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ActKnowledge Heléne is an environmental psychologist committed to working with individuals and organizations engaged in efforts to bring about social change through community involvement. 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. ActKnowledge Dana Taplin, an urban planner and environmental psychologist, brings an interest in applied social research to ActKnowledge´s practice in Theory of Change. Dana and ActKnowledge partner Christopher Barber are currently working with the Lumina Foundation for Education to develop an ambitious theory of change for the higher education system in the United States and the Lumina Foundation´s work toward that end. 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. Actknowledge Andrea Anderson-Hamilton, a nationally recognized expert in the Theory of Change approach to planning and evaluation, has recently joined ActKnowledge. As Director of Planning, Andrea is responsible for training and providing technical assistance to clients and collaborators interested in utilizing Theory of Change tools as part of planning, evaluation, and organizational development. Before joining ActKnowledge, Andrea was the Director of Policy and Advocacy at the Pratt Center for Community Development in Brooklyn. At Pratt, she worked on policy research related to providing access to economic opportunity for the 500,000 residents of public housing in New York City, and on a citywide study of immigrant housing issues. From 1999 to 2007 Andrea served as a research associate at the Aspen Institute Roundtable on Community Change, where she focused on developing the theory of change approach to planning and evaluation, and collaborated frequently with ActKnowledge. In addition to providing training and technical assistance, Andrea published Theory of Change as a Tool for Strategic Planning: A Report on Early Experiences (2004) and The Community Builder´s Approach to Theory of Change: A Practical Guide to Theory Development (2005). Dr. Anderson has a Ph.D. in Evaluation and Planning from Cornell University and a Masters Degree in Family and Community Development from the University of Maryland. Originally from Baltimore, Andrea now lives in Harlem with her husband, Victor Hamilton.
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