Engage! Vol. 5, No. 3


ALAMILLA | CIVICALLY ENGAGED PROFESSIONAL

26

PAPER 1

Speaking Up and Speaking Out: 
Community Engagement as a 
Civically-Engaged Professional 
Rafael A. Alamilla
Ph.D. Candidate, Graduate Research Assistant
IU Indianapolis School of Health and Human Sciences

One of the most influential statements I was 
ever told came from my old undergraduate research 
mentor Dr. Jason Ng: "People who work at 
universities are servants to their communities." While 
it took me a few years to fully realize what he meant 
by that statement, it has always stuck with me 
because of the significance of its implications. Fast 
forward five years later, I now realize that this 
statement has inherently guided my philosophy 
around what I do as a community–based 
researcher—and underpins everything that I do as a 
professional. 

What it means for me to be a community-
based researcher has evolved over the years. The 
importance of community was instilled in me from 
my culture and my upbringing in a Mexican-
immigrant community. Admittedly though, I had no 
idea how this mentality and culture could be 
channeled into research until after I began my Ph.D. 
It took the COVID-19 pandemic and living in a city 
with significant health disparities (Brantley, 2018) for 
me to truly understand the importance of community 
engagement. 

Community engagement is at the core of my 
work nowadays—with the primary aim being to 
build stakeholder networks and community capacity 
to promote physical activity (PA) for 
underrepresented racial minority (i.e., Black, Latino, 
etc.) adults.

 Our team partners extensively with local 
health-based groups to facilitate community 
engagement around PA and promote healthy 
behaviors. Our overarching goal is to promote 
positive long-term health behaviors that reduce the 
risk of disease for individuals and foster healthier 
communities.

Advancing and fostering community 
engagement to me is not just about doing research 
with communities. To me, true community 
engagement requires civic engagement in the various 
domains of day-to-day life. It requires me to take on 
the role of a servant leader (Greenleaf, 1977) that 
helps build bridges; empower others; and see to it 
that the generations of accumulated knowledge 
discovered through scientific exploration be 
transferred to the communities that I serve. 

At its core, community-engaged 
research is about serving others. It is 
about using the privilege, knowledge, 

and resources I have disposable to 
me as an academic to make direct, 
tangible impacts on people’s lives. 

Community engagement is also 
about fostering mutually beneficial 

relationships and passing on the 
tools and resources necessary for 

communities to thrive.



27

PAPER 1

Working with our community partners has 
taught me that it is not enough to merely publish 
papers and stay in our ivory towers hoping that our 
work somehow trickles down to the general public. 
Rather, I must take on the responsibility of directly 
engaging with communities on a variety of levels. 
These efforts for me include advocating for health 
policies in our local/state governments (Alamilla, 
Keith, et al., 2023; Broz, 2023), serving on 
community committees, or taking the time to 
disseminate science in a way that is understandable 
to the layperson (Alamilla, Georgiadis, et al., 2023; 
Alamilla & Keith, 2021). It is vital that I make every 
effort to be engaged in my community and advocate 
for decisions that benefit the health of my 
community. 

At its core, community engaged research is 
about serving others. It is about using the privilege, 
knowledge, and resources I have disposable to me as 
an academic to make direct, tangible impacts on 
people's lives. Community engagement is also about 
fostering mutually beneficial relationships and 
passing on the tools and resources necessary for 
communities to thrive. Community engagement 
should not be seen as a trendy buzzword that panders 
to broader academia—but rather as a serious call for 
active participation in the day-to-day lives of those 
touched by a university's reach. Universities and 
those who work within them have real potential to 
make tangible, positive impacts in communities—it 
is up to us to decide if we will spark those changes 
into fruition.

References

Alamilla, R. A., Georgiadis, Y. M., Kaushal, N., & 
Keith, N. R. (2023). Reducing Physical Activity 
Disparities Among Vulnerable Minorities - Methods 
and Preliminary Outcomes: 1325. Medicine & 
Science in Sports & Exercise, 55(9S), 440. 

Alamilla, R. A., & Keith, N. R. (2021, September 
15). The Importance of Sleep for Health. American 
Fitness Index. 
https://americanfitnessindex.org/importance-of 
sleep-for-health

Alamilla, R. A., Keith, N. R., Hasson, R. E., Welk, 
G. J., Riebe, D., Wilcox, S., & Pate, R. R. (2023). 
Future Directions for Transforming Kinesiology 
Implementation Science into Society. Kinesiology 
Review, 12(1), 98–106. 

Brantley, A. (2018, May 21). Health Brief: Memphis 
& Shelby County. Better Tennessee. 

Broz, T. (2023). Student helping shape state policy 
through inaugural fellowship. IUPUI Today. 

Greenleaf, R. K. (1977). Servant Leadership—A 
Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and 
Greatness. Paulist Press.

ALAMILLA | CIVICALLY ENGAGED PROFESSIONAL