Dr. Kara Dillard comes to the Madison Center for Civic Engagement with 15 years of experience researching, teaching and professional practice in the deliberative democracy and public engagement fields. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the School of Communication Studies and is a Co-Director at the Institute for Constructive Advocacy and Dialogue.
Dr. Dillard’s current research focuses on innovations in civic-oriented design-built technology, specifically examining the behavioral and attitudinal effects of facilitated public deliberative dialogue in online spaces.
Her research has been featured in the Journal of Applied Communication Research, the Journal of Political Science Education, and the International Journal of Communication. She’s given invited talks on facilitation and innovations in student online deliberation for Campus Compact, the International Association for Public Participation, the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation, and the popular international podcast, Facilitating Public Deliberations.
She serves as a curriculum program coach and in assessment design for the Interactivity Foundation’s Collaborative Discussion certificate program. Most recently, she built large-scale data visualizations as part of the City of Harrisonburg’s recent $23 million pandemic relief fund public input process, making data about civic engagement transparent and actionable.
She holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in communication studies and earned a PhD in political and rural sociology from Kansas State University. Outside of the office, Kara is an avid runner, sports enthusiast, sometimes cyclist, and mom to two kids and a dog. She moved to Harrisonburg after living almost all of her life west of the Rocky Mountains.
