Institute for Social Innovation Fellows Virtual Seminar

Friday, February 17, 2023, from 9:30 a.m. – 12 p.m. PST | 12:30 p.m. – 3 p.m. EST.

Kerul Kassel, PhD (Human and Organizational Development 2011) First Nature Foundation – Exploring Self- and Shared-Leadership Skill Enhancement

Kerul Kassel, PhD

This work explores how a learning environment that partners with nature and animals can enhance self- and shared-leadership skills in a variety of audiences, including veterans, at-risk teens, and corporate leadership teams. The focus is on using communication, emotional intelligence, and embracing conflict to enhance relationships and outcomes, while also bringing awareness to sustainability issues.

Dr. Kassel is the author of several books, including The Thinking Executive’s Guide to Sustainability (Business Expert Press, 2014), and lead editor of Developing Sustainability Mindset in Management Education (Routledge, 2018). Kerul has almost two decades of leadership coaching and transformative facilitation experience, with multiple coaching credentials. She has been quoted in TIME magazine, Real Simple, the Chicago Tribune, and elsewhere. She is the CEO and founder of First Nature Foundation, a nonprofit with a vision to bring together the past, present, and future of leadership for the dignity and benefit of all. Her work has appeared in peer-reviewed journals and in conferences around the world. She can be reached at kerul@firstnaturefoundation.org.

Katherine Kott PhD (Human and Organizational Development 2012) A Natural Systems Approach to Understanding Work Systems

Katherine Kott, PhD

This research explores theoretical concepts from Murray Bowen’s natural systems theory of human behavior as they pertain to work systems. Using primary materials from the Bowen archives in the National Library of Medicine History of Medicine Division as well as secondary material generated by Bowen’s students and colleagues, this theoretical research project discusses how processes Bowen observed in families can also be seen in organizations.

Katherine Kott has been studying and using Bowen theory for over twenty years with a particular interest in applying Bowen theory to work systems. Her doctoral dissertation, Application of Bowen theory to organization development practice, completed in 2012, offers a model for using Bowen theory in organization development work. To create the model, she studied the work practices of twelve people who use Bowen theory in their consulting work with organizations. She now turns her attention to the theoretical foundations of Bowen theory which are not well represented in the academic literature. By publishing in an academic journal, she hopes to break down a barrier that has impeded further development of this generative natural systems theory as it pertains to work systems. She may be reached at kkott@email.fielding.edu.

Jennifer Hurley (Human and Organizational Systems, April 2022)

Enacting the Scholar-Practitioner: Moving Dissertation Results into Academic and Practitioner Spaces

Jennifer Hurley, PhD

Dr Hurley’s presentation will highlight lessons learned in trying to move dissertation results beyond the doctoral phase and compare the experiences in academic versus practitioner spaces. Since completing her dissertation, “How Planners Design Public Participation,” Dr. Hurley has brought the results of the study into both academic and practitioner spaces. She submitted a journal article analyzing an unexpected finding about how planners encountered race and racism in public participation. The experience of the revise and resubmit process led her to seek additional study participants. Dr. Hurley took a second finding from her dissertation, the fact that planners have to learn how to do public participation on the job, as inspiration to start a public participation community of practice.

Jennifer L. Hurley, PhD, FCNU, AICP, holds a Doctor of Philosophy and a Master of Arts in Human and Organizational Systems from Fielding Graduate University, a Master of Regional Planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from Bryn Mawr College. Drawing on her background in conflict resolution, Dr. Hurley has over twenty-five years of professional expertise facilitating public involvement in planning and development issues. She has been active in the new urban movement for over fifteen years, working on numerous charrettes for regional planning, downtown revitalization, traditional neighborhood development, and form-based zoning. She wrote one of the first articles chronicling the implementation of New Urbanist zoning codes, authored the SmartCode Affordable Housing Policy module, and teaches in the Growth and Structure of Cities Department at Bryn Mawr College. She is a past fellow of the Knight Program in Community Building at the University of Miami School of Architecture and is a National Charrette Institute Certified Charrette Planner™. She currently serves as Chair of the Form Based Codes Institute Steering Committee and is past Treasurer of the Congress for the New Urbanism. She can be reached at jlhurley@hfadesign.com.

Leslie Hamdorf, EdD (Educational Leadership and Change 2013) Narrowing the Achievement Gap with Action Leadership for Adolescents Leslie Hamdorf, EdD. (Educational Leadership and Change 2013)

Using Action Leadership for Adolescents to move from Stormy and Stressful to Empowered and Prepared

Leslie Hamdorf, EdD

This session will explore youth development in adolescents in a traditional school setting using Hamdorf’s Action Leadership for Adolescents (ALA), a tool that applies Positive Youth Development concepts. Dr. Hamdorf a compilation of research and praxis since her dissertation: The Impact of Leadership Training on the Civic Awareness and Leadership Development of Saint Croix Foundation Youth Advisory Council Members. The research brings forward the five principles of ALA and provides concrete examples used in the traditional classroom that ignited learning, leadership opportunities and civic engagement.

Dr. Hamdorf is an expert in youth development and civic action. Her areas of specialization include Positive Youth Development, Transformational Leadership, Place-Based Community Development and interdisciplinary relationship building. Dr. Hamdorf’s passion is to inspire adolescents and those that work with them to fully engage in social justice work that improves outcomes for the whole. Hamdorf does this by provoking conversations among practitioners to evolve their practice with the mandates of the contemporary world. Dr. Hamdorf is the Co-Founder and Principle Director of FYR is LIT (Fueling Youth Reading is Leaders in Training) where she continues to practice the five principles of ALA in real time with youth. She can be reached at lhamdorf@email.fielding.edu.

The Call for Applications is now available for the Institute for Social Innovation (ISI) Fellows 2023-24. Applications should be submitted between Feb. 13, 2023-March 12, 2023. Learn more here.

Watch the below ISI Fellows presentation from our January 2023 Global Session.