Cynthia Lynch, a veteran of over 25 years in higher education, is Assistant Vice Provost for Civic Engagement and Academic Strategic Support at Salem State University. A practitioner-scholar of civic engagement and its intersections with diversity, equity, and inclusion, Lynch provides the strategic vision and leadership for the university’s public engagement initiatives. She also oversees the development of programs that support faculty using anti-racist community-engaged pedagogies and students developing the skills necessary to engage in all spheres of civic life and think critically and work creatively to address injustices facing our communities. Her research focuses on Critically Engaged Civic Learning, a framework that restructures service-learning approaches to achieve more equitable and just engagement with the community. Her work appears in AAC&U’s Diversity and Democracy and the Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning. Her first book, Anti-Racist Community Engagement: Principles and Practices, was released in September, 2023.

Lynch is a co-founder of the New England Equity and Engagement Consortium (N3EC) and is an Equity and Engagement Fellow for Campus Compact (2023-2024).