Leadership, Engagement and Democracy Program (LEAD)
The Civic Leadership, Engagement and Democracy Program (LEAD) supports student leaders who study and promote civic engagement initiatives and who serve as research assistants in Salve Regina’s Civic LEAD Research Lab.
These efforts are led by Dr. Mary Anderson, the Brodsky Chair in American Constitutional Democracy and Culture and Pell Center Faculty Fellow. The Brodsky Chair works to deepen understanding of the democratic ideals that have sustained the United States throughout its history.
The following programs offer opportunities for students to engage with the LEAD program. For more information, contact Dr. Mary Anderson at mary.anderson@salve.edu.
Civic LEAD Fellows
Civic LEAD fellows work with the Rhode Island Secretary of State to help educate and mentor high school students across Rhode Island to become more active citizens. Fellows also promote civic engagement on Salve’s campus by leading community conversations and helping to plan and organize events.
Civic Leadership Lab
The Civic Leadership Lab, part of Salve’s Summer Compass Program, is a two-week project based learning program with community partners to help students better understand civic engagement and the Newport community. Students take on high-impact civic leader experiences, working alongside community organizations on a hands-on, project-based mission to tackle a real community or organizational need.
Civic LEAD Research Lab
The Civic LEAD Research Lab is working on two research projects. The First Ladies Policy Agendas Project, is led by Dr. Anderson and headquartered at Salve. This multi-year collaborative project between scholars and students at Salve Regina University and the University of Tampa supports research on the evolving role of the first lady as a leader and policy actor in the executive branch. The lab has created the first comprehensive dataset on first ladies’ activities for systematically analyzing how this office contributes to the U.S. policy process. The second project is a data collection effort on child marriage policies in the United States. Students are collecting data from across the 50 states to compare child marriage laws and understand how low-salient issues attract the attention of lawmakers.
By participating in the Salve Regina Summer Institute of Politics Program, I engaged in several activities and discussions that gave me a much deeper understanding of polarization in politics as well as policy making. The program solidified my interest in attending Salve Regina for political science, and the experience I gained from it encouraged me to take on becoming a Civic LEAD Research Scholar.
Angelina Pereira, 2024 Summer Institute of Politics, current Civic Lead Research Scholar
The Brodsky Chair in American Constitutional Democracy and Culture
Dr. Mary Anderson is the inaugural Brodsky Chair. Anderson, a teacher and scholar of American politics and policy. She has written extensively on leadership, engagement, and democracy and teaches courses in these areas.
The goals of the Brodsky Chair are to create academic courses and programs that engage students in learning about America’s core democratic values and their role as citizens, develop community partnerships that offer opportunities for Salve students to engage in public service and deliberative dialog, and to conduct research around topics related to democracy.
