Center for Compassionate & Sustainable Communities

About

The Center for Compassionate & Sustainable Communities seeks to engage in basic and applied research, engaged teaching, and translational activities. Our work centers compassionate, just, and sustainable policy, planning, and other community-level action. We aspire to solve grand challenges facing society, including climate change, inequality, and justice.

If you’re interested in getting involved or learning more about the Center for Compassionate & Sustainable Communities, write to ccsc@ku.edu.

People

Leadership Team

Ward Lyles, Associate Professor, Urban Planning, wardlyles@ku.edu
I saw the Center as a novel collaborative opportunity to initiate and foster a research network using caring for each other as a foundation and catalyst for intellectual and professional growth for faculty, staff, and students who aim to promote compassion and sustainability at the community level. I stay engaged with this work because of the people and how willing and eager they are to share their ideas and energy and work together to create a strong research community here at KU.

Carolyn Caine, Research Development & Administrative Specialist, Institute for Policy & Social Research, caine@ku.edu
This center brings together people from different parts of KU who are committed to balancing, and sometimes integrating, a commitment to rigorous and relevant scholarship with an awareness of the importance and caring for people, and it's an honor to support and advance their work.

Yvonnes Chen, Associate Professor, School of Journalism & Mass Communications, y.chen@ku.edu
What attracts me to CCSC is this idea that being compassionate and more intentional can shape how we perceive the world and guide how we interact with each other. It's about building relationships, not barriers, and that's a very uplifting message and reminder.

Taylor Hall, Graduate student, Geography and Urban Planning, tayloralexishall@ku.edu
Thanks to Ward Lyles I am a part of CCSC, but what keeps me interested is its distinct human(e) approach.

Kelly Overstreet, Doctoral student, School of Public Affairs & Administration, keheiman@ku.edu
The center provides an opportunity for me to engage in interdisciplinary conversations about sustainability and compassion.

Emily Ryan, Director, The Commons, eryan@ku.edu
I wanted to support this interdisciplinary effort, which centers relationships between people and between people and the environment. I continue to be invested in the work because I am inspired collaborate with the other affiliates and excited to illustrate to broader audiences, some of what is possible through this collaboration.

Affiliates

Jamene Brooke-Kieffer, Associate Librarian, Data Services Librarian & Coordinator of Digital Scholarship, KU Libraries, jamenebk@ku.edu
I see daily evidence that academia is not a humane, sustainable place to work and learn. CCSC’s emphasis on intentional care and compassion in our many communities aligns with my approach to my own work as a colleague, mentor, and researcher, and reminds me that care is a practice that has a constant place in my professional life.

Dort Daley, Professor, School of Public Affairs & Administration, daley@ku.edu
CCSC’s commitment to positive change are innovative and important.  I remain committed to growing and supporting the center to help enhance graduate training, enrich faculty teaching and research, and build a strong, vibrant and impactful intellectual community at KU and beyond. 

Morgan D. Farnworth, Doctoral student, School of Public Affairs & Administration, mfarnworth@ku.edu
The Center for Compassionate & Sustainable Communities recognizes and embodies a sense of obligation to the future and each other that builds and thrives on difficult questions across intellectual boundaries. This lively atmosphere is the future of both academic work and our collective thriving. I’m thrilled to be a part of its emergence.

Joey Orr, Andrew W. Mellon Curator for Research, affiliate faculty in Museum Studies and Visual Arts, Spencer Museum of Art, joeyorr@ku.edu
I direct the Integrated Arts Research Initiative (IARI), which works to sustain interdisciplinary collaborations across the sciences and humanities with the Spencer Museum of Art. IARI makes explicit that the Museum is an active participant in the University’s research community, often revealing the intersections of social justice and knowledge production. CCSC’s collaborative and interdisciplinary approach aligns well with our creative and professional goals and missions.

Uma Outka, Professor of Law, Associate Dean for Faculty, School of Law, uoutka@ku.edu
It has been exciting to be part of the launch of a new Center at KU that integrates key aspects of community wellbeing that are not commonly approached together: Sustainability and Compassion. By linking these essential themes, we are able to find and foster connections between disciplines across the campus in ways that can enrich our university community as well as our bonds with the local community and our state.

Penn Pennel, Graduate student, Urban Planning, penn@ku.edu
CCSC brought me in on the excitement of interdisciplinary collaboration, and I look forward to continuing to see where that will take us.

Jarron Saint Onge, Association Professor, Sociology, Population Health at the University of Kansas Medical Center, jsaintonge@ku.edu
My interest and engagment in the center comes from my aims to understand 1) how communites refect a sense of place that are essential in promoting both population health and individual well-being, and 2) how health and well-being comprises broad community and social factors that expand beyond access to formal health care.

Paul Stock, Associate Professor, Sociology, Environmental Studies Program, paul.stock@ku.edu
The Center for Compassionate & Sustainable Communities recognizes and embodies a sense of obligation to the future and each other that builds and thrives on difficult questions across intellectual boundaries. This lively atmosphere is the future of both academic work and our collective thriving. I’m thrilled to be a part of its emergence.

Elaina J. Sutley, Chair's Council Assistant Professor, Department of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering, enjsutley@ku.edu"
The core principles of the Center, compassion and sustainability, tie my passion of community disaster resilience together with so many others on this campus. The CCSC has created a much-needed space to bring scholars together that otherwise may not have connected; it is an exciting time and experience to be a part of.

Stacey Swearingen White, Director, School of Public Affairs & Administration, sswhite@ku.edu
What brings me to and keeps me interested in CCSC? The emphasis on people and care for people. We have the technical know-how to solve all kinds of community issues, but to succeed with those efforts requires centering people within them.

Partners

Mission, Culture, and Values

Mission and Culture

The Center for Compassionate & Sustainable Communities engages in basic and applied research, engaged teaching, and translational activities around compassionate, just and sustainable policy, planning, and other community-level action that seeks to solve grand challenges facing society, including climate change, inequality, and injustice.

We are a group of engaging, collaborative faculty, staff, and students with intersecting research interests who get together regularly to enjoy each other’s company and see what new ideas and projects might arise from actually practicing the open curiosity an academic life can allow.

Core Values

Compassion: Awareness of, and motivation to, reduce the suffering of oneself and others.
Sustainability: Meeting the needs of future generations without encumbering the ability of future generations to meet their needs.
Justice: Fairness, truth, and action to promote equity.
Place-based: Values and leadership arise from and represent the local community.