Asset-Based Community Development Institute

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).

In June, 2009, Deborah Puntenney and Dick Morehead were awarded a research grant by the Alliance for Research in Chicagoland Communities. The partnership building grant will support the Asset-Based Community Development Institute and Dream Associates, Inc. as they endeavor to engage the community of North Chicago in a long-term effort to build the overall health of the community. Read the press release.

Deborah lives in Evanston, Illinois, but frequently visits family in California, North Carolina, New Zealand, and Washington, and friends around the US and the world.