The Human Interaction Research Institute (HIRI) helps nonprofits, funders and communities handle the challenges of innovation and change, using behavioral science strategies. Founded in 1961, the nonprofit Institute is based in Los Angeles. Its work ranges from research, to technical assistance on systems change, to disseminating innovations or helping others to do so. The emphasis in all these activities is on the complex human dynamics of change - how to get people personally committed to change and feel rewarded for their involvement, and how to address people’s fears and resistances about change.

Current priority areas are: (1) nonprofit capacity building, (2) community collaborations and (3) philanthropy, along with longstanding interests in dissemination and health communication. HIRI’s more than 140 projects range across the fields of health, human services and the arts. Examples include national evaluations of youth violence prevention programs, a national research study of strategies for partnerships in the arts, Capitol Hill hearings for Congressional staff on the needs of people with mental illness in the criminal justice system, and a national study of advisors to wealthy donors and their impact on donor philanthropic strategies.

Products from these projects are disseminated in both print and electronic formats. The Institute's work is supported by Federal and State agencies, foundations, and the corporate sector.

Under the leadership of President Dr. Thomas Backer and a multi-disciplinary Board of Directors, the Institute's small staff works in a "virtual office" environment supported by electronic communications. Core staff are based in Southern California, in Upstate New York, Gaithersburg, Maryland and in Washington, DC. Part-time senior staff include distinguished university-based researchers in health communications, mental health and related fields.

The Institute has a tradition of community service, ranging from individual efforts of staff (working with advocacy and support organizations such as the National Alliance on Mental Illness), to coordinating volunteer groups such as the Entertainment Industry Workplace AIDS Task Force, to hosting (with California State University Northridge) both the first Los Angeles conference on AIDS in the workplace (April 1987) and an April 2003 event on nonprofit capacity building.

Projects concerning nonprofit capacity building include ongoing research and maintaining the world’s largest searchable database of foundation capacity-building programs. In Southern California, Upstate New York and several other regions, the Institute studies and enhances community-wide infrastructure for capacity building. Projects addressing community collaborations include a recent book, Evaluating Community Collaborations (Springer, 2003), and recent national evaluation studies in the youth violence and mental health fields.

Recent projects in philanthropy include foundation-commissioned studies of stakeholder interactions, individual donor perspectives on capacity building (reported in Stanford Social Innovation Review), collaboration and internal capacity-building strategies for small foundations, and methods for promoting sustainability of foundation initiatives in communities. Current projects concern transformational change strategies of large foundations and administration of a family foundation's capacity-building grantmaking initiative.

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Board of Directors

Rayna Aylward
     Executive Director, Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation
Thomas E. Backer, PhD
     President, Human Interaction Research Institute; Associate Clinical
     Professor of Medical Psychology, UCLA School of Medicine
Vivian Brown, PhD
     President and Chief Executive Officer, PROTOTYPES, Culver City, CA
James L. Dearing, PhD
     Professor, School of Communication Studies, Ohio University
Herman DeBose, PhD
     Professor, Department of Sociology, California State University Northridge
Alex Kopelowicz, MD
     Director, San Fernando Mental Health Center, Mission Hills, CA
Alan Kumamoto
     Partner, Kumamoto Associates, Los Angeles
Richard Moore, PhD
     Professor, Department of Management, California State University   
     Northridge
Jeanne Obert
     Executive Director, Matrix Institute on Additions, Los Angeles
Jerry Yoshitomi
     Independent Cultural Consultant, Port Hueneme

Officers

Thomas E. Backer, PhD, President
Vivian B. Brown, PhD, Vice-President
Elizabeth A. Howard, Secretary
Richard S. Hibbs, CPA, Chief Financial Officer

Staff

Thomas E. Backer, PhD, President (bio)
Jane Ellen Bleeg, Project Manager (bio)
Alan S. Brown, Senior Research Scientist
Joan Ewing, Volunteer Research Assistant
Lilli Friedland, PhD, Senior Research Scientist (bio)
Rebekah Gibson, Senior Advisor (bio)
Kate Groves, BA, Project Coordinator (bio)
Nancy Guerra, PhD, Senior Research Scientist (bio)
Elizabeth A. Howard, Research Associate (bio)
U. Sue Koone, Project Assistant (bio)
Cynthia Kunz, Senior Research Scientist (bio)
Robert P. Liberman, MD, Senior Research Scientist
Alan N. Miller, PhD, Senior Research Scientist
Alex J. Norman, DSW, Senior Research Scientist (bio)
Terri Ruddiman, Project Coordinator (bio)
Adryan Russ, Project Manager (bio)
Allison Sampson, Senior Research Scientist (bio)

Technology Consultant
Mary Anne Shew, ShewTech Associates

Edward M. Glaser, PhD, Founder, 1911-1993

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