Hannah Vann, formerly director of teen programs at Girls Inc. of Chattanooga, Tennessee, and a 2010 graduate of Mercer University’s College of Liberal Arts, has been named coordinator of community engagement in the Center for Leadership and Volunteerism.

“Hannah contributed so much to Mercer and Macon when she was here as an undergraduate through her work on the Sex Trafficking Opposition Project and her volunteerism at Crisis Line and Safe House,” said Dr. Mary Alice Morgan, senior vice provost for service-learning. “We are so fortunate that she is returning to Mercer, bringing her expertise in community engagement, energy and passion to inspire students.”

Vann will manage Macon campus community outreach, including developing volunteer and service-learning partnerships and placing community-based work study students.

“This opportunity to return to Mercer means so much to me,” said Vann. “The people here had such a lasting influence on my life, both personally and professionally, and it was under the guidance of professors like Drs. Mary Alice Morgan, Mary Ann Drake, Andy Silver, Sarah Gardner, Eimad Houry and Chris Grant that I learned the value and importance of service and building sustainable, collaborative projects through community engagement. The Mercer community invested in me and my future so that I would aim higher than I ever thought possible, and I’m so proud to be able to join in that tradition with these new Mercerians.”

Vann was director of teen programs at Girls Inc. – a young women’s empowerment organization that teaches leadership skills and provides academic and community support by partnering with local schools and organizations – for the past three years. During her tenure, the teen programs for girls, ages 12-18, tripled in size.

From August 2010 to May 2011, she participated in the United States’ flagship international educational exchange program by serving a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship in Indonesia.

As a Mercer undergraduate, pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in women’s and gender studies, Vann won the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award as the graduating senior who best exemplifies excellence in character, leadership, service to the community and spiritual values. She was the founder and president of the Sex Trafficking Opposition Project (STOP), launching an anti-sex trafficking movement in Middle Georgia by recruiting and training community volunteers, developing education outreach strategies, delivering public education presentations and hosting a national conference on human trafficking on the Macon campus. She also volunteered at Crisis Line and Safe House of Middle Georgia.

In 2010, Vann received the Gulf-South Summit Award for Outstanding Student Contributions to Service-Learning in Higher Education.

Vann can be reached in the Center for Leadership and Volunteerism at (478) 301-2870 or [email protected].