Biography

Experience and Commitment David’s travels, skills and expansive knowledge base allow him to sit comfortably at the crossroads of policy development, issue and community organizing, and community building. David’s energetic, charismatic and fun-loving spirit creates opportunities for his clients and audiences to reflect, enjoy, learn and grown together as they resolve conflict, plan strategically and organize powerfully. Much of his research, training and methodology development were born during his time in the three-year (1995 – 1997) W.K. Kellogg Foundation National Leadership Fellowship. David uses a wide variety of facilitation techniques and tools, including storytelling, to create sacred space where the voices and visions of all that are gathered can be shared and heard. Prior to starting David Hunt and Associates, David served for eight years (1988 – 1995) as the Executive Director of the Chicago Rehab Network, a 25 year-old coalition organization of Chicago’s community development corporations dedicated to Community Development without Displacement. During his tenure, David doubled the agency’s budget, quadrupled its staff and expanded its membership. A $2 million single-family loan fund was developed for its members, the Housing Development Training Institute was launched and the nation’s first Masters Degree Program for non-profit developers of affordable housing was designed for and by community developers from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Even more significantly, under David’s leadership, the Rehab Network led a very successful, broad-based, citywide campaign, know as the Affordable Housing and Community Jobs Campaign, which resulted in the city of Chicago targeting $750 million to low-income housing development. David’s 20 years experience in the community development and citizen empowerment field gives him a special interest in working with community-based organizations and community organizers. Teaching Organizing for Social Change From 1998 to 2012 David served as one of four principal trainers of the Midwest Academy, one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious organizing for social change training institutions. During this time, 5-8 times a year David held week-long intensive organizing training retreats. Over the past 23 years he has trained hundreds of organizers. In 2012 David teaches Community Organizing at Marygrove College in Detroit David is now teaching variations of this course at other organizations. State wide and National Organizing expertise David served as national organizing director for US Action for two year and helped found and serve on the board of Statewide Housing Action Coalition. David Hunt and Associates has a diverse and eclectic client list ranging from local and national foundations such as S.H. Cowell, W. K. Kellogg and Philadelphia Bread and Roses community fund, to national, state-wide and local social justice, housing and community development organizations, universities and governments like Neighborhood Works America, Multiple Weed and Seed programs, Housing California, Center for Community Change, Women’s Community Redevelopment Project, Teach for America, Leadership for Educational Equality, Food and Water Watch, DC Vote, Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) in DC, Liberty Resource Inc. (one of the nation’s leading disability rights organizations), Midwest Academy, Union of Concerned Scientists, Center For Progressive Leadership, The Philadelphia Affordable Housing Coalition, Prince George’s County Department of Recreations, Sierra Nevada Alliance, Trout Unlimited and Sacramento Mutual Housing Association, to Aspen Institute, Campus Green Vote, Partransit in Sacramento, Impact Silver Spring, Bethune-Cookman University in Florida, Holy Names College in Oakland, South Mountain Community College in Arizona, Mercy Housing, Wisconsin Clearing House, Australian Aged Care Association, Marygrove College in Detroit, Ingham MI County Health Department, Philadelphia Human Rights Commission, and many, many more. David has traveled widely around the United States and the world, studying community building and the power of story to heal and build community. His travel destinations include Israel, Jordan, Turkey, Nicaragua, Bali, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Chiappas, Mexico, Brazil, the Ivory Coast, Ghana, Costa Rica, Benin, Spain, Australia, Morocco, Senegal, Cuba, Belize and many other wonderful places. Awards David has won many awards in addition to his W.K. Kellogg National leadership Fellowship and Crain’s Chicago Business “People under 40 to watch.” David and the Rehab Network won the Chicago Organizers of the Year Award from the John D. and Catherine T. McArthur Foundations, Woods Foundation and Weiboldt Foundations. In 1995, David was recognized for his advocacy work by Travelers and Immigrants Aid of Chicago who awarded him the Human Needs Award “in recognition of steadfast to harvest new beginnings and replenish opportunities for disadvantaged persons in Chicago.” David and the Rehab Network were also honored by the Publicity Club of Chicago with the Golden Trumpet Award for their work with the Affordable Housing and Community Jobs Campaign. David is also the founder of the Community Building Storytelling Project, a project designed to reintroduce storytelling into American culture as a tool to build community and heal America and the world. David travels the world and America learning, and in turn teaching thousands of people each year, the ancient powers of story and storytelling to build community, heal divides, and plan strategically. David specializes in building community, or as he likes to say, creating safe and often sacred space to build Common Unity.