Chancellor’s Awards for Diversity, Inclusion and Civic Engagement

This award recognizes courses or programs that create outstanding opportunities for engaged civic learning for Rutgers University–Camden students. Examples of potential nominees include courses that integrate engaged civic learning, major programs that integrate a community-based experience, or graduate degree programs that incorporate a public interest field component. Nominees are judged on the degree to which the civic experience advances broader learning goals and interests of communities and utilizes community resources innovatively and effectively.

This award recognizes students who make noteworthy contributions to communities beyond the campus through their academic and co-curricular work. Nominations may cite students’ engagement in academic courses, internships, volunteer service, and/or paid positions. Nominees are judged on the depth of their commitment and the impact of their work.

This award recognizes a student who exemplifies outstanding service to the Camden community, with special consideration given to students whose engagement is through a health-related field. An award of $1,000 from Cooper University Health Care will be given to this student.

This award recognizes individual alumni or groups of alumni for efforts and projects that benefit communities beyond the Rutgers campus. Nominations may cite alumni efforts carried out under the Rutgers banner or those carried out independently. Nominees will be judged on the scope and impact of their work.

This award recognizes a community partner organization that has worked with Rutgers University–Camden to bring benefits to communities beyond the Rutgers campus. Nominees are judged on the impact of their work and the depth and scope of their partnership with Rutgers–Camden.

This award recognizes staff and faculty members for service to communities beyond the Rutgers University–Camden campus that is carried out independent of their positions at Rutgers. Nominees are judged on the duration, depth, and impact of their work.

This award recognizes faculty whose scholarship involves a reciprocal partnership with the community, meaningfully engages community-based knowledge, and/or provides a direct and tangible benefit to the community in which it was performed. Nominees are judged on the scope and impact of their work.

The Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Leadership Award honors the challenging and intricate work of further transforming our campus community into one that not only celebrates the campus mission, but also creates a world-class higher education institution building on a heritage of equity, belonging, and inclusion. These individuals are being recognized for providing Rutgers–Camden with the critical voices necessary for change and for their sustained actions to transform our community by making it an even more diverse, equitable, and inclusive learning environment and place of employment.

This award recognizes outstanding academic courses that advance education about diversity and inclusion. Nominees will be evaluated based upon innovation, depth of focus toward DEI, and impact on course on enhancing diversity and inclusion education on our campus.

Award for Scientific Contributions towards Diversity and Inclusion. This award would recognize faculty for outstanding research accomplishments related to diversity and inclusion.

This award is given in memory of Mr. Colandus (Kelly) Francis who was an icon of the civil rights and social justice movement in Camden and recognizes students who exemplify Mr. Francis’ values of civic engagement and commitment to the city of Camden. This prize includes a monetary award of $500 from Dr. Margaret Marsh, University Professor of History and Dean Emerita, and Dr. Howard Gillette, Professor Emeritus of History.

This award recognizes individuals and/or teams who embody Rutgers University–Camden’s core commitment to civic engagement in the ways that they interact with the campus and external communities.

Academic Civic Engagement

• Dr. Gabrielle Rossi (lecturer and director of the undergraduate urban studies program)
  Dr. Rossi embraces the opportunity for a faculty member to nurture connections between Rutgers and the community. During the past year, she led her students in an exploration of Camden by visiting different community-based organizations. Through her collaborative student philanthropy grantmaking course, Rutgers students are bolstering the efforts of such Camden-based organizations as The Free Books Project, I Dare to Care, and the Neighborhood Collaborative Community Gardens to understand the critical significance of funding. She launched an externship program with 20 community partners to involve hands- on learning for undergraduate students. Additionally, she hosted a lecture series where individuals, such as President Holloway and Chancellor Tillis, met with graduate students for intimate discussions on race and power. Dr. Rossi created two new Engaged Civic Learning courses to elevate community-focused work advised by her own research on experiential education. Dr. Rossi’s passionate commitment to educational practices that emphasize the “why” drives her to constantly develop new opportunities for her students.

Student Civic Engagement

• Kayalyn Kibbe (law)
  As a first-year law student, Kayalyn Kibbe spearheaded the creation of Rutgers Law's Name Change Project, which was and remains the only clinic serving South Jersey residents seeking gender-affirming name change services. Mx. Kibbe and Name Change have been instrumental in providing support for individuals seeking to change their legal name to align with their gender identity. To date, they have assisted over 50 clients with navigating the court system to provide this vital service. They were selected as a 2023 Impact Award honoree by the Rutgers Committee to Advance Our Common Purposes for their efforts.

• Alexis Marini (economics)
  After participating in a campus service event with the international organization Days for Girls, Ms. Marini spearheaded two additional campus events for Days for Girls as part of a requirement for her ethics course. During spring 2023, she served as a teaching assistant in a class of nearly 50 students and recruited 15 more students for the two spring 2023 semester Days for Girls events on campus and took the lead in collaborating with a local charter school on one of the events. In the fall 2023 semester, she returned as the lead teaching assistant for Dr. Lee Ann Westman, director of the Honors College, and continues to mentor students in the class and the other teaching assistants. An able leader and keen collaborator, she is responsible for the success of the Days for Girls events at Rutgers–Camden during the past two years.

• Jaylynn Silva (social work)
  Jaylynn Silva has been instrumental in uniting and engaging the Black student body at Rutgers University–Camden. She led our campus’ first Pink Table Talk, a collaboration with Divine 9 organizations from Rutgers and Rowan. She was the driving force behind the first annual Black Excellence Gala by taking the lead on securing funding and coordinating among various stakeholders to make the event possible. This April, she helped to produce the Juvenile Justice Summit on campus; next year, she will become president of the Rutgers–Camden NAACP chapter after an impressive tenure as vice president. She leads the Black Campus Ministry and has been active in the African Students Association and the Latin American Students Organization. A Camden native, she aspires to work in Camden schools.
   

• Rachel Tavani (law)
  A dedicated advocate, Rachel Tavani has completed more than 200 hours of pro bono community service in South Jersey, including with the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program at Rutgers–Camden, the Camden County Prosecutor's Office, and the Rutgers Name Change Pro Bono Project, as well as various expungement events. Ms. Tavani advocates for the rights, freedom, and dignity of individuals within and outside of the Rutgers community. While serving as a Marshall-Brennan teacher's assistant, she led two teams of Camden High School students to compete in a national court competition and to think critically about policing and surveillance in their community. As a student leader on campus, Ms. Tavani raised more than $24,000 for student scholarships for pro bono internships in 2023 alone. Her work with the Name Change Project has served the New Jersey trans community by successfully assisting 38 residents in filing their legal name change petitions.

Community Partner Civic Engagement

• Erik James Mongomery, Erik James Montgomery Foundation
  A world-renowned photographer and artist, Erik James Montgomery immerses himself in the City of Camden, the community where he lives and works. Through his partnership with Rutgers–Camden, he is an active partner with many programs offered by the Division of Diversity, Inclusion, and Community Engagement, including Rutgers Future Scholars, the IGNITE afterschool program, and the Camden 2012 project. Recently, he displayed his revolutionary, thought-provoking, and community-based art in the “Portraits of Camden” exhibition at the Stedman Gallery in 2023. His project “Camden Is…Bright not Blight” consisted of close to 100 portraits of Camden residents and his work was included in “A New View – Camden,” a public art exhibition funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies in which Rutgers–Camden was a lead partner.

