At the University of Georgia, teaching, research and service are integrated to generate, exchange and apply mutually beneficial knowledge in partnership with communities across Georgia and beyond. From workforce and leadership development to health care access and economic prosperity, UGA has an award-winning record of community engagement that is expanding with two new national awards.

Two UGA community members, Henry N. Young and Lorilee Sandmann, have received national recognition from the Engagement Scholarship Consortium for their outstanding contributions to community-engaged scholarship. ESC is the leading international organization for public service and community-engaged research and recognizes institutions and individuals making exemplary contributions in this field.

Young, the head of the department of clinical and administrative pharmacy and Kroger Professor in the College of Pharmacy, began his community-engaged scholarship by building on existing relationships and listening to the needs of a community.

Young began working in Pulaski County through the Archway Partnership, a Public Service and Outreach unit that connects communities with UGA resources that can help them. During a session for a community needs health assessment, Young learned that some residents were not seeking routine medical care for chronic conditions, leading to long-term negative health outcomes.

This prompted him to create the Fishers of Men initiative, a community and academic collaboration that implements evidence-based interventions to improve overall well-being in rural areas. The initiative derives its name from the proverb of “give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” It’s been an overwhelming success, with the initiative flourishing in Pulaski and surrounding counties.

The “secret sauce” to making the initiative work, he said, is community connections.

“Archway is the linchpin to making those relationships with the communities,” Young said. “As a faculty member, I stand on their shoulders in a sense and am trusted because of the relationships that already exist.”

Young hopes to expand the Fishers of Men initiative to other communities in Georgia.

“What I want people to know most is that this kind of work is feasible,” Young said. “Community-based participatory research principles can come to life with the help of already established relationships through groups like Archway.”

Young was awarded the ESC Excellence in Faculty Community Engagement Award for his Fishers of Men initiative. The award recognizes an individual faculty member or group of faculty members for an exemplary community-engaged program or project that has led to significant scholarly contributions.

Sandmann, who retired from UGA in 2015 as professor emerita in the Mary Frances Early College of Education’s department of lifelong education, administration, and policy, spent nearly 50 years in various higher education administrative, faculty, extension and outreach positions. Her research, teaching, writing, consulting and advising centers on leadership and organizational change in higher education, with a particular focus on institutionalizing community engagement and redefining faculty roles and rewards in support of community-engaged scholarship.

She also served as editor of the Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement housed at UGA.

Through research focused on real-world solutions and initiatives including the Archway Partnership, UGA demonstrates how students, staff and faculty working with and in a community can be a powerful force for societal progress, Sandmann said. Rather than being an add-on to traditional academic work, community-engaged scholarship integrates teaching, research and service into a collaborative process that enhances the credibility and relevance and makes that academic work more impactful and trustworthy.

“Engaged scholarship isn’t just about strengthening the community or the institution. It’s about building genuine partnerships where expertise and knowledge flow both ways,” she said.

The Distinguished Engaged Scholar Award is a lifetime achievement award recognizing exemplary contributions to research on and practice of community-engaged scholarship. The award is named in honor of Hiram “Hi” Fitzgerald, University Distinguished Professor at Michigan State University who served as president of ESC and is a pioneering researcher in the field of engagement scholarship.

UGA research presented at ESC

In addition to the two awards, UGA also had numerous scholars presenting research and practice at the conference. The presentations included an overview of the impact of two award-winning UGA programs, PROPEL and Learning by Leading, and how they exemplify the integration of teaching, research and service.

Housed in the Carl Vinson Institute of Government, PROPEL (Planning Rural Opportunities for Prosperity and Economic Leadership) unites UGA faculty, staff, students and community leaders to shape rural Georgia’s economic future through collaboration, leadership development and small business support. The program contributes to student experiential learning via the PROPEL Rural Scholars program.

Learning by Leading is a program at the State Botanical Garden of Georgia that builds leadership through experiential learning and mentorship. As students progress through a leadership ladder, they gain technical, human and conceptual skills while working alongside staff mentors.

Other research presentations focused on a variety of topics including working with students who have experienced foster care or homelessness, connecting students with rural communities through internships and personalizing support for student veterans.