Leah Sweetman

Saint Louis University

Biographical Abstracts

Leah Sweetman, Ph.D., serves as the director of community engaged learning for the Saint Louis University Center for Social Action. She has over 20 years of experience in community engagement and higher education. Sweetman has a research interest in how universities prepare students to serve in new and diverse settings and is working on ways to integrate those best practices into Saint Louis University’s community engagement programs. She has presented at numerous community engagement conferences and has co-authored articles on community-engaged learning, voter engagement, and social justice education. She is the former co-chair of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities Community Engaged Learning Professionals Network. She remains active in that network and has served on several community development boards and committees in St. Louis. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Marquette University, a Master of Science in urban studies from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and a Ph.D. in public policy analysis and administration from Saint Louis University.

Areas of Expertise

• Community development
• Voting rights and voter engagement
• Service-learning