Following an extensive search, Elyse Aurbach has been named assistant provost for Michigan State University's Office of University Outreach and Engagement effective April 14.

"We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Aurbach to this leadership role," said Kwesi Brookins, vice provost for UOE. "Her extensive experience and unyielding commitment to supporting university-community collaborations will bring valuable expertise to UOE while also contributing to our mission of advancing the overall scholarship of outreach and engagement at MSU."

In this role, Aurbach will lead UOE's campus-wide mission to foster, promote and advocate for community engagement and engaged scholarship within academic units and in support of engaged faculty, staff and students. She will lead efforts to reestablish campus engagement networks that capture the university's overall engagement activities. She will also identify opportunities to build stronger partnerships centered on public impact research, scholarship and programs.

Aurbach most recently served as the director for public engagement and research in the Office of the Vice President for Research at the University of Michigan. While in this role, she established strategies to support university faculty in public engagement efforts, developed research-based resources and tools and amplified research impacts university-wide.

She also served as a Civic Science Fellow with the Association for Public and Land-grant Universities, of which MSU is a member. The APLU focuses on fostering a community of public and land-grant universities committed to improving the lives and livelihoods of individuals, communities, and society through the continuous advancement of public higher education. While there, she was the lead author of APLU's  Modernizing Scholarship for the Public Good, developing a framework to guide public research universities' implementation of evidence-based strategies for equity and public impact initiatives.

Aurbach continues to work with the PEW Charitable Trusts on strategic engagements between networks of philanthropic funders and higher education leaders in the U.S.

“These experiences provide her with a wealth of knowledge and an understanding of the national landscape that will inform our efforts to advance impact assessment and faculty promotion at MSU as well as enhance UOE's continued standing as a national leader in engaged scholarship and the scholarship of engagement,” Brookins said.

Aurbach received her bachelor's degree in cognitive science from Rice University and her master's and doctorate in neuroscience from the University of Michigan.

This story originally appeared on the University Outreach and Engagement website.