Campus Compact recognizes UNC Charlotte professor of psychology

Campus Compact is pleased to announce that Kimberly Buch, professor of psychology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte has been awarded Campus Compact’s Thomas Ehrlich Civically Engaged Faculty Award. The award, presented in partnership with Brown University’s Swearer Center, recognizes senior faculty who practice exemplary engaged scholarship through teaching and research. Recipients are selected on the basis of their collaboration with communities, institutional impact, and high-quality academic work.

Buch is recognized for significant scholarship and teaching that has deeply involved students and communities and resulted in mutually beneficial partnerships that lead to transformational change. In over two decades of teaching, she has engaged over 500 students in service-learning and supervised over 80 students’ engaged scholarship projects, many of which have led to publications and presentations with student co-authors. In 2003, Buch created the Psychology Learning Community (PLC) for first-year majors. The program, which centers community service, has since been integrated into the curriculum. In response to the growing problem of hunger and food insecurity on college campuses, Buch gathered support for and founded the Niner Student Pantry, an on-campus food pantry in 2014. Since the creation of the pantry, PLC service-learning activities have been focused there, creating a service-learning “lab” on campus that gives students from across the campus an opportunity to learn and engage while supporting students who face food insecurity.

“Through her personal engagement in service, and through the inspiration she gives others to engaged in service, Dr. Buch has helped establish a culture of service on the campus of UNC Charlotte,” said Sharon L. Gaber, chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in a letter nominating Buch for the award. “Through teaching, research, and service, Dr. Buch has helped students learn how to make a difference in their communities, has expanded our understanding of effective methods for teaching and learning through engaged scholarship, and has been a model for those who seek to improve their community’s quality of life.”

Vanessa Martinez, professor of anthropology at Holyoke Community College also received the Ehrlich Award this year. The following faculty have been named Ehrlich Award finalists: Bryan Sokol, director of the Center for Service and Community Engagement and associate professor of psychology at Saint Louis University, and Laura Rosanne Adderley, associate professor of history at Tulane University.

The Thomas Ehrlich Civically Engaged Faculty 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