Who We Are

UW–Parkside ARISE is a campus initiative designed to make it easier for external partners and UW–Parkside faculty to connect, scope opportunities, and collaborate. We focus on building clear pathways, practical tools, and shared capacity so partnerships can move from “interest” to “action” with less friction.

To strengthen UW–Parkside’s ability to engage in applied, use-inspired research and partner-responsive training by building sustainable partnership infrastructure—so regional collaboration is clearer, faster to start, and easier to maintain.

Goal 1: Build partnership-ready infrastructure

We're creating a clearer “front door” for partnership inquiries, along with practical templates, guidance, and workflows that support consistent scoping, routing, and follow-through.

Goal 2: Strengthen faculty capacity for applied collaboration

We're supporting faculty development through workshops and internal resources that build readiness for applied research and industry/community-aligned training.

What we're building (Year 1 MVPs)

• A public-facing ARISE site with a clear pathway to start a partnership conversation
• A front door intake + triage process so requests are acknowledged, routed, and tracked
• An internal resource hub (knowledge base + templates) to reduce barriers and improve consistency
• A faculty expertise directory to support matching and discovery
• A bounded summer applied research pilot to test and refine a repeatable partnership model
• A rapid response training prototype to support partner-responsive training needs

ARISE is designed to serve:

• Partners (industry, nonprofits, government, and community organizations) seeking collaboration
• UW–Parkside faculty & staff engaged in applied research, sponsored work, and partner projects
• The Southeastern Wisconsin region by strengthening innovation partnerships and workforce-aligned work
• Students through expanded applied learning opportunities and partner-connected experiences

ARISE Leadership Team

• Dr. Theresa Castor — Vice Provost for Research and Administration (Project Director / PI)
• Steve “Rocky” Donovan — Executive Director, Parkside Works; Associate Vice Chancellor (Partnership “front door” / workforce innovation)
• Dr. John Skalbeck — Assistant Vice Chancellor for Partnerships (Champion function / Partnerships lead)
• Dr. Bryan Lewis — Coordinator of Allied Health Partnerships (Applied partnership development)
• Dr. Kaushik Ragothaman — Assistant Professor of Computer Science (Applied research / technical input)
• Dr. Sara Wright — Project Coordinator (Implementation, documentation, evaluation support)
• Additional campus collaborators and stakeholders support specific workstreams

ARISE is supported through the National Science Foundation (NSF) Expanding Partnerships and Infrastructure for Impact and Capacity (EPIIC) program. UW–Parkside is part of the ARISE cohort, a national group of institutions working to strengthen partnership capacity, applied research infrastructure, and workforce-aligned engagement.  

Award: NSF EPIIC Award #2519848

UW–Parkside is one of five institutions in the ARISE cohort:

• Frostburg State University
• Northern Virginia Community College
• University of Texas Permian Basin
• University of West Florida
• University of Wisconsin–Parkside