Community Engagement

Jack Dustin

With passion and interests as diverse as the people in this world, Jack L. Dustin, Ph.D., commits his life to serving others in an array of committees and leadership positions.

Dustin is an associate professor in the Department of Urban Affairs and Geography and has chaired the department for two decades.

Dustin received more than 40 recommendation letters nominating him for a Presidential Award for Faculty Excellence with nominees praising Dustin for years’ worth of differences that he has made at their university or communities and organizations.

Dustin served from 1998 to 2014 as the director of the Center for Urban and Public Affairs (CUPA), which has impacted local cities, regions, school districts and nonprofit agencies.

“His dedication to teaching and research and his passion about community service and the public good have always been an example for me,” said a recent graduate student in CUPA.

He was part of a team of county officials that developed an award-winning Economic Development/Government Equity program that is cited as a national best practice more than 20 years after its development.

Dustin was also part of the Community Outreach Partnership Center project in which CUPA the Raj Soin College of Business, the College of Education and Human Services and the Boonshoft School of Medicine worked with Dayton neighborhoods addressing issues of housing, education, reinvestment, health and community building.  Dustin helped engage many students across 13 different related projects.

Dustin may be found in the least expected place in Dayton, because he is involved in more activities than there are possible weather predictions for the state of Ohio.

Additional positions he has held: board trustee for County Corp, president of Wright State’s chapter of the Phi Kappa Phi Honorary Society, served on both the College of Liberal Arts and university service-learning advisory committees and assisted in the work of the Dayton Urban League Young Black Professionals.

Dustin has served as Faculty Senate president and participated in the university’s first strategic plan and efforts to develop international partnerships in Eastern Europe and Central America.

He also helped develop the Wright State and Sinclair Economic Inequality Initiative, created a Volunteer Management Training Program and web-based information system for nonprofit organizations.

“Jack’s commitment to the university and to the community had led him to assume an almost super-human workload,” said his colleagues in the Department of Urban Affairs and Geography.

“Dustin’s influence and reputation in the Greater Dayton community will leave a long lasting affect as communities use the foundation of his work. … Dustin often times goes above and beyond for the greater good of the community,” said Catherine Crosby, executive director of the Human Relations Council of Dayton.