The Heller School Faculty and Staff

Senior Fellow for Higher Education at the Center for Youth and Communities

Burack@brandeis.edu Heller 372 781-736-3762

Expertise

Higher Education Management; Faculty Roles and Rewards; Civic Engagement, Service-Learning; Evaluation; College Access

Scholarship

  • Burack, C. A. “Just Good Business: Community Development within Higher Education.” Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement. 10(4), Spring/Summer 2005.
  • Burack, C. A. & Mullane, M. Reversing the Telescope: Community Development Within Higher Education. The New England Resource Center for Higher Education, University of Massachusetts Boston and the Center for Youth and Communities, Brandeis University. 2005.
  • Burack, C.A. with Hirsch, D. “Finding Points of Contact for Collaborative Work.” In Understanding the Role of Academic and Student Affairs Collaboration in Creating A Successful Learning Environment. A. Kezar, D. Hirsch and C. Burack (eds.) New Directions in Higher Education. San Francisco: Jossey Bass, Inc. no. 116, Winter 2001.
  • Burack, C.A. et al., Swinging Doors: Making Community-College Partnerships Work, New England Resource Center for Higher Education, 2000.
  • Burack, C. A. “Project Colleague.” Academe. 86(4), July-August 2000.
  • Singleton, S., Hirsch, D. and Burack, C. “Organizational Structures for Community Engagement.” In Robert Bringle & Edward Malloy, CSC, Eds. Universities as Citizens. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon Pub., 1999.
  • Burack, C. A. “Strengthening and Sustaining Faculty Professional Service: Lessons Learned.” Journal of Public Service and Outreach. 3(2), Summer 1998.
  • Burack, C. A. with Hirsch, D. and Singleton, S. The Status of Faculty Professional Service in New England, NERCHE Working Paper #20, Summer 1997.
  • Burack, C. A. with Hirsch, D. and Singleton, S. Organizational Structures for Community Engagement, NERCHE Working Paper #21, Winter 1997.
  • Singleton, S., Hirsch, D and Burack, C. A. “Faculty Service Enclaves.” AAHE Bulletin, 49(8), April, 1997.
  • Merseth, K., Stein, R. L. & Burack, C. A. Retention of Career Changers in Secondary Math and Science Classrooms.” In Building on Diversity: Exploring Issues of Teacher Retention, edited by R. Sawyer. PA: Kutztown Publishing, 1994.
  • Jones, K. and Burack, C. A. Janet Greenwood. Institute for Educational Management, Harvard Graduate School of Education. Cambridge, MA: President and Fellows of Harvard College, 1992.
Cathy Burack

Profile

Cathy Burack is a Senior Fellow for Higher Education at the Center for Youth and Communities (CYC) in the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University. Prior to coming to Brandeis, Cathy was the Associate Director of the New England Resource Center for Higher Education (NERCHE).

For the past eighteen years Cathy has focused on ways faculty, students and administrators can work together to fulfill the civic missions of their colleges and universities. This focus has been on two interrelated areas: access to higher education, especially by students who are among the first in their families to attend; and the ways in which colleges and universities engage with their communities. Her work has taken several forms including facilitating Think Tanks for senior campus administrators, co-coordinating and facilitating Wingspread meetings focused on the civic mission of research universities, directing various funded projects including Project Engage, a mini-grants program that supported student, faculty and community research teams working together on a community defined problem, and extensive work with faculty from a wide variety of institutions.

Through her work at CYC Cathy works with colleges and universities to use evaluation to both “prove” and “improve” their programs. Her research and capacity-building efforts attend to both outcomes and systemic change. To that end Cathy has conducted evaluations of campus-based change initiatives including conducting a national evaluation of institutional support for service-learning, developing measures of student success, helping to set up the Corporation for National and Community Service Learn and Serve America LASSIE data collection system, and conducting multi-site evaluations on campus-wide change initiatives. Cathy is currently co-Principal Investigator of the evaluation of the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Community College Transfer Initiative, an initiative designed to enable low- and moderate-income, academically able, community college students to transfer to selective colleges and universities, and of the Nellie Mae Education Foundation’s Project Compass, a program focused on the retention of underserved students.

Cathy is a member of the National Review Board for the Scholarship of Engagement, a Campus Compact Engaged Scholar, and a member of the Advisory Board for the UMass Amherst Masters track in Service-Learning and Engagement. She started and facilitated the NERCHE Multicultural Affairs Directors Think Tank for directors at colleges and universities throughout New England, and directed "Reversing the Telescope: Community Development from Within" which focused on the civic microcosm within the university community. She also serves on the Steering Committee of the Boston City Wide Dialogues on Race project.

Cathy holds a Bachelors degree in Psychology from the University of Rochester, and a Doctorate in Administration, Planning and Social Policy from Harvard University. Cathy's work is under-girded by her core beliefs in the power of reflective practice, collaboration, importance of creating learning organizations, capacity building, and development of communities and the individuals who inhabit them.

Degrees

Harvard University
Ed.D.

Harvard University
C.A.S.

University of Rochester
B.A.