November 3, 2021

MaPSAC’s Lovell series to present Melissa Gruver

Melissa Gruver Melissa Gruver

Melissa Gruver, associate director in the Civic Engagement & Leadership Development office at Purdue, will provide leadership insights Nov. 17 in the Lovell Leadership Series, presented by the Management and Professional Staff Advisory Committee (MaPSAC).

The event, noon-1 p.m. ET, will offer both an in-person and virtual format. In-person attendance will be in Pfendler Hall, Deans Auditorium (Room 241). For the virtual event on Zoom, registration is required, and registrants will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. All University staff are welcome to attend with supervisor approval. 

Questions for Gruver can be emailed in advance to APSAC-PD@purdue.edu. This discussion will be moderated to minimize interruptions during the event. 

At Civic Engagement & Leadership Development, Gruver supervises a team committed to designing experiences for Purdue students to develop their leadership and civic identities. Gruver defines leadership as a process of creating positive change in one’s environment by influencing the decisions of others while maintaining respect for their freedom. She models this through her commitment to mutually beneficial community partnerships and an assets-based approach to communities.

With over 15 years of experience in leadership education and community engagement, Gruver is particularly interested in examining group-centered leadership within social movements and guiding students through the process of uncovering leadership in unlikely places and deconstructing the master narrative surrounding social change.  

Gruver is involved in community organizing at a local, state and national level, and the YWCA of Greater Lafayette named her a Woman of Innovation in 2016 for this work. She is consistently impressed with the capacity of students to think deeply about things that matter and to discover where their great talent meets the world’s great need. She is the founding chapter director of the Greater Lafayette Younger Women’s Task Force (YWTF), a board member for the Tippecanoe Arts Federation, the author of some book chapters and creator of zines, and every once in a while she sings in a riot grrrl band.


Faculty-Staff News

More News

Purdue University, 610 Purdue Mall, West Lafayette, IN 47907, (765) 494-4600

© 2015-22 Purdue University | An equal access/equal opportunity university | Copyright Complaints | Maintained by Office of Strategic Communications

Trouble with this page? Disability-related accessibility issue? Please contact News Service at purduenews@purdue.edu.