The CEC Takes Center Stage During National CUMU Site Visit
On Tuesday, Oct. 28, William Joyner, JD, MSW, assistant vice president for Community Engagement at the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB), stood before a room of educators and community outreach leaders from across the country to share a story — one about learning and accountability, and how a difficult chapter in the University’s history reshaped the way it engages with its West Baltimore neighbors.
“I was a UMB student living just three blocks away from here,” Joyner recalled, describing his daily walks past a site that played a central role in that story. “I passed it every day on my way to class.”
Joyner was speaking to members of the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities (CUMU) Annual Conference, who were gathered at UMB’s Community Engagement Center (CEC) as part of the conference’s Power of Place site visits. The group came to learn how UMB’s approach to community engagement has evolved into a model of partnership and shared purpose between the University and communities in West Baltimore.
CUMU attendees explore the Steve and Mim Dubin Makerspace during a site visit to UMB’s Community Engagement Center.
Conference attendees listened as Joyner recounted how more than 15 years earlier — when UMB’s approach to community engagement was still taking shape — the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) and the University of Maryland Medical Center “combined forces to place an outpatient drug treatment center just a few blocks from here on Pratt Street.” The intention, he said, was to make lifesaving drug treatment available in a community where the need was high. What the community saw, however, was “big institutions placing large drug treatment programs right next to each other, hyper concentrating a population suffering from substance use disorder without applying the wraparound resources and processes that maintain quality-of-life conditions.”
“The result,” Joyner continued, “was an open-air drug market right outside of that clinic, driving up drug crime and loitering and driving down community perceptions of safety, property values, and institutional trust.”
Residents from surrounding communities soon organized to form the Southwest Partnership—initially to oppose UMB and the medical center for what they saw as a harmful decision made without community input. Joyner noted how then-UMB President Jay A. Perman, MD, now chancellor of the University System of Maryland, chose a different path. Rather than defend the university’s actions, Perman acknowledged the impact, committed funding and staff support, and invited neighborhood leaders to work with UMB to address concerns.
That decision shaped not only the Southwest Partnership’s growth but also the direction of UMB’s own community engagement efforts. Over time, the Southwest Partnership evolved into a resident-led alliance of seven neighborhoods and seven anchor institutions, many of them affiliated with or directly connected to UMB.
To share what that partnership looks like today, Tony Scott, executive director of the Southwest Partnership, joined the program. Saying that the coalition was created by residents who wanted their voices to matter in decisions that affected them, he explained, “We made a very conscious decision when we were founded to be a board that was controlled by community,” he said. “We embrace all diversity — from race, gender, and sexual orientation to economic, education, and housing choice. Our diversity is our strength.”
A panel that followed explored how the CEC collaborates day to day with its partners. In addition to Scott, the panel included Lamont Washington from the nonprofit CASH Campaign of Maryland, whose free tax-preparation site operates at the center each January through April, and Laundette Jones, PhD, MPH, co-director for the Program in Health Equity and Population Health at UMSOM.
Calling the CEC “my oasis,” Jones explained, “What this space and office have done for me is to provide an outlet to connect my students with the community.” She hailed the opportunities Master of Public Health students have for service learning at the CEC, adding, “It allows our students to get out of the classroom and to realize that there’s so much more in the community that they can grow and build upon.”
Visitors also gained insight into how UMB documents and strengthens this work. Gretchen Swimmer, MBA, director of business operations at the University of Maryland School of Nursing (UMSON)’s Department of Family and Community Health, and Jordan Lyles, program specialist for the Interprofessional Program for Community Engagement (IPACE) , demonstrated two digital tools: Data Story, which maps community projects alongside social determinants of health, and Collaboratory, an online database that tracks engagement activities across the university. Together, the tools help reduce duplication, support grants, and make impact visible across schools and partners.
The day’s theme of learning and partnership was on full display as attendees concluded their visit with guided tours through the CEC’s spaces. Rotating in small groups, they spent time at several key stops—learning about the center’s wide range of opportunities for community members, from workforce support and fitness programs to wellness visits at the nurse-run Health Suite and hands-on creative courses at the Steve and Mim Dubin Makerspace.
Central Connecticut State University’s Diana Velasco said a conversation with Health Suite staff during the tour underscored the value of pairing student rotations with full-time clinical presence. She explained, “Full-time nurses here meet with patients routinely and that's something that we are in the works of developing. Seeing it here underscores the need to continue to advocate for that. Our students get hands on learning, but they rotate out, and having more routine connections with nurses — with someone who is consistently there — is really beneficial to the community.”
Sterling Higdon of Washington University in St. Louis said he hoped to take back a renewed sense of perspective and encouragement. Hearing firsthand how Baltimore institutions and city leaders are working together, he said, was a reminder that meaningful change is possible. “Seeing it for myself, not just hearing about it in the news, makes a real difference,” he added.
