Nyeema C. Watson was raised at 34th and Mitchell in East Camden, two blocks from a drug corner and 30 blocks from her future.

"I was the ninth of 11 children, and my parents sheltered and protected me," says Watson, 38, who was named assistant chancellor for civic engagement at Rutgers-Camden last July.

"All of who I am is prefaced by my growing up here."

An ebullient, energetic woman who stays fit doing yoga - and climbing three flights to her Cooper Street office - Watson nurtures connections between a university and a community in which her roots are deep and deeply intertwined.

She knows Camden not just as a place where there's lots of poverty, but where plenty of people go to work, come home, and play with their children. "Kids are going to birthday parties," she notes. "They have childhoods. They have dreams."

Watson has a master's from the University of Pennsylvania, and undergraduate and doctoral degrees from Rutgers-Camden. Her parents and many of her siblings and other relatives live in the city. And so does she.

"Nyeema knows Camden, she's of Camden, she loves Camden," says chancellor Phoebe A. Haddon. "She's a tremendous resource."

Learn more about Nyeema C. Watson and her role in giving back to the city, click here.