• Steffie Spade, Days for Girls
  Days for Girls is an international organization that creates reusable period products for women and girls in developing countries.The Langhorne, PA Team of Days for Girls, led by Steffie Spade, has worked with Rutgers University–Camden students since 2018. Days for Girls provides reams of fabric for students to trace, cut, and glue, and educates our students about period poverty around the globe. In 2019, they sent two suitcases of period products with Rutgers–Camden’s South Africa study abroad group. Ms. Spade connects her team of women who are also retired to work with Rutgers–Camden students. Last year, they collaborated with the Honors College and LEAP Academy to bring a workshop to LEAP Academy students.

Faculty/Staff Community Service

• Dr. Sangita Pudasainee-Kapri (assistant professor, nursing)
  As president of the Nepalese American Nurses Association, Dr. Sangita Pudasainee-Kapri works to guide Nepalese nurses and students on the local, national, and international levels. She leads numerous efforts designed to serve the Nepalese communities in the United States. Her leadership advances nurses and other people in Nepal through numerous educational projects and health-related programs. Examples of her work include providing leadership for fundraising efforts for the KPALS project, a group that provides assistance to the Kathmandu Institute. She also helps nurses from Nepal prepare for licensure in the United States and works to facilitate the contributions of the Nepalese diaspora to continue their education. Dr. Pudasainee-Kapri is acknowledged as a role model for the community. Her volunteer work, her research (in Nepal and the United States), and her quiet and effective leadership advance tenets of health equity.

Community-Engaged Scholarship

• Dr. Próspero García (associate professor, world languages and cultures)
  Through the work of Dr. Próspero García, Rutgers University–Camden is cultivating a reciprocal partnership with the Spanish and multilingual K-12 teaching community of South Jersey. Dr. García’s many efforts include supporting and empowering local language teachers by creating and curating for the last 12 years the Spanish MAT Series in Applied Linguistics and Pedagogy, which offers free professional and pedagogical development to the teachers in our community, including access to some of the most prominent scholars in the world. He assists local school districts with the research, curricular design, implementation, and assessment of new pedagogical approaches to enhance their teaching and help learners achieve the state’s learning goals. This endeavor has provided a direct benefit to such communities as the Greater Egg Harbor Regional School District, Camden County Technical School, Cramer College Preparatory Lab School, Pennsauken High School, Mainland Regional High School, and Paul VI High School. Student-teachers in Dr. García’s “Assessment and Evaluation in the Spanish Classroom” course create tools for formative cultural assessment aimed at empowering learners in their local schools.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Leadership

• Byron Diggs (custodial foreperson, IPO)
  Byron Diggs has quietly and effectively established himself as a DEI leader through his hiring and mentoring practices. He describes himself as being “on the Camden campus since the day I was born”; his mother worked here for decades and he played basketball as a Rutgers– Camden student. He began as a custodian (2007), was promoted to group leader (2016), and to foreperson soon thereafter, a position he currently holds. As custodial foreperson, he hired more than 25 staff and contributed to the promotion of nine others. The overwhelming majority of these colleagues represent the rich diversity of our state. Mr. Diggs blends his Rutgers experiences and community networks to ensure diverse people apply for jobs on campus. Once here, he actively supports these workers to get raises, move into new positions, and thrive at Rutgers. Those who work with Mr. Diggs applaud his leadership ability, his kindness, and his support for their careers.
• Olga Romadin (student, law school)
  Law student Olga Romadin is the Camden chair of the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP), which is a global legal aid and advocacy organization working to create a world where refugees and all people seeking safety are empowered to claim their right to freedom of movement and a path to lasting refuge. She coordinates student volunteers and works with the law school to plan trips to the United States/Mexico border to provide important support for refugees and asylum seekers. Selfless, compassionate, and deeply committed to the work of ensuring that everyone has a safe, welcoming home, Ms. Romadin believes that thriving communities are centered on diversity and compassion. She works to provide opportunities for students to learn valuable, essential skills that in turn empower and support the refugees IRAP works with.

Kelly Francis Prize

• Rhea Sharma (biology, global studies) and Prachi Shashidhar (finance) *both students in theHonors College
  Students Prachi Shashidhar and Rhea Sharma are being honored for establishing Cooking for Camden, which seeks to provide nutritious food for the Friday lunch service at St. Paul’s Church. The project originated with the first-year seminar in the Honors College. The honorees have worked to make this a permanent program within the Honors College and Bonner Civic Scholars program and have provided delicious and healthy meals for guest at St. Paul’s. Both students have worked to connect the program to issues of food insecurity that broadly impact Camden and South Jersey. They have consulted with faculty to create healthy recipes and have introduced students to an engaged model of community participation through this independent and impactful project.

Spirit of Civic Engagement Award

• Michele Robinson (department administrator, Division of Diversity, Inclusion, and Community Engagement)
  As the department administrator for the Division of Diversity, Inclusion, and Community Engagement, Michele Robinson has been the quiet yet undeniable force that empowers the DICE team to forge community connections, provide students with exceptional learning experiences, connect faculty with real-world research opportunities and applications, and much more. Her ability to deftly manage the many dynamic and diverse aspects of the division is the bedrock upon which Rutgers University–Camden’s many successes in this area have been built. This spring, Ms. Robinson retires after a prolific and impactful career at Rutgers, leaving an enduring legacy of success and a high standard of excellence.

Academic Civic Engagement

Dr. Tyshaneka Saffold (assistant professor, nursing)
Dr. Saffold is a passionate advocate for improving the health of residents in Camden, NJ, and surrounding communities. She has established significant relationships with community partners, working collaboratively to ensure adequate care for residents, which provides her students with invaluable opportunities to learn how to provide culturally sensitive care for underserved communities. She volunteers her time providing a range of health education workshops focused on unplanned pregnancy prevention and contraception use, healthy eating, physical activity, cancer screenings, and self-management of chronic diseases. Her work in Camden, which has deeply connected her to The Branches and Ablett Village apartment complexes, provides her with an opportunity to connect with residents directly about their cares and concerns. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Saffold was influential in educating minority communities about the virus and the importance of vaccinations. She made it her personal mission to debunk myths and provide accurate information, volunteering at vaccination clinics, making appointments for community members, and presenting at local events for Q and A sessions.

