Written by
Gwen McNamara, Communications Specialist
Aug. 24, 2022

As we start a new academic year, we are pleased to welcome four new team members to the John H. Pace, Jr. '39 Center for Civic Engagement. 

Brooke Johnson, Princeton Project 55 Fellow, Service Engagement Coordinator

Brooke Johnson

A member of the Great Class of 2022, Brooke Johnson concentrated in African American studies with a certificate in gender and sexuality studies at Princeton University. She also served as a Fields Fellow with the Carl A. Fields Center for Equality + Cultural Understanding, and a Dialogue and Difference in Action orientation leader during her time at Princeton. In her role at the Pace Center, her primary responsibilities will be to support the center's sustained volunteering programs. She will also serve as a staff mentor for a Service Focus cohort.

Ida Malloy, Community Partner-in-Residence

Community Partner-in-Residence Ida Malloy

Ida Malloy currently serves as the coordinator of civic engagement at The Baldwin School. Her personal and professional lives revolve around civic engagement and community activism. She believes that people define their lives by what they do and their willingness to make sustainable change. Ida is a proud resident of the city of Trenton, NJ. Ida earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from La Salle University, and a master’s degree in Holocaust and Genocide Studies from Richard Stockton University. She was awarded a Fulbright-Hays Grant through Yale University to study abroad in Ghana in 2007, and was a Carl Wilkens Fellow in 2009. She currently serves on a number of boards and is active with a number of organizations in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Her favorite cause is literacy and supporting young learners. She recently installed a neighborhood library box (a gift from The Haverford School) and she is the founder of Trenton Reads, a backyard book club. She enjoys traveling, meeting new people, listening to music and reading.  

Fern Spruill, Community Partner-in-Residence 

Community Partner-in-Residence Fern Spruill leading a walking tour in Princeton

Fern Spruill, center, longtime Princeton resident and leader, leads a walking tour focusing in the history of the African American community in the town of Princeton. Photo by: Gwen McNamara

Fern Spruill, whose family has lived and worked in Princeton for generations, is a true community leader and has taken on many roles that support the continued empowerment of the local community with a particular focus on underrepresented youth. Some examples of Fern’s work include her service as a board member on the Princeton Public Schools Board of Education and service as a council member on the Princeton Civil Rights Commission. Additionally, with her husband Larry, Fern developed and ran a youth mentorship program called Committed and Faithful Princetonians which is now a part of the Princeton YMCA.  

Alex Tubridy, Community Action Program Coordinator

Alex Tubridy

As the Community Action Program Coordinator, Alex Tubridy supports the operational and logistical scope of Community Action by developing and facilitating training sessions, retreats, and other programming to deepen student learning and strengthen leadership development. He also advises students, especially first-years, on pathways for continued service engagement post-CA. With a background in science, he has dedicated his professional career to service and civic engagement in higher education. Early on he served as a team leader in AmeriCorps NCCC, where he worked alongside young adults to strengthen and support communities, often following natural disasters. Prior to Princeton he worked at the Rochester Institute of Technology in the Center for Leadership & Civic Engagement where he was responsible for coordinating sustained and short-term service programming, building relationships with community partners, and chaired the university’s voter engagement initiative. Tubridy has a bachelor's degree in biology and a master's degree in higher education from Canisius College in Buffalo, NY.