Civic Fellows

ADP Civic Fellows explore assessment, research and programmatic efforts that enact and support ADP’s mission and national work during one-year renewable terms. ADP invites applicants for this opportunity designed to give professionals/scholars in our network a national platform to develop their research and programmatic ideas that correlate with on-going ADP initiatives on a national scale​.

ADP Civic Fellows receive support from the ADP national office in the form of programmatic opportunities (e.g., webinars, conference presentations), publication opportunities (e.g., blog posts, monographs, reports and journal articles), leadership opportunities (e.g., serving on steering committee and/or appropriate initiative and/or network teams) and free registration to an appropriate AASCU event /conference. ADP Civic Fellows will be part of a cohort experience and will work closely with our national manager and steering committee to design and advance ADP national initiatives.

2018 ADP Civic Fellows

Mike Caulfield

Mike Caulfield is the director of blended and networked learning at Washington State University Vancouver. Caulfield was actively involved in ADP’s eCitizenship Initiative in 2009 and is the leader of the more recent Digital Polarization Initiative, otherwise known as DigiPo. Caulfield’s dedication to advancing online community learning and ensuring informed civic engagement brings life to DigiPo’s goals of building student web literacy and involving students in a cross-institutional project to fact-check, annotate, and provide context to news stories.

The Digital Polarization Initiative, Caulfield’s work as a Civic Fellow in partnership with ADP, hopes to eliminate the spread and normalization of “fake news,” the pervasiveness of online “callout culture,” state-sponsored hacking campaigns that breed distrust, and the impact of algorithmic behavior that prevents users from viewing online content from more than one perspective. It is Caulfield and ADP’s hope that students will learn not only to be more discerning of the information they trust but also how to help fix the problems in our current information environment.

David Hoffman

David Hoffman, the Assistant Director of Student Life for Civic Agency at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), is an ADP Civic Fellow with a plan to affect change. A dedicated, long-time member of UMBC’s community, Hoffman understands theory, service, civic engagement and leadership.

Hoffman has already been heavily involved in ADP’s work in recent years, first as a member of the steering committee and later as a member of several Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement (CLDE) planning committees. Hoffman’s “Theory of Change” was an integral part of the 2017 CLDE meeting, prompting critical conversations about our democracy. Hoffman hopes to expand and improve his Theory of Change in partnership with ADP and then explore its impact at the 2018 CLDE meeting.

Stephen Hunt

Stephen Hunt, professor and Executive Director of the School of Communication at Illinois State University in Normal, IL is ADP Civic Fellow for Political Engagement. Hunt specializes in instructional communication, debate and communication pedagogy. His research reflects his interest in the pedagogy of civic and political engagement, critical thinking and analysis and the assessment of communication skills. Hunt’s dedication to training students and educating them about communication and speech will lend to his work with ADP and his expertise will help improve ADP’s programming.

In partnership with ADP, Hunt plans to lead a new research project on nonpartisan political learning and engagement and spearhead the ADP political engagement learning network. Hunt will bring his wealth of research experience and deep prowess in communication pedagogy to ADP to inspire change and growth in the network.

Morgan Lewing

Morgan Lewing is an assistant professor of Educational Leadership at Texas A&M-Central Texas and an ADP Civic Fellow for faculty development.  His research primarily focuses on the relationship between faculty member’s commitment to service-learning and the support provided by their institutions.  A recent area of interest centers on millennial faculty members committed to community engagement, and Lewing hopes to leverage his findings towards the development of intentionally designed ADP programs providing support to early-career faculty members. 

Specifically, in partnership with the ADP, Lewing will lead a new research project aimed at identifying motivations, perceptions, and needed areas of professional development for early-career faculty members that engage, or may be interested in, community engagement.  These findings will then be utilized to ground the design of an ADP Early-Career Faculty Institute that attempts to build understanding and capacity in future community engagement leaders.

Molly Kerby

Molly Kerby is an associate professor in the Department of Diversity & Community Studies and Director of Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) at Western Kentucky University (WKU). Her current research and teaching focuses on issues pertaining to assessment in higher education, organizational sustainability/resilience, democratic engagement, and community-based research. She has been an active member of the American Democracy Project since 2004.

Kerby will serve as a Civic Fellow for assessment and will chair ADP's new civic assessment learning network, providing a stimulus for ADP to re-envision assessment practices. The first, and foremost, part of the plan creates a collaborative group of highly experienced assessment researchers and academic faculty who are involved in creating civic and democratic engagement projects at ADP schools. The goal is to identify current best practices in assessment, evaluation, and data collection methods that address immediate and future demands. In the second phase of this project, the collaborative team will begin creating an assessment plan to empirically measure the impact of ADP on member institutions. Although the design of this effort will grow organically through collaboration, the proposed the blueprint will be grounded in the theoretical notions of risk and resilience.

Leah Murray

Leah Murray, is both a professor of Political Science and Philosophy and the Democratic Engagement Coordinator in the Center for Community Engaged Learning at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah. Murray dedicated her own education to studying political science and is now committed to educating her students about government and politics. Murray’s courses are particularly relevant in this political climate and undoubtedly guide and her inform students on their path to become civically engaged citizens. Murray’s devotion to community service and her desire to advance the effectiveness of the American Democracy Project make her Civil Fellowship all the more timely and meaningful.

As a Civic Fellow, Murray intends to improve how information about ADP’s work is spread. Murray feels that not all members of ADP can attend the yearly Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement Conference and therefore do not have adequate access to all the important information spread at these meetings. Murray intends to create a protocol to gather information from these conferences and distribute it using various means through various networks so that the information becomes more accessible. Smooth communication is an important part of what makes any organization function and with Murray’s help, expertise and dedication ADP hopes to improve these connections.