The Fellows Program in Community Engagement facilitates the skills and knowledge of UMB faculty, staff, and community leaders to advance community engagement through teaching, scholarly programs, community-focused research, or community engaged practice. This fellowship will provide training on the principles of community-academic partnerships and community engagement; the pedagogy of service-learning; the frameworks for social determinants of health, health equity, and social justice; and competencies of interprofessional education.

During the one-year fellowship, participating fellows will become part of an expanding network of faculty, staff, and community leaders involved with community engagement. As a coordinated program, we support sustainable and innovative educational strategies that focus on the principles of service-learning and community engagement, working collaboratively with community leaders and community-based organizations in our local Baltimore communities.

The fellowship will include formal training and workshops, consultation and mentorship in community engagement, guidance with designing new teaching and engagement methods, and shared collaboration with other fellows. The fellowship will strengthen the network of UMB interprofessional faculty, staff, and community leaders who are transforming future career paths for UMB’s health, social services, and law students who ultimately will impact communities globally.

Fellowship Goals

• Develop a collaboration of interprofessional faculty, staff, and community leaders to advance community engagement, scholarship, research, and service-learning education within their schools, across UMB, or in their local communities
• Provide community leaders opportunities to educate UMB students in order to strengthen their own community organizations and foster stronger community-academic partnerships
• Strengthen and sustain collaborations between UMB professional schools and Baltimore communities
• Advance the application of social determinants of health, health equity, and social justice frameworks, acknowledging how structural inequalities such as racism perpetuate injustices in Baltimore
• Assist faculty to incorporate service-learning pedagogy into coursework, teaching methods, or educational programs, with the aim of transforming students to become lifelong learners committed to community engagement and social justice
• Support faculty and staff to be leaders at UMB, advancing community engagement for all of UMB