Marie Sandy, associate professor in the School of Education, has been named the new Wm. Collins Kohler Chair in Systems Change & Peacebuilding.
The professorship was made possible by a $3 million gift from the Wm. Collins Kohler Foundation in 2020.
Sandy, who joined the faculty in 2008, has taught in the School of Education’s Administrative Leadership program and the College of Nursing’s Master of Sustainable Peacebuilding (MSP) program. She also is an affiliated faculty member with the College of Letters and Science’s Urban Studies Program and the Joseph Zilber School of Public Health.
The Institute for Systems Change and Peacebuilding (ISCP) was created to facilitate deep dialogue among diverse community members, faculty, students and alumni needed to support health and peace.
Because of the institute, the MSP program can support the next generation of system change leaders with the transdisciplinary skills required to engage the complex global challenges, such as climate change, poverty and health disparities.
The Wm. Collins Kohler Foundation has supported peace studies at UWM since 2007, giving a total of $4.7 million during that time. In 2011, it helped establish the MSP program, with former endowed chair Timothy Ehlinger as the founding director.
“I am grateful to the Wm. Collins Kohler Foundation for this opportunity, and for their gift that makes this work possible,” Sandy said. “I look forward to playing a greater role in helping to promote authentic community-academic relationships and facilitate transformative practices in Milwaukee that can impact the health, well-being and sustainable peace of residents here.”
The ISCP’s goals align perfectly with the focus of Sandy’s research, said Kim Litwack, dean of UWM’s College of Nursing.
“Dr. Sandy has spent her career working on community-academic partnerships,” Litwack said. “The depth and breadth of her experience, not just within Milwaukee but within the state, and across schools and colleges at UWM, will help increase the visibility of the institute and its resources for systems change and peacebuilding.”
