Kay Jowers

Executive-in-Residence
Director of Community-Engaged Practice
Member of Faculty Fellows

Kay Jowers is Executive-in-Residence and Director of Social Inquiry & Community-Engaged Practice at the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke. Her work is shaped by earlier experience in public-interest law and environmental justice. She works at the intersection of political sociology and community-engaged scholarship, with a focus on how movements and institutions, especially universities working with local partners, sustain the long work of justice and repair. These days, she builds programs, community partnerships, and learning spaces where rigorous inquiry and relationship-building go hand in hand, and where curiosity is treated not just as an intellectual habit but as a form of care. Across classrooms, community collaborations, and research projects, she’s interested in what it takes to keep returning to the table long enough for real change to take root.