Note: This piece is shared from it's original posting on Campus Compact.
Campus Compact is pleased to announce that Renee Miller Zientek, executive director of the Center for Community Engaged Learning at Michigan State University, has been awarded Campus Compact’s Nadinne Cruz Community Engagement Professional Award. The award celebrates the ethical leadership and advocacy demonstrated by Community Engagement Professionals.
Recipients demonstrate collaboration with communities focused on transformative change; a commitment to justice-oriented work; and an impact on the larger movement to build ethical and effective community engagement locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally.
The award is named in honor of Nadinne Cruz, an innovative leader of community-based experiential learning and a pioneer of the movement for the public purposes of higher education. The Nadinne Cruz Award celebrates the ethical leadership and advocacy demonstrated by Community Engagement Professionals.
Miller Zientek is recognized for her work as a community engagement leader committed to advancing equitable, community-engaged learning and civic participation. As Executive Director of the Center for Community Engaged Learning at Michigan State University and Co-Director of MSUvote, she strengthens reciprocal partnerships and expands opportunities for students to contribute to community priorities and democratic life. Throughout her career, she has championed collaborative practices that elevate community expertise and support students in becoming engaged, responsible changemakers.
“Renee is not only deserving of this recognition, but she also exemplifies the values it was created to honor," said Anna Rose Benson, stakeholder relations lead for the Michigan Women’s Commission, in a letter supporting Miller Zientek’s nomination for the award. "Perhaps most compelling is Renee’s humility. She celebrates students, partners, and colleagues with genuine joy. Her leadership is rooted in care, reciprocity, and service. She embodies the spirit of the Nadinne Cruz Award because she demonstrates that community engagement is not simply an initiative, it is a practice, a value, and a commitment to justice."
“For over two decades, Ms. Miller Zientek has advanced community-engaged learning in Michigan and nationally through programs, scholarship, and partnerships grounded in access, reciprocity, and transformation," said Kevin M. Guskiewicz, Ph.D., president and professor of the Department of Kinesiology at Michigan State University, in a letter supporting Miller Zientek’s nomination for the award. "Renee’s career embodies a profound dedication to community and democracy and demonstrates the transformative power of higher education when it truly partners with the world it serves."
“As a transformational community engagement professional, Renee has been a stalwart in advancing and elevating the work at every institution she’s worked and across the entire higher education field,” said Bobbie Laur, Campus Compact president. “The way she has helped to build and shape what community engagement can mean to an institution is the result of decades of hard work, relationship-building, and a deep commitment to the public mission of higher education. We are proud to honor her with the Cruz award.”
The Nadinne Cruz Community Engagement Professional Award is presented as part of Campus Compact's Impact Awards, which recognize shining examples of meaningful, impactful civic and community engagement work. Read more about the other awards and this year's recipients here.
The recipients of these awards will be recognized at Compact26, Campus Compact’s annual conference, which will be held in Chicago, Illinois, from March 16th-18th, 2026.