Center for Democracy and Civic Life Staff Contribute to National Conferences

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 09:42:20 -0400
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UMBC staff, students, and alumni shared their expertise and contributed to national conversations on civic learning at several conferences in March.

American Association for State Colleges and Universities’ American Democracy Project Summit (Chicago, March 15-16)

Center for Democracy and Civic Life staff Dr. David Hoffman, director; Tess McRae ‘22, assistant director for connective learning; Ann Tropea, assistant director for engaged media; and Arisbeth Valencia, undergraduate student and SGA senator, participated in this annual summit. Dr. Hoffman spoke at the opening plenary session about the Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement Theory of Change, a set of guiding ideas for the American Democracy Project for which he was the lead author.

UMBC alumnae Romy Hübler '09, M.A. '11, Ph.D. '15, director, Office of Civic Engagement and Social Responsibility, Towson University, and and Markya Reed '18, M.A.'23, assistant director of operations, Center for Social Concern, Johns Hopkins University, also spoke during the opening session.

In addition, along with Dr. Timothy Eatman, professor of urban education and dean of the Honors Living-Learning Community at Rutgers University-Newark, and Dr. Justin Vaughn, professor and director of the Center for Applied Civic Leadership, Coastal Carolina University, Dr. Hoffman and Dr. Hübler co-led a design lab focused on building connections necessary to create and sustain a thriving democracy across professional roles, institutions, and communities.

Dr. Hoffman serves as a member of the ADP Steering Committee and Tess McRae is UMBC’s campus liaison.

Compact26 (Chicago, March 15-17)

In addition to Dr. Hoffman, McRae, Tropea, and Valencia, Matt Hoffman, director of the Center for Religion, Spirituality and Pluralism; Eric Ford, executive director of public service programs, Shriver Center; and Uday Sharad Joshi, TRHT community arts specialist, Shriver Center, participated. Matt Hoffman co-led a session called “Promoting Pluralism Practices in Higher Education” with colleagues from Interfaith America/AASCU’s Pluralism Cohort. The panel was organized by Cassie Meyer, director of campus partnerships for Interfaith America. Hoffman shared about the work that he has been doing with Dr. Jasmine Lee in the Division of Institutional Equity and Dr. Renique Kersh to promote civic pluralism on campus at UMBC.

Valencia wrote a reflection on her participation in the ADP Summit and Compact26 on LinkedIn.

SNF Ithaca Leadership Summit (Newark, DE, March 19)

Dr. Hoffman participated in this gathering of about 40 academic leaders to address “Advancing Constructive Engagement through Civil Discourse.”