Meet Charity Anderson
Charity and Staci in Duluth, Minnesota (June 2024). Photo by Michaela Rai.
In our first post, we introduced Staci Gilpin, co-founder of Rural Pathways. Today, we’re excited to highlight Charity Anderson, whose expertise in ethnographic research, social policy, and writing brings a powerful dimension to our mission. Hailing from the Appalachian Mountains of western North Carolina, Charity has dedicated her career to understanding and addressing the unique challenges faced by historically marginalized communities.
Charity and her mom, Vicki, in Moravian Falls, North Carolina (circa 1982).
Charity is a social scientist with extensive experience in applied qualitative research, grant writing, and program evaluation. Before co-founding Rural Pathways, Charity served as a senior researcher and program director at the Joseph C. Cornwall Center for Metropolitan Studies at Rutgers University-Newark, where her work centered on urban education, transformative learning, and issues of poverty and inequality. During her time at Rutgers, she founded the Clemente Veterans’ Initiative Newark, a humanities course for veterans and military-connected civilians that explored themes of war and reconciliation, funded by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the New Jersey Council for the Humanities.
Charity, post-swim, and her beloved Gramps gardening together in the early 1980s.
As an educator and former New York City Teaching Fellow, Charity has dedicated much of her career to supporting underserved communities. Her latest book, Dignity-Affirming Education: Cultivating the Somebodiness of Students and Educators (2022), exemplifies her commitment to dignity-based approaches in education. At Rural Pathways, Charity combines her scholarly insight, hands-on experience, and dedication to social equity to help rural organizations build capacity and drive sustainable impact.
Learn more about Charity here.
Charity outside the Wilkes County Public Library, part of the Appalachian Regional Library, as a child (1983). She credits these early experiences with inspiring her lifelong love of books and deep appreciation for the role of public libraries.
Ready to strengthen your rural organization with dedicated expertise? Contact Rural Pathways today to explore how we can support your mission.
Citation: Anderson, Charity & Gilpin, Staci. (2025). Meet Charity Anderson. Rural Pathways News.