Amber West tapped for national program on community-engaged teaching

Sean Brenner | February 17, 2026

Amber West, a UCLA Writing Programs continuing lecturer, has been selected to join a national professional development program for educators involved in community-engaged teaching.

The Mid-Career Learning Community is a yearlong program organized by Campus Compact, the higher education association focused on civic and community engagement. West is one of 15 members of the 2026–27 cohort, and the first participant from UCLA in the program’s three-year history.

The program is intended to foster collaboration, shared learning and networking through monthly online meetings and an in-person conference in Chicago this March. West said she hopes her participation will help her think more broadly about two key goals: creating meaningful experiences for UCLA students and building productive relationships with nonprofits. 

“I’m interested in the idea of how we can sustain strong community partnerships so we have a lasting pipeline of opportunities for our students,” she said. “And I want to build undergraduates’ awareness of and preparation for work in the nonprofit and social impact sectors.” 

West has a longstanding commitment to community-engaged learning, thanks in part to her pre-UCLA career experience in the nonprofit sector and K-12 education. Now, that mindset aligns neatly with Goal One of UCLA’s 2023–28 Strategic Plan, deepening the campus’s engagement with Los Angeles.

“I feel that the service mission of the university is very important, and something that I always try to be part of and want to expand,” she said.

West led a group of Writing Programs faculty that applied for and received a grant from the UCLA Center for Community Engagement aimed at building departmental capacity for community-engaged teaching.

Tangible impact

She also created the upper-division English composition course “Professional Writing: Nonprofits and Public Engagement,” which is part of the professional writing minor and which has been designated a community-engaged class. Such UCLA courses are designed to create “reciprocal value,” meaning that students build skills and gain professional experience while also serving the needs of community partners.

This quarter, students in the professional writing course are working with one of six organizations — 826LA, Los Angeles LGBT Center, ¡Oye! Group, Positive Ride, Reading on the Pitch and Sage Hill, UCLA’s native species preserve. Their projects include grant writing, prospecting, social media and web content development, as well as cultivating creativity and writing skills with children. 

“We have so many students at UCLA who are so smart and hard-working and care so much about the world,” West said. “I hope courses like this one help them see that there are real opportunities in the nonprofit sector, and that you can indeed build a career and make a living while making a positive impact.”

In just one example of the class’s tangible impact, one group of students organized an on-campus event Feb. 12 to showcase Positive Ride, a volunteer-run organization that creates meaningful outdoor experiences for people who use wheelchairs. Students invited members of the UCLA community who are impacted by or working on issues related to disability and inclusivity. 

One of the event’s organizers was Yehudis Weiss, a fourth-year English major and professional writing minor.

“This is my first community engagement course, and my experience has been so much more meaningful than I could have hoped for,” she said. “Working with Positive Ride has helped me narrow down my career aspirations and increased my interest in helping create a more inclusive world.”