Institute Stewards
Darryl Answer
Kansas City, Missouri, United States
darrylanswer@gmail.com
Darryl Answer was born and raised in London, England. He is currently pastor of New Community Church, and founder of Verge Solutions LLC. Darryl joined the ABCD Institute in the second round of fellows, leading to him becoming a steward, and serving on the board. Before entering the consulting field, Darryl worked in neighborhoods as a connector of residents and organizations around their shared vision for community. Through Verge Solutions LLC, Darryl provides consulting and training for organizations and communities in the areas of entrepreneurial mindset (ELI), and community development through an Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) lens.
Terry Bergdall
Chicago, Illinois, USA
bergdall@gmail.com
Terry Bergdall is a professional facilitator with extensive international experience in community development, organizational change, project design, monitoring and evaluation. He lives in Chicago and is a former Board Member of the ABCD Institute. For several years he worked to incorporate an ABCD approach in international development programs in Africa, Asia, the Balkans and the Caucasus. Read about his experiences in “Reflections on the Catalytic Role of An Outsider in ABCD”. Terry earned his PhD at the University of Wales with research on participatory evaluation. He is a founding member of the International Association of Facilitators.
Mark Chupp
Cleveland, Ohio, USA
mark.chupp@case.edu
Mark Chupp, MSW, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at the Mandel School, Chair of the master’s concentration in Community Practice for Social Change, and a Faculty Associate at the Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development. Mark Chupp is an international recognized leader and trainer in community building and strength-based community change. Recent projects include serving as a community-building strategist to the Annie E. Casey Foundation in its work in East Baltimore. For the past 3 years, Mark has served as a trainer and consultant in strength-based approaches to community change in marginalized communities in northern Israel. He regularly provides consulting to public officials, practitioners, activists, and organizations across the country and internationally.
April Doner
Chicago, Illinois, USA
aprildoner@gmail.com
April is a connector and artist whose greatest joy is exploring neighborhoods to discover, connect and celebrate the capacities and productive work of residents. Her practice of Asset-Based Community Development began after college at Sarasota-based nonprofit SCOPE, where she spent four years applying models of change including ABCD and A Small Group. Her work there supporting resident-led neighborhood connection through SCOPE's Neighborhood Initiative was highlighted in John McKnight & Peter Block's book, The Abundant Community. April currently consults, practices, and conducts trainings in Asset-Based Community Development. April also loves to swim, dance, cook, practice Buddhism with her local SGI-USA organization and make art.
Dan Duncan
Hudson, Florida, USA
dan@ClearImpact.com
As a Clear Impact senior consultant Dan brings a wealth of Asset-Based Community Development, Results-Based Accountability, and Collective Impact experience. Prior to joining Clear Impact, he spent almost 30 years as a United Way leader. In the early 80’s he was the President of the United Way in Mesa Arizona and that was where he began his ABCD journey. He has served almost 40 years as a member of the ABCD Institute and served as past board president. He has written several articles about ABCD, including the Asset Mapping Toolkit, and Collective Impact through the Power of ABCD and RBA.
Michelle Dunscombe
Kinglake, Victoria, Australia
michelle@jeder.com.au
Michelle Dunscombe, a seasoned community development practitioner based in Darwin (Larrakia Country) thrives when supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. She serves as Program Manager for Bidwern Butj Uni, a codesigned community-led project in Arnhem Land providing adult learning opportunities. Michelle's qualifications include a Grad Cert in International and Community Development. Michelle utilises asset-based community development methodologies to drive change and lift the voice of individuals and communities. Michelle's expertise in disaster preparedness extends globally, benefiting organisations worldwide. With her dedication to community development and resilience, Michelle remains a pivotal force in fostering positive change.
