Dear Colleagues,

Please join me in warmly welcoming Carrie Sanders to the role of Director for Community Engagement and Impact (re-imagined from the previous Civic Engagement Coordinator position held by Tricia Dusick).  Carrie has been working as an adjunct faculty member in the Social Innovation and Sustainability Leadership graduate program, and we are thrilled that she will be sharing her expertise and experience with us in this expanded capacity.  The position is designed to provide support and partnership across Academic Affairs and the College.  It centrally focuses on understanding needs and opportunities within the community to nurture reciprocal, sustainable relationships that foster both student learning and social change.  For the coming year, a significant part of her work will be partnering with others to develop and launch a social innovation initiative.  

Carrie has deep community roots, a strong commitment to equity, and unique expertise and skill sets which will be tremendous assets to supporting our work with community engagement.  For the past 15 years she has held various roles focused on community development and social innovation.  As a consultant, teacher, and lifelong learner she has worked alongside diverse communities to launch start-up loan funds; marshal creative sources of financing for over $250 million in sustainable development projects; coach leaders in change-making that addresses systems-level, root causes of social issues; and teach courses on social innovation and sustainability leadership.  She holds undergraduate degrees in music and political science from William Jewell College and a Masters in City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  Carrie has also earned LEED AP and Servant Leadership certifications from UW Continuing Studies in LEED.

I look forward to people getting to know and work with Carrie in her new role at the College!  Let us know if you have questions or want to talk further,