New Jersey Innocence Project

• Nakea Barksdale SAS’16, CLAW’21
• Prof. Laura Cohen (distinguished clinical professor, law)
• Mariel Delacruz, GSC’18
• Prof. Jill Friedman (associate dean, law school)
• Prof. Kimberlee Moran (associate teaching professor, chemistry)
• Dr. Sara Beth Plummer (assistant teaching professor)
• Dr. Jane Siegel (associate dean for undergraduate education)
• Nyssa Taylor (managing staff attorney, law school)

A multidisciplinary project embedded in the Law School’s Criminal and Youth Justice Clinic, the mission of NJ Innocence Project (NJIP) is to seek exoneration, release from imprisonment, and restoration to society of innocent people who were wrongly convicted. Realizing that New Jersey was the only state without an innocence organization affiliated with the national Innocence network in New York, a cross collaboration of faculty and students from law, social work, and criminal justice led by Professor Kimberlee Moran, an associate professor who studies forensics, came together in 2017 to map out a strategy to develop a project at Rutgers, which came to fruition in September 2022. With racial justice at the core of the project, the team, led by managing attorney Nyssa Taylor, provides practical training and experience to students in the fields of law, criminal justice, forensic science, and social work, engages in research, and advocates, when needed, to address systemic causes of wrongful convictions. With an advisory committee comprised of diverse stakeholders, including exonerees, NJIP also offers public programming to increase awareness and further support the exoneree community.

SNC–CARES

• Carlie Ale (assistant director)
• Robin Lundell (administrative assistant)
• Penny Mancini (administrative assistant)
• Melanie Palm (assistant dean III/advisor)
• Jonathan Smith (assistant dean III/advisor)
• Dr. Margo Wallace (director)

The SNC-CARES team works collaboratively to build relationships with a wide variety of clinical partners to provide undergraduate and graduate nursing students with hands-on learning experiences across the state and Delaware Valley. Sites include city health departments, public school districts, hospital systems, hospice care, rehabilitative centers, YMCAs, places of worship, food pantries, and homeless shelters. The SNC-CARES team works to secure and place students in clinical experiences where access to healthcare is most needed. The SNC-CARES unit worked to create the Rutgers School of Nursing Camden Health Clinic at St. Paul’s Church, a partnership with St. Paul’s to serve Camden’s most vulnerable unhoused neighbors. This clinic provides nursing services for the guests of the church that come for a meal on Sunday mornings. Recently, the SNC-CARES team partnered with Vineland Public School District to have nursing students perform wellness physicals for the students each school year. This is in addition to the health education and annual wellness assessments conducted for the Camden, Cherry Hill, and West Deptford school systems. The team maintains a partnership with the Camden Department of Health to place students in clinics responsible for vaccinations and screening for sexually transmitted infections. All these partnerships would not be possible without the clinical instructors hired by the SNC-CARES team to oversee the students in each experience.

Community-Engaged Scholarship

• Dr. Kendra Boyd (assistant professor, history)
  Dr. Kendra Boyd is being awarded for her research with the Black Camden Oral History Project. Dr. Boyd has been deeply involved with efforts to diversify the historical narratives of Rutgers University and New Jersey. She co-edited Scarlet and Black, Volume Two: Making Race and Gender at Rutgers, 1865-1945 (Rutgers University Press, 2020), which won the 2022 Author Award from the New Jersey Studies Academic Alliance (NJSAA). She also co-authored two chapters of Scarlet and Black, Volume 1: Slavery and Dispossession in Rutgers History. Building on her expertise of Black New Jersey history, she established the Black Camden Oral History Project in 2021. The Black Camden Oral History Project aims to preserve the history of African American life, activism, and entrepreneurship in Camden, NJ. This project is inspired by Black Power-era student activists at Rutgers–Camden, whose courageous protest actions in 1969 changed the course of history at the university. In addition to recording interviews with these student activists, the project works to preserve a broader range of memories about Camden’s African American community. By engaging community-based knowledge, the Black Camden Oral History Project is helping to preserve the under documented and understudied history of Camden, an important community in New Jersey and the nation.
• Dr. Nathan Link (assistant professor, criminal justice)
  Dr. Nathan Link is being awarded for research that exemplifies and reflects the concerns about the ramifications of justice system involvement on individuals. His work on the burdens of court fines and fees on individuals on probation or parole is considered seminal and paradigm shifting. Two current projects in Camden and Philadelphia stand out as particularly noteworthy examples of his engaged scholarship. In the first, Dr Link secured a $1.5 million dollar grant from Arnold Ventures to study the impacts that eliminating court fines and fees have on disadvantaged populations going through Philadelphia’s key criminal diversion program. In the second project, Dr. Link and colleagues secured funding from the William T. Grant Foundation to investigate the impacts of the recent cannabis legalization on Camden area youth and young adults. The project specifically examines how the new law changes (or, hopefully, ameliorates) racial disparities in arrest, with a particular focus on young Black men and women. A portion of the funding will be used to support a new local non-profit called The Hub that will aim to provide a welcoming space for youth to receive wraparound services, with an emphasis on employment training and facilitating educational and employment applications for young men and women.

Student Civic Engagement

• Matthew Brodsky (political science)
  Mathew is the student lead of the RUC Votes Coalition, a nonpartisan student organization focused on promoting civic engagement on campus. The coalition participated in the NJ Ballot bowl, a competition where colleges compete to get the most voter registrations and pledges to vote. Thanks to the efforts of the coalition, Rutgers–Camden won the Ballot Bowl for 2022. He is also a leader in the Bonner Civic Scholars program, where he partners with the District Council Collaborative Board (DCCB) to assist them with their public safety efforts. Matthew is the executive representative of Student Government Association (SGA), where he actively advocates for student issues on campus. He also sits on student advisory committees for Associate Dean Jane Siegel and President Jonathan Holloway.
• E Lev Feinman (childhood studies)
  For the past four years, E Lev Feinman, a Ph.D. student in Childhood Studies, has been an integral part of creating a safe, inclusive, and intentional community as a volunteer with Camp Brave Trails, a sleepaway camp for LGBTQ+ youth. More than a camp, this safe space provides youth and their families with services and community-building programming throughout the year. As a queer and trans person whose academic research centers on queer and trans youth, E is passionate about their work with Brave Trails and the LGBTQ+ youth and families they serve. Recently, E has brought their academic interests in queer and trans childhoods to their service work by developing and leading workshops on trans youth history, adapting important trans studies research into lesson plans that are accessible and appropriate for 12 through 18-year-olds. In addition to their volunteer work with Brave Trails, E has independently fundraised over $625,000 to support Brave Trails programming. This funding supports scholarships for kids of color who need assistance to attend camp, stipends for volunteers and staff of color, arts programming, and the construction of an accessible swimming pool with gender-neutral changing areas.
• Zaniya Lewis (law)
  Zaniya Lewis is a second-year law student, Social Justice Scholar, and founder, CEO, and executive director of YesSheCanCampaign, a non-profit organization that has helped students win over $700,000 in funding for their education. In 2021, YesSheCanCampaign launched DISSCHOLARED, an award-winning ed-technology platform that spreads awareness about scholarship award displacement. Scholarship award displacement is when one form of student financial aid (i.e., a private scholarship, external scholarship, or outside scholarship) replaces another form of student financial aid (for example, an institutional scholarship or institutional grant). Scholarship award displacement is one of the root causes contributing to the student loan debt crisis. Zaniya has used her personal story to spread awareness about scholarship award displacement through YesSheCanCampaign. Inspired by her story, the New Jersey legislature created S985 legislation to restrict scholarship award displacement. In September 2021, Governor Murphy signed S985 into law, making New Jersey the second state in the nation to outlaw this practice. Her advocacy inspired The Helping Students Plan for College Act 2021, the first-ever federal bill to address scholarship award displacement nationwide. Her organization's advocacy inspired four states to outlaw this practice, and NJ recently introduced an amendment bill to expand the ban on scholarship award displacement to all institutions of higher education and proprietary institutions.
• Aiman Nadeem (biology)
  Aiman Nadeem is a student leader who has developed multiple initiatives while at Rutgers-Camden to encourage student learning and connection. STEM Olympiad was launched in fall 2022 with the goal of having an annual event where Rutgers–Camden students gather with students from other colleges and universities to gain exposure to different STEM subjects in a fun environment outside of the classroom. Additionally, Aiman created the Intramural Sports Advisory Board to bring casual sports to campus to help not only foster a healthy lifestyle but also to help reconnect students when they returned to campus after the COVID-19 pandemic. Aiman is a senator of CCAS in the Student Governing Association (SGA) and is also working on two research projects currently. With Dr. Andrey Grigoriev, Aiman is studying multiple myeloma, a form of cancer, and the genes involved in its tumor development. With Dr. Angélica González, Aiman is studying how global change factors are affecting diseases in wild plants.
• Keyann’a Watkins (business)
  Keyann’a serves as coordinator of volunteers for Camden Mayor Victor Carstarphen.  From community clean ups to Thanksgiving food drives and Christmas toy drives, to finding volunteers for Camden’s first STEM Fest, bringing all-day STEM fun and exploration to Camden youth, Keyann’a has made sure that Rutgers–Camden is a partner in all Mayor Carstarphen’s volunteer activities. She works hard to connect the corporations, businesses, and non-profit leaders in Camden, as well as residents and community leaders, to volunteer opportunities to help change the perception of Camden.  She is very active in connecting Rutgers students with the Camden community and goes out of her way to connect students who are looking for positive ways to get involved in Camden. Keyann’a is vice president of the Student Government Association (SGA) and is deeply committed to civic engagement.

