Associate Director Romy Huebler Recognized for Leadership

The American Democracy Project (ADP), an initiative of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU), presented its first Spirit of Democracy Award to Associate Director of the Center for Democracy and Civic Life Romy Huebler '09, modern languages and linguistics, M.A. '11, intercultural communication, Ph.D. '15, language, literacy, and culture (LLC). 

Huebler's award was one of five handed out on June 22 during the 2022 Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement (CLDE) Meeting in Minneapolis. Huebler and the Center's Director David Hoffman, Ph.D. '13, LLC, are leading the UMBC delegation of staff and students attending the meeting.

The Spirit of Democracy Award honors exemplary leadership from staff in advancing the civic learning and engagement of undergraduate students and the work of AASCU's ADP on campus and/or nationally. As a founding member of UMBC's Center for Democracy and Civic Life, Huebler won the award for her integral, relational, organic, and generative work. She is also a national leader in developing and disseminating the Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement Theory of Change. 

"It is our honor to shine a light on the great work being done at AASCU ADP campuses," said Catherine Copeland, director of AASCU's American Democracy Project. "By presenting these awards, ADP continues to support our campuses, share strategies and successes, and demonstrate the critical importance of civic education and civic skill-building in our students."

Huebler serves as co-principal investigator for the PLACE Collaboratory at UMBC, a project funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation that uses community organizing and humanities methods to address community-identified issues in South Baltimore. She is UMBC's institutional representative for the NASPA LEAD Initiative, and works with the American Democracy Project (ADP) as a Civic Fellow and UMBC's campus liaison. Her recent publications include co-authored articles about the CLDE Theory of Change in the Leadership Exchange, eJournal of Public Affairsand NASPA Knowledge Community Publication, and a chapter about democratic teaching practices in the edited volume Creating space for democracy: A primer on dialogue and deliberation in higher education.

Hoffman says, "Romy is creative, caring, and wise, and she has made brilliant, distinctive contributions supporting students and colleagues as co-creators of inclusive communities. I'm thrilled to see her leadership recognized by the American Democracy Project."

Learn more about Huebler and the Center for Democracy and Civic Life.