Dr. Kimberly A. White-Smith is the Dean and Professor of SOLES at the University of San Diego. She stands as a beacon of transformative educational leadership. With over two decades dedicated to enhancing urban schooling, nonprofit management, and community partnerships, her commitment to academic and community justice for marginalized people shines through innovative learning environments and practices. A prolific author, her works delve deeply into teacher and student learning, equity, and the nuanced experiences of Black women higher education leaders.

At the helm of SOLES, Dr. White-Smith's strategic insight has catalyzed the procurement of substantial grants, nurturing projects like the Black InGenius Initiative and early childhood program development. Her stewardship in the Community Engagement Initiative (CEI) 2.0 exemplifies her dedication to fostering partnerships that uplift vulnerable student populations. This dedication extends beyond academia, manifesting in her 2023 honor as one of the top 50 Black Leaders of Influence by the San Diego Business Journal and the Black Chamber of Commerce.

A vanguard in the field, Dr. White-Smith's influence pervades national educational discourse. Her roles with AILACTE, the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, and the California Council on Teacher Education, coupled with her directorship at WestEd, underscore her profound impact on educational policy and practice. Recognized for her community engagement and as the 2024 recipient of the prestigious AACTE Edward C. Pomeroy Award, her leadership continually sets new benchmarks in the educational landscape.

Dr. White-Smith's expertise in nonprofit management, social entrepreneurship, and innovation positions her as a luminary driving systemic change. Her advocacy for neurodiversity and commitment to nurturing inclusive spaces for all learners underscore her visionary approach. Dr. White-Smith’s dynamic leadership enriches educational discourse and shapes the fabric of future learning environments, embodying the essence of transformative and impactful change.

Timothy K. Eatman, Ph.D., an educational sociologist and publicly engaged scholar, serves as the Inaugural Dean of the Honors Living - Learning Community and Professor of Urban Education at Rutgers University-Newark. Prior to this current appointment his primary network of scholarly operation and leadership was with the national consortium Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life then headquartered at Syracuse University serving as Faculty Co-Director and as Associate Professor of Higher Education. Tim currently serves as Chair of the Board of Directors and Membership Committee Chair of the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U). Also, with AAC&U, Tim has served as a faculty member of the Institute on High Impact Practices for Student Success (HIPS) since its inception. He is national co-chair of the Urban Research Based Action Network (URBAN) a member of the National Advisory Committee for the Carnegie Engagement Classification for Community Engagement, member of the National Advisory board for Bringing Theory to Practice (BTtP) and its Paradigm Working Group. Tim was elected Member at large of the American Democracy Project Steering Committee of The American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU). Tim has served as board chair of the International Association for Service Learning and Community Engagement (IARSLCE).

Pursuing a rigorous scholarly agenda, Tim publishes widely, serves on editorial boards and reviews for Academic publishing houses, scholarly journals and conferences. He has written several book chapters and research reports including the widely cited Scholarship in Public: Knowledge Creation and Tenure Policy in the Engaged University, a seminal report on faculty rewards and publicly engaged scholarship. Tim is co-editor of The Cambridge Handbook of Service Learning and Community Engagement. He recently accepted an appointment as Guest Editor for the eJournal of Public Affairs.

A widely sought-after speaker, workshop facilitator, and collaborator who has earned local, national and international recognition for his leadership in advancing understandings about the multi-faceted impact of publicly engaged scholarship in the university of the 21^st century, Tim was recognized by the University of Illinois College of Education with its 2018 Distinguished Alumni Award.

George J. Sánchez, Ph.D. is Professor of American Studies & Ethnicity, and History at the University of Southern California, where he also serves as Director of the Center for Diversity and Democracy. In addition, Professor Sanchez is director of USC’s Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellows program and runs the university’s major in Contemporary Latino and Latin American Studies. He is the author of Boyle Heights: How A Los Angeles Neighborhood Became the Future of American Democracy (Univ. of California Press, 2021), Becoming Mexican American: Ethnicity, Culture and Identity in Chicano Los Angeles, 1900-1945 (Oxford University Press, 1993), and co-editor of three other books. He has chaired fifty Ph.D. dissertation committees and is co-editor of the book series “American Crossroads” at the University of California Press, which has published over seventy books over the past thirty years. Professor Sanchez has served as President of the American Studies Association (2001-02), President of the Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association (2015-16), and President of the Organization of American Historians (2020-21). Sanchez was chair of the Advisory Board of Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life from 2007 to 2011 and has been a faculty member of the AAC&U’s Institute on High-Impact Practices and Student Success since 2011. He received the inaugural Equity Award from the American Historical Association in 2011 for an individual who has achieved excellence in recruiting and retaining underrepresented racial and ethnic groups into the historical profession. In 2017, he opened the Boyle Heights Museum with playwright Josefina Lopez, dedicated to bringing local history to a predominantly Latino immigrant neighborhood. He received his B.A. in History and Sociology from Harvard University and his Ph.D. in History in 1989 from Stanford University. He was born in Boyle Heights to two immigrant parents from Mexico and was a first generation college student.