Faculty/Staff Community Service

• Denise Higgins Bonifanti (staff attorney, law school)
  Over many years, Denise Higgins Bonifanti has served as an adjunct professor, staff attorney, and program director at Rutgers Law School, teaching clinical law students how to represent survivors of domestic violence and running the Domestic Violence pro bono project, whereby law students volunteer their time at the courthouse and on a hotline to explain the process of getting a restraining order. Most recently, in addition to running the DV Project, Denise took tremendous and energetic leadership in seeking justice for women who had been sexually harassed, abused, assaulted, and raped in custody at New Jersey’s women’s prison, Edna Mahan Correctional Facility. Conservatively Denise provided close to 400 hours of support, training law students to assist the women who had been incarcerated at EMCFW and were seeking civil damages and supervising law students who interviewed and counseled the scores of women who were still in custody at EMCFW and eligible for compensation. Demonstrating the significance of the work, Denise’s own words in a recent Rutgers Targum article are illuminating: “What I fear is that [the settlement’s completion] means everyone’s going to stop talking about it," Higgins said. "It's not over if there are still things that are happening in the prison, [and] it's still not safe for the women that are there … We need to keep talking about it, we really need to keep pushing for more oversight and shining a light."
• Michael D’Italia (director, experiential learning)
  Michael embodies what it means to be dedicated to the work of community service and civic engagement, both within and outside the campus. From his time when he was the Director of Community Outreach at the Neighborhood Center, to when he was Engaged Civic Learning Program Coordinator in the Office of Civic Engagement, to now being the Director of Experiential Learning and Chancellor's Experiential Learning Fund, Michael has been deeply rooted in and connected to the city of Camden, its grassroots leaders, and the nonprofit community. Beyond his work hours, Michael makes himself available to community leaders to learn about their work and their goals, providing his expertise and support when he can, and ensures that the voices of residents and community leaders are sought, valued, and heard in all aspects of Rutgers-Camden civic and community engagement initiatives. He works hard to educate students and faculty on best practices in engagement so they are prepared to work alongside leaders within Camden to enact positive change.  Michael is a dedicated public servant focused on making a meaningful change in the students he engages with, the community partnerships he builds, and the relationships he fosters across his day-to-day work, both on and off campus.

Alumni Civic Engagement

• Atnre Alleyne CCAS’06, GSC’07 and Tatiana Poladko Alleyne GSC’07
  Tatiana and Atnre met at Rutgers–Camden in 2005 while working at the Senator Walter Rand Institute for Public Affairs. They married at Rutgers Gardens in New Brunswick in 2007 and, in 2009, co-founded TeenSHARP, a nonprofit organization that helps Black and Latino students from underserved communities in New Jersey and Delaware get accepted to and succeed at top universities. In January 2021, Tatiana and Atnre relocated their family of five to Ukraine, Tatiana’s home country, and continued to operate their nonprofit from abroad. Life was good until February 27, 2022, when Atnre and Tatiana left their home outside Kyiv, heading west with their three children and Tatiana’s father, due to Russia’s military siege of Ukraine. Even while the family made the risky week-long trek to Poland for safety, the couple continued to lead. Atnre hosted a virtual workshop from a hotel bathroom for more than 100 U.S. high school students who are part of TeenSHARP. Tatiana and Atnre’s devotion to leadership and service also extends to the Ukraine as the war continues. To date, the couple has raised $40,000 for humanitarian aid. They continue to run TeenSHARP and spread awareness about the war from their new home in Poland.

Community partner Civic Engagement

• Campaign for Working Families
  The Campaign for Working Families, Inc. (CWF) is a non-profit organization committed to helping working families and individuals achieve economic empowerment by providing free tax preparation, resource building, and asset development. Each year, CWF partners with Rutgers Law School in Camden and the Nilsa I. Cruz-Perez Downtown Branch of the Camden County Library System to provide tax return assistance to residents of Camden city and the surrounding communities. Prior to the partnership with CWF, the Rutgers Law VITA (Volunteers in Tax Assistance) Pro Bono Project was dependent on the varying levels of expertise and capabilities of changing student leadership. CWF’s continued presence and expert training and support are constants that keep VITA operational on an annual basis. The partnership with CWF and the library extends and strengthens the law school’s ability to provide tax services to low-income residents, both citizens and non-citizens.
• Food Bank of South Jersey
  The Food Bank of South Jersey (FBSJ) exists to provide an immediate solution to the urgent problem of hunger by providing food to people in need, teaching them to eat nutritiously, and helping them to find sustainable ways to improve their lives. The FBSJ’s partnership with the Walter Rand Institute (WRI)has developed from evaluating the efficacy of the various food education and food security programs offered by the Food Bank to a multi-year partnership where WRI is working with FBSJ and Camden Coalition of Healthcare Partners to examine their efforts to address the complex factors that contribute to food security in Camden as part of the Camden Food Security Collective. The Collective, which engages faculty and staff from Rutgers–Camden and Rutgers–New Brunswick, was organized to address food security and the social determinants of health that affect and are affected by food insecurity. The goal is to develop shared measurements and metrics that will evaluate the success of initiatives and other actions by the Collective to improve the lives of Camden residents.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Leadership

