa (Orbis), and his current project is a book on the Catholic missionary evangelization of eastern Africa.
Connie Snyder Mick, Ph.D., is Director of Community-Based Learning and Co-director of the Poverty Studies Interdisciplinary Minor. Dr. Mick works with faculty to design and implement academic community engagement in courses across the University, informed by pedagogical research on engaged teaching and learning. Her teaching experience includes a variety of Social Concerns Seminars (e.g. Digital Education in Northern Ireland), the Capstone for Poverty Studies, Introduction to Poverty Studies, Community Writing and Rhetoric, Multimedia Composition, Writing Center Theory and Practice, Graduate Practicum: Teaching Writing, Scientific Writing and Communication, Foresight in Business and Society (CBR), Management Communication, as well as the Ethical Leadership Through Service and Civic Engagement courses for Notre Dame’s Hesburgh-Yusko Scholars Program and for a State Department funded English for Academic Purposes international service-learning course. Dr. Mick awards community-based learning Course Development Grants and Faculty Fellow positions to foster sustainable engaged teaching and scholarship. She also leads the new Community Engagement Faculty Institute, a three-day deep dive into the theory and practice of community-based teaching, research, and scholarship. Prior to this work, she directed the University Writing Center at Notre Dame. Dr. Mick’s research interests include assessment of community engagement to measure impact on student learning and community development, the function of community engagement and service-learning in socio-cultural acquisition among English language learners, the role of writing in social change, the rhetoric of poverty, and the pedagogies of community engagement.
Contact Information: cmick@nd.edu, 574-631-0498, 205 Geddes Hall
Mary Beckman, Ph.D., is the Center’s Associate Director for Academic Affairs and Research. She contributes to the evolving vision of the Center and offers guidance to Center colleagues who direct immersion and community-based learning courses and conduct research on impact of Center efforts on undergraduates and in the local community. She assists faculty at the university with the development of courses through which students engage in the local community, through workshops and consultations and through small grants for course development. She has initiated Center efforts in community-based research and facilitates faculty-student-community investigations that assist local partners. She has participated in the creation of a local coalition attempting to mitigate lead hazards facing children in neighborhoods near the campus, and in other campus-community collaborations.
Contact Information: Mary.P.Beckman.9@nd.edu, 574-631-4172, 168 Geddes Hall
Annie Cahill Kelly, M.A., serves as the Director of Community Partnerships and Service Learning at the Center for Social Concerns. Through her position, Annie works closely with the South Bend community, particularly the Community-Based Learning Coordinator agencies, and serves as a liasion to the many local agencies with which students and faculty work. Annie also coordinates a one-credit seminar for the students who participate in the Santiago, Chile semester abroad program and who opt to take a five-credit service-learning course while in Santiago. Prior to this position, Annie was the Associate Director of the Creighton Center for Service and Justice at Creighton University. A 1993 Notre Dame graduate, Annie has a BS degree in Mathematics and Theology and an MA in Liberal Studies from Creighton University. Upon completing her undergraduate studies, she spent two years in Santiago, Chile as a full-time volunteer, part of that time with the Holy Cross Associates Program.
Contact Information: CahillKelly.1@nd.edu, 574-631-7862, 268 Geddes Hall
Rachel Rivers Parroquín, Ed.D., has a joint appointment with the Center for Social Concerns (CSC) and Romance Languages and Literatures (ROLL). She is an Assistant Professional Specialist with ROLL and is the Director of Spanish Service-Learning. In her position, she is working with both ROLL faculty and CSC staff to develop a new program in community based learning for Spanish students. In addition to community based learning and second language for specific purposes, her interests include technology enhanced instruction (essay review on Didáctica para e-learning: métodos e instrumentos para la innovación de la enseñanza universitaria, published 2007), the use of portfolios in assessment, and integrated curriculum. Parroquín has also traveled to Costa Rica and Nicaragua where she interpreted in urban and rural clinics for a health care service learning course.
