The University of Georgia will host the fifth annual National Outreach Scholarship Conference at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education from Oct. 2-4. Participants from nearly 40 institutions will discuss how higher education can help address complex societal problems through teaching, research and service.
The conference theme is “Transformation through Engagement” and is co-sponsored by UGA’s Office of the Vice President for Public Service and Outreach, University Outreach at Ohio State University, Outreach at Pennsylvania State University and University of Wisconsin-Extension.
Suzanne W. Morse, president of the Pew Partnership for Civic Change, will be the keynote speaker. She will talk about how universities can change communities.
For more than three decades, Morse has helped civic groups affect changes in their cities and towns. At the Pew Partnership, she has overseen research and programs on civic leadership and community development. She has written several books including Smart Communities, which describes strategies for building stronger communities. Plenary session speaker Richard M. Foster, vice president for programs at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, will speak about forming effective partnerships between communities and universities to achieve common goals.
Foster joined the Kellogg Foundation in 1991 and oversees programs in food systems, rural development and leadership. Prior to joining the Foundation, he was a professor of agricultural education at the University of Nebraska and worked in international development in Africa and Central America. He helped establish E.A.R.T.H. University in Costa Rica.
Sarena Seifer, physician and executive director of Community-Campus Partnerships for Health, has been invited to discuss the findings and recommendations from her organization’s 2005 report “Linking Scholarship and Communities.”
Community-Campus Partnerships for Health, a national nonprofit organization, is a growing network of more than 1,000 communities and campuses whose partnerships aim to improve health through service-learning, education for health professionals, community-based participatory research and other strategies.
Other conference highlights include:
- a luncheon address by Art Dunning, UGA’s vice president of public service and outreach, on how the University of Georgia has worked to address societal needs in Georgia;
- a panel of university presidents, moderated by UGA President Michael F. Adams, to discuss best practices for creating “engaged” institutions. Other panelists are Mark A. Emmert, president of the University of Washington; Lloyd W. Benjamin, president of Indiana State University; and Karen A. Holbrook, president of Ohio State University; and
- UGA’s service-learning and university community involvement in an Athens-area Latino neighborhood, Pinewood Estates North, also will be showcased.
In addition, more than 50 concurrent sessions and poster presentations will address how to use outreach work to change communities, higher education, pre-K and K-12 education and public policy.
For more information about the conference and to find out how to register, contact Trish Kalivoda at 542-6125 or tlk@uga.edu.