Heléne Clark, Ph. D.

ActKnowledge

Heléne is an environmental psychologist committed to working with individuals and organizations engaged in efforts to bring about social change. Through program evaluation, community development and public policy research, Heléne brings social science research into partnership with program providers and policy makers. As the co-founder and Director of ActKnowledge, Heléne uses a participatory action research approach to connect researchers and practitioners. She has taught and facilitated the Theory of Change to collaborations of public and private organizations all around the country.  Heléne has been the principal investigator for evaluation of numerous initiatives attempting to transform communities and community institutions in replicable ways, including a comprehensive community initiative in Harlem, a community collaboration with government agencies to improve housing and safety, and community schools. Prior to founding ActKnowledge, Heléne was Associate Director of the Center for Human Environments at the City University of New York where she worked with not-for-profit organizations and foundations in the fields of housing and community development.

hclark@actknowledge.org

Dana Taplin, Ph. D.

ActKnowledge

Dana Taplin, an urban planner and environmental psychologist, brings an interest in applied social research o ActKnowledge´s practice in Theory of Change. Dr. Taplin´s research interest is in parks and other public community spaces as human environments. He is working to expand ActKnowledge´s practice into research on public space and environment and is currently directing an evaluative study of schoolyard playgrounds for the Trust for Public Land´s City Spaces program. Dana is skilled in the use of ethnographic research methods to understand how culture, social relations, and experiential values may be embodied in physical space. His previous research includes an ethnographic overview and assessment of the Fire Island, N.Y., National Seashore, and a community impact study of Battery Park City in Manhattan ten months after the attacks of 9/11/01. Dr. Taplin is second author, with Setha Low and Suzanne Scheld, of Rethinking Urban Parks: Public Space and Cultural Diversity, published in November 2005 by the University of Texas Press. Dr. Taplin is an Adjunct Associate Professor in environmental studies at Pace University and also taught for several years in the Interior Design program at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.

dtaplin@actknowledge.org

Al Reynolds

ActKnowledge

Simon Penhall

Helmepark UK

Tony Settle

Helmepark UK