Announcing New ENACT Faculty Fellows in Arizona, Arkansas, California, New Jersey, Tennessee, Texas and Nevada
March 13, 2025
ENACT is excited to announce Cohort Four of the ENACT Faculty Fellowship: Douglas Cantor (Rutgers University - New Brunswick, New Jersey), Brian Dille (Mesa Community College, Arizona), Holly Foster (Texas A&M University, Texas), Austin Harrison (Rhodes College, Tennessee), Jamie Palmer-Asemota (Nevada State University), Shawnika Perdue-Johnson (Pitzer College, California), Delphia Shanks (Hendrix College, Arkansas). Read more about them below.
They join a national network of professors at colleges and universities across the United States teaching experiential courses based on the ENACT model. In those courses students engage directly in the state legislative process. Students learn to be active participants in democratic processes through connecting with policymakers and community organizations; conducting research and analysis; and informing public policy with evidence and expertise.
“We are looking forward to welcoming these accomplished educators into our growing national network,” says ENACT Director Melissa Stimell. “Each brings expertise and perspectives that will further enrich the ENACT experience for undergraduates across the United States.”
The fourth cohort of ENACT Faculty Fellows will attend a workshop hosted by Brandeis University in May, where they will be joined by experienced ENACT Faculty Fellows, program staff, and guest speakers. ENACT Fellows and their students will also have full access to the online ENACT network.
ENACT Faculty Fellowship Cohort Four
Douglas Cantor - Assistant Teaching Professor of Political ScienceRutgers University – New Brunswick, New Jersey
Douglas Cantor holds a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Chicago with specializations in Urban Politics, American Politics, and Public Law. He also holds a M.A. in Legal Studies from the University of Baltimore, a B.A. from Rutgers University in Political Science, and an A.A. in Journalism from Brookdale University. He has taught at Northern Illinois University, California State University – Long Beach, and Loyola Marymount University. Within the Public Law and Urban Politics realms, his research interests include municipal reform, water politics, privatization, and Constitutional law.
At Rutgers, Dr. Cantor’s course offerings include Law and Politics, Urban Politics, Law and
Society, Constitutional Law, Courts and Public Policy, as well as seminars on topics such as Water Politics and Housing Segregation. He also holds an appointment with the Honors College as an Affiliated Faculty Fellow, and several fellowships over the years with the Institute for Teaching, Innovation, and Inclusive Pedagogy at Rutgers.
His first book, Term Limits and the Modern Era of Municipal Reform, was published with
Routledge Publishing in the Spring of 2024. His next book, Pipe Dreams: The Politics of Lead and Water in U.S. Cities, is set to publish in early 2027.
Brian Dille - Residential Faculty, Political Science
Mesa Community College, Arizona
After attending college at Brigham Young University in Utah, Brian Dille attended graduate school at Arizona State University. There he received a Ph.D. in Political Science, emphasizing the political psychology of foreign policy decision making. He has taught political science at Mesa Community College since 1999. In addition to teaching courses in international relations and American government, he directs the Model United Nations program and hosts a high school MUN conference every February. He published a textbook for Model UN, Engaging the United Nations, designed to be used by high school and community college students.
Dr. Dille developed the Social Science portion of the ASU Fulton School of Education Teaching Foundations project (TFP). He co-directs the Arizona Civic Education Project with Katherine Douglas, which offers free teaching materials to Arizona educators.
Dr. Dille convened a working group of several civic organizations in Arizona, and together they developed Creating Community, a workforce development tool for use in industry and organizations. These modules teach how to develop soft skills, reach consensus, and have difficult conversations in difficult times. These resources are also found on the above URL.
He also published Arizona Voices, a digital textbook designed to supplement U.S. history and government high school courses with Arizona-specific content that meets the state Social Science Standards.
Holly Foster - Professor of Sociology
Texas A&M University, Texas
Holly Foster is a Professor of Sociology and Chancellor EDGES Fellow at Texas A&M University in College Station, TX. She specializes in the study of parental contact with the socio-legal system and its intergenerational influences on children, using both quantitative and qualitative research methods. She teaches in the area of Criminology within the Sociology department. During the ENACT fellowship period, she will focus on adapting her Gender & Crime course to better engage students in the state policy process and explore ways to more effectively address the needs of children with incarcerated parents.
Austin “A.T.” Harrison - Assistant Professor of Urban Studies
Rhodes College, Tennessee
Austin Harrison received his Ph.D. in Urban Studies from Georgia State University, his M.P.A. from the University of Memphis and a B.A. in history from Mercer University. He is a trained community organizer, is actively organizing around housing issues in Memphis, and has over a decade of hands-on experience in the community development field.
Dr. Harrison's research interests include neighborhood change, community development and organizing, housing policy, and structural decline. Previous work has been featured in Housing Policy Debate, the Journal of Urban Affairs, Housing Studies, Metropolitics and more.
He has collaborated with the Federal Reserve Bank, Center for Community Progress, the Consumer Federation of America, Enterprise Community Partners and the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University. Dr. Harrison also co-founded the Memphis Research 4 Action CoLab, a community engaged research collaborative in Memphis.
Jamie Palmer-Asemota - Associate Professor of History, Law, and Society
Nevada State University, Nevada
Jamie L. Palmer-Asemota earned a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Georgia. Dr. Palmer-Asemota’s research analyzes educational inequities with a focus on policy and practice. Her research has been featured in the Journal of Men and Masculinities, Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice, Journal of International Sociology, and KNPR Las Vegas.
Shawnika Perdue-Johnson - Assistant Professor of Environmental Analysis
Pitzer College, California
Dr. Shawnika Perdue-Johnson holds a Ph.D. in Politics and Government with an emphasis in environmental justice, public policy, and gender studies from Claremont Graduate University (CGU). She also holds a Master of Arts in Applied Women and Gender Studies from CGU, a Master of Urban and Regional Planning from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, and a Bachelor of Science in Health Science from California State University, Long Beach.
An interdisciplinary scholar of women and politics, environmental justice, and comparative politics who studies its impact at the intersection of race, class, and gender, Dr. Perdue-Johnson’s research underscores the collective roles of scholars, government, legislators, practitioners, community leaders, and advocates in balancing the scales of equity and justice. Her research on legislative policy employs qualitative and quantitative research methods to explore how the intersectionality of race, class, and gender influence Georgia legislators’ sponsorship of environmental and social justice public policies.
Dr. Perdue-Johnson teaches interdisciplinary courses in environmental justice and women, politics and the environment. She is also the founder of Innovative Planning, an environmental policy, environmental justice, land use policy, consulting firm. Her academic and community-based work centers community engagement in urban planning, social justice and environmental policy analyses to create equitable and sustainable communities where all those situated along the spectrum of privilege can thrive and influence public policy.
Delphia Shanks - Associate Professor of Politics
Hendrix College, Arkansas
Delphia Shanks earned a B.A. in Sociology from Grinnell College and both an M.A. in Policy Analysis and Management and a Ph.D. in Government from Cornell University, and enjoys a multifaceted career as a professor, scholar, and advocate.
At Hendrix College, Dr. Shanks teaches classes on civil society and nonprofits, race and class, the carceral state, public policy, inequality, and research methods. She is also a trained instructor through the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program and teaches a yearly Inside-Out course at Wrightsville Correctional Facility.