Michelle Billies
Kingsborough Community College of CUNY, Associate Professor, Social Welfare

Dr. Michelle Billies, LCSW-R is an Associate Professor at Kingsborough Community
College of the City University of New York (CUNY) where they teach critical
multicultural counseling courses. Billies also designs and teaches foundation courses in CUNY’s Ph.D. in Social Welfare program. Billies’ research centers on racial justice,
proactive civilian and community responses to state violence, tenant solidarity, and low income, racially and ethnically diverse lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and gender nonconforming issues. They have been a Gestalt psychotherapist for over 20 years, and teach sociocultural theory and practice at the Gestalt Center for Psychotherapy and Training in New York City. They also parent an amazing 10 year old. Billies uses the pronoun “they.” Billies was named a 2024 Thomas Ehrlich Civically Engaged Faculty Award Winner.

Devra Dang
University of Connecticut, Clinical Professor of Pharmacy Practice

Devra Dang is a Clinical Professor of Pharmacy Practice at the University of Connecticut School of Pharmacy. Her main teaching and clinical specialty areas are in care of vulnerable patient populations, interprofessional education, and primary care pharmacotherapeutics. She is a founding faculty of the nationally-recognized Urban Service Track program, an interprofessional curriculum that unites six health profession schools, four campuses, and two universities to develop future healthcare clinicians committed to caring for urban, underserved populations in interprofessional teams. She has taught over 500 Urban Service Track Scholars from 6 health professions and approximately 2,000 pharmacy students in a number of areas relating to community outreach and engagement and health disparities. Devra has been named a 2024 Thomas Ehrlich Civically Engaged Faculty Award Winner.

Jake Kurczek
Loras College, Associate Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience

Dr. Kurczek earned his PhD in neuroscience from the University of Iowa. Following his graduate training, Kurczek completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest Hospital and York University in Toronto, ON, Canada, and later completed a fellowship at Haverford College outside Philadelphia, PA. Kurczek currently teaches courses in the neuroscience and psychology programs and is Co-Director of the Civic Leaders Program. In collaboration with the City of Dubuque Department for Equity and Human Rights he works to support Loras College’s Civic Action Plan and City of Dubuque Comprehensive Plan. One framework mobilizes expertise in various areas for community-based research, striving to democratize the process of stakeholder input, which has reformed city fine and fee processes decreasing inequities in the city. Currently, this framework identifies assets and hidden pathways to help citizens obtain and use social services and social benefit programs. Jake was a 2019-2020 participant in the Engaged Scholars Initiative.

Stephanie Raible
University of Delaware, Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship

Stephanie Raible is an assistant professor of social innovation and entrepreneurship at the Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics’ Department of Business Administration and Horn Entrepreneurship at the University of Delaware. She also serves as UD’s faculty director of the Social Entrepreneurship Initiative, which provides students with curricular and co-curricular opportunities to explore the area of social entrepreneurship. She has been an entrepreneurship educator since 2012 and has taught and developed curricula across nine academic institutions and non-profits in the United States and Europe. For her high-impact contributions to the field and at UD, she has received local, national, and international recognitions, and her work has reached thousands of learners through her recent textbook and her curriculum development and teaching efforts. Her research interests are in the areas of entrepreneurial identity, women’s entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, and entrepreneurship education. Stephanie was a participant in the Teaching for a Shared Prosperity Learning Community at Campus Compact.