Eric Eisenberg and members of USF’s Lifelong Learning staff speak with Tampa Bay area leaders participating in a new initiative called Leadership USF. Created by University Community Partnerships, the program introduces community leaders to the many resources available at USF.
'We are Better Together'
All stories by Tom Woolf
College for Every Student | Innovation Scholars | Mo-Bull Nurse | Summer Camps
From schools to industry, community partnerships change lives
aShawn Frost, MEd ’04, believes firmly in what she describes as a creative partnership between USF Sarasota-Manatee and Sarasota County’s Booker Middle School.
Frost is so committed that when it’s time for 10 seventh graders to head to the USF campus for Camp at College, the middle school principal handles the driving duties.
“This program provides our students with learning opportunities that may not be available on our campus,” she says. “It provides them with a more comprehensive education.”
Camp at College is one of thousands of mutually beneficial partnerships developed by USF faculty members with schools, industries, nonprofits, governments, the military and neighborhood groups.
They include efforts to ensure access to clean water for families. USF’s partnership with entrepreneurial support organizations Embarc Collective and Tampa Bay Wave is helping tech start-ups find success. The USF Health Morsani College of Medicine and its primary teaching hospital, Tampa General Hospital, partnered with the Tampa Bay Economic Development Council to establish the Tampa Medical and Research District in downtown Tampa. USF’s Center for Autism and Related Disabilities provides businesses with the education and tools they need to accommodate employees with autism and other developmental disabilities.
The list goes on and on. In fact, the database being compiled by the Office of University Community Partnerships holds 30,000 records. And it keeps growing.
Enhancing and expanding USF’s partnerships has been a priority throughout President Rhea Law’s tenure. During her January 2023 inaugural address, she said, “I am committed to strengthening USF’s community partnerships so we can make an even bigger impact. We are a major social and economic engine, and it’s critical that we continue building and nourishing our community partnerships, because we are better together.”
In late 2022, Law appointed Eric Eisenberg as senior vice president of university community partnerships. The former interim provost and longtime dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, he has been with USF for more than 30 years.
“We both were very frustrated when we would go to high-level meetings around the region and we would hear stories from people who would say, ‘I know you must have expertise in this or that area, and I tried to work with USF, but I couldn’t figure it out. I came to campus but I didn’t know where to park,’” Eisenberg says. “There are so many ways in which universities can be frustrating bureaucracies to people who don’t necessarily know — and why would they? — how to navigate them.”
Since the community partnerships office opened in January 2024, Eisenberg and his team have participated in hundreds of events throughout the Tampa Bay region.
“We are communicating to our communities that we are here to make it easier for them to figure out how to access the university,” he says. “We want people to think of USF as a resource. We want people to know that our door is open”
Contact the Office of University Community Partnerships at www.usf.edu/engagement.
