Saturday, July 25, 2026

12:30 pm - 1:00 pm Check In

1:00 pm - 2:00 pm Welcome and Orientation - Elizabeth Williams & Angela Gist-Mackey

2:00 pm - 2:15 pm Break

2:15 pm - 4:30 pm Keynote Speaker: Shiv Ganesh

4:30 pm - 5:00 pm Interrelationality Reflection - Anna Wolfe 

5:00 pm - 5:30 pm Break

 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm Reception 

Sunday, July 26, 2026

8:00 am Breakfast 

8:30 am - 9:00 am Reorientation - Joshua Barbour 

9:00 am - 10:15 am Projects-in-Progress 1 - Angela Gist-Mackey

• Engaging Organizing for Liberation: Mutual Aid Collectives as Alternative Structures - Hannah P. Luz, University of Colorado Boulder

• How Do We Talk About It Without Talking About It?: Visibility And Vulnerability In Feminist And Engaged Scholarship During The Geopolitical Moment - Ruby Wray, University of Arizona; Jasmine R. Linabary, University of Arizona; & Meghana Rawat, Assistant Professor

• Balancing Capacity Building and Systems Change as Engaged Scholarship Impacts - Bailey Flynn, Cornell University

• Are We Getting It Right? Centering Community Partner Perceptions in Community Engagement - Marisa Hightower, University of Miami; Renee Miller Zientek, Michigan State University; James Frabutt, University of Notre Dame; Margaret Barrett, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Chicory Bechtel, University of Wyoming; Mary Hunt, University of Albany - State University of New York; Katie Kleinhesselink, University of Colorado Boulder; Anna Leversee, Dartmouth College; & Laurie Van Egeren, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

• Engaged Inquiry into Honesty: Ethical Partnerships in Leadership Communication - Elena Svetieva, University of Colorado Colorado Springs; & Sasha Miller, University of Colorado Colorado Springs

• When Service Is Required: Ethics and Labor in Community-Engaged Learning - Hailey Gillen Hoke, Weber State University

10:15 am - 10:30 am Break

10:30 am - 12:00 pm Keynote Panel: Kevin Barge, Josh Scacco, Parameswari Mukherjee Growing and Sustaining Ethical Partnerships in the Current Moment

12:00 pm - 1:30 Lunch 

 1:30 pm - 2:45 pm Projects-in-Progress 2 - Joshua Barbour

• Conflict Communication, Substance Use and Recovery in the Food Service and Hospitality Industry - Rahul Mitra, Wayne State University & Mitch McSparin, Wayne State University

• Reconfiguring Community-Engaged Collaborations to Sustain Ethical Partnerships: Exploring Tensions in the Case of Health App Design for Underserved Latine Communities - Sabrina Singh, Rutgers University; Yiyi Wu, Rutgers University; & Mehedi Zaman, Rutgers University

• Surviving or Thriving Under Panoptic Tensions: Does a Positive Deviance Framework Help Rethink Gender Workplace Surveillance in Male-Dominated Organizations? - Margaret D. E. Lewis Martinez, Texas A&M University

• Toward More Effective Hospital and Family Liaisons: A Case Study of the USFS Casualty Assistance Program (CAP) Amid Calls to Expand CAP Programs Nationwide - Dr. Rebekah Fox, Texas State University; & Diego Mendoza-Flores, Texas State University

• Graduate Level Experiential Learning: Community Engaged Qualitative Research Class Addressing Food and Housing Insecurity - Angela N. Gist-Mackey, University of Kansas; & Saiemeh Wahidi, University of Kansas

2:45 pm - 3:00 pm Break

3:00 pm - 4:30 pm Keynote Case: Tim Huffman: Imagination

4:30 pm - 5:00 pm Interdisciplinarity Reflection - Jasmine Linabary

Dinner on your own

Monday, July 27, 2026

Breakfast on your own

 8:30 am - 9:45 am Projects-in-Progress 3 - Elizabeth Williams

• The Geo-Political Matters To “Relationship” Amid Engaged Works -  Xiaodong Yan, University of Colorado Boulder; Dongjing Kang, Shanghai Jiao Tong University; & Leah Sprain, University of Colorado Boulder

