Engaged scholarship topic of April 13-14 symposium

East Carolina University will host the 2015 Engaged Scholarship Symposium April 13-14 at the East Carolina Heart Institute at ECU.

Dr. Hiram Fitzgerald, distinguished professor of psychology and associate provost for university outreach and engagement at Michigan State University, will deliver the keynote address at 9 a.m. April 13 focusing on the role of engaged scholarship as a part of the tenure and promotion process. Sessions will highlight topics such as collaborative partnerships, funding engaged scholarship and networking. A series of smaller forums will be held around campus on April 14 to talk more about engagement and the focus areas of economic transformation, education, health and wellness and arts and sciences.

For more information, visit www.ecu.edu/pscr. To register, go to https://collab.ecu.edu/sites/cferegistration/Pages/OFE-and-BSOM-OFD-Workshop-Registration.aspx. Registration begins at 8:30 a.m. Monday.

Fitzgerald is president of the Engagement Scholarship Consortium, a member of the executive committee of the Council on Engagement and Outreach of the Association for Public and Land Grant Universities, a member of the board of directors of Transformative Regional Engagement Networks, and a member of the Academy for Community Engagement Scholarship task force.

Fitzgerald is past president and executive director of the Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health and the International Association for Infant Mental Health. He served as executive director of the World Association for Infant Mental Health from 1992 until 2008. He has been associated with the Michigan Longitudinal Study of Family Risk for Alcoholism over the Life Course for 25 years, is a member of the steering committee of the Early Head Start National Evaluation Research Consortium, chairs the MSU Wiba Anung EHS/HS research team monitoring work force development and early childhood education in partnership with the Intertribal Council of Michigan, is a member of the Native Children’s Research Exchange and belongs to a variety of interdisciplinary research teams focusing on evaluation of community-based early preventive-intervention programs in Michigan.

Fitzgerald’s major areas of funded research include the study of infant and family development in community contexts, the impact of fathers on early child development, implementation of systemic community models of organizational process and change, the etiology of alcoholism, the digital divide and youth use of technologies and broad issues related to engagement scholarship. He holds a doctoral in experimental child psychology from the University of Denver.