B. Dana Kivel, Ph.D.

B. Dana Kivel, Ph.D., professor and director of Recreation, Parks & Tourism Administration at Sacramento State, is recognized for bringing leadership, vision and passion to community engagement on campus and its surrounding region.

Since becoming director of the Sacramento State Community Engagement Center (CEC) in 2014, Kivel has succeeded in increasing the capacity of the CEC by increasing the number of staff members, securing multi-year contracts to bring on full-time staff from Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA), and initiating a Faculty Associates program. In addition, Kivel received funding in support of two California Campus Compact Community Engagement Student Fellowship awardees, and co-chaired the effort to secure Sacramento State's reclassification by the Carnegie Foundation as a community engaged institution until 2026.

Kivel led a multi-year effort to develop and implement an online system for placing, managing and tracking all students enrolled in service learning courses for internships. Using this system, Kivel was able to demonstrate the measurable success the CEC has on supporting Sacramento State's initiatives around progress to degree. When comparing students who participated in a service learning course to those who did not participate: the average GPA is significantly higher at 3.22 versus 3.08 for first year students, second year retention rate is 5 percent higher, and two-year persistence rate is 9 percent higher.

Moreover, Kivel has served on the Provost's Task Force on Internships, co-chaired the President's Task Force on Strategic Engagement, and served on the university's Anchor Task Force, which has led to Sacramento State becoming known as an “Anchor University" that connects students, faculty and communities in profound ways.

“Dr. Kivel's accomplishments epitomize how justice-oriented community engagement can lead to transformative change on a campus and in a region," says Robert Nelsen, Ph.D., president of Sacramento State.