Dr. Olamojiba Bamgbose is an Assistant Professor in the Counselor Education department at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where she teaches graduate courses in both school counseling and clinical mental health counseling. She received her PhD in Counselor Education and Supervision from Northern Illinois University, her M.A in Psychology and Education for Special Needs from the University College London Institute of Education, and her postmasters in school counseling from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Teri Frame is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Art and Design.  Her entry into Community Based Learning is rooted in relational aesthetics (often referred to as social practice and/or socially engaged art/craft), which art critic Nicolas Bourriard defines as "A set of artistic practices which take as their theoretical and practical point of departure the whole of human relations and their social context rather than an independent and private space."  Teri's work with communities often takes this form.  For example, the Planter Project, a community-building enterprise in which she publically (on her front porch/yard of in the Cold Spring Park, Milwaukee neighborhood) created complimentary ceramic planters for those living in her neighborhood, culminated in an event in which neighbors were invited into her home to choose a planter, plant bulbs, and take them home.  Each planter acts as a vessel through which neighbors are enabled to reconnect to the experience.  She has since continued to publically make art in her neighborhood and regularly invites community members to work alongside her.  Teri recognizes the tremendous impact that this type of learning will have upon her ceramics students, and the structure and support offered within the Community Based Learning Program will be tremendously valuable in integrating service learning as a basis for the course. 

Lisa Huempfner is an Associate Professor of Spanish whose current work is largely in the development of Professional Spanish curricula, such as Legal and Business Spanish. Prof. Huempfner did her doctoral research in Spain some years ago with the help of a Fulbright Grant and during that time, she researched an educational leader and the school/movement that he founded. Today, Dr. Huempfner is very active in the Whitewater area as an advocate for the Spanish-speaking community. Her work encourages the interaction of her students with the Latino community in an effort to both better address the needs of the community as well as better prepare students to be conscientious contributors to a diverse society. 



 

Dr. Hephzibah J. Kumpaty is a professor of Organic chemistry and coordinator for the L&S Integrated Science-business program. She received her Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) in 1996 and began her academic career at UW-Whitewater that Fall. A conscientious teacher, Kumpaty has taught a variety of courses in the department supporting primarily instruction for chemistry, biology, pre-professional majors and minors. She has been a recipient of several teaching related grants and has had the honor of receiving teaching related awards. Her significant contributions in curriculum development include introduction of inquiry-based teaching, establishment of a high-field NMR laboratory and use of technology to enhance teaching and learning, among other things. In addition, she has a track record of training and mentoring over 80+ students in undergraduate research whose work has resulted in several presentations at national and international meetings. She has secured and administered a signature 3-year National Science Foundation grant, NSF-IRES (2011-2014) which provided unique international research experiences for twelve UWW students. Several of her student researchers have pursued doctoral studies, medical and pharmacy schools and many others are gainfully employed in the industry. She has been on several review panels (NSF, NSF-GRFP, DOD, NCUR, ACS) either as proposal or article reviewer. She has held a responsible leadership position as Faculty Senate Chair (2008-2012) representing faculty issues working in collaboration with the Chancellor, Provost and other administrators in advancing campus mission and strategic priorities. Recently, she served on the 2017-2022 strategic planning process as a L&S representative, chaired a faculty appeals and grievances and co-chaired a learn center book study, "Check-list for Change".  As the ISB program coordinator, she is reviewing the curriculum to provide enhanced opportunities for the majors and she is interested in redesigning the capstone course (SCIBUS 485) to incorporate both the ISB program and CBL outcomes.  

Anna began working at UW-Whitewater in 2016 and made it a top priority to quickly establish relationships with local organizations and businesses. She has published research on community-based learning and finds working with community stakeholders to be both rewarding and critical for student learning. Engaging with these partners helps educators stay relevant and creates opportunities for students to apply their knowledge related to both academic learning and community goals. For example, in recent projects with Affordable Dental Care, students quickly realized the challenges associated with operating in a nonprofit environment as they worked to analyze and offer insights on capacity constraints, demand forecasting, facility location decisions, public relations and marketing strategies, and client demographics. It is a common goal of educators and higher education institutions to instill a sense of social responsibility in students, and community-based learning creates a pathway to that outcome.

 

Li Xia was first introduced to community-based learning through Participatory Budgeting Program.  It is a democratic process in which community members decide how to spend a part of a public budget. Schools, school districts and colleges in the U.S. and around the world are using participatory budgeting (PB) to engage students, parents, educators and administrators in deciding which school programs and improvements to fund a portion of the school budget.  The course she plans to develop a new community based research component for is POLISCI 440-The Politics of Government Budgeting. It is the study of how public resources are allocated among competing interests. She believes bring PB into classroom can serve both students and community because it is democracy in action. It gives students a positive civic engagement experience and serves as a bridge for students to be engaged in politics and their local community.    

Dr. Martinez-Nieto is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. Her research focuses on morphological acquisition and disorders in Spanish-English bilingual children. The primary goal of Martinez-Nieto's research has focused on documenting the patterns of grammatical development in bilingual children in order to help clinicians differentiate language impairment from language difference.

Susan Messer is a studio art professor in the Department of Art and Design with instructional assignments in all levels of drawing, book arts, and professional practices. Her interest in Community Based Learning emerges from her pedagogy, professional experience as an artist and curator, and personal involvement with department and college community outreach and programming. As a CBL Fellow, she will be working on the integration of community based learning into the drawing curriculum with a focus on ARTSTDIO 201: Drawing One, a department foundations studio art course and GA designated General Education elective. One of her goals in working with this introductory level class is to raise awareness of the role of the arts and artists in culture at an early stage of the department curriculum. In addition, by engaging students in community based learning, she is interested in countering the popular idea that art is created in isolation and replacing it with a more expansive, contemporary concept: art as a social practice.

 

Laura Porterfield is an urban educator, Black feminist, visualist, and youth culture scholar. Laura grew up in El Paso, Texas, and am the daughter of two Mississippi transplants who instilled in me the value and promise of higher education. She is an Assistant Professor of Social and Cultural Foundations in the Educational Foundations Department at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and my research focuses on how youth learn about varying forms of human difference from visual texts and from their everyday spaces/places. Laura is a fierce youth advocate who believes it is my life's work to prepare inspiring and quality future educators and to demand equitable educational opportunity for all.

Dr. Jeannine Rowe is a social worker and social gerontologist. She conducts community-based research and strives to integrate community-based learning - with an aging twist - into almost all of her classes. Her passion for community-based learning began in graduate school when she and her classmates conducted a community-based research project. She recalls the experience as being both transformative and rewarding -both because it benefited her learning and the agency. Since arriving at UW-Whitewater nine years ago, Jeannine has partnered with multiple community agencies including Fairhaven Senior Services in Whitewater; Rock County Area Agency on Aging in Janesville, Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, IL; and Rock River Free Clinic in Jefferson to offer students community-based learning and/or research experiences.

Janine has been connecting her grant writing students in English 435 with community partners for several years, but believes the collaborative environment of the CBL fellowship will raise new ways to enrich these students' involvement with their community partners and experience more fully the potential impact of their words in the world. As coordinator of the English-Professional Writing and Publishing program, she is also looking for additional ways to expand the program's connection to the community and to offer its students more experiential learning opportunities.