Community Chats

Community Chats is a discussion series that explores the many ways members of the Madison community and University of Wisconsin–Madison are coming together to address pressing public issues.

Developed in the spirit of the LaMarr Billups Community–University Engagement Award, which recognizes outstanding contributions to campus community partnerships, Community Chats will feature leaders at the forefront of social change. Each month, they will discuss how their work is directly connecting and uplifting people in Madison and the surrounding region.

Past Episodes

Episode 4: Kaleem Caire

One City Schools Founder and CEO, Kaleem Caire discusses how he and his team are working to transform early childhood education in the United States, starting in Dane County.

In the episode, Caire discusses the success and growth of One City Schools, the legacy of LaMarr Billups, and how social and racial justice issues are being addressed in Madison.

Episode 3: Mary Rouse

Mary Rouse, the former dean of students at UW–Madison and former director of the Morgridge Center for Public Service, is the featured guest for this month’s Community Chats.

In the episode, Earlise Ward, faculty director at the Morgridge Center for Public Service, speaks with Rouse about the connection between the university and surrounding community and what the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed about the important work taking place in Madison and across the country. She also discusses the legacy of LaMarr Billups at UW–Madison.

Episode 2: Gloria Ladson-Billings

In this episode of Community Chats, University of Wisconsin–Madison Community Relations Director Brenda González talks with professor emerita Gloria Ladson-Billings about her work with community-university engagement and the impact of COVID-19 on Black and Latinx communities in Madison and around the country.

Ladson-Billings is the former Kellner Family Distinguished Professor of Urban Education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction and faculty affiliate in the Department of Educational Policy Studies at UW–Madison.

Episode 1: Emily Auerbach

To kick off the Community Chats series, Community Relations Director Brenda González talks with Emily Auerbach about her work with the Odyssey Project and shares stories of Odyssey students. The UW Odyssey Project offers life-changing UW–Madison humanities classes for adult students facing economic barriers to college. Odyssey students report transformative outcomes, and some have even moved from homelessness to bachelor’s and master’s degrees.

Emily is an award-winning professor of English as well as co-director and co-founder of the UW Odyssey Project and is the co-host of Wisconsin Public Radio’s University of the Air. She winner of numerous teaching arts and humanitarian awards, as well as the author of Searching for Jane Austen.