Lisa Dorner received her Ph.D. in Human Development and Social Policy from Northwestern University in 2006.  Her research interests include the implementation of educational policy, immigrant childhoods, and bilingual education policy and practice.  As part of the DLS team, she has analyzed the work environments of urban Catholic, charter, and public schools.  She has also worked on the evaluation of a professional development program for principals, using mixed methods to question the greater social factors that influence whether and how a principal may gain from in-services and develop expertise over time.

After graduation from Northewestern in 1991, Dr. Gaetjens created a MA in Gerontology Program at Northeastern Illinois State University. Her reseach interests are in cognitive and psycho-social development in the second half of life. In addition to teaching, Dr. Gaetjens maintains a private counseling practice as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker.

R. Michelle Green's research program for the better part of a decade examines why adults embrace or reject Information Technology (IT), focusing most frequently on psycho-social precursors. She is particularly concerned with the ramifications of technological inequity faced by those who are poor, older, or disadvantaged. Her mixed method dissertation examined personality and life span predictors of digital fluency (i.e., the ability to use IT tools critically and effectively), demonstrating that many hindrances to IT use are invisible not only to the IT novice but also to others. In July of 2006, she joined Hampshire College in Massachusetts as Dean of Student Services, where she is responsible for all non-academic aspects of Hampshire collegiate life. She is also Visiting Faculty in Hampshire’s School of Cognitive Science. She is also a championship bridge player, ranked as Life Master in two national leagues.

My name is Tondra L. Loder and I am a graduate student in Human Development and Social Policy. My working relationship with my advisor, James Spillane, has provided me with a unique opportunity to integrate human development and education policy. My research examines school leadership from an adult development perspective. From the life course perspective, I am examining how women school leaders' life trajectories and the subjective meanings of their work are shaped by family, work, community, and their gender and race identities. My project contrasts the lives of African American and Caucasian women principals who came of age either before or after two social movements of the 20th century which created new horizons of opportunity: the Civil Rights and the women's movements. This dissertation will contribute to our knowledge of generational differences between older and younger women school leaders' careers and life patterns, thereby helping us to better understand how they are impacted by changing, multiple contexts.

Research Assistant Professor.  Dr. Logan received an A.B. from the University of Michigan, a Master's from the University of Wisconsin and a second Master's and Ph.D. from Northwestern University. She has taught at Mundelein College (now Loyola University) in Chicago where she also served as Director of Career Development. She was Director of Faculty Development and Assistant Dean for Educational Services at NU's School of Continuing Studies. Currently, she teaches in the School of Education and Social Policy.  Dr. Logan's research and interest areas include gender and generativity, spirituality and wisdom in adulthood, and career development. Dr. Logan is the director of the Foley Longitudinal Study of Adulthood. In addition, Dr. Logan has extensive experience in teaching and learning in adulthood.

Succecssfully defended dissertation in Human Development and Social Policy, with a concentration in Child Development and Social Policy. Will earn degree in December 2007.

Deborah Puntenney, Ph.D. is currently the Associate Director of the Asset-Based Community Development Institute at Northwestern University, a member of the research faculty at Northwestern, and a member of the adjunct faculty at the University of Chicago. She is also operates her own research and consulting firm specializing in the areas of asset-based community development, community based participatory research, program evaluation, and social justice strategies for philanthropic and nonprofit organizations. All of her work emphasizes strengthening neighborhood, nonprofit, philanthropic, and other organizations through the design and implementation of asset-oriented strategies.

Deborah teaches university courses in several topic areas, including the family in a changing society, US social welfare policy, asset-based community development, and gender and the life course. Her research and writing emphasize themes related to community, gender, social justice, and social policy.

Deborah has been working with John McKnight and Jody Kretzmann at the Asset-Based Community Development Institute for almost 20 years, first as a graduate research fellow, then Director of Research and Publications, and now Associate Director. In addition to authoring many of the institute’s publications, Dr. Puntenney has extensive experience working directly with community groups designing community-based participatory research projects, and partnering with them on the implementation of those efforts. Deborah's work with ABCD has taken her in a variety of directions, including exploring the application of asset-based community development principles to nonprofit settings. Her work with the Chicago Foundation for Women was published in the ABCD workbook series in a volume titled Building Sustainable Organizations from the Inside Out. Recently, she and Jody Kretzmann co-authored a chapter in an edited volume by Gary Paul Green, titled Mobilizing Communities: Asset Building as a Community Development Strategy (forthcoming 2009).

Deborah Puntenney, Ph.D. is the president of a consulting firm specializing in community and social change research, and evaluation.  Her work emphasizes strengthening nonprofit, philanthropic, and neighborhood organizations through the design and implementation of asset-oriented strategies.  Her research and writing emphasize themes related to community, gender, and social policy.