The Center for Community Engagement serves as The University of Texas at Austin’s central resource for those interested in volunteerism and service-learning throughout the UT and Austin communities.

Our continued goal is to connect the resources of the university to the community to meet community priorities.

We provide resources for anyone interested in getting more involved in the community, and our programs and services are designed for instructors, students, student organizations, campus departments, community partners, and local agencies.

Staff

Suchitra Gururaj, Ph.D.
Assistant Vice President, Community and Economic Engagement
suchi.gururaj@austin.utexas.edu
512-232-2164

Suchitra Gururaj, Ph.D., serves as Assistant Vice President for Community and Economic Engagement in the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement at The University of Texas at Austin, where she is the visionary and strategic lead for student engagement programs rooted in service, community-based learning course offerings, public engagement programming, and in-kind sponsorships. A lecturer in the College of Liberal Arts at UT-Austin, Dr. Gururaj teaches courses on community organizing and leadership development. Her research focuses on service-learning outcomes, university-community partnerships, and social inclusion policies in higher education. Dr. Gururaj earned a B.A. in English literature from Yale University, an M.A. in English from The University of Chicago, and a Ph.D. in educational administration from The University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Gururaj serves as book review editor for the Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, sits on the editorial board of the Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement, and holds a seat on the Executive Committee for the Commission on Economic and Community Engagement for the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities.

Emma Middleton
Senior Administrative Associate
emma.middleton@austin.utexas.edu
512-232-8586

Emma has served as the senior administrative associate for the Center Community Engagement since 2015. She has been with the division for over eleven years. She provides administrative and logistical support, assists with day-to-day operations, as well as managerial support to the team. She is currently working on her B.A. in Christian Studies from the Austin Graduate School of Theology. In her spare time she enjoys family activities, people watching and good movies.

Student Engagement

Amory Krueger
Director, Student Engagement Programs
amory.krueger@austin.utexas.edu
512-471-6161

Amory Krueger currently serves as the director for student engagement programs in the Center for Community Engagement, overseeing service resources and programs that connect anyone at UT looking to volunteer with community organizations who need volunteers. She has been a staff member in LCCE since fall of 2007, when she started as a graduate assistant while completing her master’s degree in Higher Education Administration (M.Ed ’09). Amory graduated from Arizona State University in 2007, and is also a proud Hoosier, having grown up in Indiana.

Raquel Fontes

Graduate Assistant, Student Engagement Programs

raquelsfontes@utexas.edu

Raquel Fontes is a graduate student in Global Policy Studies at the LBJ School of Public Affairs. At the CCE, she works as a Graduate Assistant and helps students develop their leadership, teamwork, and reflection skills. Raquel also serves as an Advisor to The Project, UT’s largest day of service. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in International Relations from the Federal University of Sergipe (Brazil), where she worked as an Undergraduate Researcher focusing her studies on Latin America, Women and Gender Studies, and International Cooperation. Before coming to UT, she co-founded a non-profit that offered high-quality education to underserved youth and worked with social movements committed to gender equality for over eight years. Raquel is excited to explore a new city and thrilled to work with the students to empower communities in Austin.

Christina Ciaburri

Graduate Assistant, VolunteerUT

christinaciaburri@austin.utexas.edu

Christina Ciaburri is a Graduate Student at CCE where she helps promote volunteering and community engagement on and around the 40 Acres through Volunteer UT. She also supports the Volunteer UT Student Fellowship and the Tower Awards. Christina received her B.A in Psychology and B.S in Community and Leadership with a certificate in Public Policy at the University of Texas at Austin. Now, she is pursing a Master’s in Social Work at the Steve Hicks School of Social Work at UT. When not in classes or working, Christina loves to watch reality shows, volunteering at an urban farm, and working on her artistic endeavors. She is excited to be at CCE connecting students and staff to the amazing organizations and opportunities in Austin!

Elizabeth Olson
Graduate Assistant, Student Engagement Programs
elizabeth.olson@austin.utexas.edu

Libby is currently a graduate student at the Steve Hicks School of Social Work. In her role at CCE, she is able to combine her passion for social justice and community engagement through empowering undergraduate students of the Community Engagement Collective. Prior to her graduate studies, Libby received her B.A. in Government from the University of Texas at Austin. During her time in undergrad, Libby was a student intern for CCE supporting programs such as the Tower Awards, Alternative Breaks, and The Project, among others. After graduation, she participated in a service-year program in Minneapolis where she had the opportunity to work closely with anti-racist and inclusive development nonprofit organizations. Libby is glad to be back in Austin working again with the incredible staff and students at CCE!

Dana Phillips
Program Coordinator, Student Engagement Programs
dana.phillips@austin.utexas.edu

Dana Phillips currently serves as a program coordinator for the Student Engagement team in the Center for Community Engagement. In her role, she serves as an advisor to the students of the Community Engagement Collective and as a primary manager of the Project, UT’s largest day of service. Prior to her current role at UT, Dana worked as a programs fellow with Discovering Justice, a civic education nonprofit in Boston, and as a leadership program specialist with One Heartland, a Minnesota-based summer camp for teens facing social isolation, intolerance, or serious health challenges. She is passionate about the intersection of arts, academia, and community activism and received her B.A. in Women’s & Gender Studies/International Studies from Denison University in 2020. In her spare time, Dana loves playing cello and guitar, and volunteers as a board member and band coach for QORDS, a virtual music camp for LGBTQ+ youth.

