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2019-20: Cohort 4 —— Strategic Initiatives Awardees Update
2019-20: Cohort 4 Strategic Initiative Awardees Update
(projects that received funds for FY 2021 and will receive funds for FY 2022)
Project Contact(s): Nichole Wissman-Weber, PhD, Assistant Professor of Management and Julia Cantzler, PhD, Associate Professor of Sociology Main Strategic Goal Alignment: Goal 1: Enhancing Student Learning and Success
Monetary Award Category: c) $50,000-$74,999 About: The initiative seeks to create an Environmental Integration Lab (EIL) that will bring together faculty and students in a concerted effort to connect campus-wide sustainability endeavors as it relates to climate change. The University of San Diego has a variety of experts on environmental science, real estate sustainability, sustainable supply chain, carbon footprint measuring, green engineering product design and process development, environmental policy analysis, sustainable management, and climate justice that have never been formally brought together. The lab will harness our resources and talent to be integrated, leveraged, and made much more effective at addressing the issues of climate change and sustainability. Major Successes in 2020-21: During Fall 2020, the Environmental Integration Lab established a Steering Committee composed of 12 faculty and staff representing a diverse array of academic departments and organizations on campus. The Steering Committee met four times over the course of the year (twice in each semester). During those meetings, the Steering Committee focused on the following tasks: developing and honing the EIL’s mission statement and strategic pathways, planning Spring 2021 programming, brainstorming collaboration around the Equinox Project’s Quality of Life Dashboard, the new Master’s Program in Engineering for Sustainability and Health, discussing possibilities for curricular innovation including a pop-up class on climate change/ sustainability, communities of practice around topical areas, and “making climate a class.” The Steering Committee also discussed long-term strategic planning, including the possibility of developing a minor and constructing a campus-wide survey to assess environmental knowledge and attitudes. We are thrilled by the composition of our Steering Committee and the unique expertise and community networks that they bring to the table. Due to COVID, we delayed hiring student assistants until January 2021. Three students were ultimately hired, and their primary tasks have been: developing and implementing student engagement programming, benchmarking, developing social media content, liaising with student organizations, communicating with the Steering Committee, and brainstorming future programming. We have been extremely impressed with their contributions and their willingness to take initiative to provide value to the EIL beyond the tasks given to them. In recognition of their enhanced role on the team, we decided to
rename the positions “Student Fellows.” As for the virtual lab, initially the virtual lab would be hosted through USD, but with the revamp of USD’s websites across campus, ITS has informed us that this is no longer possible. As an alternative location, we are developing ideas for the virtual space and will seek additional funding to build and host the site with web developers. We are currently completing our benchmarking (to be completed in Summer 2021) to give us a clear picture of sustainability centers and labs and their websites at peer institutions. We have also solicited input for a virtual space with our steering committee, although we could not develop a prototype this semester. In sum, we are creating a clear vision for the virtual space with our steering committee and from benchmarking activities. Our next step will seek estimates from three identified web developers, and we plan to seek additional funding internally from USD. In the meantime, we created an EIL Instagram to ensure our community can stay informed about EIL activities, community engagement and events. Due to COVID, we had to rethink our options for programming and for the speaker series. Instead of hosting a single speaker series, we are considering hosting smaller, more regular event series. Along these lines, we piloted an Earth Week Event Series in April 2021 that consisted of three online events: Kahoot Night, Seeding Change film screening, and the Design Thinking Workshop. The Earth Week events provided a wonderful opportunity to introduce the EIL to the campus community, to provide space for students to engage with environmental issues in meaningful and practical ways, and to bring experts in sustainable business enterprises to our community. Surveys taken after each event reflect students’ desire for more opportunities to get involved with sustainability initiatives on campus. Strategic Initiative: Equinox Project at USD
Project Contact(s): Emily Young, PhD, Executive Director, The Nonprofit Institute
