David Hoffman Ph.D. '13, director, Center for Democracy and Civic Life, was interviewed for "Building Community Through Governance: A Video History of Civic Literacy and Engagement Models of UC Student Regents." 

The project is funded by the University of California Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement 2022-2023 VOICE Fellowship.

Hoffman, a UCLA alumnus, served as the 12th UC student regent during his time as an undergraduate.

At the 2023 Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement meeting (May 31 - June 2, Boston), Student Affairs staff and students led two sessions with UMBC students and campus partners. 

The Center for Democracy and Civic Life organized UMBC's delegation to the meeting, which included nearly 20 UMBC students, faculty, staff, and administrators. Division of Student Affairs presenters and speakers included Ricky Blissett '11, the Center's associate director; Meghna Chandrasekaran '25, the Center's research intern; Beatriz Gutierrez-Malagon, coordinator for leadership, Campus Life; David Hoffman Ph.D. '13, the Center's director; Musa Jafri '24, a Center affiliate and president of UMBC's Student Government Association; Tess McRae '22, the Center's coordinator for civic design; and Markya Reed '18; M.A. '23, former Center graduate assistant. 

The delegation also included Ian Anson, associate professor, Department of Political Science; Candace Dodson-Reed '96, vice president for community relations and government affairs; Nia Hopkins '24, peer health educator, Office of Health Promotion; Joshua Le '23, chief of staff, Student Government Association; Emily Passera, program coordinator for service-learning and community engagement, The Shriver Center, and senator, Professional Staff Senate; Zoonash Syed '24, senator, Student Government Association; and Taylor West, MPP '23, senator, Graduate Student Association. It also included speakers/presenters Andrea Kalfoglou, associate professor, sociology, anthropology, and public health, and Simon Stacey, director, Honors College.

The delegation collaborated on several presentations about successful classes and programs developed at UMBC. Sessions included "Candidates in Our Backyard: Transforming Candidate Forums into Mutual and Reciprocal Spaces" (coordinating presenter Musa Jafri; speakers Jafri, David Hoffman, Candace Dodson-Reed, and Meghna Chandrasekaran); "This is Real: Two Civics Courses Grounded in Students' Everyday Experiences" (coordinating presenter David Hoffman; speakers Hoffman, Tess McRae, Simon Stacey); "Engaging students in mental health advocacy by collaborating with state-level advocacy groups" (coordinating speaker and presenter Andrea Kalfoglou).

A message from Retriever Integrated Health Director, Dr. Bruce Herman:

I want to welcome everyone to UMBC or back to UMBC.

For students, college life can be an exciting time- lots of opportunities for new experiences, relationships, and learning about the world and ourselves.  It can sometimes also be a difficult and stressful time that can challenge a student's emotional and physical health. Some students may feel they need extra support to cope with personal issues that may be interfering with their ability to make the most of their UMBC experience and others may just benefit from our range of health and mental health services. 

Through trauma-informed, culturally sensitive counseling services, our counselors work collaboratively with students to improve their emotional well-being, balance priorities, enhance interpersonal relationships, empower them with useful coping skills to attain success in and out of the classroom, and support them to access additional outside services to meet their needs. Our counselors come from a variety of backgrounds and specializations.

All counseling services are free and confidential. We provide short-term individual counseling, group counseling, performance enhancement consultations, as well as crisis intervention, outreach, consultation, and referral services. For faculty staff and student families our counseling team is available to consult regarding how to support a student. We also offer Question Persuade Refer (QPR) training on how to support someone in mental health distress.

For students, our medical team provides both primary and limited urgent care services, including annual well and gynecological (GYN) visits, updating vaccinations and boosters, screening for various diseases, and treating acute illnesses and minor injuries.  We also provide psychiatry, massage, and acupuncture services, as well as dietician consultations. Faculty and staff are eligible to receive limited urgent care type services, such as the evaluation and treatment of acute illnesses and minor injuries. Massage and acupuncture services are also available. Our medical team operates like an outside doctors office in that they bill insurance and payments can be billed to your student account. 

• Togetherall- online peer support community
• Welltrack Boost- virtual self-help modules and mood tracker
• Welltrack Connect-Online database and communication tool to assist you in finding mental health treatment in the community

We are located at the Center for Wellbeing across from the library.  More information is available on our website at health.umbc.edu.

Please do not hesitate to contact us at RIH@umbc.edu if you have any questions.