Meet the Team - The Center for Community Engagement

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.

Amory Krueger
Director, Direct Service and Leadership 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.

Elizabeth Olson
Graduate Assistant, Direct Service and Leadership 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, Direct Service and Leadership 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, Direct Service and Leadership 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.

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.