The Civic and Community Engaged Faculty Ambassadors play a crucial role in supporting ICCE’s academic mission by promoting and facilitating community-engaged learning, fostering campus-community partnerships, and spearheading civic engagement initiatives.
Meet our CCE Faculty Ambassadors
Aritree Samanta, PhD.
Dr. Aritree Samanta is an Associate Professor in the School of the Environment and the Co-Director of SFSU Climate HQ. She received an ICCE Call to Service Grant for adding a service-learning component to a course in 2019, helped develop community relationships within the ENVS program (now in the School of the Environment) and as Co-Director of SFSU Climate HQ, and created and supported faculty and student networks within SFSU. Her pedagogical philosophy and teaching practices center anti-racist and active learning principles. Dr. Samanta co-led the creation of SFSU’s undergraduate Certificate in Climate Change Causes, Impacts, and Solutions and also served as the inaugural Chair of the campus-wide, Climate Change Certificate Steering Committee. Her scholarship focuses on participation and representation in environmental decision-making specifically through a racial and gender justice lens, and the implications of such representation (or lack thereof) on policy and program outcomes. Her other areas of research include participatory water governance, collaborative governance, and social dimensions of watershed management focusing on the intersections between climate change, water quality, and land use management. Dr. Samanta is excited and honored to work with the ICCE as a Faculty Ambassador.
Pavlína Látková, PhD.
Dr. Pavlína Látková, a professor in the Recreation, Parks, and Tourism Department at San Francisco State University, has spent 20 years researching sustainable community-based tourism development. As an advocate for socially responsible travel, she focuses on cultural understanding, personal transformation, and community engagement. In her courses, she uses experiential and service learning to prepare students for their future careers. Through collaboration with the San Francisco Bay Area community partners, she creates and leads impactful domestic and international field-based experiences described by students as "life-changing”.
In their capacity as Faculty Ambassadors, their responsibilities will include:
- Assisting faculty members in developing or revamping courses to include elements of community engagement and/or community service learning (CSL), with the goal of attaining the curricular community-engaged learning (CCEL) or CSL attribute.
- Conducting workshops to introduce pedagogical approaches to service learning and providing support to new faculty members.
- Providing comprehensive teaching support, resources, and research materials to all faculty members interested in community-engaged learning and service-learning methodologies.
- Providing one-on-one consultations with faculty members to aid them in effectively integrating these pedagogical strategies into their courses.
- Participating in the evaluation of the annual faculty Call to Service Initiative application and nominations for Civic and Community Engagement awards.
- Reviewing Community Engagement Learning Attribute Tool (CELT) submissions for new or revised course proposals seeking CCEL/CSL designation.
- Coordinating special projects such as organizing visits to community partners to facilitate engagement between faculty members and community partners.