CFCP Faculty and Staff
Michael J. Rich | Executive Director | mrich@emory.edu
Carolyn Aidman | Health Partnerships Manager | caidman@emory.edu
John Baker Brown Jr. | Writer | jbbrown@emory.edu
Bevin Carpenter | Graduation Generation Community Partnerships Manager | bevin.carpenter@emory.edu
Barbara Coble | Graduation Generation Education Partnerships Manager | bcoble@emory.edu
Nichelle Frye | Program Administrative Assistant | nfrye@emory.edu
Kate Grace | Director of Community Building Fellows Program | kdgrace@emory.edu
Moshe Haspel | Director of Research | mhaspel@emory.edu
Caitlin Keesee | Student Engagement Coordinator | ckeesee@emory.edu
Vialla Hartfield-Méndez | Director of Engaged Learning | vhartfi@emory.edu
Lauren Holtkamp | Communications Specialist | lholtkamp.cfcp.emory@gmail.com
Hussien Mohamed | Director of Project HEARMe | info@sagalradio.org
Brendan Moriarty | Information Systems Coordinator | brendan@emory.edu
Michael Leo Owens | Senior Faculty Fellow | michael.leo.owens@emory.edu
Connie Pierce | Senior Accountant | Connie.Pierce@emory.edu
Nathaniel Smith | Dir. of Partnerships and Research for Equitable Development | Nathaniel.Smith@emory.edu
Maureen Sweatman | Director of Operations | mabell@emory.edu
Rhonda Thompson | Office Manager | rthom2@emory.edu
Michael J. Rich, Executive Director
Michael J. Rich is associate professor of political science and director of the Center for Community Partnerships at Emory University. He is the author of Federal Policymaking and the Poor (Princeton University Press, 1993), and several publications on federalism and a variety of urban public policy topics, including community development, housing and homelessness, crime, and economic development. His current research focuses on community building and collaborative approaches to poverty reduction, neighborhood revitalization strategies, and welfare reform, particularly concerning issues relating to the accessibility of low-income households to job opportunities and related support services.
Prior to joining the faculty at Emory, Michael was an assistant professor of political science and public policy at Brown University where he also served as director of the Policy Analysis Laboratory at the A. Alfred Taubman Center for Public Policy and American Institutions. From 1992-1994 he served as the first executive director of The Providence Plan, a nonprofit strategic planning organization created by the city of Providence and the State of Rhode Island and assisted by a consortium of area colleges and universities, to direct the revitalization of Rhode Island's capital city.
Michael Rich received his PhD in political science from Northwestern University and has held research appointments at the Brookings Institution and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. [Back to Top]
Carolyn Aidman, Health Partnerships Manager
Carolyn Aidman is the program manager of The Urban Health Initiative, a partnership between the Emory School of Medicine and the CFCP. This 
Initiative focuses on urban health and health care disparities and offers interdisciplinary approaches to community engagement in health and health care delivery. She develops programs, engages faculty members and students, and attracts volunteers and resources to initiatives such as the “Food Desert Project in Northwest Atlanta.” The goal of this initiative is to engage homeless and low income residents in aquaponic farming and vermiculture as careers, helping break the cycle of homelessness and poverty. She is also the Emory School of Medicine Urban Health Program convener, helping to bring full service medical care to children at their schools through the School Based Health Center program.
Carolyn is the former director of Adolescent Health and Youth Development for Public Health in Georgia, and the former executive director of the Professional Development Centre of Florida, developing the training, testing, and certification of Florida's public and private sector child protection professionals. She is the president of the East Lake Commons Home Owners Association, and plays African hand drums in her leisure time.