• Roshauna Follett (public health AmeriCorps member)
  Roshauna Follett is a full-time Public Health Americorp Member who works within the Office of Social Justice and Belonging (OSJB). In Roshauna's role, she is dedicated to creating space for Rutgers–Camden students to feel heard and connected to the Camden community. Roshauna has created a mentorship program with several Camden area non-profits that connects Rutgers students to local youth in a mentorship setting. Roshauna has also worked hard to create opportunities for LGBTQ+ and BIPOC students to feel safe, welcomed, and heard on campus. During her time at Rutgers–Camden, Roshauna also developed multiple career networking opportunities for BIPOC students and alumni in various industries.
• Prof. Stacy Hawkins (vice dean and professor, law)
  Since joining Rutgers, Professor Stacy Hawkins has been continuously engaged in efforts, through her service, teaching, and scholarship, to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion within our campus community and within the larger Rutgers community. Upon joining the faculty in 2010, she was asked by then Chancellor Wendell Pritchett to serve on the Chancellor’s Committee for Institutional Equity & Diversity (CIED), a committee dedicated to ensuring and promoting faculty diversity. She has served continuously on the CIED (and its successor committee). As co-chair, she led efforts to improve the processes for tracking faculty diversity by unit/department, helped secure a campus membership with the National Council on Faculty Development & Diversity, and advocated for the funding of “mini-grants” to support the retention and promotion of underrepresented faculty. Professor Hawkins is widely sought after as a professional diversity trainer, and in service to the university, has conducted training sessions for the Office of General Counsel and, most recently, for the Rutgers Board of Trustees. Finally, Professor Hawkins works to create and support an inclusive and equitable learning environment for students. Since 2010, she has offered an original seminar on diversity and the law, which has enrolled graduate students from across the campus. In 2021, Professor Hawkins was named a Senior Faculty Fellow of the Institute for the Study of Global Racial Justice and a Special Assistant for Academic Equity with the Division of Diversity, Inclusion, and Community Engagement for her role in leading an applied research project that brought a living-learning community for Black students to the campus (the first resource of its kind) that seeks to study its effects on student persistence and academic success.

Academic Diversity and Inclusion

• Dr. Andrew Abeyta (assistant professor, psychology)
  Dr. Andrew Abeyta, an assistant professor in the College of Arts and Sciences, developed a graduate cultural psychology course, currently teaches a cultural psychology undergraduate course, and helped revise the psychology curriculum to include a diversity course requirement. Dr. Abeyta has a strong record of mentoring students and has advised several students who presented at the Celebration for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities (CURCA) and other professional conferences. He also helped students write and submit first-author papers for publication. One of his students won a diversity award to present his research at the 2023 International Society for the Science of Existential Psychology conference. His students have won competitive internal Rutgers research funding to conduct research on topics relevant to DEI, promoting belonging among first-generation students, encouraging meaning and purpose in life to promote student success. In addition, he frequently serves on faculty panels for first-generation and/or minority students for groups including EOF and TRiO and makes presentations to new students to promote belonging and to teach empirically supported strategies to help students adjust to college.
• Dr. Silvia Perez-Cortes (assistant professor, Spanish)
  The course “Multilingualism and Linguistic Minorities in the U.S.” was taught for the first time in fall 2022 by Dr. Silvia Perez-Cortes, an assistant professor in the World Languages and Cultures Department. Throughout the semester, students examined and discussed the political, social, and educational issues that relate to cultural and linguistic diversity in the U.S. Topics ranged from the (mis)representation of multiculturality and multilingualism in the media to the nature of past and present linguistic policies enacted in the country. The main goals of this course were to provide students with the tools to analyze how immigration has shaped the cultural and linguistic landscape of the United States over time and to reflect upon ideologies that foster (or deter) social and linguistic discrimination and inequalities. Students were encouraged to respectfully engage in critical conversations about language and race with their peers and examine controversial issues by taking an evidence-based and sociohistorical approach. By the end of the semester, students produced a project that resulted from their investigative work, connecting the topics of the course with current issues. Some examples included a study on the appropriation and commodification of African American English and Latino English by members outside these ethnolinguistic communities, linguistic discrimination in the justice system, and a proposal to introduce social justice issues in the K-12 curriculum.

Faculty Research Award for Contributions Towards Diversity and Inclusion

• Dr. Emily Marker (assistant professor, history)
  Dr. Marker's latest book, Black France, White Europe: Youth, Race, and Belonging in the Postwar Era (Cornell UP, 2022), offers an historical and transnational perspective on contemporary debates about DEI and higher education across the Global North. The book shows that many hallmarks of DEI discourse today—as well as the backlash against it—date to the immediate postwar years. After the Second World War, France ostensibly embarked on not one, but two, unprecedented efforts to build new kinds of multicultural polities: the democratization of its African empire and the unification of Western Europe. Although these were radically different kinds of political projects, the architects of both looked to youth as the lynchpin of their visions, and they proposed strikingly similar initiatives: curricular and pedagogical reforms; youth and student exchanges; new textbooks; and specialized teacher-training programs. Based on extensive archival research in France, Belgium, Italy, and Senegal, Black France, White Europe explores how efforts to promote solidarity between French and African youth collided with efforts to make young Europeans feel more “European” after World War II. Dr. Marker argues that the way diversity and pluralism was construed in Europe fatally undermined the project to transform France and its empire into a new kind of multiracial democracy. She connects the vision of Europe that coalesced in postwar campaigns for European unity—which coded Europe as white and raceless—Christian and secular, to crucial decisions about what should be taught in African classrooms and how many scholarships should be provided for young Africans to study and train in France. That vision of Europe also informed French responses to African student activism for racial and religious equality, which ultimately turned many young francophone Africans away from France irrevocably. In these and other ways, Black France, White Europe shows that the entangled history of colonial and European youth initiatives is key to explaining why, despite France’s efforts to strengthen ties with its African colonies in the 1940s and 1950s, France became more European during precisely those years.
• Dr. Briance Mascarenhas (professor, business) and Dr. S. Karti Puranam (assistant professor, business)
  Professors Mascarenhas and Puranam have developed a multidisciplinary research program on algorithms in health care that will improve access and benefit more diverse stakeholders in many fields. Organizations are increasingly using algorithms to run their operations with the rise of computing and digitization. Algorithms, unfortunately, may have biases that favor privileged stakeholders at the expense of other stakeholders. These algorithms are typically adopted without external validation that they meet their intended purpose. The non-privileged stakeholders are unable to examine and remedy the algorithms because of data inaccessibility, opaque algorithm procedures, and their complexity. The researchers examined this widespread, intractable algorithm problem in the growing health care sector. Specifically, they examined the algorithm used to match more than 60,000 medical graduates to 30,000 residency positions in 4,000 programs annually. The intended purpose of the algorithm was to match students to residency positions based on student-prioritized preferences. Students, however, have long complained that the algorithm favors programs over students, but have not been able to prove it. Their study found that the algorithm’s matches utilized program inputs but not student inputs, contrary to its intended purpose. Their research also developed a new algorithm that better utilizes student preferences, matches more students to their most preferred programs, and provides a balance of influence across diverse stakeholders. They also developed a framework for assessing and improving an algorithm’s responsiveness to multiple stakeholders. In summary, the researchers disproved and revised the current algorithm, which will increase student access to their preferred programs, improve student-position fit, reduce resident stress and burnout, and deliver better health care to the public. More generally, their novel methods will help to verify and correct algorithms to improve diversity, inclusion, and equity among stakeholders in many settings.

