Dear Members of the Clark Community,
Today, I am pleased to announce the appointment of Joseph M. Corazzini as Clark University’s next Vice President for Government and Community Affairs (VPGCA). Clark’s legacy of making life better here in our own neighborhood, nationally, and around the world is a distinction we are all very proud of and committed to continuing. As Vice President, Joseph will play a key role in ensuring that we are harnessing all of our great strengths — through our students, our research, our community-based programs, and partnerships, and our social conscience — to be an active, engaged University.
As a Worcester native, expert community organizer, and someone who is highly skilled at developing partnerships to open doors of opportunity, Joe will serve Clark well as VPGCA. In this role, Joseph will be a member of the University’s senior leadership team and a close adviser to many, including vice presidents, deans, faculty, staff, and trustees. He will oversee all government and community affairs, with primary responsibility for amplifying Clark’s prominence as a vocal leader within the national higher education landscape and deepening our outward engagement at the local, state, and federal levels. Joe also will work to increase the visibility of faculty as thought leaders contributing to the national dialogue around major issues and better leverage areas of research and faculty expertise to impact policy. Finally, he will be a key University ambassador in Worcester, partnering with local government officials, civic and business organizations, and neighborhood residents. A very high priority will be sustaining our active partnerships in our Main South neighborhood and our work to improve the quality of life for all who live and work here.
Joseph has dedicated his career to advancing educational equity and community development right here in our own Main South neighborhood and the extended Worcester region. Since 2012, he has served as assistant superintendent of equity, diversity, and community development and director of community resource development with the Framingham Public Schools. Joseph has had a wide range of responsibilities that require relationship-building, coordination with local, state, and federal elected and government officials, engagement with community stakeholders, and an entrepreneurial spirit to launch and sustain major new initiatives. Among his many accomplishments, Joseph established and managed a district wraparound model providing holistic support to high-need families; collaborated with Framingham State University to launch the Framingham Teacher Residency Program; and cultivated ongoing support for early college access programs, including the MetroWest Early Scholars Program and 100 Males to College – Framingham. Previously, as associate director of community organizing for the United Way of Central Massachusetts’ Main South Promise Neighborhood program, Joe was actively involved in community development in Main South and led an effort to establish a wraparound zone that included three innovation schools and expanded early education programming. Earlier in his career, Joseph was associate director of the Worcester Education Collaborative and a program director with Dynamy, an internship-based gap year program based in Worcester.
Joseph earned both his Bachelor of Arts in history and master’s in nonprofit management from Worcester State University.
We will have an opportunity to formally introduce Joseph when he begins his appointment on November 1. In the meantime, please join me in welcoming him to the Clark community and back home to Main South.
My sincere thanks to the members of the search committee (listed below) who partnered with me to identify and recruit such an outstanding addition to our senior leadership team.
Sincerely,
David Fithian, ‘87
President
Search Committee
- Mary-Ellen Boyle, Associate Professor of Management, School of Management
- Laura Burgess, Assistant Dean, Academic and Student Services, School of Management, and Staff Assembly Representative
- Edward R. Carr, Professor and Director of the International Development, Community, and Environment Department
- Jill Friedman, Vice President for Marketing & Communications
- Logan Rosell, Undergraduate Representative
- Rosalie Torres Stone, Associate Professor of Sociology