Campus Compact is pleased to announce that Castel V. Sweet, Ph.D., director of community engagement and assistant professor of practice in community engagement at the University of Mississippi, has been awarded Campus Compact’s Nadinne Cruz Community Engagement Professional Award . The award celebrates the ethical leadership and advocacy demonstrated by Community Engagement Professionals. Recipients have demonstrated collaboration with communities focused on transformative change; a commitment to justice-oriented work; and an impact on the larger movement to build ethical and effective community engagement locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally.
The award is named in honor of Nadinne Cruz, an innovative leader of community-based experiential learning and a pioneer of the movement for the public purposes of higher education. The Nadinne Cruz Award celebrates the ethical leadership and advocacy demonstrated by Community Engagement Professionals.
Sweet is recognized for her work as a sociologist and community builder embedded at the intersections of community, culture, and race, emphasizing relationship building through place-based engagement practices. She has established programs such as: (1) the Community Engaged Fellows, an interdisciplinary community of practice designed to further institutionalize and support engaged teaching and research, (2) a Community Engaged Leadership Minor, which equips students with the skills needed to ethically and effectively partner with communities, and (3) a place-based immersion program that brings together students, faculty, staff, and community residents to visit historic sites of injustice to reflect on the enduring legacy of inequity and imagine new possibilities for the future.
“My work in higher education has been shaped by a deep commitment to community voice and equity. I push to foster transformative relationships between universities and communities," said Dr. Sweet in a statement reflecting on her nomination for the award. "The heart of that work lies in the idea that higher education should be a space where communities and campuses collaborate to create mutually beneficial outcomes— advancing practices that integrate civic engagement and equity in ways that honor the lived experiences of community members."
“Dr. Sweet’s work embodies justice-oriented engagement by institutionalizing practices that center community voices as co-educators in our university’s initiatives," said M. Cade Smith, assistant vice chancellor for Access and Community Engagement at the University of Mississippi in a letter supporting her nomination for the award. "Without a doubt, an investment in Dr. Sweet’s work will be multiplied many times over and returned to communities, advancing opportunities for children and families in Mississippi and beyond."
“Dr. Sweet’s work has been instrumental to both the campuses and communities she works within and to the field of civic and community engagement as a whole,” said Bobbie Laur, president of Campus Compact. “Her commitment to enacting justice-centered, transformative change at the local and national level is inspiring and emblematic of the values represented by the Cruz award. We are honored to recognize her.”
The Nadinne Cruz Community Engagement Professional Award is presented as part of Campus Compact's Impact Awards, which recognize shining examples of meaningful, impactful civic and community engagement work. Read more about the other awards and this year's recipients here.
The recipients of these awards will be recognized at Compact25, Campus Compact’s annual conference, which will be held in Atlanta, Georgia from March 31st - April 2nd, 2025.