Leadership
ICDD is directed by faculty from Communication Studies in collaboration with Associates and Affiliates representing scholars and practitioners from diverse disciplines, sectors, and communities of interest. Many of these individuals contribute to our professional facilitation services in addition to educating others on dialogue, deliberation, and facilitation. ICDD Partners include local and national organizations contributing to civic discourse and democratic engagement.
Colene Lind, Director
Dr. Lind studies the way that people use language to solve public problems, with a special emphasis on debates that engage scientific, technical, and envioronmental issues. She offers practical insights into how and why people say what they do, as well as concrete suggestions for improving public processes.
Drawing on her study of the final development phase of the Vision for the Future of Water Supply in Kansas, Dr. Lind studied how citizens used language in environmental decision-making. By better understanding the rhetorical choices participants make when talking and writing about natural resources, she aims to improve such public processes.
Most Recently, Dr. Lind has extended this work into the realm of preemption. An integral part of the U.S. system, preemption allows higher levels of government to set the authority of lower levels. Since 2013, Kansas has passed laws preempting local authority to regulate weapons, housing, wages, food labelling, and land use. Analysis of how Kansas argues for and against these measures will give academics better understanding of political culture and practitioners effective means to encourage local policy innovation and participation.
Donna Schenck-Hamlin, Community Partnerships
Donna Schenck-Hamlin is a co-founder and a facilitator of community partnerships with the Institute for Civic Discourse and Democracy. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in literature and a Master’s degree in library science from the University of Oregon, with a Master’s degree in musicology from Kansas State University. Within ICDD, Donna convenes public conversations in partnership with civic groups, and offers facilitator training for students, faculty, and community organizers. Her current issue focus is on assisting the Workforce Solar Housing Partnership to demonstrate new models of energy efficiency and financial sustainability for homeowners. Citizen engagement and interaction with complex issues is of particular interest in her work, and she joins researchers in psychology, library science, and planning in studying the self-efficacy of inquiry.
David E. Procter, Senior Advisor
David Procter is a professor emeritus in the Department of Communication Studies and the founding director of the Institute for Civic Discourse and Democracy as well as the Center for Engagement and Community Development at Kansas State University. Since arriving at K-State in 1987, he has worked in partnership with communities across the state. He has worked on issues of school consolidation, community strategic planning, heritage museum education, facilitation of community dialogue, and strategies for re-populating rural communities.
Procter has authored two books on community building - Enacting Political Culture (1991) and The Rhetoric of Community Building (2005) plus numerous essays and book chapters on the subject. Before becoming the Director of CECD, Procter served on the Advisory Board for the Kansas Center for Rural Initiatives. He received his BS and MA from Kansas State University and his PhD from the University of Nebraska.
For questions about ICDD courses and programs, please use the contact information below.
E-mail: icdd@k-state.edu
Campus Phone: 785-532-6875
Campus Address: 234 Nichols Hall