Community engagement | Northern Arizona University

NAU embraces the world. Lumberjacks experience it, learn from it, and contribute to it every day—through service, celebrations, and solutions.

Leading everywhere

We offer locations around Arizona so that an education is accessible for anyone who is willing to seek it. We help to ensure inventions and technology created by NAU researchers transfer into practical solutions in the private sector.

Whether nursing students are helping deliver COVID-19 vaccinations, geology students are creating a more sustainable region, or astronomy students are exploring the outer edges of the universe, NAU is making an impact close to home and far, far away.

N A U's Community-University Public Inquiry (CUPI) program teaches valuable research and teamwork skills.

CUPI’s community-focused research at NAU

Undergraduates learn valuable research and teamwork skills in NAU’s Community-University Public Inquiry (CUPI) program.

NAU alumnus Tad Gary helps break ground next to a park.

A behavioral health advocate

First-gen graduate is dedicated to community improvement

NAU alumnus Tad Gary, BS Psychology ’96, is passionate about helping people get the behavioral healthcare they need.

Read full story

A different kind of classroom

Alumnus Alexander Davenport used a flexible degree option and ties with his alma mater to develop a world-class adaptive ski program.

NAU professor Matthew Wangeman teaches a Disability Studies program.

Advocating for representation

NAU Professor Matthew Wangeman, of the Institute for Human Development (IHD), is carving a path for others through his role in the Disability Studies program.

Taylor Lane sitting at a desk working on her computer

Crunching numbers, changing lives

Taylor Lane, a PhD candidate in NAU’s Interdisciplinary Health doctoral program, finds that data analysis can lead to information that helps people become healthier and fitter.

Sharing a love of learning

Thea Hookey, a 2021 graduate of Northern Arizona University’s College of Education (COE), was born to teach. That’s good news for the thousands of students whose lives she will help shape throughout her career.