News and Events: 2023-24
June 26, 2024
The spring 2024 issue of Public Service Review (Volume 5, Issue 1) exclusively features ENACT.
Published by the Stennis Center for Public Service, a bipartisan legislative branch agency created by Congress in 1988 to promote and strengthen the highest ideals of public service in America, this journal is distributed to members of Congress, universities and colleges, and public servants in local, state, and federal government entities across the United States.
In this special issue:
- Brandeis alumni Elaina Pevide ’20, Vishni Samaraweera ’24 and Ravi Simon ’19 write about their experiences in ENACT Director Melissa Stimell’s Brandeis ENACT course “Advocacy for Policy Change” and the lessons they carry with them from ENACT.
- Randolph-Macon College student Wesley Gerschick writes about what he learned from advocating at the Virginia General Assembly as a student in Virginia Faculty Fellow Richard Meagher’s ENACT class.
- ENACT Assistant Director David Weinstein shares an overview of the ENACT program.
- ENACT Faculty Fellow Lynne Chandler-Garcia of the United States Air Force Academy shares her experience teaching an ENACT course, and the considerations involved in teaching about legislative advocacy at a military academy.
- Massachusetts State Senator Becca Rausch (Brandeis ’01) is interviewed by Brandeis ENACT students Dalia Moran ’24 and Arianna Jackson ’25 about her commitment to ENACT.
- ENACT Faculty Fellow Jennifer Seelig is interviewed by University of Utah ENACT student Tomas Cruz Villalvazo about her experience teaching an ENACT course.
- Maine State Representative Ambureen Rana is interviewed by Julian Ober, an alum of Faculty Fellow Rob Glover’s University of Maine ENACT course.
May 8, 2024
New this fall, ENACT course “Legislation for Change: Research, Policy, and Social Determinants of Health” (LGLS121a) will be offered by ENACT Assistant Director of Research Charlotte Powley Mondays and Wednesdays 4:05-5:25pm. This course will examine state, local, and federal level policy making and reform through exploration of the five domains of the social determinants of health (SDOH). Students will research how to write a policy that relates to at least one of the domains of the social determinants of health: 1) economic stability, 2) social and community context, 3) healthcare access and quality, 4) education access and quality, and 5) neighborhood and built environment.
May 8, 2024
Brandeis graduating seniors Clay Napurano ’24 and Alaina Vermilya ’24 have been selected as the newest ENACT Student Delegates. For the next academic year they will facilitate engagement and interaction with ENACT students and alumni and faculty fellows around the country. “I’m extremely passionate about the power of young people's voices in shaping policy and thrilled to serve as a Student Delegate to help advance ENACT’s important mission,” says Vermilya. “I’m excited to be serving as an ENACT Student Delegate to help support local advocacy work,” says Napurano.
Read more about Clay, Alaina, and the other ENACT Student Delegates.
May 5, 2024
An op-ed written by Brandeis ENACT student Kristianna Lapierre ’24 was recently published by the Worcester Massachusetts Telegram & Gazette. In “Now is the time to pass I AM Bill,” Lapierre advocates to pass the I AM Bill, “An Act to Increase Access to Menstrual Products,” which would mandate that public schools, shelters and prisons to provide menstrual products to all menstruating individuals without stigma. “Massachusetts is a powerhouse for education, health care and equity within a current nationwide surge of attacks on reproductive rights and sex education, which includes menstruation,” writes Lapierre. “Still, we need to do more.” Lapierre studied this issue in the Brandeis ENACT classes “Advocacy for Policy Change” taught by ENACT Director Melissa Stimell, and “Gender, Justice and Legislation” taught by ENACT Assistant Director for Research Charlotte Powley.
April 25, 2024
We are excited to announce that Claudia Bernardi will be the Inaugural Justice Brandeis Practitioner-In-Residence!
Hosted by COMPACT and ENACT in celebration of the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life, this series will highlight the knowledge and experience developed by the Ethics Center and will expose the Brandeis campus community to spheres of activity that have only become more critical to our interconnected world over recent years.
Claudia Bernardi will be on the Brandeis campus in November 2024. During her one-day residency, she will interact with students, faculty and staff through class visits, workshops, lectures, and other opportunities.
Read more about inaugural Justice Brandeis Practitioner-In-Residence Claudia Bernardi.
April 24, 2024
Yoni Kahn ’24 has been selected for the 2024 ALL IN Student Voting Honor Roll! This recognizes his work as an ENACT Your Vote Campus Engagement Student Fellow and his support of the VoteDeis Campus Coalition. Yoni will continue his work with ENACT Your Vote as a Brandeis University Heller School for Social Policy and Management graduate student next year. 137 college students were selected for the third annual Student Voting Honor Roll. ALL IN’s Student Voting Honor Roll recognizes college students at participating campuses who have gone above and beyond to advance nonpartisan student voter registration, education and turnout efforts in their communities.
