I’ve been working in the civic engagement field in some shape or form since I was 12 and I volunteered for the Colorado Freeze Voter campaign to organize voters to close Rocky Flats. The ways that people come together to address common problems and/or better their communities is where I have focused my career.

Since the late 1990s I have worked in some capacity the Charles F. Kettering Foundation. Currently with Kettering, I design and facilitate a workshop for college and university faculty members who want to include elements of civic engagement in their teaching and research, and who want to encourage their students to become more civically engaged. In another project I am working with colleagues in Russia who are using deliberative dialog to address ethnic tensions in three Russian cities (Perm, Bryansk and Vologda). I am also working with US based colleagues who are holding deliberative dialogs around the issue of immigration.

I have also worked with community groups who want to use research to help them learn from their experiences and tell their story more effectively.

I teach in the online program at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois. I teach the theory and practice of community engagement to future librarians and information professionals.

Through the years I have been fortunate to work with a wide range of people from diverse backgrounds from whom I have learned a great deal.

For my full CV, find me on LinkedIn