Carolyn Aidman holds a BA in social welfare, an MA in counseling, and a PhD in human services and studies from Florida State University. Her doctoral focus is in childhood and family counseling, with specialty areas in management, communications and research, and evaluation and testing. [Back to Top]
John Baker Brown Jr, Writer
John is responsible for a broad range of writing assignments with CFCP. He draws on more than 30 years of experience as a communications manager and 
consultant in corporate, government, higher education, and nonprofit organizations. Most recently, he served for more than a decade as communications director for Faith And The City, an Atlanta-based nonprofit that encouraged interfaith cooperation and civic engagement on a range of public issues. He managed the organization’s print and electronic newsletters, website, media relations, and executive communications. He also served as senior producer of Faith And The City Forum, an interfaith dialogue public affairs program aired weekly throughout the metro area on Atlanta Interfaith Broadcasters (AIB) cable television network. John’s previous assignments include corporate spokesperson with AT&T, account supervisor with Cohn & Wolfe public relations firm, editor and columnist with The Atlanta Tribune newsmagazine, and vice president for communications with Morehouse College.
John has taught radio and television history and production, film history, and academic-writing skills at the University of Akron, Georgia State University, and the Interdenominational Theological Center. He earned a master’s in theological studies from the Candler School of Theology at Emory University, and a master’s in mass communication and bachelor’s in education, both from the University of Akron.
Bevin Carpenter, Graduation Generation Community Partnerships Mgr
Bevin Carpenter, Sr. is the community partnerships manager of Graduation Generation Atlanta, which is administered through the CFCP and 
Communities In Schools Atlanta. He has worked diligently for more than 10 years with urban students to help reduce the high school dropout rate and increase the graduation rate. Bevin was honored to serve on the former Georgia State Superintendent of Schools Kathy Cox’s Dropout Prevention Taskforce during the 2009-2010 school year.
Before joining Emory’s CFCP, Bevin worked for Communities In Schools Atlanta as a field supervisor of Middle School Graduation Coaches. During his time with Communities In Schools Atlanta, he instituted and facilitated various school-based girls and boys discussions groups, in which students were free to share their personal concerns. He has initiated and facilitated numerous programs for students, parents, and school staff.
Bevin Carpenter holds a BA from the University of Memphis in professional studies with a concentration in staff training and development, as well as an MBA from Strayer University with a concentration in management. Prior to dedicating his professional career to serving economically disadvantaged and academically challenged students, Bevin Carpenter spent 12 years in business management in the corporate sector. [Back to Top]
Barbara Coble, Graduation Generation Education Partnerships Manager
Barbara Coble brings a variety of experience to her position as manager of Graduation Generation 
Education Partnerships. In addition to working in the corporate world, she taught mathematics at Tucker High School in DeKalb County for 7 years. Barbara also worked as a program specialist and camp director for Camp Fire Boys and Girls before attending graduate school at Emory.
Barbara’s research interest is in the area of empowerment. She presented a paper on teacher empowerment at the American Educational Research Association meeting in 2008 and a literature review in symposium at the American Educational Research Association meeting in 2007. She enjoys working with young people, and her volunteer service in this area includes working as a youth program coordinator and vacation bible school volunteer. In her free time, she enjoys traveling and spending time with her family.
Barbara Coble holds a BS in mathematics and an MBA from Clark Atlanta University, as well as a PhD in education from Emory. [Back to Top]
Nichelle Frye, Program Administrative Assistant
Nichelle Frye serves as CFCP's program administrative assistant. She joined the department in July 2008 from Georgia Power Company/Carter & Associates, where she strengthened her knowledge of event coordination. Nichelle brings her knowledge and energy to the CFCP, arranging and coordinating meetings and events and providing other administrative support to the department's directors. [Back to Top]
Kate Grace, Director of CBSC Program
Kate Dougherty Grace serves as the director of the Community Building and Social Change Fellows Program of Emory University. Ms. Grace has worked in community-
focused positions for 14 years, ranging from assisting families in crisis in rural North Carolina to facilitating grass-roots projects in Atlanta's lower-income communities.
