2025 Community Engagement Showcase Recap

UNC Charlotte’s urbanCORE and the College of Humanities and Earth and Social Sciences (CHESS) hosted the 2025 Community Engagement Showcase on March 19 at The Dubois Center at UNC Charlotte Center City, spotlighting faculty research that addresses pressing challenges across the Charlotte region.

Designed to bridge academic research and community priorities, the event marked the second in a growing series of Showcases, following the 2024 debut event with the Center for Community, Heritage, and the Arts (CHArt), and once again demonstrated the power of connecting research with community expertise.

During the event, CHESS faculty shared fast-paced, engaging presentations on projects with real-world reach. Highlights included:

• Mapping Charlotte’s Urban Heat Island — Dr. Katherine Idziorek’s community science initiative engaged more than 60 volunteers to collect neighborhood-level heat data, now informing urban planning and public health strategies.
• The Preserving Sacred Spaces Initiative — Dr. Julia Moore and Dr. Marc Manack’s collaboration with congregations and architects works to protect historically significant African American churches.
• Building More Just and Sustainable Urban Food Systems — Dr. Colleen Hammelman’s Charlotte Action Research Project co-develops community-owned solutions to improve food access, including the Three Sisters Market in West Boulevard.
• Creating Accessible Career Pathways for Bilingual Educators — Dr. Andrew Gadaire’s work with Charlotte Bilingual Preschool and CPCC equips Spanish-speaking educators to better serve dual-language learners in early childhood classrooms.
• The Hidden Valley/Sugar Creek Wellness Anchor — An interdisciplinary team is co-designing a resilience hub with residents to strengthen wellness, social connection, and economic opportunity.

Attendees said the Showcase was as much about building relationships as it was about sharing research. Conversations continued into the networking session, where nonprofit leaders, neighborhood advocates, and university researchers explored ways to turn insights into action.

With two successful Showcases now complete, urbanCORE is planning to expand the program in the 2025–2026 academic year, offering even more opportunities to spotlight research shaped in partnership with the community. A highlight reel from the event is available, and faculty interested in participating in future Showcases can contact urbanCORE’s Vicki Doolittle at vldoolittle@charlotte.edu.