Magrath Community Engagement Award Spotlight: North Carolina State University

In recognition of their extraordinary community outreach initiatives, four APLU member institutions have been selected as regional recipients of the 2023 W.K. Kellogg Foundation Community Engagement Scholarship Award. As regional award winners, North Carolina State University, The Ohio State University, the University of Pittsburgh, and Texas A&M University will compete for the national C. Peter Magrath Community Engagement Scholarship Award, which will be announced during the APLU Annual Meeting in November. In this post, APLU spotlights North Carolina State University.

Recognizing the social, environmental, and economic threat from flood disasters, North Carolina State University (NC State) launched the Coastal Dynamics Design Lab (CDDL) in 2013 to organize and lead cross-disciplinary research and design teams that address critical ecological and community development challenges in small and rural communities that are working to build resilience toward or recover from flood disasters.

Operated from within the NC State College of Design, the CDDL advances the university’s land-grant mission through a process integrating engagement, research, teaching, and design to serve historically under-resourced people and places across Eastern North Carolina. Since its founding, the CDDL has worked in more than 30 North Carolina communities and collaborated with faculty and staff from 12 departments in five colleges across the NC State campus.

The CDDL has heightened the awareness of post-disaster recovery and community resilience through proactive, authentic, and lasting engagements that carefully listen to and prioritize community needs and desires. To date, CDDL efforts have resulted in significant follow-on investments for community partners, including more than $13 million in direct-to-community funding for implementing the CDDL-recommended actions.