Before joining Emory's CFCP, she most recently worked as the Director of Service-Learning with the Community Housing Resource Center (CHRC). During her tenure with the CHRC, Kate addressed many of the needs within a small nonprofit organization in the areas of financial management, fundraising, project management, human resource management, board development and facilitation, organizational reporting and planning, and information technology.
Kate Grace serves as an officer of the Atlanta Housing Association of Neighborhood-based Developers (AHAND) and was named the 2005 AHAND Member of the Year at the Georgia Affordable Housing Conference. [Back to Top]
Moshe Haspel, Director of Research
Moshe Haspel brings expertise in evaluation research using methods including surveys, focus groups, and geographic information systems (GIS). Moshe earned his BA in Economics and Political Science from Yale University. He earned his MA and PhD in Political Science from Emory University, where he was a recipient of the George W. Woodruff Fellowship and a Dean's Teaching Fellowship. After honing his survey and focus group design skills in private industry at Beth Schapiro & Associates (now The Schapiro Group), Moshe served from 2000-2003 as senior research associate at CFCP. He returned to the CFCP in 2007 as director of research after four years as an assistant professor of political science at Spelman College, where he taught courses on research design and data analysis.
As an adjunct assistant professor in Political Science, Moshe's research interests include political geography, voting, and issues of representation. His publications include articles on the effect of polling place sites on voter turnout (published in Journal of Politics); the implications of campaign finance reform on the role of national parties (published in American Politics Research); the effects of gentrification on voter turnout (published in Social Science Quarterly); and the use of voter lists in social science research (published in State Politics and Policy Quarterly). Current projects include a study of the effects of context on racial attitudes and an investigation of the relationship between income diversity and political participation.
Co-author of the Atlanta Regional Factbook (with Dr. Michael Rich), Moshe Haspel teaches workshops on GIS and the use of Census data. He has also authored over a dozen free and open-source add-ins for Caliper's Maptitude GIS, which can be found on the Geospatial Files and Tools section of Directions Magazine. [Back to Top]
Caitlin Keesee, Student Engagement Coordinator
Caitlin is a 2011 graduate of Emory University (and a 2009 graduate of Oxford College) and a member of the 2010 class of Community Building and Social 
Change Fellows. Prior to joining the Center for Community Partnerships, Caitlin served as the Volunteer Emory Fellow and as a Residence Hall Director. She oversaw Turman Hall, Emory’s freshman residence hall focused on engaging students in citizenship and service opportunities. Caitlin's professional interests include fostering relationships and partnerships among students. She is a native of Georgia and happy to continue investing in her home state through the community engagement work at the CFCP. Caitlin loves to eat tacos, take walks on the Beltline, and explore the city of Atlanta.
Vialla Hartfield- Méndez, Director of Engaged Learning
Vialla Hartfield-Méndez is the director of Engaged Learning, responsible for faculty training, administration of the Engaged Learning Initiative and related programs such as the Minigrants for Teaching 
and Research and the Faculty Fellows Program. Vialla works with faculty from all units of the university to develop community-engaged learning opportunities for students at all levels.
As a senior lecturer in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, where she continues to teach, Vialla developed robust partnerships with the Latino/Hispanic community and created courses and course components that integrate community engagement into the curriculum. Working closely with the Michael C. Carlos Museum, she has opened access to the museum to members of Spanish-speaking Atlanta communities. Among the courses she teaches are Spanish 317 ("Writing, Context, and Community") and a senior seminar, "Drawing the Line: The Mexico-U.S. frontera and Its Stories." For three years, Vialla directed the Emory Scholars Program, including the summer Scholars and Service Program.
Vialla Hartfield-Méndez holds a BA from the University of Southern Mississippi, and an MA and PhD in Spanish from the University of Virginia. She is the author of Woman and the Infinite: Epiphanic Moments in Pedro Salinas's Art (Bucknell UP), and articles in such journals as Bulletin of Spanish Studies, Dieciocho, Studies in Twentieth-Century Literature, and Anales de la Literatura Española Contemporánea. [Back to Top]
Lauren Holtkamp, Communications Specialist
Lauren Holtkamp is the communications specialist for the Center for Community Partnerships, responsible for the development and management of the department website. Lauren began working at the 
CFCP in 2008 as a Community Partnership Graduate Fellow while attending Candler School of Theology. She has participated in the Transforming Community Project: Dialogue on Gender, and has served as teaching assistant in Candler's Systematic Theology class.
