Linda Poulson Dunn has assumed her responsibilities as new director of the U’s Lowell Bennion Community Service Center.
Dunn was selected as the applicant who had the most strengths and fewer weaknesses, said Kari Ellingson, associate vice president for Student Development.
Dunn served on the Bennion Center’s Friends of Service Board and soon found that she was drawn to working with community partners and teaching students to work more with the community. She also worked with hundreds of administrators to increase the number of programs in the Utah Campus Compact.
A committee of alumni, advisory board members and U community members interviewed 12 ofthe 100 applicants. The committee knew of Dunn’s work with the Bennion Center and decided she would be the best choice.
When the committee met with Dunn, it realized how beneficial she would be as director, Ellingson said.
“(Dunn) seemed to reach out to different people and unite them to a common goal,” she said.
Dunn said she plans to reinvigorate, empower and motivate the Bennion Center staff to move the legacy of the center forward.
She has already discussed new ideas for the Bennion Center, including a new plan for a focus group consisting of U community members, U neighborhood partners, and the Utah Food Bank to discuss ways to improve the center.
The center has focused on engaging students in service to their communities in the past. The U.S. News and World Report recognized the center as third in the nation for service learning. The center provides more than 270,000 hours of service every year.
Dunn said she wants to reinvent service learning programs and increase collaboration through the U and community partners.
“All this experience has forged my personal philosophy that a life well-lived is a life that actively gives back,” Dunn said.[email protected]