Ron Dwyer-Vos
Oceanside, California, USA
ron@pacificcommunitysolutions.com
Ron has been working with the ABCD model in multicultural urban and rural communities in the United States since 1991. Over the past 10 years he has also worked with communities and organizations around the world. Ron began his career in community organizing in Chicago and continues to focus on efforts that shift power towards those who have been historical denied the power to co-create their communities. He does this through training on community organizing, leadership and policy making, technical assistance and coaching on strategy and organizational resilience, and equitable evaluation work. Ron is based in Oceanside, California. He loves to spend time with his wife and partner of 37 years, kids, grandkids, nephews/nieces and their kids, and doing anything in or around the ocean or the mountains. He works locally for social justice through his faith community, Oceanside Sanctuary Church, and is a sincere but inconsistent practitioner of Buddhist meditation and mindfulness
Robert Francis
Madison, Connecticut, USA
robert.francis0212@gmail.com
Robert (Bob) Francis has worked for over 40 years in progressive leadership positions at the local, state and national levels in service to young people and families. His experience includes work in community and youth development and organizing, juvenile justice, child welfare, substance abuse and mental health. He is dedicated to community building processes whereby young people, community residents and professionals who work with or whose work affects citizens work in partnership to build healthier places to live. Mr. Francis is published in the areas of youth and community development, coalition building, executive transitions, juvenile justice system reform and has spoken and conducted training at all levels about these topics. He is currently a consultant working in juvenile justice and adult criminal justice reform policies, ABCD training and consultation, human service systems design training in racial disparity, restorative justice, and community engagement.
Seva Gandhi
Chicago, Illinois, USA
sevagandhi@gmail.com
Seva is a facilitator, trainer, and consultant working on both community and organizational development in Chicago and with partners around the US & globe. Seva received her Master’s in Social Work (MSW) with a focus on community organizing and nonprofit management from the University of Michigan. She is the founder and executive director of Collaborative Connections. She is Mentor Trainer and Certified Facilitator in Technology of Participation facilitation methods. She formerly served as the Board Chair for the ABCD Institute, and is currently board chair of the WasteShed. Much of Seva’s work focuses on the intersection community engagement, environmental justice, and anti-racism.
Hunter Goodman
Little Rock, Arkansas, USA
hgoodman@uada.edu
Hunter P. Goodman is the Assistant Professor for Community, Workforce and Economic Development for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, Cooperative Extension Service. Hunter focuses on building capacity through an asset-based community development lens, particularly in the areas of nonprofit, workforce and community leadership for local development and resiliency. Hunter believes strongly in the power of people within community along with associations, organizations, and institutions to create vital, vibrant places to live and thrive. She is part of the ABCDI Higher Education and Training working groups. Hunter co-facilitates the ABCDI Higher Education working group with an emphasis on building an inclusive global focus.
Lisa Hadden
Mount Pleasant, Michigan, USA
ferninthewood@gmail.com
Ms. Lisa Hadden has served as a Steward of the ABCD Institute since 1997. She has extensive background in both urban and rural areas community in economic development, health care administration and practice management, teaching, and non-profit management. Her specialty is the application of ABCD in community and public health strategies in partnership with neighborhoods and rural towns. Ms. Hadden is completing her book, Community Defined Health™, a handbook for residents, neighborhood associations and institutions on connecting local assets to improve health outcomes. She lives in mid-Michigan and holds a BA and MA in English Composition from Central Michigan University. She has conducted extensive ABCD trainings and workshops in North America.
Jennifer Hirsch
Decatur, Georgia, USA
jhirsch683@gmail.com
Dr. Jennifer Hirsch is an applied cultural anthropologist recognized internationally for fostering university and community engagement in sustainability and climate action. Since August 2015, she has served as the inaugural Director of the Center for Serve-Learn-Sustain at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Serve-Learn-Sustain (SLS) is the Institute’s Quality Enhancement Plan - a campus-wide academic initiative preparing students to use their disciplinary expertise to “create sustainable communities” in partnership with community, nonprofit, business, and academic stakeholders. Dr. Hirsch’s research and teaching interests focus on: 1) equity in the sustainable built environment; 2) grassroots sustainability innovation; and 3) sustainability in cross-cultural perspective.