Jay Brandenberger, Ph.D., serves as the director of Research and Assessment at the Center for Social Concerns, and as concurrent associate professor in the Department of Psychology at Notre Dame. He directs research initiatives at the Center, working with colleagues to examine the developmental outcomes and best practices associated with Center courses and programs. He is the editor of the Center’s Research Report Series, and facilitates ongoing longitudinal research focusing on the impacts of community engagement.Brandenberger also coordinates—with Center colleagues—various academic initiatives at the Center, fostering partnerships with academic units on campus. He teaches interdisciplinary courses incorporating community-based learning and research; see, for example: Leadership, Ethics, and Social Responsibility. He is also a fellow of the Institute for Educational Initiatives, and a past recipient of the Notre Dame Frank O’Malley Undergraduate Teaching Award.His research interests include social cognition, moral and ethical theory/development, and assessment of student outcomes in higher education. He serves on the review boards of various journals, and has collaborated on national research initiatives examining means to enhance social responsibility, leadership, and moral development. His work has appeared in a variety of publications, including the Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, theMichigan Journal of Community Service Learning, and the Journal of College Student Development.
Andrea Smith Shappell, M.A., is an assistant director of the Center for Social Concerns and director of the Summer Service Learning Program and Theological Reflection. Andrea is an associate professional specialist at the Center, concurrent in Theology. She is responsible for the administration of the Summer Service Learning Program (SSLP), Social Venturing Internships, and other summer opportunities for students in the United States. The summer opportunities are three credit courses centering on eight-week summer immersion experiences. She also oversees resources and practices of the integration of faith through theological reflection in the Center’s courses and programs. Her recent publications include, “Reflection as a Means of Discovery” in Transformations at the Edge of the World, Abilene Christian University Press, May, 2010 and “Post-Immersion Reflective Practices,” Journal of College and Character,Vol. 11 Iss. 3.
Contact Information: Shappell.1@nd.edu, 574-631-7867, 138 Geddes Hall
A former high school English teacher and Notre Dame track and field coach, Ed Kelly, M.A., joined the Notre Dame Writing Faculty in 2000 as an adjunct professor. In that year he partnered with colleagues from the University Writing Program and the Center for Social Concerns to create the Community-Based Learning arm of Writing and Rhetoric. Inspired in particular by the ideas of Wendell Berry, Ed works to develop a sense of pragmatic idealism in his students. He knows that by reading, writing, and thinking about issues related to community, social justice, and service, students position themselves to make a positive difference in the world. He and his wife, Joanne, are the proud parents of four children and eight grandchildren.
Contact Information: 205 Coleman-Morse Center (Mailbox), 126 Geddes Hall (Office Hours), ekelly1@nd.edu
Marisel Moreno Anderson, Ph.D., specializes in U.S. Latino/a literature and culture, with a particular interest in the production of Puerto Rican, Cuban, and Dominican authors in the United States. Her current book project examines the literature of Puerto Rican women authors both on the island and the U.S. mainland. She has published articles on both Puerto Rican and Dominican authors. Moreno is a Faculty Fellow of the Institute for Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame.
Contact Information: 172 Decio Faculty Hall, 631-6737, Moreno-Anderson.1@nd.edu
Full-time in the University Writing Program since 2007, Nicole MacLaughlin, M.A., is passionate about writing as a form of empowerment and civic action. Her academic interests range from writing pedagogy across the disciplines to community-based writing projects. Most recently, Nicole has developed the First-Year Writing Tutorial, an elective supplement to Writing and Rhetoric that helps support novice academic writers as they make the transition to college-level writing. Nicole is also in her second year of a partnership with the Robinson Shakespeare Company, a theater program that seeks to empower youth through the works of William Shakespeare. Through this community-based writing project, Notre Dame students experience firsthand the impact of the arts on student achievement and social development, and, in cooperation with the Robinson Community Learning Center, they produce writing which helps sustain the organization and further its mission. Nicole lives in South Bend with her husband, Daniel Graff, and their two daughters, Ellen and Elizabeth.
Contact Information: 300A O’Shaughnessy Hall (Office), 205 Coleman-Morse Center (Mailbox), (574) 631-3269, nmaclaugh@nd.edu
As Manager of the Robinson Community Learning Center, Jennifer Knapp Beudert has operational responsibility for the Center. This includes oversight of program development, supervision of staff and volunteers, general administration, facilities management, and fundraising. Jen is also responsible for expanding partnerships and promoting community relations.
