Paul Kuttner, the associate director of University Neighborhood Partners, has been named the 2023 Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities-Collaboratory Research Fellow. During this fellowship, Kuttner will work with Erin Clouse, the University of Utah Medical Group director of strategy and alignment, to use Collaboratory data for a mixed methods study examining the outcomes and impact of community engagement in higher education. 

“It is an honor to be selected as the CUMU-Collaboratory Research Fellow,” Kuttner said. “I am thrilled to have the chance to dig into this unique data set and offer something valuable to the field.”

According to CUMU, Collaboratory’s dataset is the largest coordinated national dataset on community engagement and public service activities occurring between higher education and communities. Descriptive data for over 5,000 community engagement and public service activities from 45 U.S. institutions are represented in the data. 

The work of Kuttner and Clouse will contribute to a better understanding of the current community engagement practices of higher education institutions and inform how these institutions measure and increase the impact of this engagement.