Kelly Francis Prize

• Shaniyla Johnson (urban studies)
  Born and raised in Camden, Shaniyla is a Bonner Civic Scholar who focuses on creating positive change within her community and works tirelessly on behalf of the city. Shaniyla is the founder of Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle, a nonprofit organization focused on prioritizing the needs of young people in Camden and helping them understand how to give back to the city and to make positive change. She is passionate about connecting different communities in Camden through civic engagement and helping young people in Camden understand the history and policies that govern the city. Shaniyla works at VietLead, a grassroots community organization in Philadelphia and South Jersey that is creating a vision and strategy for community self-determination, social justice, and cultural resilience. For the last two years at VietLead, Shaniyla has served as a programming assistant for the NJ Youth and NJ Civic Empowerment team and as a community organizer. Shaniyla, who has interned with Congressman Donald Norcross, is deeply interested in how urban centers can be revitalized through voter education and engagement, arts, education reform, and community economic development. Shaniyla plans to pursue a career in educational policy, a decision which was greatly influenced by her work at VietLead and at Rutgers-Camden.

Academic Civic Engagement

• Mid-Atlantic Regional Center for the Humanities (MARCH)
  The Mid-Atlantic Regional Center for the Humanities (MARCH) at Rutgers University-Camden, led by Dr. Charlene Mires, professor of history, developed a series of experiential learning opportunities that engage and expand student knowledge and service to Camden and the Greater Philadelphia region. Through individualized learning experiences for credit and transitional employment, undergraduate and graduate students and recent alumni learn collaborative approaches to programming, education, and training that tap into the region’s rich intellectual and cultural resources to forge new strategies for understanding and communicating the nature of the places where we live and their histories. The learning from this center has engaged students in recovering the diverse history of the residential blocks that preceded creation of the Rutgers–Camden campus. For more information on the Learning from Cooper Street project, The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia, and publicly engaged collaborations, visit https://march.rutgers.edu

Community Engaged Scholarship

• Dr. Maureen Donaghy (associate professor, political science/public policy and administration)
  In Spring 2022, Dr. Maureen Donaghy engaged in research in three Brazilian cities, focusing on the impact of social housing projects on residents’ lives and political perspectives. Dr. Donaghy has worked with one of the largest national movements for housing, the União dos Movimentos de Moradia (Union of Housing Movements, UMM), for the past 15 years, deeply engaging residents and local leaders to frame her research questions and approaches in ways that will best serve the community and can be used to benefit residents’ lives.
• Dr. Sheila Linz (assistant professor, nursing)
  Dr. Linz conducts women's mindfulness sessions and leads coping groups in two public housing communities in Camden -- Ablett Village and The Branches. Dr. Linz creates spaces for women who live in these communities to learn skills and coping mechanisms for managing the challenges of their daily lives. Dr. Linz uses photography and group dialogue to help the women deepen their understanding of themselves and their community, with the images and stories collected serving as powerful tools for nursing students to learn how to care for diverse populations as they enter the field of health care.

Student Civic Engagement

• Karina DeCasablanca is a Nursing/Spanish undergraduate student who is being recognized for co-founding the Nursing Veterans Scholarship fund, Nursing Veterans Scholarship Awareness Walk, and serving as the President for Student Nursing Association (SNA). Although Karina’s tutoring of other nursing students is what led her to be nominated, she is being recognized for her resilience and ability to engage with the community.
• Karina DeCasablancaSumana Gadiraju is being recognized for her work founding the Alliance for Cognitive-Communication, Education, and Support Services (ACCESS), along with an RU-C alum, Annika Liu. ACCESS seeks to help neurodiverse RU-C students find support through social linkages with other students and provides resources and information to the neurodiverse population in South Jersey with other community partners. In addition, Sumana is a Rutgers–Camden Bonner Civic Scholar and is a 2021 Governor's STEM Scholar in NJ. Sumana will be attending medical school in the fall.
• Tue Ho is being recognized for his leadership as an elected student leader on the Law School’s Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging Working Group, which is composed of faculty, administrators, and students. In that capacity, Tue helped organize multiple community events and workshops that provided critical opportunities for members of our law school community to engage in conversations about race, xenophobia, and other forms of oppression. He is a Rutgers’ Social Justice Scholar, and his past tenures include work with the ACLU and the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations. His remarkable teaching skills and excellent student rapport aided in his selection for a post-graduate public interest fellowship as his next professional step.
• Lisa Laffend is being recognized for her pro-bono legal work to the community, both on and off-campus. When applying for law school, the only thing Lisa knew for certain was that she wanted to pursue her degree to assist those who have historically had the hardest time accessing our legal system, such as the indigent population. Lisa has completed over 1000 hours of pro bono service through numerous pro bono projects offered by Rutgers Law School, as well as opportunities off-campus. Lisa has also been instrumental in starting her own projects, such as the Gender Affirming Name Change Petition Project and the Public Insurance Appeals Program. Lisa’s dedication to Philadelphia and its surrounding regions is an asset for the disabled community, those struggling with mental health issues, and other marginalized groups
• Dolly Marshall has a unique interest area—African American cemetery preservation—which has brought her notable recognition in Southern New Jersey and beyond. As a historical preservation archivist and researcher, Dolly leads many community partnerships related to African American experiences and the African diaspora, bringing this crucial part of history to life for the public. Ms. Marshall is a trustee of Mount Peace Cemetery in Lawnside, New Jersey. Originally serving as a volunteer, over the past four years, she has evolved into a preservation steward and seeks to promote Mount Peace Cemetery’s hidden African American history across the region, state of New Jersey, and nationally.
• Students of the Expungement Law Project are being recognized for providing Camden-area residents with education, resources, and support in navigating New Jersey's cumbersome expungement process in an effort to help clear their records and provide an opportunity for people to restart their lives as equal citizens in society.
  • Tyler Avon
  • Layla Awan
  • Malcolm Benn
  • Krysta Chotkowski
  • Laura DeFeo
  • Tue Ho
  • Moriah Mendicino
  • Anglesea Newman
  • Samuel Romeo
  • Viktoria Zerda

Cooper Civic Leadership Award

• Joseph Mendoza-Martinez, a health sciences student, combines his passion for Camden city’s well-being and health with active participation in medical access advocacy and equitable treatment for immigrant students and teachers. Joseph is being recognized for coordinating bilingual registration at a student-run COVID-19 community vaccination clinic, resulting in the vaccination of 200+ primarily Spanish-speaking residents from medically underserved communities.

Alumni Civic Engagement

• Todd Pisani (GSC’17), who has an MPA from Rutgers–Camden, has played a pivotal role in serving justice-impacted young people through what is now known as the Rutgers Youth Success Program. For over seven years, he has immersed himself in the heart of Camden and effectively built up a program serving over 100 of the most vulnerable youth and their families.

