A recent honor handed to Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Center for Civic Engagement Director Sashae Mitchell ’13 will help students continue strengthening community partnerships beyond Kalamazoo College through critical engagement and collaborative learning for years to come.
Mitchell is one of 18 faculty and staff from 13 states selected for the 2025–26 cohort of engaged scholars through Campus Compact’s Engaged Scholars Initiative. The effort is a professional-development program that supports early-career faculty and staff in strengthening their community-engaged efforts and programs.
Scholars were selected this year based on their commitment to centering equity in their civic- and community-engagement work. In applying, members of the cohort were asked to outline their interest in the program and share how they expect to grow with it.
“I am truly honored and elated to have been selected for the fifth cohort of Campus Compact’s Engaged Scholars Initiative,” Mitchell said. “It’s a privilege to work alongside an amazing group of faculty and staff from across the country who are deeply committed to advancing community engagement in higher education. This opportunity aligns closely with one of my core professional goals of developing my identity and practice as a community-engaged scholar and researcher, so I’m excited to grow through this experience.”
Throughout the academic year, Mitchell will participate in virtual meetings, in-person retreats and collaborative scholarly work to strengthen her own scholarship and, in turn, empower K students, faculty and staff and lead change in the Kalamazoo area.
“What excites me most about this opportunity is that it not only supports my own professional development, but also directly benefits the work of the CCE,” Mitchell said. “One of our ongoing priorities has been to amplify the impactful work happening through the CCE, both on campus and in the broader community, and being part of this national cohort will help us elevate our story, share our successes, and identify areas for growth.”
Mitchell earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics at K, where she was actively involved in the CCE as a Civic Engagement Scholar through Community Advocates for Parents and Students (CAPS), a grassroots community organization that provides tutoring opportunities to Kalamazoo Public Schools (KPS) students who live at Interfaith Homes. It offers a structured but fun environment with relationship-based homework help, literacy and math support, field trips and information about getting into colleges. After graduating, Mitchell worked with the W.E. Upjohn Institute in Kalamazoo, where she contributed to research teams analyzing data on the Kalamazoo Promise and other aspects of KPS.
Mitchell later earned a master’s degree in international education and development from the University of Pennsylvania. Since then, she has worked with organizations in the U.S., South Africa and her home country of Jamaica, conducting research on educational disparities. She has also implemented and evaluated interventions and innovative solutions to address these inequities.
As the CCE’s director, Mitchell promotes, develops, manages, funds and evaluates sustainable and effective academic and co-curricular programs while building strategic relationships with community partners and faculty, overseeing programming, collaborating with on- and off-campus partners, and leading CCE teams.
“By learning alongside peers from across the country, I’ll gain new insights into best practices in community-engaged scholarship and programming,” Mitchell said. “These lessons will inform how we support our student leaders, strengthen our community partnerships, collaborate with faculty and deepen the impact of our work. Ultimately, this honor helps position the CCE to be even more intentional, reflective and sustainable in serving both our students and the community.”
Campus Compact Vice President Nicole Springer said each engaged scholar, including Mitchell, already has demonstrated an impressive level of dedication and passion for civic and community engagement.
“Each year, our engaged scholars learn with and from each other, engage in scholarship production, and connect in collaborative ways that contribute to their own individual leadership and the growth of the field of higher education civic and community engagement,” Springer said. “I can’t wait to see how this group progresses over the next year as they engage in this transformative process.”