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Jun 22, 2022 • Connor Fogel
Part I in a series. “How will we mobilize around these issues even more profoundly than we already are on a local, national, and global scale? How will we live up to our mission and vision as an institution that strives to be socially just?” In June 2020, President Ajay...
Jan 28, 2021 • Caitlin Burns
The HealthSpark Foundation has awarded Arcadia University a grant to develop a Graduate Civic Scholars Program to help expand the undergraduate program that launched last summer for students who are interested and passionate about driving social change. The $26,000 grant will be used to help...
Oct 29, 2020 • Caitlin Burns
Election Day is right around the corner. Below, Arcadia Votes leaders have answered the three big questions coming in via their Q&A sessions on the ArcadiaSocialImpact Instagram account. Q: I heard in some states, like Pennsylvania and North Carolina, they’re accepting mail-in ballots...
Oct 14, 2020 • Caitlin Burns
By Nikolai Kachuyevski '21 Arcadia Votes, which aims to increase the University community’s voter registration and participation, has received two grants to support a final push before Election Day on Tuesday, Nov. 3. The grants, totaling $2,000 from the Students Learn Students Vote Fall...
Sep 30, 2020 • Caitlin Burns
“[Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg] was one of the best advocates of all time,” said Dr. Alison LaLond Wyant, director of the Office of Social Impact and Innovation (SI2) and director of Arcadia’s Civic Scholars program. “I think her legacy will be her ability to connect liberty and equality as...
Sep 22, 2020 • Caitlin Burns
Arcadia Votes, driven by the Office of Social Impact and Innovation (SI2), in partnership with Historical and Political Studies Department, Arcadia Athletics, Student Government Organization, Engagement and New Student Programs, and Civic Engagement Society, is celebrating National Voter...
Aug 18, 2020 • Caitlin Burns
After decades of fighting for women’s suffrage, the 19th Amendment was ratified on Aug. 18, 1920, granting women the right to vote. A committee of social justice-minded citizens, which included Helen Keller and Jane Addams, founded the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to protect freedom of...
May 6, 2020 • Caitlin Burns
Arcadia University and Pennsylvania State Senator Art Haywood are offering a free, self-guided learning opportunity for area high school students interested in social change. Dr. Alison LaLond Wyant, director of the Office of Social Impact and Innovation, and Senator Haywood are co-instructing...
Apr 27, 2020 • Caitlin Burns
As the Arcadia University community quickly adapted to the changing educational landscape during coronavirus, departments and offices didn’t forget their dedication to students in need. Throughout the academic year, Knights for Nutrition food pantry serves undergraduate and graduate students who...
Apr 1, 2020 • Caitlin Burns
“Each of us can mitigate the virus’s threat to the 2020 Census and the 2020 elections by participating from home,” said Arcadia’s Director of the Office of Social Impact & Innovation (SI2) Dr. Alison LaLond Wyant, who is leading the new “Arcadia Votes” civic engagement initiative. ...
Dr. Alison LaLond Wyant serves as the Executive Director of Arcadia's Division of Civic and Global Engagement. The portfolio includes study abroad, international student services, community partnership, and advocacy. Alison also directs the Arcadia Civic Scholars program. Her vision includes every Arcadia student developing a sense of global interdependence and a sense of their own agency to affect positive change.
New in 2021, the Division of Civic and Global Engagement brings together many of the threads of Alison's previous work at Arcadia. Alison first joined the University in 2012. Working in the College of Global Studies, Alison oversaw curriculum development at Arcadia’s 11 centers around the world. Then, in 2019, Alison took on a role weaving social impact into the institution's strategic plan and launching Civic Scholars, a special admission program for students interested in civic engagement and social change.
Before joining Arcadia, Alison worked at the University of Pennsylvania, serving most recently as the Stouffer College House Dean. Alison had also worked for several other mission-driven offices at Penn: The Greenfield Intercultural Center, The Netter Center for Community Partnerships, and Civic House.
Before her career in higher education, Alison worked in direct service organizations in Baltimore, Maryland, including Habitat for Humanity, where she served a term through AmeriCorps.
Alison is a strong advocate of teaching and learning environments that promote the development of students’ social consciousness and leadership capacity. She has taught courses on urban community engagement, service-learning pedagogy, multiculturalism in higher education, and global connections. Alison enjoys encouraging students both to bring their academic work to bear on real-world problems and to let lived and observed experiences influence their scholarly pursuits.
Originally from Massachusetts, Alison earned her B.A. in Political Science from Loyola University in Maryland and her M.S.Ed. and Ed.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. Her dissertation was about Penn's relationship with its neighboring public high school. Her ongoing questions of interest are about what's possible when institutions collaborate with their communities toward social change and how best to spur young people toward civic engagement.
Alison and her family reside in Glenside, and the remaining four of her top five favorite places in the world (so far) are Galway, Ireland; Cascais, Portugal; Cape Town, South Africa; and Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
Loyola University Maryland
Bachelor or Arts, Major in Political Science
University of Pennsylvania
Master of Science in Education and Doctor of Education