Community Partner Civic Engagement

• Camden Community Partnership (formerly known as Cooper’s Ferry Partnership) has been a significant, strategic partner with Rutgers-Camden for many years, focusing their efforts on planning and implementing high-quality urban redevelopment initiatives and serving as a convener that brings multiple stakeholders together to develop a holistic approach to Camden’s revitalization. This year they are being acknowledged for their work spearheading A New View Camden. This project was a partnership between Rutgers–Camden Center for the Arts, Camden Community Partnership, and the City of Camden, wherein large art installations were commissioned with a $1 million grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies, to use public art to bring attention to the problem of illegal dumping in Camden. The art installations helped to re-orient public perceptions of Camden and the city’s environment, engaged residents, and shifted attitudes and policies about illegal dumping here in the city.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Leadership

• Prof. Rhasheda Douglas (assistant dean, law) -- A Newark native and first-generation graduate of Rutgers Law in Camden, Assistant Dean Rhasheda Douglas became the inaugural Director of the Minority Student Program (MSP) at the Law School in 2016. The Minority Student Program (MSP) is a nationally acclaimed and highly successful post-admissions program that serves students of any race or ethnicity who are members of groups that are underrepresented in the legal profession, and who have faced discrimination or overcome social and economic hardships. The program takes a proactive approach in helping students to succeed in law school, and Rhasheda had the formidable task of replicating a program that existed in Newark for 50 years here on the Camden campus.
• Dr. Kwangwon Lee (associate professor, biology) has for the last several years led the Driving Change group, a group of faculty and staff across STEM departments and the entire campus focused on improving inclusion and equity efforts in the STEM fields. Their efforts focus on increasing the number of historically underrepresented students who enter and successfully gain degrees in STEM and on increasing recruitment, retention, and success of historically underrepresented faculty. Dr. Lee has driven conversations, policy, and curriculum changes centered around equity, both by demonstrating and modelling growth.

Faculty Research Award for Contributions Towards Diversity and Inclusion

• Dr. David Dwertmann (associate professor, management) is an award-winning and internationally recognized expert in diversity and inclusion. His primary goal through his work is to conduct research that positively impacts employees, organizations, and society. David studies diversity and investigates how organizations shape the social environments in which people work and how to create an organizational climate and provide leadership to successfully employ individuals from marginalized backgrounds. He mostly focuses on groups that are increasingly important but have not received the research attention commensurate with their importance: people with disabilities (PWD) and immigrants.
• Dr. Oscar Holmes IV (associate dean and associate professor, management) is also an award winning and nationally recognized scholar in diversity and inclusion. Oscar investigates how leaders can maximize productivity and well-being through fostering inclusive environments. As an expert in organizational behavior, he has published and spoken widely on topics ranging from racism, discrimination in personnel selection, heteronormativity, and abusive supervision, to police brutality, stereotyping, compensatory strategies, organizational culture, and some potential limitations of DEI “best practices.” He feels strongly that the epitome of his job is not simply publishing research, but to make his research, and the research of others, accessible to the general public. This has led him to create numerous initiatives, including the Beyond the Mill talk show on campus, his Diversity Matters podcast, and to serve as the co-chair of the campus DEI council.

Student Civic Engagement

• Mallory Carvalho (nursing)
• Melani Cruz Stokes (criminal justice
• Dawn Ericksen (law)
• Josefina Ewins (political science/philosophy)
• Alexis Hopkins (English)
• Alexander Iffland (social work)
• Omar Khasawneh (biology/global studies)
• Tania Martinez (political science)
• Sujay Ratna (biology)
• Morgan Rockmacher (psychology)
• Shannon Taylor (social work/sociology)

Cooper Civic Leadership Award

• Leslie Demark (nursing)

Alumni Civic Engagement

• Amy-Christy Amakihe CCAS’21

Community Partner Civic Engagement

• Cooper University Health Care
• Project H.O.P.E.
• Lawanda “Wawa” Jones
• Reverend Dyheim T. Watson Sr.

Faculty-Staff Civic Engagement

• Justin Deng (assistant professor, accounting)

Spirit of Civic Engagement

• Small Business Development Center
• Honors College
• Office of Housing and Residence Life
• Student Wellness Center
• Senator Walter Rand Institute for Public Affairs

Signature Partnership

• Rutgers School of Nursing–Camden COVID Response
• Rebecca Bryan (director, professional nursing development)
• Kevin Emmons (clinical associate professor)
• Margo Wallace (director, Center for Academic, Resources, Engagement, and Services)
• NJ COVID Service Corps-AmeriCorps Team
  • Norah Behm
  • Sabrina Bertsch
  • Jessica Chamorro
  • Leslie Demark
  • Anastasia Dudzinski
  • Vanessa Lamb
  • Christina Neal
  • Johnnet Reeves
  • Sophia Troccoli

Academic Civic Engagement

• Dr.  Melissa  Fender
• Prof.  Angel  Osorio  
• Ms. Gaylene Gordon
• Ms. Michelle Lyttle-Storrod
• Dr. Michelle Meloy

Community Engaged Scholarship

• Dr. Ana Laguna (associate professor, World Languages and Cultures)
• Prof. Dana Pilla (assistant teaching professor, World Languages and Cultures)
• Dr. Nancy Pontes (assistant professor, School of Nursing–Camden)

Student Civic Engagement

• Nikia Clark
• Ashlyn Elliott
• Kimberly Flores
• Taylor John
• Claire Newsome
• Angela Wismar
• Nidhi Baxi

Cooper Civic Leadership Award

Alumni Civic Engagement

• David Roeber

Community Partner Civic Engagement

• Mr. Dan Rhoton, Hopeworks Camden
• Ms. Pamela Grayson-Baltimore, I Dare to Care Association (ID2C)
• Ms. Kristin Prinn Rose, LUCY Outreach

Faculty/Staff Civic Engagement

• Dr. Eliezer Marcellus (Assistant Dean, Office of Academic Advising)
• Dr. Shanyn Fiske (assistant professor, English)

Spirit of Civic Engagement

• Dr. Kevin Emmons (School of Nursing–Camden)
• Dr. Cameron Whitley (Office of Diversity and Inclusion)
• Mr. George Wood

Lifetime Achievement

• Dr. Washington Hill

Academic Civic Engagement

• Dr. David Dwertmann (assistant professor, SBC-management)
• Prof. Steven Pyser (part-time lecturer, SBC)
• Prof. Meredith Schalick (clinical professor, RLAW)

Community Engaged Scholarship

• Dr. Stephen Danley (assistant professor, FASC-public policy)
• Dr. Charlene Mires (professor, FASC-history and director, MARCH)
• Dr. Sylvia Perez-Cortes (assistant professor, FASC-Spanish)

Student Civic Engagement

• Joanna Gardner
• Karanveer Pannu
• Brandon Pugh
• Liz Ramos
• Nitan Shanas
• Melissa Velez
• Students from Dr. Courtenay Cavanaugh's Violence Against Women course: Justin Addison, Rachel Andrews, Jessica Diperzio, Darris Drennon, Chennel Gardiner, Lauren Giest, Kristina Harris, Bryanna Prentice, Michaela Puryear, Samantha Tompoe, David Velez, Lisa Zibuda
• Law School VITA Tax Prep Pro Bono Site Leaders:  Spencer Chorney, Jim Clancy, Blair Gerold, Kristen Kispert

