"Community Engaged Scholarship Director, Netter Center for Community Partnerships"

Job Description Summary

The Community Engaged Scholarship (CES) Director at the Netter Center oversees all CES activities, including Academically Based Community Service (ABCS) courses, which engage Penn students and faculty in collaborative problem-solving with West Philadelphia schools, faith communities, and organizations. This role involves developing and supporting CES projects, ABCS courses fostering new faculty and student involvement, and strengthening university-community partnerships through research, teaching, and service. The Director works across all 12 Penn schools to expand ABCS courses, organize faculty seminars, and support faculty, graduate students, and community partners in integrating CES into academic programs. Additional responsibilities include managing budgets, coordinating grants, organizing recognition events, and maintaining records to enhance CES and ABCS initiatives.

Job Description

Founded in 1992, the Barbara and Edward Netter Center for Community Partnerships is the University's primary vehicle for advancing civic and community engagement at Penn. It brings together the resources and assets of both the University and the wider community to help solve universal problems such as poverty, health inequities, environmental sustainability, and inadequate, unequal education as they are manifested in the University's local geographic area of West Philadelphia and Philadelphia at large. The Netter Center develops and helps implement democratic, mutually transformative, place-based partnerships between Penn and West Philadelphia that advance research, teaching, learning, practice, and service and improve the quality of life on campus and in the community. The Netter Center works with and serves as a model for other higher education institutions across the United States and around the world.

The Netter Center's university-assisted community schools (UACS) is a strategy to educate, engage, empower, and serve all members of the community in which the school is located and engage students (K-16+) in real world, community problem solving. The Agatston Urban Nutrition Initiative (AUNI) is a major component of the University-Assisted Community Schools (UACS) program of the Netter Center for Community Partnerships.

Responsibilities

Community Engaged Scholarship (CES), inclusive of Academically Based Community Service (ABCS) courses, is at the core of the Netter Center's work. In CES projects and ABCS courses, students and faculty work with local public schools, communities of faith, and community organizations - particularly in Penn's immediate community of West Philadelphia -- to help solve critical campus and community problems in a variety of areas such as the environment, health, arts, and education. Penn has over 80 undergraduate and graduate ABCS courses each year, enrolling over 1800 graduate and undergraduate students. Over 27% of all recent bachelor's degree recipients (i.e., from the College, Wharton, Nursing and Engineering) have taken an ABCS course. Penn has numerous CES projects - several are listed below - and, based upon support from the Provost, Faculty Senate, Deans and department chairs, interest in CES is growing very quickly among faculty and graduate students.

The person in this position oversees all CES activities at the Netter Center. They must be qualified to teach ABCS courses as well as lead and participate in CES projects across the University.

A major emphasis for the Community Engaged Scholarship Director is working with faculty and students across the entire University to develop new CES projects as well as working with Penn schools and departments to help create integrated ABCS and CES projects and programs of study. Developing new and supporting existing CES projects requires substantial experience working with faculty and graduate students so that CES can be effectively incorporated into ongoing, high-quality research. This also requires experience working with community partners and then bringing the expertise of the university and the community together in action-oriented, mutually beneficial partnerships. This position will develop thematic ABCS and CES faculty seminars and ad hoc working groups. The Director will also make connections between faculty and potential community partners.

The Community Engaged Scholarship Director will further develop and implement existing CES projects, including the Provost's Graduate Academic Engagement Fellowship at the Netter Center, the Penn Graduate Community-Engaged Research Mentorship program, and the development of networks for graduate students and faculty interested in developing CES. This position also provides critical guidance and support for the Netter Center's Faculty Advisory Board, the Provost's Advisory Committee on Community Engaged Scholarship, and the Provost's Faculty Fellows at the Netter Center.

Another major emphasis for the Community Engaged Scholarship Director is developing new and helping to implement existing ABCS courses across all 12 of Penn's Schools. ABCS courses integrate service with research, teaching, and learning; are a form of Community-Engaged Scholarship (CES); bring together academic expertise and the expertise of the community via mutually beneficial, mutually transformational democratic partnerships; use collaborative local problem-solving to improve the quality of life and learning in the community and the quality of learning and scholarship in the university; foster structural community improvement (e.g., effective public schools, neighborhood economic development); emphasize student and faculty reflection on the service experience; and help students become active, creative, contributing citizens of a democratic society.

• This includes work with faculty to develop syllabi, partnerships with our local community, collaborative and mutually beneficial projects, and orientation and reflection activities. This includes helping conduct research on ABCS development, implementation and impact (including organizational change). The recruitment, orientation, and ongoing support of ABCS TAs, and leveraging University and community resources that will contribute to the success of ABCS research and teaching, will be carried out by this staff member and by staff and students supervised by this staff member.
• This position convenes regular meetings with ABCS faculty, teaching assistants and community partners to help ensure mutually beneficial and action-oriented collaboration. This position works closely with Penn students who are working with faculty to develop new ABCS courses.
• Other activities include managing the ABCS budget, coordinating the ABCS course development grants program, and working with colleagues to recognize faculty, students and partners for their ABCS work, which involves organizing several University-wide events throughout the year.

This position maintains extensive files and records on ABCS courses and recruits and manages interns, work-study students, and volunteers to support ABCS programs.

Qualifications

A terminal degree (Ed.D or Ph.D. or JD) and 5 to 7 years of experience is strongly preferred. Experience includes working with Community Engaged Scholarship (CES) - which encompasses community-engaged research and Academically Based Community Service (ABCS) classes) as a student, with faculty teaching ABCS, and/or as an ABCS program partner. Qualified to teach ABCS classes. Experience with faculty to connect CES to their core research. Experience participating in CES and ABCS projects.

Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Arts, and 3 to 5 years of experience or equivalent combination of education and experience is required.

Experience is necessary to help advise the development and implementation of current CES projects and ABCS courses and the development of new ones. Experience is necessary to provide consulting and support to academic departments/programs/initiatives/centers and individual faculty interested in Community Engaged Scholarship and ABCS. Experience is necessary to foster communication, convenings, and collaboration across academic and administrative units, in ways that respond to community-identified priorities and enhance opportunities for faculty, and undergraduate and graduate students to participate in CES and ABCS.

Understanding pedagogies associated with ABCS, such service-learning, problem-based learning, peer-assisted education, and participatory action research is required.

ABCS or service-learning course instruction a plus. Experience working with a college or university service-learning program office is a plus. Experience working with an evaluation program is a plus.

Excellent written and oral communications skills.

Track record of engaging, collaborating with, supporting, and educating highly diverse sets of stakeholders, including students, faculty, staff, and community members.

Ability to work evening and weekend events/programs.