The Faculty Fellows are experts in community-engaged teaching and scholarship. They work alongside Lindy Center staff in our efforts to support Community-Based and Engaged Learning faculty and courses, informing and leading our work at Drexel, supporting trainings and workshops, and designing pedagogical tools for fellow faculty as well as student leaders involved in community-engaged projects. Lindy Center Faculty Fellows also work to create a shared community among scholars committed to integrating their scholarship with work being led by people, groups and organizations to address local and global issues.

Faculty Fellows AY 23-34

Fellows clockwise from top left: Andrew Zitcer, Steve Vásquez Dolph, Valerie Ifill, Ayana Allen-Handy, Stephanie Smith Budhai, Mira Olson

Ayana Allen-Handy, PhD, is a Faculty Fellow at the Lindy Center in Community-Engaged Research, supporting the development of pedagogy and preparation for students and faculty engaged in research with local and global communities. Dr. Allen-Handy is an Associate Professor of Urban Education in the School of Education and the Director of the Justice-oriented Youth (JoY) Education Lab where she leads several youth and community-led research projects including the AmeriCorps funded project Anti-displacement: The Untapped Potential of University-Community Cooperative Living, Black Girls STEAMing through Dance, and the West Philadelphia Youth Archivists Project at West Philadelphia High School.

Steve Vásquez Dolph, PhD, is a Faculty Fellow at the Lindy Center in Community-Based Global Learning, supporting the development of collaborations, programs, and courses in community-based global learning. Dr. Dolph directly supports students and projects using community-based learning as a pedagogical and organizing tool for community, education, and collective change. He is also an Assistant Teaching Professor of Spanish in the Department of Global Studies and Modern Languages at Drexel University, where his teaching and research situate the intersection of global diaspora and climate change.

Valerie Ifill, MFA, is a Faculty Fellow at the Lindy Center in Community-Based Learning in Artistic and Creative Practices. Valerie is an active dance artist, educator and researcher interested in the intersection of dance and community, making dance education more accessible to communities of color and embodied storytelling. Valerie is a collaborative dance artist and Associate Teaching Professor of Dance at Drexel University, invested in university-community dance education initiatives and using Africanist perspectives to support university dance curriculum. Her written research is centered on university-community partnerships; race and power in education; and making dance accessible to all.

Mira Olson, PhD, is a Faculty Fellow at the Lindy Center in Community-Engaged Research, supporting the development of pedagogy and preparation for students and faculty engaged in research with local and global communities. She is an Associate Professor in the Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Department at Drexel University. The broad focus of her research is on protecting source water quality, including remediation of contaminated ground water, assessing the impact of water resources technologies and policies on source water supply and quality, and the fate and transport of both chemical and biological agents in the environment. Dr. Olson is a co-founder and Director of the Peace Engineering program at Drexel.

Stephanie Smith Budhai, PhD, is a Faculty Fellow at the Lindy Center in community partnerships, student engagement and curriculum development, supporting the CIVC 101 course program and the development of multi-tiered civic competencies for the Lindy Center.  Her professional and scholarly interdisciplinary work is focused on civic and community engagement, culturally responsive and anti-racist pedagogy, digital equity, and online learner success. She is also working with a team on a grant funded project focused on revealing and reducing the invisible boundaries of access and inclusion to university health, wellness, and recreation programs for older adult promise neighborhood community members. 

Andrew Zitcer, PhD, is a Faculty Fellow at the Lindy Center in Community-Based Urban Learning, supporting dissemination of the work of the Faculty Fellows and helping to guide the development of curriculum. Andrew is an Associate Professor in the Department of Architecture, Design & Urbanism at Drexel University, where he directs the Urban Strategy Graduate Program. The focus of his research is on economic and cultural democracy. His book, Practicing Cooperation: Mutual Aid Beyond Capitalism was published by University of Minnesota Press in 2021.