2026 PHENND Conference: Democracy at the Crossroads

The PHENND Conference is an annual gathering for practitioners of campus-community partnership. This gathering will be attended by 100-125 students, campus staff, faculty, and community organization staff active in community service, service-learning, and campus-community partnership work. While primarily targeting individuals who are part of the 25+ colleges and universities involved in the Philadelphia Higher Education Network for Neighborhood Development (PHENND), this event is also open nationally to practitioners of campus-community partnership.

Theme

This year’s theme is Democracy at the Crossroads: Higher Education’s Call to Action.

Keynote Speaker

Dr. Byron P. White is a nationally recognized expert on forging impactful strategic partnerships between civic institutions and communities. He has spent more than two decades as a higher education administrator, spearheading community engagement initiatives at public and private urban universities, and is currently a Senior Consultant with Sova Solutions, a higher education consultancy based in Washington, DC, focused on large-scale strategic change. He is author of the forthcoming book, The Community-Centric Path to Rebuilding Trust in Higher Education, to be published in spring 2026 by Routledge and Campus Compact.

Dr. White most recently was Associate Provost for Urban Research at UNC Charlotte, where he developed and led a unit called urbanCORE (Community-Oriented Research and Engagement) that facilitated award-winning engaged research partnerships between faculty and community partners. Previously, he was Vice President for University Engagement at Cleveland State University, Vice Chancellor for Economic Development for the University System of Ohio, and the founding Executive Director of the Eigel Center for Community-Engaged Learning at Xavier University in Cincinnati.

In addition to his work in higher education, Dr. White led community-based, collective impact organizations in Chicago and Cincinnati. He began his career as a newspaper journalist, serving as the Urban Affairs Team Editor and an Editorial Writer for the Chicago Tribune, and as the Editorial Page Editor of The Cincinnati Post. Dr. White holds a doctorate in higher education management from the University of Pennsylvania, a master’s degree in social science from the University of Chicago, and a bachelor's degree in journalism from the Honors Tutorial College at Ohio University.

Workshops

There will be `10-12 concurrent workshops offered throughout the day. Check back in mid-January for specific titles and presenters.

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