By 
Carrie Maultsby-Lute, MBA ’11, professor of practice and the former director of the Center for Transformative Action, has been named to the new position of director of partnerships for Northeastern’s Oakland campus. In that role, she will work with Mills College at Northeastern University and the Mills Institute along with other on-site programs.
“We want to build leaders while uplifting the region and its people,” she says. “I’m really excited about it, and my goal is to be of value and service to faculty, to staff, to students, to anyone who’s wanting to bring in external partners to campus.”
At a faculty/staff meeting on May 3, Maultsby-Lute outlined who she envisions those external partners to be: employers such as corporations, governmental entities, and nonprofits; and “place-building” entities such as small business owners, foundations, and community colleges. The goal of forging relationships with these various institutions is to expand opportunities for co-ops, jobs, faculty research, experiential learning in the classroom, and community development.
“The mission I put forward is one where as educational visionaries, we are a force that spurs innovation, develops leaders, and drives equitable economic growth in Oakland and the larger community,” she says. “We do this by developing radical partnerships that build trust and empower people in place.”
This is familiar territory for Maultsby-Lute; as CTA director, she established relationships with entrepreneurs and community leaders in Oakland to tackle local issues. She has also teamed up with Alicia Sasser Modestino on the Boston campus for the Community to Community: Finding Equitable Solutions to Local Policy Problems impact engine, a multicampus initiative that connects policymakers with Northeastern faculty and is funding 12 scholars participating in community-engaged research with the goal of reducing racial and economic disparities.