Main Strategic Goal Alignment: Goal 3: Improving Structural and Operational Effectiveness Monetary Award Category: c) $50,000-$74,999 About: Through the Equinox Project initiative, we are seeking to more deeply engage faculty and students by providing opportunities for research in support of the Quality of Life (QOL) Dashboard’s data for the purpose of knowledge generation, as well as opportunities to connect our students with the Leaders 20/20 young professionals network in service of student learning, student success, and community impact. By bolstering the Equinox Project with broader ties to USD faculty and students, we hope to elevate its profile as the leading source of community-wide data on critical issues to our region’s quality of life. Major Successes in 2020-21: Since July 1, 2020, the QOL Dashboard has had a total of 9,387 unique website views with an average page time of two minutes and 30 seconds. The QOL Dashboard was officially released at The Nonprofit Institute’s annual State of Nonprofits and Philanthropy Summit on October 29, 2020, where there were 234 nonprofit professional attendees and four virtual workshops dedicated to various aspects of the new data including: Unveiling the 2020 QOL Dashboard; Advancing Water Equity in San Diego Through City and Nonprofit Partnerships; Outdoor Access, Public Health, and Community Resilience in the Age of COVID; and Exploring the Interconnections of Energy, Air Quality, and Wildfires in San Diego County. These sessions included panels with community members who engage with the QOL Dashboard through their work. Leaders 20/20 also highlighted the QOL Dashboard at their annual holiday party, which hosted 58 young sustainability professionals. The dashboard was also distributed to our 6045 person listserv five times. We are currently working on the 2021 QOL Dashboard, which we will present at a multitude of community forums and meetings. This year’s outreach plan will focus heavily on gaining insight from various stakeholders on how they use the QOL Dashboard and their recommendations on how to make the QOL Dashboard more effective. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, original in-person events were quickly adapted and modified to support the virtual environment and the goal was still met. In addition to the 20% increase in USD student engagement at our virtual events this year, we have had active graduate students and recent graduates of the Leaders 20/20 (L20/20) Steering Committee, which drives all programming for the network. We now host a bi-monthly workforce workshop series focused on interviewing, resume building, and elevator pitches. One student is the University of San Diego liaison and is part of L20/20’s initiative to create a leadership pipeline between sustainability-minded students and sustainability professionals in the region. Another student looked at the research interests of more than 100 faculty members across USD’s campus and analyzed where their research aligns with dashboard indicators to support future targeted engagement. This research is key to the project’s expansion across campus. Staff are currently working with faculty members from the School of Engineering to support the integration of data management utilizing the Water Use indicator page specifically into undergraduate data science courses for Summer and Fall 2021.
Project Contact(s): Aaron Gross, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Theology and Religious Studies; Christopher Carter, PhD, Assistant Professor, Assistant Chair, and Department Diversity Officer, Theology and Religious Studies; Nick Riggle, PhD, Assistant Professor, Philosophy Main Strategic Goal Alignment: Goal 5: Amplifying Local and Global Engagement and Reputation
Monetary Award Category: c) $50,000-$74,999 About: The Food Studies Initiative (FSI) seeks to execute a series of diverse campus meetings and events that will simultaneously: a) serve as a laboratory to better understand USD community values related to food; b) accelerate the creation of a permanent Food Studies Program; c) support related fundraising; and d) transform food at USD from an “auxiliary” part of campus life to a powerful vehicle both for expressing values and for enhancing USD’s educational mission. Major Successes in 2020-21: The FSI has seeks to increase sociallyengaged collaborative scholarship at USD. So far, we are very pleased with the diversity of faculty members involved both in terms of colleges and departments, but also gender, race, and stage in career. Faculty members from three colleges and 14 departments have been active in FSI events. Approximately 40% are women. While we did not formally poll faculty on racial identities, an informal analysis suggest that at least nine of 34 faculty and staff actively involved are people of color. We believe the gender and racial diversity of the faculty members interested in the FSI, especially the involvement of BIPOC faculty, is one of its greatest assets. We have not yet formally polled faculty to identify all new collaborations but there are several that involve the FSI principals: a) the newly created FSI Curriculum Committee; b) a nascent collaboration between the School of Engineering’s Caroline Baillie and FSI principals Christopher Carter and Aaron Gross to design a core course for a new masters in engineering and sustainability; c) an evolving collaboration between the FSI and Urgent Challenges Collective; and d) a collaboration between FSI principals Aaron Gross and Christopher Carter to promote Dr. Carter’s forthcoming book that resulted in a book promotion grant for Dr. Carter. Drs. Gross and Carter worked collaboratively to identify outside sources of grant support and successfully applied for a $20,000 grant from the Greenbaum Foundation to support the promotion of Dr. Carter’s forthcoming book, The Spirit Soul Food. On another note, initial meetings were had between FSI principals and the head of auxiliary services, André Mallie, and