Office of Engagement earns national top-10 recognition at Social Innovation Summit

The 2023 Social Innovation Summit attracted 900 attendees, including social impact executives and leaders from Microsoft, John Deere and the White House. (Photo provided) Download image

Purdue University’s Societal Impact Fellows Program received a top-10 nod at the 2023 Social Innovator of the Year Awards, competing alongside major corporations and global philanthropist organizations, including the U.S. women’s national soccer team, Audible and Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation.

The ceremony took place June 6-7 in Beverly Hills, California, during the Social Innovation Summit, an event platform honoring innovators across the public and private sectors. The Social Innovator of the Year Awards aim to elevate groundbreaking ideas by shining a spotlight on innovative leaders whose work addresses urgent social issues. This year’s summit attracted 900 attendees, including social impact executives and other leaders from Microsoft, John Deere, the White House and more.

Launched in 2021, the Societal Impact Fellows Program drives innovation in partnership through the convening, mentoring and training of faculty and staff whose research is rooted in boots-on-the-ground, reciprocal and community-based collaborations. Since its inception, 27 fellows have been trained in societal impact methodology, resulting in the creation of meaningful partnerships that support the university’s tripartite mission of teaching and learning, discovery and engagement.

Rod Williams, associate provost for engagement and professor of wildlife science in the Department of Forestry and National Resources, says this high-level recognition on a national stage showcases Purdue’s ability to produce impactful research that advances social innovation in academia and beyond.

“This demonstrates how progressive, cutting-edge and innovative Purdue has been in training faculty and staff and using research to solve societal problems,” Williams said.  “Purdue is well-known for that, but this proves it. It verifies that engaged scholars at Purdue are having a real impact on society, and for me, that’s what’s really exciting.”

Throughout the program, senior faculty mentors work with fellows to help them develop research impact plans, enhance their collaboration skills and form broad networks of societal impact-focused peers and partners. Weekly workshops featuring presentations and breakout sessions have allowed fellows like Darrin Karcher, associate professor of animal sciences and poultry Extension specialist, develop long-term and short-term project goals and discover new ways to measure their work’s effects.

Fostering partnerships isn’t new to Karcher; it’s simply part of his job. When he enrolled in the spring 2022 cohort, he was searching for ways to enrich the impact of a five-year research grant from the United States Department of Agriculture and National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Karcher’s research focuses on developing new methods to create cage-free housing systems for laying hens, and since completing the program, he feels better prepared to understand how his work affects egg producers, the egg industry, consumers and U.S. egg production as a whole.

“It helped me think about new ways I can use the tools Purdue provides to cultivate unique partnerships and relationships to further extend my impact within the local community, the state, nationwide and across the globe,” Karcher says. “When you walk away from that experience, I can guarantee that you will have a more enriched and better engaged program that helps you expand the scope of what you can actually do to leave a lasting impact.”

To further extend the impact of the fellows program, the Office of Engagement team plans to analyze data from past cohorts and use it to develop a new model that other academic institutions can use to develop their own community of engaged scholars. Eventually, Williams hopes to construct Purdue’s own engaged scholar association, where like-minded individuals can come together each year to exchange ideas, collaborate and inspire each other.

Williams says the recent top-10 recognition will help the Office of Engagement amplify awareness of the fellows program as it works to extend its availability within the Purdue system, including Purdue in Indianapolis, and beyond.

“Any university that gets recognized nationally for engaged scholarship and shows that faculty are being acknowledged to that extent is opening the pathway for additional faculty to see that there are benefits to these efforts and this type of scholarship,” Williams said. “It just paves the way for more; it’s a positive feedback loop.”

The Societal Impact Fellows Program is open to West Lafayette faculty and staff who are able to submit proposals for external funding and are interested in fostering societal impact. Questions about program and its next cohort can be directed to Rod Williams at rodw@purdue.edu.