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March 8, 2004
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Media Contact: |
Mike Andrei
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Daemen College Names Lauren Breen Executive Director of Daemen Center for Sustainable Communities and Civic Engagement
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Daemen College has named Lauren Breen executive director of the Daemen College Center for Sustainable Communities and Civic Engagement. A clinical instructor of law at the University at Buffalo Law School, Breen holds a J.D. from the University at Buffalo and received her undergraduate degree from Georgetown University.
As executive director of Daemen's Center for Sustainable Communities and Civic Engagement, Breen will be responsible for curriculum development; initiating and managing community outreach programs associated with the Center; promoting applied research through a faculty-student think tank and publishing the findings through an occasional paper series; creating and maintaining a clear curricular and community based link between sustainability and civic responsibility through the Center; and grant writing in subject areas covered by the Center. Supported by a $600,000 grant from The John R. Oishei Foundation, the Daemen Center for Sustainable Communities and Civic Engagement links the core curriculum of the College, liberal education, and civic engagement with the development of practical skills. By linking service learning with the curriculum, the Center prepares students to address problems that impede the development of strong, sustainable communities and neighborhoods - globally and in Western New York. Daemen currently has two centers of community excellence operating in Buffalo: in the Seneca Babcock neighborhood, and on the city's West Side. "Lauren brings a wealth of experience in community-based sustainability work to Daemen," said Daemen President Dr. Martin J. Anisman. "It is this type of work that we find is making a difference in the lives of residents of Buffalo's Seneca Babcock neighborhood, and the West Side. Lauren will help this vital program to progress and grow." Since 1993, Breen has served as an instructor of law at the University at Buffalo Law School's Community Economic Development Clinic, supervising law students who provide legal services to community-based organizations seeking to improve the quality of life in low- income neighborhoods, mostly in the City of Buffalo. In addition to her clinical work at UB Law, Breen has taught lecture-based courses on nonprofit corporations and tax exemptions. Most recently, she developed and taught "Applied Tax: Using the Internal Revenue Code to Alleviate Poverty," as a foundation for law students who voluntarily prepared tax returns for home-based child care businesses and families eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit. Over the last 10 years, Breen assisted in curriculum development for UB Law School's Concentration in Community Development and Affordable Housing. This included developing and teaching courses in nonprofit corporations, tax-exempt entities, and applied tax. She has also provided grantwriting services on behalf of Community Economic Development Clinic clients. Together with the Local Initiatives Support Corporation Buffalo Program, her efforts resulted in obtaining $125,000 in funding from the U.S. Department of Commerce for community development and training on Buffalo's East side. Breen has an extensive record of community service, augmenting her professional work. She currently serves on the boards of a number of local nonprofits and community initiatives: Erie County Self-Sufficiency Project Steering Committee; Massachusetts Avenue Project (Co-Chair); Asset Building Coalition of WNY (acting Chair); and The Child Care Coalition of the Niagara Frontier, Inc. (Vice President). She is a member of the New York State Child Care Legal Services Advisory Committee, the Child Care That Works Campaign, and the New York State Bar Association. Breen is an active participant in the American Bar Association's Forum on Affordable Housing and Community Development Law and the ABA Legal Educators Group. She is a faculty advisor to the ABA's Journal of Affordable Housing and Community Development Law, which is edited at UB Law. Breen was President of Neighborhood Legal Services from 1997-1999. Breen's special areas of interest are asset building initiatives for low-income families, and the role of quality child care providers in the transition from public assistance to self-sufficiency. She has presented locally and at the state and national levels on child care as economic development; building assets for low income families; maximizing access to tax credits as a means to pay for quality child care; as well as a range of financial and professional topics related to not-for-profit corporations. Breen and her family are residents of Buffalo. |