Photo Credit: Shelley Polanco/Shot by Shell Photography
April 16, 2024
The students of the Brandeis University ENACT course “Advocacy for Policy Change” (LGLS 161b) came together April 16th in the Usdan Student Center for the annual “Present and Defend.” They tried to persuade their classmates, other Brandeis students, and guests to vote for their bills, which are currently being considered by the Massachusetts State Legislature. Bill topics included data privacy, gun violence, immigrant rights, juvenile justice, menstrual equity, mental health education, childhood poverty, pregnancy care, sex education, and water resources management. An anthology of the student work will be published in the fall. View previous anthologies here.
April 10, 2024
ENACT Faculty Fellow Rob Glover, has been named a 2024 Presidential Award winner by the University of Maine.
Dr. Glover’s involvement with ENACT was among the highlights that led nominators, the awards committee, and ultimately, the University of Maine president to choose him for this award, the highest faculty honor for engagement and service at the University. Nominators noted his involvement in ENACT since its inception, his participation in the 2019-2020 ENACT Labor Network, his scholarly work on impacts of ENACT, and his recent work to support the “ENACT Your Vote” Initiative.
“The achievements of all of this year’s Presidential Award recipients have brought long-lasting positive change not only for the students they mentor, but also many others in Maine and beyond,” University of Maine President Joan Ferrini-Mundy says. “I personally want to thank them for everything they have offered us, and look forward to seeing what they accomplish next.”
April 8, 2024
Three Brandeis faculty and staff members traveled to Denver in April to discuss innovative Brandeis University community and civic engagement programs at Campus Compact’s national Compact24 conference “Now is the Moment: Higher Education Civic & Community Engagement as the Way Forward.”
(Pictured l-r: Weinstein, Kabrhel, and Sherman at the conference.)
David Weinstein, Assistant Director of ENACT presented ENACT: The Educational Network for Active Civic Transformation in a poster session, and Professor Rosalind Kabrhel of Legal Studies and Prof. David Sherman of the English Department presented on the emerging possibilities of undergraduate carceral studies programs, and shared the Brandeis Educational Justice Initiative (BEJI) as a case study for new models for higher ed in prison programs that emphasize diversion and re-entry.
Megan Moran, COMPACT's Associate Director, represented COMPACT virtually at Campus Compact's annual meeting of the affinity network The Research University Civic Engagement Network (TRUCEN) where she presented on a panel with her sustained conversation group Equity in Community Engaged Research.
Campus Compact is a national coalition of colleges and universities, including Brandeis University committed to advancing the public purposes of higher education. It is the largest and oldest higher education association dedicated to higher education civic and community engagement. Compact24 is the largest and most inclusive national conference focused on the role of higher education in building healthy communities and fostering a just and equal democracy. Sessions explored topics such as civic learning and democratic engagement, publicly engaged scholarship, practice, and teaching, community-engaged partnerships, institutional action, and anchor initiatives.
April 4, 2024
On April 4th students signed up for voting and civic engagement reminders with ENACT Your Vote at the ENACT Your Vote Day of Action, sponsored by ENACT Your Vote, the VoteDeis Campus Coalition, and the Community Engagement Ambassador Program. Volunteers tabled at the Shapiro and Usdan Campus Centers from 11:00 am until 3:00 pm to help people sign up for and to register and make a plan to vote if eligible.
April 3, 2024
Famed author Julian Winters came to Brandeis April 3rd for a panel discussion held in Rapaporte Treasure Hall, Goldfarb Library, followed by an educational booth fair. Book bans are ravaging the nation as censorship seeps across school districts nationwide. Most of these book bans target identity – race, religion, gender identity, sexuality – and have been coupled with educational censorship and so-called “culture wars” on humanity. With funding from the Maurice J. and Fay B. Karpf and Ari Hahn Peace Awards and the ENACT Educate and Advocate Grant, Julian Winters joined Brandeis professor Dr. Tanishia Lavette Williams, Florence Levy Kay Fellow in Racial Justice, Education, and the Carceral State, and student organizer Cameron Samuels ’26 for a panel conversation about the importance of the freedom to read.
April 2, 2024
Charlotte Powley, ENACT’s Assistant Director of Research; MassNOW; and Kenzie Blackwell of FREE Period hosted a Period Product Packaging & Menstrual Equity Advocacy Party on April 2nd in the Shapiro Campus Center at Brandeis. The event was co-sponsored by various student groups, including the Jewish Feminist Association of Brandeis (JFAB). Participants packaged menstrual products for distribution to those in need of period products across the state of Massachusetts. With the support of MassNOW, participants were also provided advocacy training and an opportunity to reach out to Massachusetts state representatives in support of the I AM Bill, which would increase access to menstrual products; the I AM bill is currently being considered by the Massachusetts State Legislature. For questions regarding this event, please contact Charlotte Powley at cpowley@brandeis.edu.
