Diane M. Doberneck, Ph.D., is the director for faculty and professional development, Office for Public Engagement and Scholarship, University Outreach and Engagement (UOE). She provides leadership for UOE’s faculty and staff professional development programs for graduate students, post-docs, academic staff, tenure-track faculty, administrators, and community partners. Programming under her leadership spans a continuum of low, mid, and high involvement learning opportunities; includes virtual resources and workshops; and is informed by and generative of scholarship.
Doberneck leads MSU’s signature program on professional development for community engagement. The Graduate Certification in Community Engagement is in its 18th year. The weeklong Summer Intensive on Community-Engaged Scholarship is specifically for faculty, academic staff, Extension professionals, and post-docs. With the Writing Center, Doberneck offers monthly write-ins, publishing workshops, writing retreats, and individual consultations to support writing and publishing, an essential academic success skill for community-engaged researchers, artists, teachers, and practitioners.
To inform professional development programming, Doberneck conducts research about faculty and staff competencies related to broader impacts and graduate student competencies related to community engagement. Her research interests have also included the incorporation of community engagement in reappointment, promotion, and tenure; faculty integration of outreach and engagement across their teaching, research, service, and administrative responsibilities; and career pathways for community-engaged scholars and practitioners.
Nationally, Doberneck champions excellence in community engagement. She is the immediate past chair of the nationally competitive Emerging Engagement Scholars Workshop, is author of Campus Compact’s introductory module for the Community Engagement Competency Program and concluded a co-editorship of a special issue of the Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement about boundary-spanners. Across the country, she consults with colleges and universities on institutional change supportive of community engagement; revisions to reappointment, promotion, and tenure policies to support community engagement; publishing community-engaged scholarship; graduate education; and professional development for community engagement.
Doberneck was recently promoted to senior continuing academic specialist, the highest rank in her job classification at Michigan State. She also holds an adjunct associate professor appointment in the Department of Community Sustainability and is an affiliated faculty member with the Center for Teaching and Learning Innovation, GenCen, Diversity Research Network, and the Center for Interdisciplinarity. In 2020, she was awarded the university-wide Distinguished Academic Staff Award for her professional accomplishments. In 2024, she was honored with Michigan Sea Grant Extension’s Van Snider Award for Distinguished Partnerships.
Recent Publications
Benitez, A. G., Triezenberg, H. A., Bennet, A., Doberneck, D. M., & Rey, M. (2025, December). Freshwater harmful algal blooms (HABS) public health message efficacy evaluation. Journal of Contemporary Water Research and Education 182(3) https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/jcwre/vol182/iss3/1/
Doberneck, D. M., Smith, T., McNall, M., & Baldwin, D. (2025, April). Community-engaged scholarship writing retreats and write-ins: Supporting scholarly productivity and success. Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement 29(1). https://openjournals.libs.uga.edu/jheoe/article/view/3224
Clites, E., Triezenberg, H.A., & Doberneck, D. M. (2024). Aligning audience needs with scientists’ information in the complex harmful algal bloom outreach to engagement continuum. Journal of Contemporary Water Research and Education 181, 1-10.
Doberneck, D. M., Warwick A., Avers, B. & Pomeranz, E. (2023). The Co-development of Community Engagement Certificate Programs for State Agency Professionals: A University-State Agency Partnership for Statewide Impact. Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement.
Doberneck, D. M. (2022). Summer Intensive on Community-Engaged Scholarship: Generative tensions and future directions for professional development. Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship 15(1). DOI: 10.54656/jces.v15i1.483
Recent Reports
Doberneck, D. M. (2025). 2025 Emerging Engagement Scholars Workshop Evaluation Report. East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University.
Doberneck, D. M. (2025, August). 2025 DNR Wildlife Advanced Community Engagement Certificate Program Evaluation Report. East Lansing, MI. Michigan State University.
Doberneck, D. M. (2025). 2025 Summer Intensive on Community-Engaged Scholarship Evaluation Report. East Lansing, MI. Michigan State University
Recent Presentations
(April 2026)
Community Engagement Professional Competency Program
Doberneck, D. M., & Springer, N. C. (2025, April). Community Engagement Professional Competency Program [Presentation]. Campus Compact, Atlanta, GA, March 31-April 2, 2025.
(November 2025)
Write-ins, Workshops, and Retreats: Continuum of Support for Scholarly Writers
Doberneck, D. M. (2025). Write-ins, Workshops, and Retreats: Continuum of Support for Scholarly Writers. [Poster]. Professional and Organizational Network Annual Conference, San Diego, CA. November 23-25, 2025.
(October 2025)
Graduate Certification in Community Engagement at Year 18: Emerging Directions
Doberneck, D. M., & McNall, M. (2025). Graduate Certification in Community Engagement at Year 18: Emerging Directions. [Workshop]. Engagement Scholarship Consortium Conference, Virginia Tech, Roanoke, VA. October 2025.
