Campus Compact recognizes Seattle University founding executive director of the Sundborg Center for Community Engagement

Campus Compact is pleased to announce that Kent Koth, Seattle University founding executive director of the Sundborg Center for Community Engagement has been awarded Campus Compact’s Nadinne Cruz Community Engagement Professional Award. The award celebrates the ethical leadership and advocacy demonstrated by Community Engagement Professionals. Recipients have demonstrated collaboration with communities focused on transformative change; a commitment to justice-oriented work; and an impact on the larger movement to build ethical and effective community engagement locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally.

The award is named in honor of Nadinne Cruz, an innovative leader of community-based experiential learning and a pioneer of the movement for the public purposes of higher education. The Nadinne Cruz Award celebrates the ethical leadership and advocacy demonstrated by Community Engagement Professionals.

Koth is recognized for over 25 years of commitment to implementing justice-oriented work and collaborating with communities to create transformative change. As a leader for the Seattle University Youth Initiative, the Center for Community Engagement, and the national Place-Based Justice Network, Koth has impacted universities and communities across the country and around the world by facilitating strategic, high-quality partnerships that lead to maximum transformative change. Through his work, Koth has made significant contributions to the larger movement to build ethical and effective community engagement locally, nationally, and globally.

“As the founding executive director for the Sundborg Center for Community Engagement at Seattle University, Kent has built a robust center that exemplifies the values and mission of Seattle University,” said Eduardo Peñalver, president of Seattle University in a letter nominating Koth for the award. “Through their programming, Kent and his staff have developed and maintained partnerships and relationships that support their role as a conduit for faculty, staff, and student community engagement.”

Urkovia Andrews, assistant director of service-learning at Georgia Southern University, was also presented with the Cruz Award this year.

The Nadinne Cruz Community Engagement Professional Award is presented as part of Campus Compact’s Impact Awards, which recognize the outstanding work of individuals and institutions in pursuit of the public purposes of higher education. Read more about the other awards and this year’s recipients at compact.org/2022-impact-award-recipients.

The recipients of these awards will be recognized in March at Campus Compact’s upcoming Compact22 virtual conference.

For more information contact:
Molly Leiper, Communications Manager, Campus Compact, mleiper@compact.org