Contact Information: Jennifer.L.KnappBeudert.1@nd.edu
James Frabutt, Ph.D., is a faculty member in the Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program in the Alliance for Catholic Education, an innovative, research-based administrative degree program that forms, educates, and supports selected Catholic
school teachers to continue their service to K-12 schools through administrative preparation. Frabutt teaches the action research sequence in the Master’s program, emphasizing classroom-, school-, and parish-based strategic inquiry designed and conducted by practicing educators and administrators. He is a concurrent associate professor in the Department of Psychology.
He previously served as Deputy Director of the Center for Youth, Family, and Community Partnerships at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG). Prior to that, he was the Director of the Division for the Prevention of Youth Violence and Aggression at the Center for the Study of Social Issues at UNCG. Dr. Frabutt led an action research approach to violence reduction and community safety as the Research Partner for Project Safe Neighborhoods effort in the Middle District of North Carolina. His research and practice efforts have centered on the mental health needs of court-involved youth, university-community partnerships, and the impact of multiple contexts on adolescent development.
Contact Information: (574) 631-5763, jfrabutt@nd.edu
Juan Carlos Guzman, Ph.D., is the research director for the Institute for Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame. His current research focuses on access to education among Latinos and their transition from high school to college and the labor market, particularly, but not limited to Indiana. His main focus is to develop and write grant proposals to research the state of Latinos in Indiana with emphasis on: labor market, migration, demography and health of Latinos in Indiana and Chicago.
Contact Information: 230 McKenna Hall, 574-631-8456, jc.guzman@nd.edu, www.nd.edu/~jguzman2
Suzanne Coshow, Ph.D., Associate Professional Specialist, Mendoza College of Business. Since completing her dissertation in political sociology on the Social Bases of State Policies, Dr. Coshow has published and presented her research both within and outside of academia. Recent publications include a peer-reviewed article on the employee satisfaction of nurses at mid-career, work on the relationship between labor organization and quality of life, and extensive applied work on employee engagement while working for a for-profit survey research firm in the health care sector. Her research and teaching interests cover a broad range under the umbrella of public and applied sociology, including: futures studies research, sustainability issues in business and society, economic and social policies, inequality, and media studies.
Contact Information: scoshow@nd.edu, 314 Mendoza College of Business, (574) 631-0291
For the last thirteen years Debra Stanley has worked as an HIV/AIDS Prevention Educator. She began as a case manager at the Chapin Street Health Clinic where she worked directly with people and their families living with HIV. This work led her to AIDS Ministries/AIDS Assist where she became their first education coordinator and later their Director of Prevention Education. She is currently the founder and executive director of Imani Unidad, Inc. an HIV and substance abuse prevention organization.
Contact Information: 201 S. William Street, South Bend, IN 46601, 234-2870 ext. 1151, WuZuWuZu@aol.com, http://www.aidsministries.org/
Shelly Zabukovic is a Volunteer Coordinator at the LOGAN Center. Contact Information: 2505 East Jefferson Blvd., South Bend, IN 46615, 574-274-6210, szabukovic@LoganCenter.org, http://www.logancenter.org
Peter Lombardo is the Director of Community Involvement at the Center for the Homeless in South Bend, Indiana. Contact Information: 813 S. Michigan Street, South Bend, IN 46601, 574-282-8700 ext. 81322, plombardo@cfh.net, http://www.cfh.net
Rebecca Ruvalcaba is the director of La Casa de Amistad. Contact Information: 746 South Meade Street, South Bend, IN 46619, 574-233-2120, beckyruval@yahoo.com, http://www.lacasadeamistad.org
Bonnie Bazata is the first executive director of the St. Joseph County Bridges Out of Poverty Initiative (SJC Bridges). She has extensive experience in a wide range of culturally and economically diverse organizations. Prior to her work with SJC Bridges, she was the Associate Director for the Center for Women’s Intercultural Leadership (CWIL) at Saint Mary’s College, and before that, the Assistant Director for the Pima County Youth Opportunity Movement in Tucson, Arizona. In both settings she helped start up programs that gained national recognition for their impact and achievement.
For her work she has been awarded the Citizen of the Year award in 2009 from the Northwest Indiana Region of the National Association of Social Workers, the St. Joseph County Jobs with Justice award in 2007, an Indiana Torchbearer award in 2006 from the Indiana Commission for Women, and in 2006 a community service award from the Martin Luther King, Jr. Foundation of St. Joseph County.
Contact Information: sjcbridges@gmail.com