• Sustaining the Sustainable: Addressing Resilience Fatigue through Ethical Partnerships and ICTs in Disaster Contexts - Jiayu Sun, University of Puget Sound

• Rooted in Relationship? Tensions in Intra-Institutional Engaged Scholarship in Higher Education - Tara D. Hargrove, Pacific Union College; Becky St. Clair, Pacific Union College; & Lem Garcia, Pacific Union College

• Cooperation Over Corporation: Stakeholder Structure at the Isla Vista Food Cooperative - Bedlam Oak, University of California, Santa Barbara; Lucia Hermoso, University of California, Santa Barbara; & Laila Mirroknian, University of California, Santa Barbara

• Maintaining Connection Under Housing Instability: Caregiver Communication, Relational Resilience, and Institutional Constraint - Jacob Spurlock, University of California, Santa Barbara

• Incorporating Ethics into Communication Curriculum: Student Perceptions of Ethics at the Individual, Organizational, and Global Levels - Natalie Grecu, Utah Valley University

9:45 am - 10:00 am Break

10:00 am - 11:30 am Impact Reflection & Next Steps - Jasmine Linabary & Anna Wolfe

Conference Venue and Accommodations

Thank you for your interest in attending the 2026 Engaged Communication Scholarship Conference in Fort Collins, Colorado. Please check back in the coming months for the conference program and details about the venue. The conference runs from Saturday at 1:00 PM until Monday at 1:00 PM (Fort Collins time).

The conference will be held at the Behavioral Sciences Building (Room 105). Parking will be free on campus on Saturday and Sunday. You can pay for parking on campus for Monday during registration. We recommend parking on surface lots right near the Behavioral Sciences Building.

Getting to Fort Collins

Travelers typically fly to Denver, CO. Here are two shuttle services provide transportation from Denver to Fort Collins that you may wish to consider.

Landlind https://landline.com/landline/

Groome Transportation https://groometransportation.com/fort-collins-loveland/?&sd_client_id=fbc4f4c0-2417-4afd-8386-d985a8c935d0

Conference Lodging

We recommend that participants secure lodging as soon as possible (even a provisional reservation), and we recommend staying in one of the following locations. Cheyenne Frontier Days is happening during the conference and Fort Collins sees a lot of spillover guests. 

The Armstrong (https://thearmstronghotel.com/)

• A boutique hotel in Old Town Fort Collins.

• 20% discount on available rooms

• Discount available July 24-28

• Use this link for discount, or call (970-484-3883) and request the Aspen Conference 2026.

The Buxton (https://www.bestwestern.com/en_US/book/hotels-in-fort-collins/best-western-university-inn/propertyCode.06040.html)

• Renovated (spring 2026) boutique hotel just east of campus. A 10-minute walk to where the conference will be held.

• Best Western affiliate

• $229 per night

• Use this link for discount.

The Hilton (https://www.hilton.com/en/hotels/fnlcohf-hilton-fort-collins/)

• A hotel just south of campus. A 10-minute walk to where the conference will be held.

• $179/night; per room, per night for a standard room with one king or two double beds.  This rate will increase by $10 for each additional guest in the room beyond 2.  This block has discounted $5 overnight parking. 

• Discount available July 24-28

• Use this link for discount.

CSU Dorms (https://ces.colostate.edu/guest-housing/)

• On campus lodging.

• Range of prices (single/double; AC/no AC) $79.91-128.52 (includes one meal per night)

• Booking available starting in April 

The Elizabeth (https://www.theelizabethcolorado.com/)

• A Marriott Autograph property in Old Town Fort Collins.

• No discount available

Hotel Share and Carpooling Program

To help participants manage the costs of the conference, we have a clearing house for those who would like to share a hotel room and/or carpool for those who plan to fly into Denver. If you would like to participate, please contact us by July 1st. We will connect people as soon as they submit, so please consider letting us know of your interest as soon as possible.