Lauren, along with a group of women volunteers from Emory, conducts workshops on well-being for incarcerated women in the state of Georgia. Outside the Emory community, Lauren is a professional referee with the WNBA. She referees women’s NCAA basketball, as well as the NBA Development League, and is FIBA certified as an international referee.
Lauren Holtkamp holds an MDiv from Candler School of Theology, as well as an MA in Communication and a BA in Business Administration from Drury University in Missouri. [Back to Top]
Hussien Mohamed, Director of Project HEARMe
Hussien Mohamed was born in Moyale, Ethiopia. He has lived in Atlanta since 1986 and has been a naturalized citizen since 1988. He has been the director of Sagal Radio since 1998. Sagal Radio is a 
community-based non-profit organization which broadcasts weekly radio programs every Saturday and Sunday in the following languages: English, Somali, Swahili, Amharic, Afaan-Oromo, and Bhutanese/Nepali, reaching immigrants online around the world.
Hussien worked with the Dekalb County Board of Health and ARC as the Vision 2020 project coordinator. Additionally, he has served as a Clarkston Health Collaborative member, on the Board of Directors of Oakhurst Medical Center, and on Senator Gloria Butler's Advisory Board. Previously, he worked as a caseworker with World Relief and as a translator of Amharic, Somali, and Oromo.
Hussein Mohamed was educated in the School of Animal Science in Mogadishu, Somalia, the Atlanta Metropolitan College, and the Leadership Workshop at the University of Georgia. [Back to Top]
Brendan Moriarty, Information Systems Coordinator
Brendan Moriarty serves as the information systems coordinator at the Center for Community Partnerships. The CFCP utilizes a wide spectrum of technologies in 
order to meet the research and operational needs of the office and related programs. Technologies include both a linux and Windows environment, GIS, application development & support, service hosting, as well as database programming and application integration.
Brendan Moriarty earned his BS degree in mathematics and computer science from Ohio State University and Kent State University. He also completed coursework toward an MS degree in statistics and computer science at Emory University. Before joining the CFCP, Brendan served as a lead systems analyst at the Information Technology Division at Emory University. In addition, he brings previous management and team building experience.
Brendan enjoys sports, gardening, and most outdoor activities. He is enthused by the role that technology plays in all of the CFCP's important research and program efforts, but he's especially inspired in the utilization and development of technologies to meet the unique needs of immigrant and refugee communities. [Back to Top]
Michael Leo Owens, Senior Faculty Fellow
Michael Leo Owens is associate professor of political science and senior faculty fellow in the Center for Community Partnerships. He is the author of God and 
Government in the Ghetto (University of Chicago Press, 2007) and several publications on religion and social welfare policy, Black civil society, community development, school reform, and urban and racial politics. His current research focuses on the political exclusion of marginalized groups, especially felons, public housing redevelopment, city and neighborhood politics, and faith-based community organizing for regional equity.
Aside from assisting the CFCP in developing new projects for the office that bring research, teaching, and service to bear on important public problems, Michael serves on boards of the National Housing Institute, Urban Affairs Association, and City Hall Fellows, as well as the editorial boards of the Urban Affairs Review and Journal of Urban Affairs.
Michael Leo Owens received his PhD in political science from the State University of New York-Albany. He has held appointments at the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government, New York State Temporary Commission on Constitutional Revision, and the New York State Senate, as well as been a consultant for the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Ford Foundation, Pew Charitable Trusts, and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. In 2000, Sage Publications and the Urban Affairs Association awarded him their Young Scholar Award. [Back to Top]
Connie Pierce, Senior Accountant
Connie Pierce is the accountant for CFCP. She was previously employed with Theater Emory and Information Technologies.