Brittney Varela
Program Coordinator, Student Engagement Programs
brittney.varela@austin.utexas.edu

Britt Varela currently serves as a program coordinator in the Center for Community Engagement. In her role, she serves as a primary manager for Alternative Breaks service learning trips, and supports and advises undergraduate student leaders in the Community Engagement Collective. She also oversees three city-wide days of services including Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service, Cesar Chavez Day of Service, and Be The Change Day of Service. Prior to her current role at UT, she served in the non profit sector in San Francisco working with communities experiencing food insecurity. She received her B.A in Communications at San Jose State University in San Jose, CA. In the Fall of 2018, she continued her education and earned her MA in International Studies with a concentration in Culture, Power, & Social Justice from The University of San Francisco. Britt is originally from the San Francisco Bay Area and loves to travel, spend time outdoors and work on her podcast She Se Puede, which amplifies the voices of Latinas through their personal experiences and career developments.

Community-Based Learning

Mallory Lineberger
Graduate Research Assistant, Community-Based Learning
mallory.lineberger@utexas.edu

Mallory Lineberger is currently a doctoral student in Educational Policy and Planning at The University of Texas at Austin, where she leverages research in creation of policies that center educational equity and justice for systematically marginalized groups. Her research interests focus on the race and gender power dynamics surrounding the legislative attempts to censor conversations about race in schools and efforts to decolonize curriculum in classrooms across the country. Mallory’s interest in K-12 education policy is rooted in her 14 years as an educator in formal and informal learning spaces, including Texas public schools and museums from Austin to Paris.

Community-Driven Initiatives

Stephanie L. Lang
Director, Community-Driven Initiatives
Stephanielang@austin.utexas.edu
512-471-7683

Stephanie L. Lang, whose family has lived in Austin and the surrounding area for multiple generations is a writer, community curator, and passionate advocate for social justice. Stephanie also hosts Zumbi, a radio show co-sponsored by the John L. Warfield Center for African & African American Studies that airs on KAZI 88.7. Zumbi spotlights activist, scholars and artist whose work is centered around the influence of Black life and activity not only in Austin, but around the world. In 2018, after the success of multiple community curatorial projects centered around black communities in Austin, Ms. Lang founded RECLAIM, an organization that works to discover, recover and ultimately showcase the narratives and histories of black people throughout the diaspora, and present these findings through an artistic and thought-provoking lens.

Ashley Garcia

Graduate Assistant

ashngar@utexas.edu

Ashley N. García is a Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Texas at Austin’s Spanish and Portuguese Department. She is writing her dissertation, “The Ghosts Lingering in the Río Bravo: A Study of Erasures, Sequelae, and Trabajo de Duelo in Border Literature and Film.” Aside from her academic endeavors, Ashley has mentored and advocated for people from historically underrepresented backgrounds for the past ten years. She has worked and volunteered for the Hispanic Scholarship Fund, the Latin American Working Group’s Mexico Program, the Wilson Center’s Mexico Instituto, Fundación Social Fénix (Bogotá, Colombia), Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, Our Lady of the Lake University’s McNair Scholar’s Program, The University of Texas at Austin’s UTeam Mentorship Program, and Manos de Cristo’s Plaza Comunitaria. In the future, Ashley hopes to continue using her expertise and research skills to help improve the representation and quality of life of Latin American and (or) Latinx populations.

Jeremy D. Horne, M.A.
Graduate Assistant
jdhorne@utexas.edu
(817) 718-3081

Jeremy started as a Graduate Assistant for the Center for Community Engagement in 2019. In this position, he is responsible for supporting initiatives that link university resources with community members and organizations. Jeremy is also currently pursuing his doctorate in Education Policy and Planning at the University of Texas at Austin. Broadly speaking, his research focuses on the manifestations of racial trauma in educational spaces, and the ways in which students of color actively resist sources of cognitive distress. Prior to his doctoral studies, Jeremy received a Master of Art degree in Education Policy from the University of Michigan, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from THE Howard University.

Texas Grants Resource Center

Amy Loar
Assistant Director for Programs, Texas Grants Resource Center
amy.loar@austin.utexas.edu
512-475-7373

Amy Loar comes to the TGRC with 20 years’ experience in the nonprofit community, where she served in programmatic, development, and executive leadership roles. Amy completed her undergraduate work at The University of Texas at Austin and has a Master of Public Affairs from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at UT-Austin. As Assistant Director for Programs, Amy will help to connect the grant-making and grant-seeking communities in Austin and Central Texas as well as work with the CCE’s directors to vision the future of programming for the TGRC. This role will allow Amy to work in the community with partners as well as with community-engaged faculty and students. When Amy is not working, she is busy with her husband, 2 daughters, 3 cats and 1 dog. She also loves to read, cook, needlepoint, travel, and spend time with friends and extended family.

Land Acknowledgement

We would like to acknowledge that we are meeting on the Indigenous lands of Turtle Island, the ancestral name for what now is called North America.

Moreover, (I) We would like to acknowledge the Alabama-Coushatta, Caddo, Carrizo/Comecrudo, Coahuiltecan, Comanche, Kickapoo, Lipan Apache, Tonkawa and Ysleta Del Sur Pueblo, and all the American Indian and Indigenous Peoples and communities who have been or have become a part of these lands and territories in Texas.