Preconference Workshops

PRECONFERENCE WORKSHOPS

Monday, November 9, 8:30–11:30 a.m., $50 per person

Preconference Workshops allow for in-depth collaborative learning and interactive skill development. Conference registration is required to attend. This is the only conference programming during this time.

Common Language, Common Purpose: Mapping Community-Engaged Research for Your Institution and Communities

Community-engaged research serves as one core of institutional and faculty work as well as a cornerstone of trust-building with communities. Institutions cannot chart a purposeful course for community engaged research without agreeing on what it means in their context. Without this shared meaning, faculty remain uncertain about what counts for P&T, strategic plans bypass operational grounding, and community partners are without assurance of genuine institutional commitment. This workshop guides participants through a structured three-step mapping process to collaboratively develop a working definition of community-engaged research. Participants engage interactive mapping tools and leave with a replicable process and access to an online toolkit for continuing the work at their home institutions. This workshop is especially valuable for those involved in promotion and tenure policy, strategic planning, community partnership programs, or faculty development at any level of their institution.

jeremy price, indiana university indianapolis

Presented by Jeremy Price, Ph.D., associate professor of technology, innovation and pedagogy in urban education, Indiana University Indianapolis

Brief bio

Dr. Jeremy Price is associate professor and Faculty Fellow in Community Engaged Research in the Office of Research at Indiana University Indianapolis. He partners with teachers, families, and community members to conduct community-based participatory design research, co-designing AI systems that support teacher professional growth and locally-focused curriculum planning. Before entering academia, Jeremy worked in research and development, museum education, and even once picked up sticks off a forest floor. When not communing with his computer or exploring 20th-century social theories, he enjoys walking, hiking, and traveling.

Designing Immersive Community-Engaged Learning for Lasting Impact

This interactive workshop introduces a structured pedagogical model to help faculty, staff, or community partners design community-engaged learning centered on community voices and shared agency. This includes sharing tools and tips in creating and debriefing following such learning experiences. Using cases drawn from Minneapolis-based partnerships to run health-focused drop-in centers and food programs, participants will identify embedded assumptions, analyze structural inequities, and redesign immersion experiences to prioritize relational accountability and critical reflection. Attendees will leave with a practical framework, facilitation strategies, and debriefing skills to create community-engaged learning to have a lasting impact.

Presented by Katie Clark, executive director, Health Commons; chair, Department of Nursing, Augsburg University

Brief bio

Dr. Kathleen “Katie” Clark is the executive director of the Health Commons, the chief nursing administrator for Augsburg University, and chair of the department of nursing. The Health Commons are a network of health-focused drop-in centers that foster community connections and advance health for all. Clark’s leadership has expanded involvement in the Health Commons beyond nursing students to include students and faculty from multiple disciplines. With five sites, including downtown Minneapolis, the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood, north Minneapolis, and the east side of St. Paul, the Health Commons has welcomed more than 150,000 visitors and engaged over 3,000 students to date through community-academic partnerships. She is the 2025 Barbara A. Holland Scholar-Administrator. The Health Commons was honored with the 2025 American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) Innovations in Professional Nursing Education Award, also in 2025.

Presented by Katherine Martin, assistant professor, Augsburg University; coordinator, Health Commons in Cedar-Riverside

Brief bio

Presented by Alexander Fink, faculty fellow and director, Sabo Center; assistant professor of social work, Augsburg University

Brief bio

A Framework for Communicating Impact: Mission, Metrics and Meaning – SOLD OUT

Many universities have promising anchor partnerships but less robust systems for sustaining, measuring and explaining their impact. This interactive pre-conference workshop helps participants build a practical model for community-engaged work that connects purpose, resources, shared metrics, and compelling evidence. Using Montclair State’s Paterson One Square Mile initiative as a case example, attendees will develop draft tools they can apply to their own contexts, including a purpose framework, a set of meaningful metrics, a dashboard concept, and an evidence narrative. Participants will leave with adaptable materials and a clearer framework for turning community work into sustained institutional practice.

Christine Lemesianou, Montclair State University

Presented by Christine Lemesianou, associate dean, College of the Arts, Montclair State University

Brief bio

Christine Lemesianou is Associate Dean in the College of the Arts at Montclair State University and Special Advisor to the Provost for Accreditation. A strategic higher education leader, she oversees a broad portfolio that includes student success initiatives, community partnerships, curriculum innovation, and institutional effectiveness. She brings over a decade of experience in MSCHE accreditation and has contributed to transformative efforts, including the Montclair–Bloomfield College integration. She also consults with institutions on curriculum design, strategic planning, and assessment. Her work advances creative, community-engaged approaches that expand access, foster belonging, and deliver measurable impact.

Presented by Bryan Murdock, associate vice president of community partnerships, Montclair State University

Brief bio

Bryan Murdock is Associate Vice President of Community Partnerships at Montclair State University, where he leads the Office of Community Engagement and Partnerships. In this role, he develops and advances strategies that strengthen the University’s role as a responsible and engaged institutional partner across the region. As the founding director of the Center for Community Engagement, Bryan built the foundation for Montclair’s civic and community-engaged work, integrating academic, co-curricular, and operational efforts with community priorities. Under his leadership, the University has expanded its impact through community-engaged learning, volunteerism, applied research, and cross-sector collaboration. He has been a driving force behind initiatives such as the Paterson One Square Mile project, the Public Innovation Hub, and the Anchor Collaborative–efforts focused on workforce development, economic mobility, and community well-being. His work emphasizes long-term partnerships and systemic approaches that align university resources with resident priorities to create sustainable, community-driven impact.

When AI Fails: Designing Community-Engaged Learning Ecosystems for Responsible AI Literacy

The assignment worked because AI failed, just enough. In a public health course, students used AI to analyze campus food equity but relied on its outputs without gathering local data. When the system produced generic trends and overlooked the coffee shops, cafeterias, pricing, and choices shaping students’ food access, the gap between algorithmic confidence and lived reality became the lesson. This workshop introduces AI-Literate Community-Engaged Learning (AI-CEL), a practical approach to designing assignments where students test AI against local evidence and human experience. Participants, including faculty, community engagement staff, administrators, librarians, and community partners, will co-create an AI-CEL blueprint they can apply in their own contexts. The result: learning experiences that strengthen civic judgment, community trust, workforce readiness, and place-based evidence.

Presented by Urmi Ashar, director of Public Health Program, assistant professor, Rangos School of Health Sciences, Duquesne University

Brief bio

Dr. Urmi Ashar is Director of the Public Health Program at Duquesne University, where she has redesigned the curriculum into a community-engaged, workforce-integrated model aligned with CEPH accreditation standards and NACE career readiness competencies. As a physician, educator, governance consultant, and coach, her work sits at the intersection of clinical care, governance, public health, higher education, systems change, and community partnership, with a focus on how AI, complexity science, and experiential learning are reshaping student learning and institutional practice. As a Gaultier Fellow, Human Systems Dynamics Institute Fellow, member of the Future of Work Faculty Academy, and faculty lead on AI-focused initiatives, she designs AI-CEL frameworks and living lab processes that surface warm data while centering ethics, equity, civic responsibility, and the future of work. She also teaches and facilitates workshops on Adaptive Leadership and Adaptive Action and is a certified Gallup Strengths and iPEC Core Energy coach.