Heather Keam
Burnford, Ontario, Canada
heather@tamarackcommunity.ca
Heather is an Associate Director for ABCD at the Tamarack Institute, Canada. She has been an active ABCD Stewart since 2019 participating in the unconference and rural group. With 22 years of community development experience, she has been focusing on using an ABCD approach to center people and belonging in the development of community plans and strategies through coaching and training staff teams, facilitation and writing about ABCD and Belonging. Heather believes that ABCD will help to build a sense of community belonging so that people are connected to their community, their place within it and get involved in decision making.
Alison Mathie
Antigonish, Nova Scotia
Wendy McCaig
Appamattox, Virginia, USA
wendy@embracecommunities.org
Wendy McCaig is the founder and Executive Director of Embrace Communities (embracecommunities.org). She has been a practitioner of ABCD since 2005 and has been coaching and training organizations in ABCD since 2012. Wendy is the author of “From the Sanctuary to the Streets” and “Power Shift: A Field Guide for Community Cultivators.” As an ABCDI steward, Wendy has a leadership role on the Faith, Story & Culture and Rural workgroups and is an active member of the Training Team. She holds a Master of Divinity from Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond and Accounting degree from Texas A&M University. Wendy’s training and coaching clients include leaders from the non-profit, faith, government and education sectors from across the United States. She resides in Virginia
Angela McCauley
South Padre Island, Texas, USA
angela.mccauley@tsc.edu
Dr. Angela Kaberline McCauley is Chief Institutional Editor and Special Projects at Texas Southmost College. She's a leader in strategic planning, marketing, grant writing, and producing memorable communications. She's a self-starter with the ability to mentor and influence others through passion and positive expectations. She received her doctorate from Texas Tech University in technical communications and rhetoric with a thesis on uplifting communities through asset-based grant writing.
Mary Nelson
Chicago, Illinois, USA
drmarynelson@gmail.com
Mary Nelson was for 27 years the founding President and CEO of Bethel New Life, a faith-based community development corporation focused on its low-income, African American west side Chicago community. Under her leadership the organization grew from a $9,600 to over $14 million a year budget and almost 350 employees. More importantly, Bethel has been a pioneering leader in building sustainable community based on the strengths and capacities of people and place that others had written off. Since her retirement from Bethel in 2006, Mary continues to live, work and worship in the community. She teaches graduate courses in community development at the Seminary Consortium for Urban Pastoral Education and North Park University, is a steward of the Asset-Based Community Development Institute, and consults, speaks and does workshops in a variety of settings, both nationally and internationally.
Howard Rosing
Chicago, Illinois, USA
hrosing@depaul.edu
Dr. Rosing is the Executive Director of the Steans Center where he oversees the work of Academic Service Learning, the Egan Office for Urban Education and Community Partnerships and supports DePaul's partnership with the Asset-Based Community Development Institute. He works with faculty to develop scholarship on service-learning and community-based research as pedagogies. Dr. Rosing is also a faculty member of Community Service Studies, an affiliate faculty member in Geography, Community Psychology, and Sustainable Urban Development (MASUD) and co-directs MASUD. He has taught and developed numerous service learning courses including Community Food Systems and Geography, Food and Justice which serve as required courses in DePaul's Minor in Food Studies. Dr. Rosing is a cultural anthropologist whose research focuses on urban food access, economic restructuring, community food systems, and food justice movements in Chicago and the Dominican Republic.
Joel Zaslofsky
Edina, Minnesota, USA
jezaslof@gmail.com
Joel’s the community-animator, multipotentialite, and quantum biology enthusiast behind a bunch of neat stuff. His overarching theme is bringing people together and his favorite way to do it is with ABCD – especially with the guidance of his fellow ABCDI Stewards. You’ll often find him doing cool things with his neighbors in Edina, Minnesota or deep into a minimalist spreadsheet.