Office of Civic Engagement Announces 2025-26 Community Engaged Learning Fellows
Sept. 17, 2025
The Office of Civic Engagement is pleased to announce that four professors will serve as community engaged learning faculty fellows for 2025-2026. Each is teaching a community engaged learning course during the Advent term, and each will work on a special project to foster community engaged learning on campus throughout the year. Additionally, fellows meet monthly with staff at the Office of Civic Engagement and share their experiences with other faculty members. This year's cohort includes (pictured above, from left): Lisa Burner, associate professor of Spanish and environmental arts and humanities; Molly Brookfield, assistant professor of history and women's and gender studies; Teri Terigele, assistant professor of psychology; and Melody Lehn, associate professor of rhetoric and women's and gender studies.
In Burner's Introduction to Environmental Arts and Humanities course, students partner with Crabtree Farms and the Bethlehem Center in Chattanooga, Tennessee, as well as the Sewanee Farm and the Cumberland Farmers' Market. Brookfield has incorporated community speakers and work with the Chambliss Center for Children in Chattanooga, Tennessee, into her Introduction to Women's and Gender Studies course. Students in Terigele's upper-level psychology course will help four local organizations effectively convey their messages through digital platforms by creating best practice templates that incorporate knowledge from the psychology of communication. And Lehn has students working with the archivist at the Monteagle Sunday School Assembly to conduct research on women leaders who have spoken at the Assembly.
"Through community engaged learning, students gain deeper appreciation for the complexity of course concepts, meld theory and practice, learn from experts working on local issues, and build community," says Amy Patterson, Carl Biehl Professor of International Affairs and director of the Office of Civic Engagement. "Community engaged learning is a high impact practice that deepens students' academic and personal growth during their University years."
The fellows program is supported by Bonner Foundation grants, the Office of Civic Engagement, and All Saints' Chapel.