Connie has a background in teaching computer programming courses at Oglethorpe University and Continuing Education courses at Georgia State University. She has also previously worked in the computer centers of Duke University and Georgia State University.
Connie Pierce earned a BS in theoretical mathematics with a minor in physics from Auburn University. In her spare time, she enjoys volunteering with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Fox Theater, the Schwartz Center, and the Chastain Amphitheater. [Back to Top]
Nathaniel Smith, Dir. of Partnerships and Research for Equitable Dev.
Nathaniel Smith is the director of Partnerships and Research for Equitable Development at the CFCP, facilitating Emory partnerships and research opportunities with external and community organizations to achieve balanced, sustainable and inclusive development throughout the metropolitan Atlanta region. Prior to joining Emory, Nathaniel served as Public Policy Manager at the Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership (ANDP). His advocacy, research and coalition building activities supported the creation of many innovative policies that encourage the equitable distribution of mixed income communities throughout the metropolitan Atlanta Region.
Nathaniel currently serves as an advisor to the National Rural Funders Collaborative (NRFC), The Civic League for Regional Atlanta, The Urban Land Institute (ULI) Atlanta District Council Housing Committee, The Livable Communities Coalition (LCC) Public Policy Committee, Georgia Stand-Up, The Atlanta Regional Commission's Environmental Justice Planning Team, the Atlanta Housing Association of Neighborhood-Based Developers, United Way of DeKalb County Housing Committee and the City of Atlanta Mayor's Office of Weed and Seed. Additionally, Nathaniel also serves on several boards including the City of Atlanta Beltline TAD Advisory Committee, The Civic League for Regional Atlanta, The Grady High School Foundation, Jerusalem House, and The IMPACT! Group.
Nathaniel Smith earned a BA in urban studies from Morehouse College and an MS from the Robert J. Milano School for Management and Urban Policy at the New School for Social Research. While attending Morehouse, he received the prestigious Woodrow Wilson Fellowship for Public Policy and International Affairs. During his matriculation through the Milano School, Nathaniel received the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Fellowship. [Back to Top]
Maureen Sweatman, Director of Operations
As the director of operations, Maureen Sweatman is responsible for creating a solid and resource efficient infrastructure that supports the Research and Engaged Learning clusters to better enable the CFCP to reach its mission of promoting civic engagement through scholarship, learning, and service. She leads the Operations team, which includes the following functions - communications and marketing, development, finance, event planning, human resources, information technology, and strategic planning.
For the past 9 years, Maureen worked with the Emory Scholars Program in the Emory College of Arts and Sciences where she helped create a close-knit community that offers students a wide range of benefits and opportunities to enrich their Emory experience. The highlight of Maureen's work with the Scholars Program was her work with the Scholarship and Service Summer Program (SAS). SAS is a service-learning program that works with community partner non-profits to engage undergraduates in internships that allow students to both give back to the community and develop necessary leadership skills.
Maureen Sweatman utilizes her theological and business training and passion for community building in her daily work with Emory students. She enjoys mentoring young leaders and helping them discover and live out their passions. Maureen strives to model leadership that embraces and critiques the intersections of intellect, service, and ethics. She holds an Executive MBA from Emory’s Goizueta Business School, an MDiv from Emory’s Candler School of Theology and a BA from Wofford College. She is the author of the children’s book, Jazmine’s Passport: Adventure 2011. [Back to Top]
Rhonda Thompson, Office Manager
Rhonda Thompson is the office manager and has been employed with Emory University for nine years. Prior to joining the CFCP staff, she worked with the Emory Cystic Fibrosis Center as the office manager.
Rhonda earned her BA from Georgia State in information and data processing. In her spare time, she is a seamstress, making custom wedding gowns and other bridal attire as well as everyday apparel for private clients. [Back to Top]