As faculty emerge as leaders in community engagement, the Center for Social Concerns occasionally invites them to become Faculty Fellows. In general, the role of the Faculty Fellows is to link their disciplinary or multidisciplinary expertise with the center's mission. To this end, they collaborate with center faculty and staff in research, teaching, and advisory capacities across university departments and programs.
2021–2023 Faculty Fellows
Kraig Beyerlein
Rev. John A. O’Brien Associate Professor of Sociology
Director, Center for the Study of Religion and Society
Kraig Beyerlein is the Rev. John A. O’Brien Associate Professor of Sociology and the Director of the Center for the Study of Religion and Society at the University of Notre Dame. He received his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and was a faculty member in the Sociology Department at the University of Arizona before coming to Notre Dame. His research and teaching focus on the intersection of religion and collective action, especially civic engagement and protest activity. He is particularly interested in faith-based mobilizing for progressive social causes, such as immigrant rights and gender equality. Grants from the Lilly Endowment, Inc., Louisville Institute, Spencer Foundation, and the National Science Foundation have supported Kraig’s research over the years. With support from the Center for Social Concerns, he has taught the México-U.S. Border Immersion Seminar to undergraduate students for over a decade.
Jay Brockman
Professor of the Practice, College of Engineering
Director, Center for Civic Innovation
Professor Brockman is the director of the Center for Civic Innovation and professional specialist in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering. He received his Sc.B. degree from Brown University in 1982 and Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University in 1992. Brockman is a developer of Notre Dame’s college-wide first-year engineering program and the author of the textbook, Introduction to Engineering: Modeling and Problem Solving (John Wiley & Sons, 2009), which has been gaining steady adoption at universities worldwide. He was an organizer of the “Workshop on Reforming the First Year Engineering Experience,” held jointly at the University of Notre Dame and the University of Melbourne (Australia) in August 2009.
Pam Butler
Assistant Teaching Professor, Gender Studies
Associate Director and Director of Undergraduate Studies, Gender Studies
Pamela Wynne Butler, Ph.D., is associate director and director of undergraduate studies in the Gender Studies Program at the University of Notre Dame, where she teaches the Introduction to Gender Studies gateway course. Dr. Butler's research uses critical-race and transnational feminist critique to understand popular and public cultures in the United States. Her areas of expertise include U.S. histories of gender, sexuality, and empire; feminist political economy; and the carceral state. Her current book project, The Secret History of American Knitting: Entanglements of Race, Sex, and Empire, is a genealogical political history of hand-knitting in the United States since the mid-19th century.
Ann Marie Conrado
Associate Professor, Industrial Design
Ann-Marie Conrado is an Associate Professor in Industrial Design in the Department of Art, Art History and Design. She uses design to address social and humanitarian concerns here at home in South Bend, as well as abroad in Nepal. She has worked on programs with the City’s Office of Innovation as well as funded grants to address issues of food insecurity and accessing social services. She has worked in Nepal with fair trade artisans to increase demand for traditional craft by developing contemporary products for the global marketplace. At Notre Dame, she brings that ethos to the classroom, engaging students on dynamic community-engaged projects as well as bringing students to Nepal to work on various research projects. She was awarded the Young Educator of the Year Award by the Industrial Designers Society of America for her contributions educating the next generation of designers in realizing the potential to advance the common good. With the center’s support, she plans to continue collaborating with the International Summer Service Program (ISSLP) for discipline-based placements in Nepal as well as engaging local partners in human-centered innovation to address various needs across our community.
Charlice Hurst
Assistant Professor, Management and Organization
Charlice Hurst is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Management and Organization at the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business. Dr. Hurst teaches social innovation and social entrepreneurship to undergraduate and graduate students from a range of disciplines. She has collaborated on the development and dissemination of the Just Wage Framework & Tool, an initiative spearheaded by the CSC’s Higgins Labor Studies Program. Dr. Hurst’s current research focuses on how to build an equitable, thriving future economy in the context of seismic changes in technology, demographics, and social norms. In particular, she is interested in how to leverage technology and behavioral science to meet the extensive needs for ongoing learning and retraining that workers will face over the coming decade.
Emmanuel Katongole
Professor of Theology and Peace Studies, Keough School of Global Affairs
Joint Appointment, Theology
Fellow, Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Emmanuel Katongole is professor of theology and peace studies. He holds a joint appointment with the Keough School of Global Affairs, where he serves as a full time faculty of the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies. Before joining the University of Notre Dame in January 2013, he served as Associate Professor of Theology and World Christianity at Duke University, and as founding co-director of the Duke Center for Reconciliation. A member of the Contending Modernities Initiative team, Katongole coordinates an inter-disciplinary research project, which investigates how religious and secular forces compete or collaborate in shaping new modes of authority, community, and identity within the context of nation-state modalities in Africa. He is a Catholic priest of Kampala Archdiocese, Uganda where he was ordained in 1987.
Nancy Michael
Director of Undergraduate Studies, Neuroscience and Behavior major, College of Science
Professor Michael is the Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Neuroscience and Behavior major in the College of Science. She received her B.S. degree in Biomedical Science from Western Michigan University in 2001. After spending many years in the workforce, she returned to graduate study in 2008 and earned Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Minnesota in 2012. Professor Michael uses her disciplinary expertise to develop and implement NEAR (neuroscience, epigenetics, adverse childhood experiences, resilience) science approaches that aim to mitigate the impact of toxic stress on individuals and communities. Her research uses a community-based change theory model to work with community organizations in developing population specific NEAR-based strategies to support organizational and community efforts in becoming trauma-informed.
