UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• Member of the COMMUNITY TOOL BOX TEAM
• Associate Professor of Psychology
• Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of Massachusetts Lowell

Bill is now Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, and previous administrator of its graduate program in Community Social Psychology. His special interests focus on teaching, writing about, and practicing social and community psychology, neighborhood development, and the strengthening of citizen participation in local community life. He is presently completing a multi-method research project on the dynamics of suburban neighborhoods, designed to strengthen life in communities where more than half the American population lives.

Job Titles:

• Director
• Member of the COMMUNITY TOOL BOX TEAM

Job Titles:

• Member of the COMMUNITY TOOL BOX TEAM
• Advisor for Most KU Center for Community Health
• Distinguished Professor of Applied Behavioral Science
• Senior Advisor of the KU Center for Community Health and Development / Co - Director, World Health Organization Collaborating Centre

Dr. Stephen B. Fawcett is Kansas Health Foundation Distinguished Professor of Applied Behavioral Science at the University of Kansas. He is also Senior Advisor of the KU Center for Community Health and Development, a World Health Organization Collaborating Centre. In his work, he uses behavioral science and community development methods to help understand and improve conditions that affect health and social concerns. A former VISTA volunteer, he worked as a community organizer in public housing and low-income neighborhoods. Dr. Fawcett has been honored as a Fellow in both Division 27 (Community Psychology) and Division 25 (Experimental Analysis of Behavior) of the American Psychological Association. He received the Distinguished Practice Award of the Society for Community Research and Action and the Higuchi/Endowment Award for Applied Sciences. He is co-author of nearly 200 articles and book chapters and several books in the areas of health promotion and community-based research and intervention. He is co-developer of the Community Tool Box, a widely used Internet-based resource for promoting community health and development. A former Scholar-in-Residence at the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, he currently serves as a member of the IOM's Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice. Dr. Fawcett has been a consultant to a number of private foundations, state and community partnerships, and national and international organizations, including the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the California Wellness Foundation, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As a visiting scholar at the World Health Organization in 2007, he consulted on methods for supporting and evaluating population health efforts with WHO staff in health promotion, violence prevention, HIV/AIDS, and health equity. Dr. Fawcett serves as an advisor for most KU Center for Community Health and Development projects.

Job Titles:

• Member of the COMMUNITY TOOL BOX TEAM
• Senior Researcher, KU Center for Community Health and Development

Dr. Schultz holds a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Kansas. His work focuses primarily on building capacity of communities to solve local problems, understanding systems change, evaluating community health and development initiatives, and qualitative methodologies. He is part of the Community Tool Box (CTB) development team, a global online resource for community building. Dr. Schultz has co-authored numerous articles on evaluation, empowerment, and community development. He has been a consultant to several foundations, community coalitions, and state agencies. Dr. Schultz was given the Society for Community Research and Action Award for Distinguished Contribution to the Practice of Community Psychology in 2007.

Job Titles:

• Member of the COMMUNITY TOOL BOX TEAM
• Fellow of the American Psychological Association
• President of the Board and Senior Consultant / AHEC / Community Partners

Tom Wolff, Ph.D. is a nationally recognized consultant on coalition building and community development, with over 30 years' experience training and consulting with individuals, organizations and communities across North America. He presently runs Tom Wolff & Associates where his clients include federal, state and local government agencies; foundations; hospitals; non-profit organizations; professional associations; and grassroots groups. Tom Wolff's writings on coalition building include the popular book From the Ground Up: A Workbook on Coalition Building and Community Development (1997 with Gillian Kaye), and The Spirit of the Coalition (2000 with Bill Berkowitz), published by the American Public Health Association. From 1985 to 2002, Tom Wolff founded and directed Community Partners, a technical assistence and training program in coalition building and community development affiliated with the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Tom Wolff is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, which granted him its 1985 National Career Award for Distinguished Contributions to Practice in Community Psychology and its 1993 Henry V. McNeil award for Innovation in Community Mental Health. In 2000, He received the For the People Against the Tide Award from Health Care for All for his "outstanding efforts to energize and educate local communities in areas of health care justice". He has held academic appointments at the University of Massachusetts School of Public Health, the University of Massachusetts Medical School Department of Family Medicine and Community Health and Wellesley College's Stone Center. Tom Wolff's work is based on his commitment to issues of social justice and community.

Job Titles:

• Member of the COMMUNITY TOOL BOX TEAM
• Director, Center for Community Health and Development / Kansas Health Foundation Professor of Applied Behavioral Science / Senior Scientist With the Schiefelbusch Institute for Life Span Studies
• Professor of Applied Behavioral Science

Dr. Vincent Francisco is Kansas Health Foundation Professor of Applied Behavioral Science and Senior Scientist with the Schiefelbusch Institute for Life Span Studies. He is also Director of the Center for Community Health and Development, a World Health Organization Collaborating Centre at the University of Kansas. In his work, he uses behavioral science methods to help understand and improve conditions that affect population health and health equity. Dr. Francisco published widely in the areas of health promotion, capacity building, and community-based research and intervention. He is co-developer of the Community Tool Box, a widely used Internet-based resource for promoting community health and development. Dr. Francisco brings expertise and experience to implementing community-based research, especially for prevention of HIV and chronic disease. He has years of experience mentoring undergraduate and graduate researchers and practitioners with community-based organizations throughout the United States and abroad. He was a member of the Adolescent Medicine Leadership Group, Chair of the Community Prevention Leadership Group, and a member of the Executive Committee of the NIH Adolescent Trials Network for HIV/AIDS Interventions from 2003 through 2011. He was also an Associate Director for Research for the TRIAD EXPORT Center for Health Disparities (P20) at UNCG, funded by the NIH National Institute for Minority Health and Health Disparities. Dr. Francisco has considerable experience in the research and evaluation of community-based intervention programs focusing on adolescent development, reduction of risk for HIV/AIDS, teen substance use, youth violence, teen parenthood, and chronic/cardiovascular diseases. He also has considerable experience provision of technical support for the development of coalitions. He works with community initiatives to help them build capacity for systems change, create environments in which those organizations can succeed in accomplishing their mission, and evaluate those interventions within an open systems environment.