After 20 years of leading and championing the Stevenson Center for Community and Economic Development, Dr. Frank Beck is returning to a faculty role in his home department, Sociology and Anthropology. Beck has served as the director of the Stevenson Center for 20 of the Center’s 29-year history and has been the first faculty director to serve in this role. During his tenure as director, more than 200 master’s students from four academic units (Politics and Government, Economics, Sociology and Anthropology, and Kinesiology and Recreation) have come through the rigorous program. Over the center’s existence, they have sent these students to or received students from 56 different countries through their long-standing partnership with the U.S. Peace Corps, which continues today and has expanded to include a Peace Corps Prep program at Illinois State University. Beck has facilitated the expansion of academic partnerships for the center from the original three academic programs of economics, politics and government, and sociology to now include anthropology, kinesiology and recreation, and next year, public health. In support of the center’s mission that focuses on civic engagement and community-based research and scholarship, Beck has secured over $10 million in external grants/contracts from various organizations, including the Illinois Department of Employment Security, Illinois Student Assistance Commission, USDA, and McLean County. With former Associate Director Beverly Beyer and the entire staff, the center also secured an additional $2.8 million for graduate students’ stipends and program support.
Beck has also played a critical role in the classroom, frequently teaching core classes in the curriculum. As part of that process, Beck has partnered with various community organizations to facilitate student-engaged projects that have real-world impact for local partners and provide vital experiential learning opportunities for students. Examples of these organizations include the Ecology Action Center, WGLT, Western Avenue Community Center, The Immigration Project, Not in Our Town, and the City of Bloomington. Director of the Immigration Project Charlotte Alvarez shared this reflection on working with Beck and the students: “Throughout his time engaging with The Immigration Project, Dr. Beck has consistently, humbly sought input on how to make the research of the Stevenson Center relevant and create community impact. Together, we have found ways to make a shared mission, one that both produces accurate and relevant reports with community input but that does not overburden an already busy non-profit sector. His work has trained future generations of researchers on a model that will make ripples of impact for years to come. Dr. Beck has taken his work beyond the hallowed halls of the University and into the world and, in so doing, he has provided our organization with the research and data to break through myths and convey a complex and difficult reality to community members who may not otherwise be willing or able to understand it. We have used his research to engage in political discussions regarding immigration policy and to teach community members about immigrant justice.”
In April 2024, Beck was awarded the Civic Engagement Award for Faculty by the Center for Civic Engagement at ISU. This award recognizes a faculty member who has contributed significantly to incorporating civic engagement into their teaching, scholarly and creative productivity, and/or professional and community service and is a fitting way to honor his 20 years of service and engagement through leading the Stevenson Center. Beck most fully embodies and aligns with the spirit and the intention of civic engagement at Illinois State University, leading by example and combining that commitment and passion with an immeasurable ability to transfer that knowledge and that ethos of civic engagement on to countless students through active learning and engagement with our community partners. He will be missed in his role as director of the Stevenson Center, but we have no doubt he will continue to carry forward this life’s work and passion for civic engagement as he returns to faculty in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology.