they were promising. The FSI has identified the development of a “data dashboard” as the crucial next step in the relationship with auxiliary services. This data dashboard will be the basis for a wide range of other collaborations that could easily follow suit once this basic infrastructure is in place. As for programming, the FSI ran seven campus events that allowed faculty to discern and communicate values. This included a meeting in the fall and two major speaking events in the spring, each of which was followed by additional events that provided focused opportunities for discussion and a closing planning event. In addition to these formal venues, FSI principals held over a dozen informal meetings. Dr. Carter also collaborated with the local community group, The Vibe Movement, serving as a panel expert that talked about working with schools on food justice and how it intersects with racism. Overall, this year we have enjoyed broad faculty and staff support for the concept of making USD a “living laboratory” on food justice, secured the support of key individuals, and began outreach to both the campus community and auxiliary services. The transformation of campus into something that truly could be called a living laboratory is the telos of the FSI. We have made excellent progress toward this goal, but the real fruit will come after the creation of a minor. One of the most significant achievements of the FSI this year is the development of a coherent, interdisciplinary, and justice-oriented approach to creating a minor; and recruiting a dream team of nine faculty who will craft the actual minor and help lead it through the curricular approval process. This process has included the production, distribution, and discussion not only of vision statement available on our website, but documents that articled four pillars for a future minor and that addressed some of the complexities of balancing faculty interests in more humanities-centric approaches and more scientific approaches. To promote this work, we successfully developed a website featuring our vision statement, courses available to students, and interested faculty with bios.
Strategic Initiative: National Fellowships
Project Contact(s): Cassandra Gomez, Director of Pre-Health Advising Services
Main Strategic Goal Alignment: Goal 1: Enhancing Student Learning and Success
Monetary Award Category: c) $50,000-$74,999 About: The purpose of the National Fellowships strategic initiative project is to implement a faculty team approach to better support USD students in their applications to national fellowships (such as Rhodes, Goldwater, Marshall, Truman, etc.). Major Successes in 2020-21: This year, two faculty members and a graduate assistant was identified and hired to support initiative efforts. Once the team was assembled, we worked closely with students who had expressed an interest in national fellowships in their USD application process and focused outreach on first year through third year students. To increase applicants next year, the team identified a group of rising juniors based on GPA and invited them to attend a National Fellowships Opportunity presentation in the fall semester. Those who expressed interest in fellowships met with a fellowships advisor to identify appropriate fellowships and were invited to a Fellowships Writing Workshop in the spring. Additionally, an intent form was created for students to help plan their fellowships timeline. Application support will be offered over the summer in preparation for fall fellowship deadlines as we realize they are quite early (Rhodes, Marshall, Fulbright, and Goldwater). We also created faculty committees for both Rhodes and Marshall to ensure continued work beyond the two-year funding period. To further reach out to students, we as an initiative engaged with the Honors Program and undergraduate research programs (including SURE, McNair, and Keck), and some of these students have committed to applying to fellowships next year. We also collaborated with the Mulvaney Center, Career Development Center, and the Changemaker Hub to increase programming and advising. Next year, we will further our efforts with more units across campus for even further collaboration. This year we also became members of the National Association of Fellowship Advisors, which provides best practices and resources on this type of work. In this first cycle, all Rhodes and Marshall student applicants expressed appreciation for assistance with the process and positively reported the fellowships application process, in emails and verbally. The new website to detail our work and promote national fellowships to USD students is expected to go live June 2021. Strategic Initiative: The Mixtec Community Garden: Ways of Knowing, Being, and Doing
Project Contact(s): Kevin Guerrieri, PhD, Professor of Spanish and Director of Latin American Studies
Main Strategic Goal Alignment: Goal 5: Amplifying Local and Global Engagement and Reputation Monetary Award Category: a) less than $25,000 About: This initiative is based on a collaboration with the Mixtec community in Linda Vista, San Diego. It is multi-faceted and seeks to focus on multiple aspects of the community: a community garden,
