The Center for Global & Local Engagement is has announced two Engaged Scholars for 2016: Dr. Carol Bruess and Dr. Adam Kay.
The Engaged Scholar position assists the Center for Global & Local Engagement in enabling students, faculty, staff and alumni with off-campus experiential learning opportunities.
Bruess will lead an effort to partner with communities in the Twin Cities to improve access to education, and Kay will seek community partnerships that expand food security and spur innovation both locally and globally.
Carol Bruess
Bruess is a professor of communication and journalism, and director of the Family Studies program, at St. Thomas. For over 25 years, even before terms such as “community engagement” and “service learning” were in vogue, Bruess was developing meaningful partnerships with community organizations, and contributed her insights to the scholarship of engagement at conferences and in scholarly publications. Most notable is her work toward equalizing the opportunity gap – specifically in her creative, high-impact partnerships with schools such as Cristo Rey Jesuit High School Twin Cities (e.g., her architecture for the concept “Together Possible”) and Prodeo Academy of North Minneapolis.
Adam Kay
Kay is an associate professor of biology at St. Thomas. His research focuses on the biology of urban agriculture, urban ecology and urban food insecurity. He teaches classes in ecology, sustainability and urban food systems. He founded the St. Thomas Stewardship Garden, an on-campus site integrating urban agriculture research and community service. He co-developed the Urban Flower Field, an art-science hybrid project that received a Twin Cities “Great Places Award” in 2014. He also co-founded BrightSide Produce, an economically sustainable model for distributing fresh produce to corner stores in low-income urban areas.
Past Engaged Scholars for the Center for Global & Local Engagement include Dr. Kim Vrudny, Dr. Tonia Bock and Dr. Michael Klein.
