For 2.5 days, we were thrilled to host the 2022 Engagement Academy, Committed to Place: Leading Engaged Universities to Support Thriving Communities and Regions. University leaders from across North America gathered at Signal Hill Campus, where together we learned and collaborated on how we can increase public engagement at our universities and in our communities. 

A huge thank you to our Engagement Academy leaders, Dr. David Weerts (University of Minnesota), Dr. Lorilee Sandmann (University of Georgia) and our very own Dr. Rob Greenwood!

We are fortunate to have hosted a conference that focused on engagement in our communities, as Memorial has always been a university with a special commitment to the people of Newfoundland and Labrador. Our conference attendees got to experience a taste of how special our beautiful province is, where we shared an evening at Fishing for Success in Petty Harbour!

In addition to experiencing a social enterprise, our attendees also got to hear from an exceptional panel of both practitioners and academics in the field. Thank you to Kimberly Orren (Founder of Fishing for Success), Carolann Harding (CEO, SmartICE), Dr. John Schouten, (Canada Research Chair in Social Enterprise), Dr. Mark Stoddart, (Acting Head of Memorial's Sociology Department) and Dr. Gillian Morrissey (Acting Manager, Centre for Social Enterprise).

As we talked about public engagement in institutions from across North America, our attendees also heard from the perspectives of presidents on public engagement. Hosted by our own President, Dr. Vianne Timmons, we were fortunate to hear from Dr. Judith Ramaley (President Emerita of Portland State University, University of Vermont and Winona State University), Dr. Andrew Petter (President Emeritus and Professor Emeritus, Simon Fraser University) and Rebecca Mearns (President of the Nunavut Arctic College and Co-Chair of the Nunavut Arctic College-Memorial University Standing Partnership Committee).

 

All in all, we had a very successful Engagement Academy, and we were happy to gather together and learn from each other on how we can better our institutions and communities. Thank you to everyone involved and to all those who travelled to join us! 

 

If you are interested in public engagement training, please feel free to reach out to our office at engagement@mun.ca! 

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