Facilitators & Presenters

Andrew Kaufman, PhD is the CTE's Assistant Director of Community-Engaged Learning Initiatives and an Associate Professor, General Faculty, where he has designed and taught courses in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures since 2005. In 2010, he founded Books Behind Bars, a course in which undergraduate students and committed youth at a juvenile correctional center meet to explore questions of meaning, value, and social justice through conversations about Russian literature classics.

At the CTE, Kaufman aims to highlight community-engaged teaching at UVA, inspire others to engage in this kind of work, and support their efforts in doing so. In particular, he strives to support faculty from all disciplines in creating and delivering significant community-based learning experiences that change the way students think, act, and feel, while making important contributions to their communities.

Kate Stephenson, PhD is a CTE Faculty Fellow and an Assistant Professor, General Faculty, in the Department of English, where she specializes in twentieth century literature, food studies, writing and rhetoric, and community-engaged learning. 

Stephenson has taught community-engaged courses on food justice and housing equity for the past four years. She founded the biannual Community Writing Symposium, which showcases community-based writing and research created by undergraduates, non-profits, and community members. As one of the lead faculty for The Engaged Writing Project, a $100,000 grant awarded to the Writing and Rhetoric Program by the Jefferson Trust, Stephenson has focused on developing the infrastructure needed to expand engagement courses, create opportunities for student leadership, and build partnerships with community organizations.

Ben Allen is the Executive Director of the UVA Equity Center. He is a first-generation quadruple Hoo born and raised in Charlottesville. He earned his Ed.D. from the School of Education and Human Development and has research interests around culturally responsive leadership and establishing strong community partnerships. He has worked as a high school history and AVID teacher in Washington, D.C. and Charlottesville and most recently as an elementary school associate principal in Albemarle County. He is also a Captain in the Army Reserves and has served as a logistician, military police officer, and currently as an intelligence analyst.

Amanda F. Hall, PhD is a Community Engagement Specialist with over 15 years of experience in community-engaged pedagogy and practice, specifically service-learning, experiential education, and community-engaged research. Hall collaborates across institutions and within the community to create, implement, and facilitate community-engaged initiatives, professional learning, and curricula for both higher education and K-12 institutions focused on critical pedagogy, community-engaged teaching and research, professionalism and reciprocity, and relationship building/partnership development.

Hall currently serves as the Chair of the Service-Learning and Experiential Education SIG of the American Education Research Association (AERA) and is the co-host of the Experiential Commons podcast. Her research interests include community-based participatory action research, community cultural wealth and youth action research, photovoice as a pedagogical and research tool, reflection as assessment, building student professional and civic competencies through community-engaged teaching, learning, and research, and faculty and youth development for community-engaged scholarship. Hall is a critical scholar–an advocate, activist, and champion for equity, youth voice, justice in education, and mentoring, striving to change the narrative and disrupt the community engagement status quo through equity and authentic relationships.