Cooper Civic Leadership Award

• Shenelle Alexander

Alumni Civic Engagement

• Daryl Johnson CCAS’84
• Robert Ransom RLAW’16
• Craig Roscoe CCAS’13, SSW’16

Community Partner Civic Engagement

• Camden Lutheran Housing
• New Visions Homeless Day Shelter
• Parkside Business and Community in Partnership
• South Jersey Legal Services

Faculty/Staff Civic Engagement

• Diseree Tyler (administrative assistant, Office of Housing and Residence Life)

Spirit of Civic Engagement

• Student Heroes: Tammy Meneses, Sehwan (Ricky) Park, Jonathan Perez, Matteo Resanovic, Vanessa Solis-Palma, Corey Zytko
• Office of Housing and Residence Life
• Student Health Services

Academic Civic Engagement

• Dr. Carol Kaufman-Scarborough (School of Business)
• Dr. Katherine Prihoda (School of Nursing)

Community Engaged Scholarship

• Dr. Courtenay Cavanaugh (Faculty of Arts and Sciences)

Student Civic Engagement

• Tiara DeGuzman (English/Africana studies)
• Anthony Doran (business administration)
• Tooba Hussain (political science/management)
• Markenzie Johnson (political science)
• Colin Sheehan (political science/Spanish)

Alumni Civic Engagement

• Jamal Dickerson (GSC’10)

Community Partner Civic Engagement

• Legacy Youth Tennis and Education
• Coopers Poynt School
• Women Against Abuse
• Project H.O.P.E.
• The Salvation Army Ray & Joan Kroc Center

Faculty/Staff Civic Engagement

• Prof. Sarah Ricks (Rutgers Law School)

Spirit of Civic Engagement

• Dr. J.J. Cutuli (Faculty of Arts and Sciences)
• Dr. Kathleen Jackson (School of Nursing)
• Prof. Kimberlee Moran (Faculty of Arts and Sciences)
• Events Office

Academic Civic Engagement

• Prof. Jill Friedman (associate dean for pro bono and public interest, law)
• Dr. Kwangwon Lee (associate professor, biology)
• Dr. Jane Siegel (professor, criminal justice)

Student Civic Engagement

• Marcellus Hill (Class of 2018) 
• AbdulMaalik Jackson (Class of 2016)
• Parth Lalakia (Class of 2017)

Alumni Civic Engagement

• Timothy Chatten RLAW’98
• Roy Jones CCAS’70
• Bryan Morton CCAS’10

Community Partner Civic Engagement

• Camden County Library System/Nilsa I. Cruz-Perez Downtown Branch
• LEAP Academy University Charter School

Faculty/Staff Civic Engagement

• Joseph Sanders (director, OIT)

Academic Civic Engagement

• Center for Urban Research and Education (Director:  Dr. Paul Jargowsky, professor, public policy)
• Dr. Stephen Danley (assistant professor, public policy)
• Dr. Oscar Holmes IV (assistant professor, management)
• Dr. Patricia Suplee (assistant professor, nursing)

Student Civic Engagement

• Angela Ballachino (Class of 2015)
• Cassandra Kipp (Class of 2015)
• Michael Van Stine (Class of 2015)
• Inaugural Cohort of Civic Scholars:  Amy Mallon, Katherine Nguyen, Shaili Patel, Angelica Shaw, and Russell Tichian

Alumni Civic Engagement

• Suzanne Cloud CCAS‘93
• The Honorable Patrick F. Dugan RLAW‘94
• Herbert Hinkle CLAW‘74 and Amanda O’Keefe CCAS‘13

Community Partner Civic Engagement

• Camden County Women’s Center
• Center for Aquatic Sciences at Adventure Aquarium
• District Council Collaborative Board

Faculty/Staff Civic Engagement

• Dr. Keith Green (associate professor, English)
• Dr. Julie Ruth (professor, marketing)

Academic Civic Engagement

• Elizabeth Demaray (associate professor, art)
• Thomas Knoche (part-time lecturer, public policy)
• Lauren Silver (assistant professor, childhood studies)

Student Civic Engagement

• Rosetta Beltran (Class of 2014; psychology)
• Brian Gregg (Class of 2016; urban studies)
• Rutgers–North Camden Schools Partnership ESL Team
• Rasheda L. Simpson (Ph.D. student, public affairs)
• School of Law Pro Bono Program VITA Team

Community Partner Civic Engagement

• Center for Environmental Transformation
• Camden City Public Schools North Camden Security Team

Faculty/Staff Civic Engagement

• Joseph Canada (assistant professor, accounting)

Academic Civic Engagement

• Cynthia Dell Clark (visiting professor, sociology, anthropology, and criminal justice): for her course Applied Anthropology, which engaged her students in research to serve Cathedral Kitchen and the Neighborhood Center
• Eve Biskind Klothen (assistant dean, law) and Joanne Gottesman (clinical associate professor, law) for Citizenship Rutgers, a major learning experience for law students
• Michael Haeflinger (teaching assistant, English) for his design and instruction of a graduate class teaching MFA students how to teach writing to youth
• Gayle Porter (professor, business) for her teaching of a graduate ethics, corporate social responsibility, and law class and her design of an undergraduate companion course

Student Civic Engagement

• David Bolanos, Class of 2013 and Joseph Harris, Class of 2013
• Alexis Hayes, Class of 2014

Alumni Civic Engagement

• Carol Beahm, CCAS’73, SSW’81
• Lynda Hinkle, GSC’08, RLAW’09
• Atnre Alleyne, CCAS’06, GSC’07
• Tatiana Poladko Alleyne, GSC’07

Community Partner Civic Engagement

• Cathedral Kitchen
• The Neighborhood Center

Faculty/Staff Civic Engagement

• Jonathan Muse (assistant dean, business)
• Rajiv Gandhi (associate professor, computer science)
• Wanda Hardy (lecturer, economics)
• Carmen Pendleton (program coordinator, Rutgers–Camden Center for the Arts)

Academic Civic Engagement

• Prof. J. C. Lore (clinical professor, law) and Prof. Kevin Murphy (lecturer, criminal justice): for “Children’s Justice Clinic and Criminal Investigations Practicum”
• Dr. Joan Mazelis (assistant professor, sociology): for “Social Stratification and Urban Sociology”

Student Civic Engagement

• Rutgers–Camden Jumpstart Corps
• Rutgers–Camden Student Nurses Association
• Ashlee Garton, Class of 2012
• Salima Mostafa, Class of 2013
• Hyun Kyu Seo, Class of 2013

Alumni Civic Engagement

• Andrew Podolski, RLAW‘02

Community Partner Civic Engagement

• Respond, Inc.

Faculty/Staff Civic Engagement

• Dr. Gloria Bonilla-Santiago (Board of Governors Distinguished Service Professor of Public Policy and Administration)
• Dr. Daniel Hart (distinguished professor, psychology and childhood studies)
• Prof. Brenda Jorett (lecturer, business)