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Cathy Burack is a Senior Research Associate at the Center for Youth and Communities in the Heller School of Social Policy at Brandeis University. Prior to coming to Brandeis, Cathy was the Associate Director of the New England Resource Center for Higher Education (NERCHE), where she continues her affiliation as a Senior Associate. For the past fifteen years Cathy has focused on ways faculty, students and administrators can work together to fulfill the civic missions of their colleges and universities. This has taken several forms including facilitating Think Tanks for senior campus administrators, co-coordinating and facilitating Wingspread meetings focused on the civic mission of research universities, directing various funded projects including Project Engage, a mini-grants program that supported student, faculty and community research teams working together on a community defined problem, a national evaluation of institutional support for service-learning, and extensive work with faculty from a wide variety of institutions. She is also a member of the National Review Board for the Scholarship of Engagement, a Campus Compact Engaged Scholar, and a member of the Advisory Board for the UMass Amherst Masters track in Service-Learning and Engagement. She started and facilitated the NERCHE Multicultural Affairs Directors Think Tank for directors at colleges and universities throughout New England, and directed "Reversing the Telescope: Community Development from Within" which focused on the civic microcosm within the university community. She also serves on the Steering Committee of the Boston City Wide Dialogues on Race project.
Cathy holds a Bachelors degree in Psychology from the University of Rochester, and a Doctorate in Administration, Planning and Social Policy from Harvard University. Cathy's work is under girded by her core beliefs in the power of reflective practice, collaboration, importance of creating learning organizations, capacity building, and development of communities and the individuals who inhabit them. |
