Spirit of Civic Engagement Summit

Pacific University’s Spirit of Civic Engagement Summit is an annual half-day gathering on the Forest Grove campus. We welcome a select group of students, faculty, staff, and community partners to explore a highly relevant and topical civic engagement theme alongside amazing speakers and workshop facilitators. See details of past summits below and stay tuned for the 2027 event announcement coming soon!

  • 2026 Spirit of Civic Engagement Summit

    • Cultivating Hope – Nurturing the Possibility of a Better “We”
      Saturday, March 7, 2026

    • View the event post.

      Bevin McCarthy Spirit of Civic Engagement Award Winner:
      Pacific University’s Circle-K Club

      Sessions:

    • Track 1: Collective Imagination
    • Games for your Future Selves
      With Featured Speaker Lillyanne Pham, Artist + Community & Culture Manager at Portland’5 Centers for the Arts
    • Track 2: Radical Empathy
    • “Dementia has a PR Problem” Screening & Filmmaker Panel
      With Madison Stoker ‘26, and Pacific Professors Jennifer Hardacker and Amanda Stead
    • Rooted Resistance
      With Pacific Professor Roc Rochon
    • Track 3: Practical Peace
    • Leveraging Peace
      Sith Reiju Chris Nelsen
    • The Peace Ability Mindset
      With Featured Speaker Reba J. Parker, Sociology Professor, Peace Advocate, Speaker, Community Organizer and Author of The Peaceability Mindset
  • 2025 Spirit of Civic Engagement Summit

    • Civic Engagement in Polarizing Time
      Saturday, March 15, 2025

    • View the event flyer.

      Keynote: 
      Emily McClain, Oregon Education Association’s Director of Public Affairs and Professional Excellence

      Bevin McCarthy Spirit of Civic Engagement Award Winner:
      Pacific University’s Indigenous Students Alliance and advisor Nikol Roubidoux

    • Workshops:
    • Finding Power in our Personal Narratives
      With Kevin Truong, Sundance-supported filmmaker & 2025 Oregon Humanities Community Storytelling Fellow
    • Dialogue - A Tool for Community Connection
      With Delfine DeFrank, OSU Community Engagement & Leadership Coordinator
    • The First Step: Navigating Polarization in our own Communities
      With Forest Grove’s Mayor Malynda Wenzel and two newest city councilors, Angel Falconer and Brian Schimmel
    • No One Told Me: Strategies & Tools for a Future You
      With Jason Damron, Pacific University Visiting Professor of Sociology, Anthropology, and Gender Studies
  • 2024 Spirit of Civic Engagement Summit

    • Balanced Activism: Staying Engaged Without Being Consumed
      Saturday, April 6, 2024

    • View the event flyer here

      Keynote:
      Subashini Ganesan
      Choregrapher, Chair of the Oregon Arts Commission and former Creative Laureate of Portland

      Bevin McCarthy Spirit of Civic Engagement Award Winner:
      Nikko Macklin ‘24

    • Workshops:
    • All About Love: The Journey to Sustainable Civic Engagement
      With Akasha Lawrence Spencer, CEO + Principal Strategies (Fifth Element Development and Consulting, and former Oregon State Senator
    • Community Impact Through Practices of Aloha
      With Leiloha Ka’ula, Executive Director of Ka ʻAha Lahui O Olekona (KALO) & Aloha Resource & Community Center & Kumu Hula of Ka Lei Haliʻa O Ka Lokela
    • Informed Engagement with Hot Button Social Topics
      With Adelle Monteblanco, Pacific University Assistant Professor
    • Healing from Hopelessness to Stay Charged and Present in the Current Moment
      With Christopher E. Hughbanks, OSU Supervisor for Student Leadership
  • Summit Roots: The Community Collaboration Celebration
    • The Spirit of Civic Engagement Summit grew out of Pacific’s Community Collaboration Celebration, which was also hosted by the McCall Center for Civic Engagement and honored the special partnerships between Pacific University students, faculty, staff, alumni and community members. Each year we recognized individuals and organizations who were engaged in effective community collaboration, either in the current year or accumulated over years of involvement with Pacific University.
    • Over the course of its 10+ year history, a wide variety of award categories were included. Generally, some mix of students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community partners were recognized each year. We deeply appreciate all of our past award recipients and are excited to continue to award tradition at the Spirit of Civic Engagement Summit through presentation of the Bevin McCarthy Spirit of Civic Engagement Award.
  • The Bevin McCarthy Spirit of Civic Engagement Award
    • The Bevin McCarthy Spirit of Civic Engagement Award is given annually to an individual, program, partnership, or organization selected by the MCCE staff for particularly noteworthy achievements over the past academic year and/or accumulated over time.
    • The award recipient(s) are selected based on the following criteria:
      - embodies the joy of being in community
      - demonstrates a commitment to a more just and sustainable future
      - inspires and involves others to harness the power of civic engagement for the greater good, indicated by democratic processes or outcomes of engagement

Questions?

The McCall Center for Civic Engagement is happy to connect any time. Please email us at at mcce@pacificu.edu or call (503)352-1570.