March 19, 2024
Charlotte Powley, ENACT’s Assistant Director of Research, joined with the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Organization for Women (Mass NOW), and various Brandeis student groups, including SSIS, to host a sexual health awareness and Healthy Youth Act advocacy event at the Shapiro Campus Center in March. The event included sexual health legislation trivia, advocacy training and an opportunity for students to reach out to Massachusetts state representatives regarding the Healthy Youth Act. Participants were also invited to write messages to current Boston Public Schools high schoolers regarding the importance of practicing safe sexual health behaviors. For questions regarding this event, please contact Charlotte Powley at cpowley@brandeis.edu.
March 12, 2024
“We, the people, are the heartbeat of a vital and vibrant democracy. It works best when we engage as advocates for the causes that matter. We are the authors of democracy’s successes as well as its failures. So, what is effective advocacy?” ENACT’s Distinguished Legislative Mentor Jay Kaufman ’68, MA ’73, a former Massachusetts State Representative, shares some thoughts based on his 24 years as a legislator.
March 19, 2024
Please join us for a sexual health awareness and Healthy Youth Act advocacy event hosted by ENACT and the Boston Public Schools Office of Health and Wellness on March 19th! Write messages to current Boston Public Schools high schoolers with the support of MassNOW. Volunteers will be tabling from 11:00 am to 1:30 pm in the Shapiro Campus Center.
This event will also provide advocacy training and an opportunity to reach out to Massachusetts state representatives regarding the Healthy Youth Act.
For more information contact ENACT Assistant Director Charlotte Powley: CPowley@brandeis.edu
- Learn more from the CDC about condom accessibility programs.
- To learn more about the Healthy Youth Act, follow HealthyYouthMA on Instagram.
- Founded in 1968, the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Organization for Women (Mass NOW) is a multi-strategy grassroots feminist organization in the Commonwealth.
March 6, 2024
“Through their ENACT experiences in ‘Virginia Politics in Action’ my students learn one big lesson that everyone should learn: the barriers to civic participation are not always as high as we think. With some elbow grease – and maybe a little bravery – you can become an effective advocate and help influence the important decisions being made in our state government.
‘Virginia Politics in Action’ definitely involves action; my students get a crash course in state politics, legislative advocacy, and civic participation in just four weeks. There's no long buildup to a culminating experience. We're at the legislature on day two, and meeting legislators about our bill by week three. It's immediate gratification!
It’s exciting, both for me and for my students, to jump right in without too much of a net. And it works: the ENACT model is very well-suited for preparing students.”
February 26, 2024
Brandeis Stories featured "Advocacy for Policy Change" ENACT students Dalia Moran ’24 and Arianna Jackson ’25. They have been working together for Bill H.2209/S.1457, an Act promoting access to midwifery care and out-of-hospital birth options, and have connected with Massachusetts State Senator Becca Rausch ’01, who represents Norfolk, Bristol and Middlesex districts.
January 18, 2024
"Make Your Vote Count! A Voting Rights Discussion" was led by policy experts from Common Cause, MassVote, and Brandeis: Prof. Zachary Albert of the Brandeis University Politics Department; Marisol Santiago, Policy and Organizing Director for MassVOTE; and Aaron Scherb, Senior Director of Legislative Affairs for Common Cause.
This event was funded by the ENACT Educate & Advocate Grant and the Brenda Meehan Social Justice in Action Grant, and was cosponsored by ENACT: The Educational Network for Active Civic Transformation, the VoteDeis Campus Coalition, the Brandeis University Student Union, Brandeis Democrats, and Brandeis University Young Americans for Liberty.
View a video of the conversation and read more about the event here
December 1, 2023
“Most of my students come to the university with deep passions, idealism, creativity, and brilliance. Yet they are overwhelmed by the immensity of the societal challenges we face. This can easily lead to stagnation and cynicism at this crucial juncture in their education. What they often need – and this course facilitates – is process-based knowledge and a safe place to develop complex perspectives towards change.
‘Urban Public Policy,’ adapting the ENACT model, was built around the idea that we can intervene at this beautiful moment to support students to build skills, reflective processes, and a sense of solidarity to both imagine and design what change can look like; and that we can hold both idealism and realism in that crucial work.”
November 7, 2023
Join ENACT Your Vote – a non-partisan, web-based initiative to encourage voter participation and civic engagement at universities across the country. Join the Brandeis team: earn points, win prizes and encourage others to take action.
