Kara Brascias has been the Director of the Service-Learning Program at Boise State University since 2000. She brings over twenty-five years of experience connecting instructors and students with community organizations to support meaningful, community-engaged learning and advance shared community goals. Kara received a Master’s degree from the University of Utah in Communication, specializing in public interest campaigns and how to recruit and retain volunteers. Her own community engagement has focused on refugee resettlement, addressing food insecurity, and advocating for the humane treatment of animals.

Kara works with faculty to integrate service-learning (SL) into their teaching. Specifically, she invites new faculty to explore SL, facilitates workshops, consults with individual faculty about SL course design, and fosters their continued involvement and growth with SL. Kara also leads the SL team in exploring new models of SL and community-centered education that respond to emerging needs and create opportunities for collective impact. She collaborates on campus initiatives that strengthen and streamline the university’s community engagement efforts, facilitate the use of high-impact experiential learning, and foster a campus climate supportive of community-engaged teaching and research.