Point Park’s New Center for Civic and Community Engagement Looking to Make Impact Through Sustainable Solutions Tuesday, September 2, 2025
“Our goal is to go beyond just providing support to Downtown and the region. We want to be transformational — to tackle core problems and develop outcomes through research that can lead to sustainable solutions rather than putting on a Band-Aid.”
Point Park University is proud to announce the creation of the Center for Civic and Community Engagement. The Center will act as a “front door” to the University as it fulfills a key component of Pioneer Vision 2030, the university’s current strategic plan.
The Center will serve as a laboratory for cooperatively exploring the unique challenges facing Downtown and other urban communities. As it seeks to work with residents and civic leaders to identify replicable and sustainable solutions, the Center invites an open dialogue with the public over the coming months. The Center is pursuing activities that can move easily from the drawing board to action, and help build that bridge from academia to Pittsburgh, the greater region and beyond.
“Our goal is to go beyond just providing support to Downtown and the region,” said Dr. Chris W. Brussalis, president of Point Park. “We want to be transformational — to tackle core problems and develop outcomes through research that can lead to sustainable solutions rather than putting on a Band-Aid.”
The Center, located at 101 Wood St., includes a design-thinking studio where people with diverse perspectives can gather to brainstorm, share ideas and consider inclusive ways to address common challenges. Expected outcomes include both actionable tasks and leading-edge academic research that can lead to positive outcomes in urban areas everywhere.
Dr. Heather Starr Fiedler, the longtime director of Point Park’s Department of Community Engagement and Leadership, will assume a new role as Assistant Vice President and Managing Director of the Center.
“Too often, students are sent out to just volunteer at organizations. While that is always appreciated, it can be transactional, and we want to build transformational community partnerships,” she said. “While we continue to operate some of our core Community Engagement projects, we’ll be taking time this fall to meet with community members and develop a strategy to tackle some of the region’s most pressing issues.”
The continued work includes a focus on supporting a civic engagement pipeline for students from middle school through doctoral level work, including long-established programs like the 412 Impact Service Learning Camp, the Bonner Leaders Program and the Student Impact Alliance, which hosts teams of middle and high school students across Western Pennsylvania doing impactful community work.
“Bringing students together at the table with community leaders can be powerful,” Starr Fiedler said. “We want to create spaces where middle schoolers and mayors can work together to make positive community change.”
During the developmental process of Pioneer Vision 2030, Dr. Brussalis and other University leaders recognized the importance of Point Park making as big an impact on the community as possible.
"Experiential learning has always been at the core of what we do at Point Park. The kind of projects they can work on through the Center will fulfill that mission while helping them understand the importance of giving back,” he said. “Downtown and the Pittsburgh region — that is our campus. We want to have as much positive influence as possible.”
While Starr Fiedler is making every effort to meet with as many community members and organizations as possible, her hope is that people will come to the Center with feedback, ideas and problems to tackle.
“We are eager to dive in and collaborate to effect positive change,” Starr Fiedler said. “Our hope is that the community will be as excited as we are to get to work.”
Reach out to the Center at communityengagement@pointpark.edu or hstarr@pointpark.edu.
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