Shivaani Selvaraj, D.Ed.
Director of Urban Engagement
Email: shivaani@psu.edu
Phone: 215-471-2200
As Director of Urban Engagement at the Penn State Center in Philadelphia, Shivaani creates pathways for engaged scholarship in order to develop new leaders and changemakers among faculty, students, and community members. With more than twenty-five years of experience in community organizing and adult education, she uses critical, public, and multimodal pedagogies to anchor transformative learning opportunities and facilitate knowledge exchange and mobilization.
In 2005, she co-founded the Media Mobilizing Project, a nonprofit organization that has led numerous campaigns and coalitions that have reframed issues and advocated for changes, most notably surrounding workers’ rights, digital inclusion, corporate accountability, public education, and predictive policing. Since 2010, she has been developing the Center’s portfolio of collaborative learning and research initiatives through consultation with community leaders and faculty.
She earned her undergraduate degree in urban studies from the University of Pennsylvania, a master’s in learning design and technology from Bloomsburg University, and a doctorate in adult education from Penn State.
Carly Rose Pourzand, MSW
Community Engagement Program Specialist
Email: carly.pourzand@psu.edu
Carly is passionate about facilitation and creating learning spaces that reveal asymmetrical power dynamics. For more than five years, she worked as a facilitator and trainer at World in Conversation, a Penn State center for public diplomacy. Carly has been listening and building partnerships in order to advance the collective impact of Philadelphia-based communities ever since.
In Philadelphia, Carly has worked at the intersection of immigration and education to create safer and more welcoming schools for immigrant and undocumented families. Carly recently consulted for Colombia se Escucha, a community-led group approaching Colombia’s peace process through dialogue.
Carly is a graduate of Penn State and earned her master of social work from the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice.