Quincy University will host speaker Darrin Hicks, Ph.D., professor of communication studies at the University of Denver, on Thursday, February 27, at 7 p.m., at the Connie Niemann Center for Music (17th & Seminary Rd.). Hicks will present “The Three Ingredients of Successful Collaboration: Process, Power, and Platform.”

In an increasingly adversarial and mean-spirited era, optimism about the potential for collaboration can be hard to find.  However, we should take collaboration seriously, because collaboration can foster profound improvements in community health and well-being.  Collaboration only works when designed in a way that generates high levels of emotional commitment and sustains that commitment long enough for it to be contiguous. Drawing on twenty years of field research across public and education contexts, Hicks will discuss three common ingredients of successful collaboration: the presence of an open and credible process motivating social cooperation, a feeling of authentic power that generates and sustains stakeholder commitment, and the use of platforms that engender emotional contagion.

As well as teaching, Hicks is the director of debate and president of the faculty senate at the University of Denver. His teaching and research focus on community collaboration, political argumentation, and debate. Hicks’ scholarship in these areas has been widely published in academic journals and books. He works closely with several state and federal agencies as well as nonprofit groups on the design and evaluation of collaborative decision-making processes.

Founded in 1860 by Franciscan friars, Quincy University (www.quincy.edu) is celebrating 160 years as a Catholic, co-educational, liberal arts, residential university. Quincy University offers undergraduate, graduate, and adult education programs that integrate liberal arts, active learning, practical experience, and Franciscan values. Faculty and advisors work with each student to design a customized success plan to help them graduate on time, find their passion and prepare them for life. Quincy University’s intercollegiate sports are members of the NCAA Division II Great Lakes Valley Conference for men and women. For more information, please contact the Quincy University Office of Community Relations by calling (217) 228-5275. Quincy University. Success by Design.