Our staff spotlight this week is Mary Jo Callan. Mary Jo is the Director of the Ginsberg Center.
What is your professional background in?
My professional background is mainly in teaching, public policy, administration, and social work. I started my career as a high school civics and history teacher, and then for many years worked in the non-profit sector with youth experiencing homelessness. When I saw how hard it is for people at the margins, I got more and more interested in policy and how it can create change. I worked for local government as a policy advocate, shaping and investing resources to contribute to community and place-based economic development and vitality. This work brought me back to U-M to work with students, faculty, and staff who want to work for positive social change, especially in ways informed and driven by community advocates and organizations.
What is your job function at the Ginsberg Center?
For those who understand sports, and U-M tends to be a football school, I describe my role as an offensive line person. Sometimes people think about “leaders” as the quarterback or the star player, but I think a leader is someone who blocks for those who are the skill players. The skill players on our team at the Ginsberg Center are working with students, faculty, and community partners. I help to break down the barriers and challenges so they can do their work effectively.
There are many formal ways that people think of what a director does, but at the heart of it I think my job is to listen to our various stakeholders. I listen to our students and staff to support good work and good ideas. I work to set strategy and create a vision for the center that is aligned with socially just community engagement that centers the interest of communities and addresses pressing social concerns. I also provide support and facilitation to staff, faculty, and students who want to do good work but are facing a lot of barriers to doing work that is aligned with justice. As the director part of my role is to ensure alignment with our values and our rhetoric through all the various projects we are working on, both within the Ginsberg Center and across U-M.
What is one of your favorite projects you have worked on at the Ginsberg Center?
I love the work of the center so it is hard to pick just one. The projects that are coming to mind are those where there was a deep commitment to community partnership, or those where we are getting feedback about deep impacts that are being made.
On the partnership realm, one of my favorite partnerships is between the U-M School of Pharmacy and the Ann Arbor Housing Commission. A group of awesome faculty members from the School of Pharmacy decided they wanted to engage in a long term partnership with a community partner. They came to the Ginsberg Center for advice about what was happening in our local community and ideas about community partners who might be interested in connecting. We knew that the Ann Arbor Housing Commission was interested in this kind of ongoing relationship with U-M, and connected them to discuss ways in which they could work together. The partnership started three years ago and they are still very engaged as partners. Through this long-term commitment new ideas for ways to work together have emerged including: engaging U-M’s service, teaching, and research facets. I think this is my favorite project because universities and faculty often think they have solutions or expertise to give to help others, but this group of faculty was really aware of equity and not centering the University in how we engage with community partners. The School of Pharmacy was looking for an understanding from Ginsberg Center on who is out there, who is ready to partner, and who would find this helpful. They didn't have the answers already; they wanted to talk with the partner to learn about their priorities, ideas, and context before deciding what to do. I love this partnership because it shows the best of how we want to engage with our external experts in the community.
What are your social change interests in your personal life?
The social change effort that I think is at the heart of all positive social change efforts is racial and economic justice. That is the overarching frame and purpose for my work and my life. I think if there are some areas I also focus on they are housing affordability and access, educational equity, and closing the opportunity gap.
What has helped you during the pandemic (object, cooking, food, TV, etc.)
Having a sense of purpose has really helped me. Professionally, working at the Ginsberg Center has been crucial, I cannot imagine being anywhere else over these past five years. Especially now when there is a call for being in partnerships, being in community, and pitching in where it makes sense.
Personally I have done a lot of cooking (well, eating my partner’s cooking, actually), binge-watching fun TV shows, going on walks, and participating in gatherings and Zoom game nights with friends and family. I am really aware of my privileged position of having safety, security, health, and a home and home office space, which many people don’t have right now. I think both purpose and relationships have helped me to get through this challenging year.