Chester-Swarthmore Fellows Council

Established in 2021, the Chester-Swarthmore Fellows Council is a group of Chester resident-leaders with wide and deep local roots in the city that act as an advisory body that informs and contextualizes Swarthmore College’s Chester engagements. Together with a small number of Lang Center faculty and staff, the Council meets quarterly to consult on place-based initiatives such as the Chester Community Fellowship and ChesterSemester; to explore the feasibility of potential projects and related, collaborative activities; and to discuss the implementation of long-term, transformational strategies. Formalizing the role of our community partners in this way ensures that Chester resident-leaders are included in the strategic directions of all of our community-based programming and initiatives and that they receive recognition and compensation for their contributions.

The Council would not be successful without its dedicated members, both past and current. Current fellows include:

Cory Long

Zulene Mayfield

Barbara Muhammad

Annette Pyatt

Twyla Simpkins

Jim Turner

Devon Walls

These leaders partner with us to support our efforts around ethical and responsible community engagement. Their expertise in city government, economic development, community archiving, education, the arts, and more help us better understand and collaborate on Chester neighbors’ most pressing concerns and challenges and highlight how diverse perspectives can work together to create resident-driven change as well as enrich students’ curricular education.  The Council is imagined as a permanent fixture of the Lang Center that will evolve over time as new leaders emerge and capacities of existing members change.