John McKnight

Member at Large
Evanston, Illinois
Professor, Northwestern University (Emeritus) and Asset-Based Community Development Institute CoFounder.

While at the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University in the late 1980’s, McKnight and a few of his colleagues focused their research on urban neighborhoods. The best-known result of this work was the formulation of an understanding of neighborhoods focused on the usefulness of local resources, capacities, and relationships. This work was documented in a guide co-authored with Jody Krezmann titled Building Communities from the Inside Out, describing an approach to community building that became a major development strategy practiced in North and South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia. As an aside, it was during this time that McKnight was one of the trainers of Barack Obama as he learned the skills of community organizing. Since that time McKnight has authored and co-authored several books on community development.