UA Professor to Serve as Community Education Director for CCBP

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Dr. Heather Pleasants has been named director of community education at The University of Alabama Center for Community-Based Partnerships.

Pleasants has been an assistant professor in the UA College of Education for the past four years, specializing in qualitative research methods. She received her doctorate in educational psychology from Michigan State University.

“Dr. Pleasants possesses the commitment, creativity and credentials that fulfill the letter and spirit of CCBP’s motto: Engaging Communities and Changing Lives,” said Dr. Samory T. Pruitt, UA vice president for community affairs.

CCBP is an initiative of the UA Office of Community Affairs that connects faculty, staff, students and community partners in research-based projects designed to solve chronic problems identified by the community.

“As universities redefine not just how we think about teaching, research and service, but also how we construct relationships between communities and the university, I look forward to helping CCBP become an even stronger leader in developing equitable relationships between the community and academia,” Pleasants said.

The CCBP position will allow Pleasants to focus on community and social justice research and involvement in community projects.

“Dr. Pleasants will work closely with UA faculty to help us increase the research output that flows from the work we do with our advanced students and community partners,” Pruitt said. “And as a member of our communication committee, which oversees production of the Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship, Pleasants will work with others to secure JCES’ strategic position in engaged research internationally.”

Pleasants comes to the Center at a critical time in the development of community-engaged learning and research on campus and across the nation, Pruitt noted.

“An objective of colleges and universities today is to make engagement research one of its core values,” Pruitt said. “Having faculty, staff and students with the commitment and competence to link their scholarship with communities is central to this growing movement, and Dr. Pleasants will play a major role in making this happen.”