The Morgridge Center for Public Service is ecstatic to announce that Dr. Haley Madden will serve as assistant director of community-engaged scholarship.
With six years of experience at the Morgridge Center, Madden brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in Community-Engaged Scholarship (CES). Madden worked at the Morgridge Center as a graduate assistant, post-doc and most recently as the community-engaged scholarship specialist at the Morgridge Center, totaling 15 years in the UW–Madison community.
Associate Director Lisa Chambers says Madden has played a crucial role in many recent accomplishments of the CES team, including the development of community-based research grants, the community-engaged scholarship graduate certificate and doctoral minor and updated tenure and promotion guidelines.
“Haley’s heart and passion are in and with this campus and community,” Chambers says. “She is an amazing advocate for students and justice, and we are grateful that she will be able to continue to build on the strong foundation that has been created and continue the momentum, in collaboration with others, in her new role.”
Madden was drawn to the Morgridge Center as a graduate student through a class taught by Beth Tryon, the former assistant director for community-engaged scholarship who retired last fall. This course shifted the trajectory of her graduate education, Madden says, as she found a passion for the Wisconsin Idea and community-based research’s power to create positive change in the world.
Through the community-engaged specialist position, Madden learned more about all of the CES programs, giving her a firm grasp of the various projects’ goals as well as future visions of the Morgridge Center’s CES work.
“I get to learn about all of the different community-engaged work on campus and in the community, and get to champion it and support it in whatever way that I can,” Madden says. “It’s really fun for me to learn about different projects, courses, research and partnerships and then think creatively about how we at the Morgridge Center can provide that work with the support and the recognition that it needs and deserves.”
Madden hopes to continue championing and growing relationships at the Morgridge Center to be more responsive to community partners. She also wants to increase accessibility to CES programs across all departments on campus for faculty, staff and students. With an additional focus on social justice and wellness, Madden hopes to incorporate this work throughout internal and external CES work.
Madden believes in fostering more authentic relationships and balancing out power between UW and partners in projects, courses, knowledge and research as part of her broader vision to bring equity and justice to the forefront of CES programs.
“I’m just excited to be able to continue the work that I’ve been doing over the past six years and build on the legacy that Beth left,” Madden says. “I’m grateful to continue to work alongside colleagues at the Morgridge Center but also across campus and in the community, to do the best we can.”