Dr. Leslie Martin has accepted the position of faculty Director of the Center for Community Engagement. Leslie is Associate Professor of Sociology and currently serves as Chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, having joined the UMW faculty in 2007. She received a Ph.D. in sociology from Emory University (2003) and has an M.A. (1994) in urban studies from Temple University, and a B.A. (1989) in history from The College of William and Mary. Leslie has a long history of activism around public health and social equality issues and a compelling record of community-based research. She has served on the Fredericksburg Continuum of Care, a regional coalition of homeless service organizations, and on the George Washington Regional Commission’s Affordable Housing Task Force.
At the end of this month, Dr. Sarah Dewees will be joining UMW as the Associate Director in the Center for Community Engagement. Sarah joins us after a number of years working in the nonprofit sector, most recently at First Nations Development Institute located here in Fredericksburg. Previously, she worked in the Center for Civil Society Studies at Johns Hopkins University and the Rural Policy Research Institute at the University of Missouri. Sarah received a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Kentucky (1998), and has an M.A. in sociology from Ohio University (1992), and a B.A. in government from Oberlin College (1990).
In the coming weeks, Leslie and Sarah will be collaborating with the faculty working group on Community Engagement, providing support and guidance to COAR (UMW’s long standing student-run service board); and they will begin planning the mission and strategic vision for the Center which will officially “launch” in the spring.
