Catherine Emmanuelle named inaugural director of UW-EC's Center for Racial and Restorative Justice

Aug. 2—EAU CLAIRE — Catherine Emmanuelle, a former member of the Eau Claire City Council and experienced diversity educator, has assumed a new role serving members of her own community — at the very university she attended 11 years ago.

On June 29, Emmanuelle began her new duties as the inaugural director of UW-Eau Claire's Center for Racial and Restorative Justice, the university announced Monday.

Emmanuelle graduated from UW-Eau Claire in 2011 with a degree in women's studies. After completing her bachelor's degree at UW-Eau Claire, Emmanuelle earned a master's degree in advocacy and political leadership at the University of Minnesota-Duluth in 2014.

Emmanuelle has spent the last nine years working in UW-Madison's Division of Extension, first as a family living educator, extending university resources to and with residents in Trempealeau County, the university stated.

For the last five years she served as an area extension director for Chippewa, Dunn and Eau Claire County Extension departments, leading a team of 19 in areas of agriculture, community development, youth advocacy, human development and health and well-being initiatives, according to the university. Their efforts focused on expanding access to university resources with underserved populations as it pertains to race, ethnicity and gender.

Emmanuelle served as an at-large member of the Eau Claire City Council for nearly 10 years, her last three years as council vice president.

"As a proud alumna of UW-Eau Claire, I'm excited to bring my personal and professional commitment to leading and supporting efforts to create sustainable cultural change around issues of race and justice," Emmanuelle stated in a university news release.

The CRRJ, established in 2020, is grounded in the need for improved research and action, focused on racial, social and restorative justice at UW-Eau Claire, the university stated.

As CRRJ director, Emmanuelle joins the leadership team of UW-Eau Claire's Division of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Student Affairs, a team under the direction of vice chancellor Olga Diaz. Diaz said she is pleased to fill the CRRJ director position with someone so deeply rooted in the community with a long history of EDI experience, according to UW-Eau Claire

"I am thrilled to have Catherine Emmanuelle join the EDISA team as the director of our Center for Racial and Restorative Justice," Diaz said in the UW-Eau Claire news release. "Her experience and enthusiasm for community advocacy will be instrumental as our center continues to take shape."

Just a few weeks into her directorship, the university reported, Emmanuelle says she is "listening and learning about the important efforts and plans that will help to form the future of the CRRJ." A first step included hiring student intern Eliassah Larson, a third-year public health student from Eau Claire, who will work with the CRRJ until she graduates in May 2023, the university stated.

"Eliassah and I have fired up the center's foundational cylinders, including studying the CRRJ's final report, setting up a framework for additional campus collaborations, planning how we will introduce the center with students this fall, and working with campus colleagues as we co-host films and authors that will help us reflect and dialog, fostering empathy and intellectual courage as we explore racial, social and restorative justice," Emmanuelle said in the news release.

On the topic of a physical space for the CRRJ to call home, Emmanuelle told the university that, too, is going to be a process of collecting and processing data and opinions, consulting with campus stakeholders and understanding the elements of best practices to make the center successful for the people it will serve.

"It's important that the space or spaces of the center be accessible, welcoming and aligned to accomplish the CRRJ's mission, and it's yet to be seen exactly where that is," Emmanuelle said in the university news release.

Emmanuelle said she is eager to engage with people, both on and off campus, noting, "I have a relationship-centered leadership philosophy, and I will be spending a lot of time getting to know students, colleagues and friends of the university," the university stated.

"It's relationships on the Barron and Eau Claire campuses and our communities at-large that will help bring life to the center. There is a lot of work to be done," Emmanuelle stated in the university news release. "I'm ready to work with people, to put our hearts in action and our boots on the ground to help turn the tide in meaningful and inclusive ways."