linguistic mapping and development, and the preservation of indigenous knowledge, medicinal usage, and traditional foods. All efforts are linked to student learning at USD in multiple disciplines. Major Successes in 2020-21: This year, two additional boxes were built to increase the production capacity of the garden. Given the constraints from the COVID-19 pandemic, we do not yet have clear empirical evidence that there was diversification of plants; however, the increased capacity of the garden does suggest that this happened. Also this year, students in Professor Guerrieri’s SPAN 202-02 course worked on the transcriptions of audio recordings from previous interviews and gatherings with community members. Some of these transcriptions will be used in the book project next year. The book will include Mixtec stories and recipes that have been collected with all the text in trilingual format (Mixtec, Spanish, and English). We also held three formal public events this year (via Zoom due to the pandemic) that were well attended. These international events had attendees from the local Jardín Mixteco as well as community members from other regions of the United States and Mexico. There were USD students and faculty members in attendance from different courses, USD alumni, and colleagues from other universities. We also conducted two Tu’un Savi (Mixtec language) courses, one course for beginners and the other for advanced students. The courses consisted of weekly two-hours classes from February to April taught by linguist and poet Celerina Patricia Sánchez. These intergenerational classes included members from the Mixtec community, colleagues from Access Community Center, USD community members, and students from other institutions. Both courses went very well, and the advanced language course helped build community members skills in Tu’un Savi for interpretation and other situations. We are now planning on next steps for language development next year. We want to target certain skill areas, and we need to carry out some community linguistic needs analysis. Curricular development and community engagement with the Mixtec Community is an ongoing, long-term collaboration. The Envisioning 2024 grant is providing us with key resources to deepen the learning and enhance the collaboration in an equitable and mutually beneficial manner with our community partners. Research and publications has also been an important component of the strategic initiative with multiple talks as well as an essay submission to the Modern Language Association. Strategic Initiative: The PAX Initiative (USD Stopping Traffic Initiative)
Project Contact(s): Melanie Delgado, JD, Staff Attorney at the Children’s Advocacy Institute; Ami Carpenter, PhD, Associate Professor at the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies
Main Strategic Goal Alignment: Goal 5: Amplifying Local and Global Engagement and Reputation Monetary Award Category: d) $75,000 or more About: The Partners Against eXploitation (PAX) Initiative seeks to build on the opportunity USD has to be a leader in the fight against human trafficking. Situated in a large, diverse, and border city, USD is a multidisciplinary university with a focus on Changemaking. This perfectly positions the university to drive change in the fight against human trafficking. The PAX Initiative seeks to facilitate communication and connections between the university’s various units to collaborate on innovative solutions to the urgent challenge of human trafficking. Major Successes in 2020-21: This year, PAX evolved to include a Core Team and the PAX Collaborative. The Core Team coordinates communication with community partners, facilitates projects, and addresses administrative tasks associated with the initiative. The PAX Collaborative is a larger body consisting of experts from across campus and community partners; the purpose of the PAX Collaborative is to create a network of experts that can: a) benefit from the expertise and experience of other collaborative members; and b) help PAX to grow by advising PAX about opportunities for collaboration, connecting the initiative with networking and funding opportunities, and providing PAX with information about where and how the initiative can present information about its research, projects, and achievements. One project PAX worked on this year was the landscape analysis, the initial step needed to understand what work the campus was engaging in regarding human trafficking, and the analysis served as a foundation for the formation of the PAX Collaborative and the PAX website. The PAX website is a map of the anti-trafficking landscape at USD and it includes information on the ongoing research, education, and advocacy efforts at USD, as well as events happening not only at USD (the initial focus of the landscape analysis), but in the wider community. Going forward, PAX will use the map for gap analysis. PAX and Tablecloth (a data analytics firm) are working to provide data collection assistance and tools to evaluate the anti-human trafficking work of PAX and the projects it facilitates. Another important initiative from this year was that PAX funded three projects, including a traumainformed training curriculum, a medical rotation curriculum, and the HEART dashboard. PAX leaders are also currently working with partners to develop and write three grants. PAX was instrumental in bringing experts together for a panel to discuss misinformation about anti-trafficking efforts for a USD event, USD Conversations: The Impact of Misinformation on American Democracy, Past and Present, on October 9. PAX also worked with an undergraduate student to help her establish S.W.A.T. (Students Working Against Trafficking), a student organization focused on antitrafficking efforts.
