CFACE Highlight: Dr. Brookins

North Carolina State University’s Office of Outreach and Engagement recently hosted “Moving from Good to Great” on November 18, 2019. This conference was a celebration of NC State’s win of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) Economic Engagement Connections Award. However, in addition to this rightful celebration, the conference was also meant to illustrate where more work can be done. Many of NC State’s brightest were in attendance as new engagement strategies were discussed. We are very proud to acknowledge our faculty partner, Dr. Kwesi Craig C. Brookins’, contributions to this conference. 

Dr. Brookins served as an Engagement Scholarship Faculty Fellow with the University Office for Outreach and Engagement from 2016 to 2019. In this role he led many strategic initiatives designed to enhance institutional capacity in community engagement. Moving from Good to Great allowed Dr. Brookins to describe his work with the Wake County Community-University Partnership (WakeCUP), an agreement between NC State and Wake County’s Office of Social and Economic Vitality (WakeSEV). Focused on two county engagement zones (East Wake and Southeast Raleigh), WakeCUP connects NC State faculty and students with public and private partners to address community-identified needs in these areas. Presenting with Dr. Brookins was Verna Best, the Executive Director of WakeSEV and Kristin Feierabend, NC State’s only urban extension agent who described how extension in urban communities differs from the work traditionally done in rural areas across North Carolina.  

Dr. Brookins has a lot to offer the Center, but also the greater community as a whole. We are very grateful to have Dr. Brookins as a faculty partner, and are excited to assist in his future work with community engagement. For more information on Dr. Brookins, please visit his staff bio. 

To learn more about the Office of Outreach and Engagement, please visit their website.