Star Plaxton-Moore is an associate director of the Haas Center and director of Community Engaged Learning and Research. In this role, Star works with the dynamic and highly-skilled CELR team to envision, implement, and assess some of the Haas Center’s signature programs and key strategic initiatives, including integrating public service and community engagement into the undergraduate and graduate curriculum, supporting faculty development for community-engaged teaching and research, and strengthening the center’s place-based initiatives in education and sustainability. She also administers community-engaged grant programs, maintains relationships with Stanford’s internal and external partners, oversees the Cardinal Service Notation, and mentors students.

Star joined the Haas Center after 19 years at the Leo T. McCarthy Center for Public Service and the Common Good at University of San Francisco where she was Director of Community-Engaged Learning. Star directed institutional support for community-engaged courses and oversaw public service programs for undergraduates, including the Public Service and Community Engagement Minor. She also designed and implemented an annual Community-Engaged Learning and Teaching Fellowship, a Community Partner Co-Educator Fellowship, and other professional development offerings that brought together faculty and community partners as co-learners. 

Star’s scholarship focuses on faculty development for community-engaged teaching and scholarship, student preparation for community engagement, intersections of feminism and community engagement, assessment of civic learning outcomes, and community engagement in institutional culture and practice. She has co-authored two books, The Student Companion to Community-Engaged Learning and The Craft of Community-Engaged Teaching and Learning, as well as multiple book chapters, articles, and book reviews. 

Star has served on the board of the International Association for Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement (IARSLCE) since 2019, and is the co-chair of the board’s Special Programming Committee. In 2022, Star was invited to serve as Campus Compact’s inaugural Faculty Development Fellow, and a year later received Campus Compact’s Nadinne Cruz Community Engagement Professional Award. Additionally, Star is a second term trustee at the Katherine Delmar Burke School for Girls. She also consults with colleges and universities across the country on community-engaged faculty development, and with Bay Area independent K-8 schools on service-learning curriculum, principles, and practices.

Prior to working in higher education, Star worked as an elementary school teacher in Virginia and California. She holds an EdD in organizational leadership from University of San Francisco and an MEd and BA from George Washington University. Star lives in the Richmond neighborhood of San Francisco with her spouse, Andrew, and kids, Jackson and SJ. In her free time, Star enjoys running, beach visits, baking, and listening to educational podcasts.