A 2026 Fall Welcome from IPCE Director Joseph Hoereth
Our Director Dr. Joe Hoereth welcomes back friends of IPCE to the fall 2026 semester at UIC.
Friends of IPCE,
I hope everyone had a great and smooth start to the fall semester. I am happy to share that the Institute for Policy and Civic Engagement celebrated a full summer of research and community impact with our partners. Heading into this academic year, we have an incredible lineup of programming, collaborations, and research to build on this momentum.
We will be hosting multiple Civic Engagement Lunch Talks throughout this upcoming academic year. These presentations will feature research from Dr. Jennifer Brier from the College of Liberal Arts, and Dr. Kumar Ramanathan from the College of Liberal Arts. We will be announcing specifics on these events throughout the semester!
We are proud to welcome 28 undergraduate students in the Urban Public Policy Fellowship Program (UPPF) for the 2026-2027 academic year. This cohort represents a large array of policy and research interests, and I am excited to see their progression as leaders as they navigate their internships and research projects. You can learn more about the cohort here. We would also like to welcome four of our newest UPPF Graduate Mentors: Margarita Arango, Anahi Cruz, Devonté West, and Carla Duran. You can learn more about our amazing graduate mentors here.
We are proud to announce the formation of the UPPF Alumni Association. The UPPF Alumni Association will consist of a collective of 10 UPPF alums that will advise and provide support for networking, mentorship, professional development and community engagement opportunities, for over 400 UPPF alumni. We are excited to develop this association and further connect our UPPF alums to UIC, IPCE, and one another.
We had a busy summer with our continued research work with our various partners including Independent Monitoring Team, the Illinois Department of Human Services, the Office of Firearm Violence Prevention, and recently with Chicago Public Schools, Kids First and Circle Root Collaborative.
We will be relaunching both our Civic Coffee Chats interview series and our Civics Unlocked short form video series. Make sure to subscribe to our YouTube and follow our socials to stay up to date on all IPCE video content!
We are looking forward to our many collaborations throughout the year, including kicking off the semester with a Policy 101 workshop with our friends at the UIC Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy! The workshop, entitled Engaged Research: Developing/Creating Meaningful Community Partnerships, will include panelists discussing the practice and principles of engaged research for UIC faculty and community collaborations. Learn more about the event, and our Policy 101 series here!
Please keep in touch with us through our website and social media to make sure you’re always in the know when we announce events, awards, or newly published research. I hope to see you at one of our events this semester, and wish you all an invigorating season ahead.
Joseph K. Hoereth, PhD