Center for Democracy and Civic Life Staff, SGA President, and UMBC Alumni Participate in 2025 American Democracy Project Summit

Dr. David Hoffman, Ph.D. ‘13, director of the Center for Democracy and Civic Life; Dr. Romy Hübler ‘09, M.A. ‘11, Ph.D. ‘15; and Markya Reed '18, M.A.'23, presented at the 2025 American Democracy Project (ADP) Summit, hosted by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU). Also participating in the ADP Summit were Tess McRae ‘22, the Center’s assistant director for connective learning and UMBC’s ADP campus liaison, and Eli Gendleman, SGA president. UMBC has been a leader in the American Democracy Project for more than 15 years, and Dr. Hoffman and Dr. Hübler serve on the ADP Steering Committee. 

Dr. Hoffman, Dr. Hübler, and fellow ADP Steering Committee members co-led the workshop, “Everyday Democracy and Civic Agency in Action”:

In a time of increasing division and complexity, preparing students to create change in their everyday lives is essential to building a thriving democratic society. This interactive session led by members of the ADP Steering Committee invites participants to share and explore how campuses are equipping students with the tools to navigate and transform the world around them. Grounded in the CLDE Theory of Change, the workshop focuses on two key strands: everyday democracy, which emphasizes supporting students in building inclusive communities and navigating power dynamics in everyday spaces such as classrooms, workplaces, friend groups, organizations, and neighborhoods; and civic agency, which highlights the development of students’ confidence and capacity to work across differences to take action, both in large-scale initiatives and everyday interactions. Participants will engage in dialogue and reflect on strategies to deepen civic learning and engagement in a variety of settings.

Participants in the session had the opportunity to sign up to be part of an initiative to refresh and amplify the The Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement Theory of Change. Dr. Hoffman is the principal author for the theory, which has been a guiding document for ADP since 2018, and Dr. Hübler has been a partner in efforts to amplify and enact it. 

Dr. Hübler is director of Towson University's Office of Civic Engagement and Social Responsibility. She was previously associate director of UMBC’s Center for Democracy and Civic Life. Dr. Hübler is also a civic fellow with ADP, a research fellow with Campus Compact, a member of Imagining America’s national advisory board, and a project leader of the Imagining America B-More with Imagination Collaboratory. She serves as Towson University’s institutional representative for ADP, Campus Compact, Imagining America, Place-Based Justice Network, and Transform Mid-Atlantic. ADP awarded her its first Spirit of Democracy Award in 2022.

Reed co-led the session, “Fund & Follow the Students: Using Student-Led Design Thinking to Craft a Strategic Vision of the Future of Student Civic Leadership.” Reed, who was a Center for Democracy and Civic Life student staff member as an undergraduate and graduate student, is now assistant director of operations for Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Social Change and is working toward her Ed.D. in Urban Educational Leadership at Morgan State University.