CCPH Fellows 2002/2003: Diane Calleson

Diane C. Calleson is an Assistant Professor in the Office of Educational Development (OED) and in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. From 1996-98, Diane Calleson and Sarena Seifer (executive director of CCPH) co-directed a national study of Academic Health Centers that examined the forces that affect the community involvement of academic health centers. This study was also the subject of Diane Calleson's doctoral dissertation in educational research and policy.

Following the completion of her doctoral work, Diane Calleson was a postdoctoral fellow with the Community Health Scholars Program funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation at the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Public Health (1999-2000). This fellowship is focused on training fellows in community-based participatory research. She was also awarded a postdoctoral fellowship with the Cecil G. Sheps Center on a National Research Service Award which she worked on until beginning her faculty position in 2000. Diane Calleson's current interests in educational policy relate directly to elevating the discussion of the scholarship of community engagement.

Project Title

The scholarship of community engagement: Using promotion and tenure guidelines to support faculty work in communities

Project Description

In his widely cited book, Scholarship Reconsidered, Ernest Boyer contends that in addition to valuing the generation of knowledge (traditional scholarship), higher education should also support the application of knowledge through faculty engagement in outreach and community-based research and teaching. It is difficult, however, to generate institutional support for faculty community involvement. Faculty roles and rewards policies often serve as a key structural constraint to faculty who want to show an active commitment to community-based problems. An untenured faculty member is more likely to receive promotion for publishing in a peer-refereed journal than for showing an active commitment to addressing community problems through community-based research and community service. This is true despite the fact that faculty perceive this work of less value to communities than other products such as educational materials, community lectures, and community service using one's professional expertise.

The goals of this project are to (1) conduct interviews with faculty who have been promoted based on their scholarship of community engagement; and (2) produce the findings in the form of a CCPH monograph that presents the interview findings and includes user friendly products including checklists of things to consider, worksheets to use, and questions to ask one-self as one works through the process of documentation for promotion and tenure.

Additional goals for disseminating the project include a) conducting one or more workshops at the CCPH conference in San Diego in April, 2003, b) developing a group of senior faculty to mentor junior faculty through the promotion and tenure process; and c) writing at least one peer reviewed journal article on the topic of the scholarship of community engagement in the health professions.

Project Activities and Products

Diane Calleson gave a presentation and facilitated a focus group discussion during the 2002 annual conference of the Association of American Medical Colleges.

Click here to view and print the powerpoint presentation.

Click here to view and print the agenda and focus group notes.

Click here for the draft paper, "The Scholarship of Community Engagement: Is Faculty Work in Communities A True Academic Enterprise?" co-authored by CCPH Fellow Diane Calleson, CCPH Executive Director Sarena D. Seifer and CCPH member Cathy Jordan.