Keisha Green Appointed Director of Civic Engaged Research

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Keisha Green, associate professor in the College of Education, was recently appointed by Chancellor Javier Reyes as director of civic engaged research following a campus-wide search.

Green has an established research agenda and presence—in Western Massachusetts, nationally, and internationally—in the areas of teacher education, language arts, critical and culturally sustaining pedagogies, racial literacy development and youth literacy studies. The co-founder and co-director of the UMass Center of Racial Justice and Youth-Engaged Research,  in her scholarship she actively embraces approaches to humanize research participants through every step of the research process, including during the publication and dissemination of results.

In her new role, Green will align the interests of researchers with community partners to build stronger relationships, assist faculty, staff and students to understand and develop interests in conducting research with community partners, and connect community partners to campus resources. While the position is within University Relations, Green will report to Laura Vandenberg, associate vice chancellor and vice provost for research and engagement.

“I’m excited for the opportunity to build relationships across campus with faculty from a range of disciplines around community-based research projects and provide resources to develop and sustain community partnerships,” Green says. “Additionally, I am excited about the campus vision to expand our civic engagement and community-engaged research activity by using the UMass Springfield Center as a hub for this important work.”

Green will partner with faculty from across campus to increase sponsored research projects involving community partners, participate in the preparation and conceptualization of center proposals and other funding mechanisms to support research involving community partners, and create a welcoming environment for faculty, staff and students with an interest in community-engaged, community-based and community-involved research at the UMass Springfield Center.

“The appointment of Professor Green reflects the campus’s commitment to community-engaged scholarship, our investment in the Springfield Center and the communities in Western Massachusetts, as well as our celebration of research for the common good,” Vandenberg says.