"Engaged citizenship is a key component of higher education--for students, for educators, and for our communities. At colleges and universities today, it is critical that we help students connect their studies to the real world and that we help them participate in our American democracy. Engagement with people who come from different backgrounds and viewpoints helps us create inclusive environments where everyone in the community can thrive. I believe universities and community engagement programs like ours at Sonoma State play a crucial role in our globalized society."
Karen Moranski has been appointed Associate Vice President of Academic Programs. Part of her position is supervising Merith Weisman, the coordinator of the Center for Community Engagement. Karen comes to us from the University of Illinois at Springfield (UIS) where she has been Associate Vice Chancellor for Undergraduate Education. She holds a doctorate in English from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
[Related: See you around, Rich!]
For the last 20 years, Karen has worked to create interdisciplinary curricula that focus on leadership, global learning, and engaged citizenship, and in the last 9 years, she has developed an Engaged Citizenship Speaker Series that takes on themes like social responsibility, diversity and inclusion, ethics, leadership, and the possibilities and limitations of social change. Even though her academic background is in an esoteric field like medieval studies, she has always tried to make her teaching relevant to the world today--connecting the Crusades to current Middle Eastern conflicts or exploring issues of gender roles and the oppression of women in the works of medieval women writers. As an SSU administrator, she hopes to facilitate the free and open exchange of ideas, as well as welcoming and inclusive campus environments. And we here at the CCE are excited to work with her towards these ends.
To contact Karen, call 707.664.3521 or email.