Community Engaged Faculty Fellows

The Community Engaged Faculty Fellows program is a year-long opportunity that supports faculty to deepen their community engaged scholarship, build the capacity of our local community in the Charlotte region, and provide input into faculty resources for community-engaged and experiential learning.

Community engaged scholarship can focus on a range of issues (e.g., food justice, poverty, educational equity, literacy, public health, housing) and take a range of forms (e.g., community-based research, action research, policy work, consulting and capacity building projects incorporated into courses).  Regardless of the issue or specific enactment, the faculty fellow(s) focus on a community-defined need understood through conversation and dialogue with the community.  The goal of the program is not to develop more campus-based programs, but to engage within existing structures and networks on and off campus. The William F. and Betty G. Mulliss Center for Civic Engagement team helps identify and make connections with community leaders and organizations that focus on a particular area of interest.

The faculty fellow(s) receive a $15,000 grant and are expected to: 

• Incorporate community-based learning components into at least 1 course during the 23-24 academic year.
• Work on a community-engaged scholarship project of interest that is aligned with a community-defined need and Mulliss Center partnerships.
• Offer one workshop, talk, or discussion during the academic year related to the community-engaged project or community-engaged pedagogy.  The Mulliss Center team will help coordinate all event logistics.
• Provide input into the development of community-engaged and experiential learning resources for faculty.
• Engage with other faculty in one on-campus professional development opportunity related to community engaged learning each semester.  The Mulliss Center team will coordinate all event logistics.   
   

2026-27 Community Engaged Faculty Fellows

Dr. Gerardo Martí
William R. Kenan Jr. Endowed Professor of Sociology

Dr. Randi Gill-Sadler
Assistant Professor of English and Africana Studies

Dr. Rebeca Fernandez
Writing Center Director, Professor of Writing & Educational Studies

Dr. John Corso-Esquivel
Associate Professor of Art

Vanessa Casteñeda, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Afro-Latin American Studies

Takiyah Harper-Shipman, Ph.D.
John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Associate Professor of Africana Studies

Rose Stremlau, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of History

Susana Wadgymar, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Biology

Sally Lawrence Bullock, PhD, MPH
Assistant Professor, Department of Public Health

Brittany Murray, Ph.D.
Malcolm O. Partin Assistant Professor of Educational Studies & Political Science

Jessica Worl, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Environmental Studies and Core faculty in Gender and Sexuality Studies