UT’s Office of Community Engagement and Outreach will host the 2026 Engagement and Outreach Conference, Changing Lives and Improving Society: Data Driven Engagement and Innovation, on Friday, October 9, 2026.
The 2026 Engagement and Outreach Conference will feature presentations from Engagement Scholarship Consortium conference presenters, showcasing innovative approaches to community-engaged scholarship and partnership. The conference provides a forum for students, faculty, staff, postdoctoral scholars, and community leaders to explore how collaborative engagement strengthens communities locally, across Tennessee, and around the world while advancing the land-grant mission of the University of Tennessee.
October 9th | Student Union | UT Knoxville Campus
1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Registration is open
For inquiries or additional guidance, contact Christopher Williams, Assistant Director of Community Engagement and Outreach (OCEO), at [email protected].
Presenters
Abigail Rivera
Amplifying Rural voices: Cultivating Community Vibrancy in a Rural County
This community-engaged project explores youth retention and opportunity in a rural, southeastern county.
Caitlin Steele, Mickee(ya) Murray Harrison, & Hailey B. Crowe-Sprague
Community Trust and AI-Supported Drone Healthcare Delivery in Rural Tennessee
We present findings from an NSF-funded, community-engaged initiative examining perceptions of AI-supported drone healthcare delivery in rural East Tennessee.
David Ndiaye
Beyond Borders: Community-Engaged Global Learning
This presentation explores how the Division of Access & Engagement’s Global Immersion Program (GIP) integrates community-engaged learning into international experiences.
Temvelo Matsebula
Code, Culture, and Community: Reimagining STEM in an Afterschool Program
This presentation shares lessons learned from an afterschool community-engaged math and coding program co-created with community partners, using embodied and situated learning.
Francia Iszamar Zelaya Zapata
Participatory Action Research that Sparks Innovation in Parent Engagement
This presentation examining how Black and Latina mothers build leadership capacity for parental engagement in education through family, school, and community partnerships.
Amy Maples
Evaluating STEM Community Engagement Through a Culturally Responsive Lens
This presentation shares a process for evaluating STEM family and community engagement resources using a culturally responsive scorecard for leveraging community voice.
Yingying Han
Curating Cultural Heritage: Digital Preservation With Community Partners
This workshop provides training on how to select and evaluate digital platforms for curating marginalized communities’ histories.
Lisa East
UT, Knoxville’s Community-University Research Collaboration Initiative
This presentation highlights the UTK Community-University Research Collaboration Initiative (CURCI), a model that leverages university research & community expertise to address local needs.
Megan Mundie
Engaging Collegiate Students in Research Practices Towards Mutually Transformative Outcomes
This workshop explores how graduate and undergrad students conduct collaborative action research with local communities and translating findings into meaningful community impact.
Cognitive Interviewing in Community Engaged School Partnership Research
A graduate student’s experience in a University-Assisted Community Schools partnership demonstrates the value of community-engaged research in strengthening school collaborations.
Paris Harrington
Building Together: Marginalized Caregivers’ Social-Emotional Parenting Goals and Practices
This presentation explores Asian, Black, and Latine caregivers’ perspectives on children’s social-emotional development, highlighting culturally grounded parenting practices.
Kirsten Benson
The Flagship Writing Project: Cultivating partnerships to bridge postsecondary access barriers
This poster highlights the Flagship Writing Project, a partnership between the UT and local high schools that uses college admissions essay tutoring to expand college access.
Chad Wagoner
Community-Engaged Needs Assessment for Healthy Lifestyle Support in Primary Care
This presentation highlights a community-engaged needs assessment developed with River Valley Health aimed at reducing cardiometabolic disease risk in Appalachian communities.
Menglin Wei-Wise
Community-led Adaptation of Relationship Education for LGBTQ+ Adults
This presentation explores how focus groups with LGBTQ+ adults, conducted in partnership with a local Pride organization, better address community needs, participation barriers, and well-being.
Marcus Walker & Quannah Washington
Vol Youth Leadership Academy (VYLA) Empowering Tomorrow’s Leaders, Today
This poster presentation chronicles the conception, planning and executing of a highly successful model for youth leadership that builds from the notion of community serving the next generation.