Marisel Moreno-Anderson
John A. O’Brien Associate Professor in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures
Marisel Moreno, the Rev. John A. O’Brien Associate Professor in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, teaches US Latina/o literature. She has written two books: Family Matters: Puerto Rican Women Authors on the Island and the Mainland (2012) and Crossing Waters: Undocumented Migration in the Cultural Production of the Hispanophone Caribbean and Its Diaspora (2022). She co-created the digital project Listening to Puerto Rico and co-curated the exhibit Art at the Service of the People. Since 2010, she has taught CBL courses collaborating with La Casa de Amistad. She received the Indiana Governor’s Award for Service-Learning (2011), the Sheedy Excellence in Teaching Award (2016), and the Rev. William A. Toohey, C.S.C. Award for Social Justice (2019). She presents regularly at Community Engagement Faculty Institute, participated in CSC faculty immersion trip to Arizona (2016) and guided CSC Faculty Immersion trip to Puerto Rico. She will continue working closely with the CSC in strengthening the Spanish CBL program and the links to the local Latina/o community.
Michael H. Morris
Professor of the Practice, Keough School of Global Affairs
After spending years building top-ranked entrepreneurship programs at three universities, Dr. Morris came to Notre Dame to focus on poverty and entrepreneurship. He is passionate about the potential of entrepreneurship as a source of empowerment for those in disadvantaged circumstances, and his outreach efforts have facilitated development of thousands of ventures. Professor Morris is the author of 14 books and over 140 scholarly journal articles. He is the editor of the Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship, annually runs the Experiential Classroom, a leading global conference sharing best practices in entrepreneurship education, and coordinates the Entrepreneurship Empowerment in South Africa study abroad program. He is a Past President of the United States Association for Small Business & Entrepreneurship, and has received the Academy of Management’s Dedication to Entrepreneurship Award. At Notre Dame, he has launched the Global Partnership for Poverty & Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurship Empowerment in Haiti, the Urban Poverty and Business Initiative, and the South Bend Entrepreneurship and Adversity Program. His work with the Center for Social Concerns will focus on the expanding, enhancing and engaging students, faculty and staff in these four initiatives.
Patrizio Piraino
Director, Ford Program in Human Development Studies and Solidarity
Associate Professor, Keough School of Global Affairs
Patrizio Piraino is the Director of the Ford Program in Human Development Studies and Solidarity at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies. He will contribute to the CSC’s efforts on internationalization. Dr. Piraino sees an obvious complementarity between The Ford Program’s expertise and international network in low- and middle-income countries and the ISSLP. He also will collaborate and have discussions with the Center’s faculty, affiliated students and researchers on human capital and labor market policies that target individuals who are born at a disadvantage, such as low-income children, discriminated groups, or refugees.
Clark Power
Professor of Psychology and Education, Program of Liberal Studies (PLS)
Concurrent Professor, Department of Psychology
Clark Power received his doctoral degree from Harvard’s Graduate School of Education in the area of moral development and education. He is a Professor of Psychology and Education in the Program of Liberal Studies (PLS), and a Concurrent Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Notre Dame. Clark’s publications focus on moral development, democratic education, youth sports, children’s rights, and child poverty. He is the founder and Executive Director of the Play Like a Champion, a non-profit dedicated to promoting child development and welfare through youth sports. Clark’s research focuses on promoting social justice through participation in democratic communities at a grassroots level. As a Center for Social Concerns Fellow, he looks forward to involving students and staff in innovative collaborative educational projects serving children in high poverty neighborhoods in South Bend and West Chicago.
Clemens Sedmak
Director, Nanovic Institute for European Studies
Professor of Social Ethics, Keough School of Global Affairs
Clemens Sedmak is a familiar face at the Center for Social Concerns as he was a joint faculty appointment with the Keough School of Global Affairs for the last five years. However, beginning July 1, 2021, Dr. Sedmak now serves as director of the Nanovic Institute for European Studies. Sedmak is professor of social ethics in the Keough School of Global Affairs. He will also continue collaboration with the Center for Social Concerns as a Faculty Fellow participating in the CST Research Lab which explores the application and enactment of Catholic Social Tradition (CST) into tools and practices of real world situations.
Neeta Verma
Robert P. Sedlack Jr. Associate Professor of Visual Communication Design, Art, Art History, and Design
Neeta Verma is a graphic designer who views the profession of graphic design as service. Throughout her practice she has defined her role and the role of graphic design as one that serves as a catalyst within a societal context. She believes that designers have both the ability and responsibility toward a practice that is not just determined by “need” but more importantly by “relevance.” Growing up in India, a melting pot of religions, she has been fascinated by similarities and differences in the visual manifestations (architecture, artifacts, books, prayer and recitation) and the history of mark making within these religious traditions. Since 1996, she has headed a graphic design firm that works exclusively for museums, cultural organizations, not-for-profits, and educational institutions. Deeply committed to design education, she brings her rich professional experience in the industry to influence, mold, and inform the classroom experiences of her students. Her teaching focuses on Social Design, Visualization of Data, and Fundamentals of Design and the aspects she promotes within those courses are critical thinking and innovation.
Danielle Wood
Associate Professor of the Practice, College of Engineering
Associate Director for Research, Center for Civic Innovation
Danielle Wood is the associate director for research in the Center for Civic Innovation. Danielle received her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Urban and Regional Planning with a minor in program evaluation. Her doctoral research examined how quality of life and sustainability indicator systems have been used to facilitate policy and programmatic change in local communities.
