The Community Engagement Professional in Higher Education

"This book illuminates important work of thinly acknowledged citizens of academe - Community Engaged Professionals. It advances the movement for publicly engaged scholarship giving voice to their person, place and purpose in Academe with myriad inflections beyond campus borders. Couched in a conceptually rich analysis of the professions the authors demonstrate the multidimensionality and complexity of this rising class and their critical place in the university of the 21st century."

Timothy Eatman, Associate Professor, Syracuse University, Director for Research for Imagining America (IA)

“Dostilio and her colleagues have incorporated an innovative empirical approach in charting the evolving role and responsibilities of CEPS. A practice scholar community of just over a dozen professionals spent nearly a year in conversation to review the literature and share their own perspectives on their work. The product of this initial effort was validated through a robust survey process of piloting and refining the outcomes. The process, involving hundreds of responding professionals, has identified key competencies that serve as compass points in the journey of becoming an effective CEP. Coupling the professional literature with the practical perspective of professionals in the field, this volume provides a comprehensive and broad contextual spectrum of necessary skills for serving students, faculty, campus centers, institutions, and the community. This book is an important resource for the new generation of professionals who must face a myriad of tasks and challenges that did not exist for the previous generation of professionals who launched pedagogical movement that has since become a professional field unto itself. At the same time, the book honors the legacy of the work provided by the early advocates of community engagement while looking ahead to guide future leaders of the field as they advance this work. This book combines and provides both a unique inquiry approach that will serve as a model for future research and a robust skill set that emerged from the inquiry that will serve the next generation of engaged educational leaders well.”

Marshall Welch

“The Community Engagement Professional in Higher Education: A Competency Model for an Emerging Field is a discussion of a systematic collection of 103 competencies, in areas of knowledge, skills, abilities, and dispositions, for community engagement professionals and the process undertaken to develop the set.

The Community Engagement Professional’s Guidebook is a compilation of  advice, questions, and reflections to assist the reader in deep engagement and application of the competencies. I would suggest reading the two texts in sequence. Though the Guidebook stands alone, the primary text gives readers context and an explanation of the research methodology used to develop and select the competencies

A Competency Model is an academic introduction to the model and is an edited volume, with different authors explaining their academic contributions to subsets of competencies. \It reads like a formal panel presentation at an academic conference, with each chapter representing a research team’s contributions to the whole. An authored text, the feels more like a coaching session with a mentor—a singular voice in an informal tone encouraging reflection.

Without question, Dostilio and her coauthors have made a monumental contribution to the field of community engagement with the Community Engaged Professional [CEP] competency model. Surely this model will ignite more research on the profession of CEPs, provide a framework for professional development, and enhance community–campus partnerships. These texts should be required reading for all CEPs.”

- Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement

Foreword

1) An Explanation of Community Engagement Professionals as Professionals and Leaders—L.D. Dostilio and L. G. Perry
2) Planning a Path Forward: Identifying the Knowledge, Skill, and Dispositions of Second Generation Community Engagement Professionals—L.D. Dostilio
3) Critical Perspectives and Commitments Deserving Attention from Community Engagement Professionals—K. Hernandez and K. Pasquesi
4) Program Administration and Evaluation—A. Farmer-Hansen
5) Envisioning, Leading, and Enacting Institutional Change for the Public Good: The Role of Community Engagement Professionals—R. Hübler and M. Quan
6) Attributes of Community Engagement Professionals Seeking to Institutionalize Community-Campus Engagement—L. Weaver and T. Kellogg
7) Supporting Student Civic Learning and Development—J. Benenson, K. M. Hemer, and K. Trebil
8) High Quality Community-Campus Partnerships: Approaches and Competencies—L. Martin & S. Crossland
9) Competencies Community Engagement Professionals Need for Faculty Development—J. S. Chamberlin and J. Phelps-Hillen

About the Editor and Contributors
Index

Lina D. Dostilio

Lina D. Dostilio is a higher education leader who has spent her career connecting universities with their broader communities. Her scholarship has focused on the Community Engagement Professional in Higher Education and Hyperlocal, Place-Based Engagement. She has held a number of administrative and faculty appointments and was previously a Scholar-in-Residence with Campus Compact, a Research Fellow with the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities, and is a member of the Academic of Community Engagement Scholarship.