Sign up now and you will get updates and voting reminders automatically!
Join the VoteDeis Campus Coalition – a nonpartisan group of students, faculty and staff supporting voting and voter registration at Brandeis: VoteDeis
November 1, 2023
In spring 2024 two ENACT courses will be offered at Brandeis:
Advocacy for Policy Change” (LGLS 161b), taught by Melissa Stimell will meet Tuesdays 9:35-12:25.
“Advocacy for Policy Change” (LGLS 161b), a Legal Studies course introduced in spring 2010, serves as the academic centerpiece of the ENACT program. Developed and taught by Melissa Stimell, Director of the ENACT, the course combines an investigation of the ethical dilemmas that arise in the process of lawmaking with hands-on advocacy work with entities seeking to reform laws or to propose new ones. The course concludes with “Present and Defend,” a major event for the Brandeis community at which the issues are presented and debated by the students. Save the Date: the next “Present and Defend” will be held at Brandeis on Tuesday, April 16th at 9:30 AM.
“Gender, Justice and Legislation” (LGLS 118a), taught by new ENACT faculty member Charlotte Powley, is being offered for the first time.
This class will explore both legislation and the implementation of legislation that impacts historically and presently marginalized gender identities. The course will emphasize these themes specifically through an exploration of menstrual equity. It will examine both the role of legislation itself as well as the advocacy and research that accompanies policy.
September 1, 2023
ENACT student delegates are appointed to foster civic engagement on their college campus and facilitate engagement and interaction with ENACT Ambassadors, students and alumni around the country. In addition, student delegates mentor and collaborate with members of campus clubs to help them become more effective citizen advocates at the state legislative level.
The 2023-24 Student Delegates are Brandeis alums Lucca Raabe ‘23 and Vishni Samaraweera, mentored by Elaina Pevide ‘20, who previously served as a Student Delegate. All three are passionate about legislative change, and supporting students around the country to develop their policy advocacy skills. They will be virtually visiting ENACT courses and hosting ENACT network-wide events including the annual ENACT Alumni Networking Night.
August 15, 2023
ENACT: The Educational Network for Active Civic Transformation is pleased to announce a grant opportunity for Brandeis University undergraduate students!
ENACT Educate and Advocate Grants will provide up to $1,000 to support for student-organized events that focus on educating our community and advocating for positive change on important current public policy issues, such as healthcare equity, reproductive justice, immigration reform, criminal justice, voting rights, and a multitude of other concerns.
Applications will be considered on a rolling basis until 9:00 pm ET February 12, 2024.
July 1, 2023
Hosted by COMPACT and ENACT in Celebration of the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life
The newly announced Justice Brandeis Practitioner-in-Residence Limited Series will highlight the knowledge and experience developed by the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life, and will expose the Brandeis campus community to spheres of activity that have only become more critical to our interconnected world over recent years.
On or around Justice Brandeis’ birthday of November 13, COMPACT and ENACT will host a practitioner whose life and work exemplifies Justice Louis Brandeis’ values of justice and truth as applied to community engagement activities, global or local. During the one-day residency, the visiting practitioner will interact with students, faculty and staff through class visits, workshops, lectures, and other opportunities. Each residency will produce an output which can be shared afterwards, for example a written document, short documentary film, a podcast, or an exhibit.
This limited series will be hosted from 2024-25 through the 2027-28 academic years. The inaugural residency will be in November 2024. Practitioners will receive a $10,000 honorarium.
Deadline for nominations for the inaugural residency: April 1, 2024
Submit a nomination online here.
June 30, 2023
In June, ENACT welcomed 22 faculty members from colleges and universities across the United States to Brandeis for the third in-person ENACT Institute. ENACT Faculty Fellows teach their versions of “Advocacy for Policy Change” (LGS 161b, the ENACT course that forms the basis of the program developed and taught at Brandeis by ENACT Director Melissa Stimell.
Faculty Fellows traveled from as near as Connecticut and Maine to as far as Alaska and Arizona. This third cohort of ENACT Faculty Fellows brings the non-partisan ENACT program across the country.
During the three-day institute new and experienced Faculty Fellows delved deeply into the ENACT model as they developed their courses, and they shared their own expertise. Discussion topics included how to teach an ENACT course in challenging political environments, how to empower students, and how to work with community partners. They were joined by special guests including Massachusetts State Senator Becca Rausch ’01.
June 30, 2023
Student work from the spring 2023 Brandeis ENACT course is available to view or download online. Explore the work of Brandeis ENACT students: 23 citizen advocates for such issues as food insecurity, homelessness, gun control, healthcare access, juvenile justice, and immigrant rights.