Swearer Center Appoints New Assistant Dean of the College, Director of Faculty Engagement & Research

Julie Plaut, Ph.D. will join the Swearer Center full-time in mid-April.
by Emily Wright, Assistant Director of Communications & Public Engagement
February 7, 2018

The Swearer Center is delighted to announce that Dr. Julie Plaut will assume responsibilities as the inaugural Assistant Dean of the College and Director of Faculty Engagement and Research in mid-April.

Dr. Plaut is acknowledged as a national leader in the field of engaged scholarship and community engagement. She most recently served as the executive director of one of the most successful statewide networks of higher education in the country, Minnesota Campus Compact, which is housed at Augsburg University and partners closely with the University of Minnesota and other institutions developing promising practices for curricular engagement.

“After years of working with coalitions, I am excited to dive deep at one university,” Dr. Plaut said, “especially one that has identified engaged scholarship as a core aspect of its mission. I look forward to joining the already strong Swearer Center team, whose guiding values and priorities align so well with my own."

Associate Dean of Engaged Scholarship and Swearer Center Executive Director Mathew Johnson, Ph.D. is excited to welcome Julie to College Hill.

“Dr. Plaut brings to the Swearer Center over a decade of field leadership and executive experience,” Dr. Johnson said. “That experience has prepared her well with a deep library of experience working with faculty in many contexts and building connectivity between communities and universities.”

As the new Director of Faculty Engagement and Research, Dr. Plaut will expand the portfolio of support, training, and collaboration with faculty in the Swearer Center. She will be responsible for the faculty development strategy funded by the Davis Foundation grant recently awarded to Brown for engaged scholarship. She will also be a key leader in the College and University Engagement Initiative of the Swearer Center, an international research initiative focused on engaged scholarship and community engagement.

The Swearer Center is a community of scholars, students, practitioners and community members that work together to build on community strengths and address community challenges. Our work engages all as co-learners, co-teachers, co-actors and co-creators of knowledge and action. Through the creative capacities of our students, faculty and community partners we explore, build and implement collaborative and strategic projects, programs and initiatives. Our work yields transformative learning, and positive sustainable change, through collective action.