Chaplin Joins Town Square Collaborative

Shana H. Chaplin has joined the Town Square Collaborative (TSC) at University of the Ozarks as assistant director of community engagement. Her first day was Tuesday, Dec. 2.

TSC is a regional ecumenical initiative to serve and support rural communities, congregations, and their leaders.

"I'm so excited to welcome Shana Chaplin as assistant director for community engagement," said Rev. Phillip Blackburn, director of TSC. "Shana brings a deep knowledge of Arkansas and a love of the Church to her work, which will be focused on equipping and empowering rural congregations to engage their communities in innovative and collaborative ways."

A graduate of University of Arkansas-Little Rock, Chaplin most recently served as the chief program officer at the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute.

"The opportunity to serve through the Town Square Collaborative bridges my deep passions for local community, mutuality through collaborative partnerships, civic engagement and faith," Chaplin said. "Rural churches and congregants are ideally positioned to lead in community, building civic connectedness and enhancing quality of life for their neighbors."

Before joining the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute, Chaplin was the executive director for the Arkansas Governor's Advisory Commission on National Service & Volunteerism (2016-2023), the director of program services and public affairs for March of Dimes (2009-2011); and founding director for the Arkansas State Court Appointed Special Advocates Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) for the Arkansas Supreme Court (1996-1998).

Earlier this year, Chaplin was named Arkansas Public Administrator of the Year by the University of Arkansas at Little Rock School of Public Affairs. She was also named to the 2024 Arkansas Money & Politics C-Suite list and the 2023 Arkansas Business 250 Most Influential Leaders list.

Chaplin was born in Genado, Arizona, on Navajo Indian Reservation where her father was teaching while finishing his master's degree. She grew up in Japan as a missionary child.

She and her husband of 36 years, Paul, have adult twin daughters, Lindsey Chaplin Woelfel and Emery Chaplin Lunsford.

Outside of work, Chaplin enjoys reading, cooking, hosting dinner parties and family events, flower arranging and volunteering at Providence Park, a nonprofit for the unsheltered.

Based on the U of O campus in Clarksville, Ark., TSC was made possible by a trio of grants to the University from Lilly Endowment Inc., totaling more than $6.8 million from 2021 to 2024.

For more information about TSC, please visit its website at https://www.townsquareco.org

Topics: Presbyterian, Religion