Each quarter, we celebrate the participants who recently completed the CSCCE Community Manager Certification Program. As a modular program, individuals graduate on their own timelines, and this quarter we’re celebrating two people who progressed through their requirements side-by-side: Jody Peters (University of Notre Dame / Ecological Forecasting Initiative (EFI)) and Pooneh Sabouri (Florida International University / STEP UP).
In this blog post, you can read more about these dedicated STEM community managers and their time in the program, as well as an early look at what we’re learning about the impact the program is having on the individuals who take part. If it inspires you to learn more about certification with us, please send an email to training@cscce.org (please note: completing Scientific Community Engagement Fundamentals (CEF) is a prerequisite for the program, and registration is currently open for our next cohort!).
Early impacts of the CSCCE Community Manager Certification Program
Evaluation is built into every training we run at CSCCE. In the short term, we regularly incorporate participant feedback as we progress from pilot to steady-state courses and Mini-workshops, and over the longer term we’re interested to keep monitoring how well our offerings align with our mission to professionalize the role of the community engagement manager in STEM (see our 2024 evaluation of the CEF course for some insights into the medium term impact of that course on individual community managers, their organizations and communities, and their place in the wider STEM ecosystem). And with that, it will come as no surprise that we have been following up with each of our graduates as they complete the certification program to find out more about their experiences by distributing a final evaluation survey.
To date, 13 people have completed the program. It’s early days in terms of our evaluation, but so far, the key outcomes that we’re seeing over and again in the data are:
- On an individual level, participants feel more effective in their work (92%), more connected to others doing similar work (92%), and more confident in their role as a community manager (100%)
- Almost 50% of participants have received a promotion or salary increase while enrolled
- Participants reported that they saw an increase in the size of their communities (61.5%) and an overall increase in engagement particularly in the CONVEY/CONSUME and CONTRIBUTE modes (76.95%), especially through developing and implementing scaffolding to support participation (61.5%)
- 53.8% of participants also reported an increased understanding of the importance of community engagement within their organization or community.
And from the long-form responses to some of the questions in the survey, it’s clear that one of the things people value the most about participating in the program is the connections they make with other STEM community managers – and the strong professional network that will support them for many years to come.
Jody’s journey through the program
Jody is a longtime member of the CSCCE community of practice, and completed an early cohort of Scientific Community Engagement Fundamentals (CEF) back in 2021. In 2024, she enrolled in the certification program, completing her required courses, Creating Community Playbooks (PBK) and Content Design (CODE) alongside a combination of elective Mini-workshops that complement her work coordinating a primarily online community of volunteers. In late 2025, she took our newly revamped Nurturing Online Communities (NOC) course, and showcased her carefully scaffolded process for coordinating EFI’s steering committee elections during last December’s Quarterly Skills Share session.
About her time in the program, Jody said:
“I highly valued the opportunity to learn new concepts and then apply them to specific activities or tasks needed for my community, while being able to connect with, learn from, and get to know other community managers facing many of the same situations.”
Pooneh’s journey through the program
Pooneh has also been part of the CSCCE community of practice since 2021, and after completing CEF in 2023 joined the certification program alongside Jody in 2024. Her path through the program was almost identical, even down to presenting at the same Quarterly Skills Share session last December! Pooneh offered a generous and detailed look behind-the-scenes at the way she coordinates activities that involve both members of her team and her community members – a process that relied on her understanding of member availability and technical proficiency.
About her time in the program, Pooneh said:
“This has been the most valuable and enjoyable learning experience I’ve had in years. The program and all the courses have been meticulously prepared and presented, and it has been an absolute pleasure to be part of the community who come from various background and experiences, but more importantly, have a shared passion for nurturing and building scientific communities.”
Celebrating our CSCCE-certified community managers!
We celebrate graduates from the program in multiple ways! Everyone who successfully completes the program:
- Receives a digital badge recognizing their achievement
- Receives a digital certificate that they can print and display
- Receives an enamel pin and personalized postcard in the mail
- Is featured on this page on the CSCCE website
- Is featured at the next Quarterly Skills Share session (for this quarter’s grads, that will take place on Wednesday, 4 March 2026)
If you’d like to start your journey towards certification, you can find more information on this page of the website, as well as answers to some FAQs and a detailed breakdown of our prepaid and pay-as-you-go participation options. To enroll, please email training@cscce.org!