Welcome to the Center for Community Research & Education! Founded in 2020, the center’s mission is to serve the faculty and students of Lewis University and our local community through evaluation and research projects that investigate and respond to local social and educational challenges.
Dr. Hannah Klein, Director – is an assistant professor in the Justice, Law, and Public Safety Studies Department. Her research interests focus on prevention and intervention for delinquency, gangs, and gun violence with special attention on the role of adversity and trauma in those outcomes. A majority of her research portfolio includes output and outcome evaluations, using mixed methods approaches. Dr. Klein has developed several research partnerships with local nonprofits providing evaluation services to ensure the preventive actions are successful.
Contact Dr. Klein at hklein1@lewisu.edu or (815)836-5368
Dr. Kip Kline, Dean of the College of Education & Social Sciences, earned a Ph.D. from Indiana University (Bloomington) in History, Philosophy, and Policy in Education in 2007. He has served as dean of the College of Education and Social Sciences since 2022. Under his leadership, the College of Education and Social Sciences established the Center for Community Research and Education. The Center organizes and supports grant-funded faculty and student projects of interest to the local community, including school districts and social service agencies. Kline also established the annual College of Education and Social Sciences annual Diversity Colloquium.
He serves on the Executive Board of the Joliet Chamber of Commerce where he also is a member of the education subcommittee and the government affairs subcommittee. Dr. Kline has been a fellow at the Deans for Impact Academy, and he has served on the Executive Board of the Illinois Association of Colleges for Teacher Education.