Community Engagement


Emory University will enhance and develop thriving, mutually beneficial, and sustained partnerships that build on community assets and our greatest institutional strengths and resources, including our faculty, staff, students, and alumni, to address critical challenges in our community. — Community Engagement Mission

Helping to Deliver Results + Solve Problems


Emory’s Community Engagement Strategy, launched in 2021, aligns our university vision, mission, strategic framework, and institutional values with purposeful and measurable community engagement efforts.

Where there are common interests and alignment, we aspire to address local and global societal challenges by building on community strengths and strategic partnerships.

Our goal is to ensure the intentional use of our research, scholarship, and human capital—including faculty, staff, students, and alumni—as well as our economic influence—such as local buying and hiring—by focusing our efforts on the greatest need areas, as determined by internal capacity and external community feedback.

We look forward to growing and measuring our collective work over time.

Priorities + Initiatives

Strategic Priorities

Health and well-being | Social and economic mobility | Arts, science, and cultural enrichment

Key Goals

Major Initiatives

Some of our major initiatives with community partners

Partnerships in action

Local Impact

Areas where we really focus our efforts

Counties, Cities, Towns

Carnegie Community Classification

The Carnegie Classification for Community Engagement, managed through the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the American Council on Education, is a highly respected, evidence-based recognition of institutions’ extraordinary commitment to collaborating with their broader communities.

Carnegie Community Classification

Economic Impact


Overall, Emory is a significant driver of economic activity for Atlanta, the region, and the state of Georgia. In aggregate:

  • Emory produces $19.3 billion of economic activity and directly or indirectly supports about 100,000 jobs statewide each year.
  • Emory is a major employer in the region, supporting one in every 12 jobs in DeKalb and Fulton counties, and one in every 52 jobs in the state of Georgia.
  • Emory generates over $347 million in state tax revenues every year.
  • Emory has undertaken $1.6 billion in capital investments over the past three years.
  • Emory students inject an additional $472 million a year in spending into the state.
  • Alumni living and working in Georgia earn an additional $1.3 billion a year due to the education and credential they received from Emory.
Our value to the community (PDF)

Making Connections

Our Team

Find colleagues who can help you make community contacts.

Meet the Team

Partnership Guidelines

How to establish Emory-related partnerships in the community.

Learn what to do