Mark Chupp, PhD, MSW, is an associate professor and the founding director of the Community Innovation Network, a resource for communities and practitioners seeking strength-based approaches to community change. His research and practice over 30 years have focused on community building, community development and inter-group conflict transformation. He served as co-director of the CWRU Social Justice Institute (SJI) from 2020–23 and as the SJI Education Coordinator in 2024.
Chupp began his career in restorative justice, directing the first Victim Offender Reconciliation Program in the U.S. He is an international consultant and trainer in conflict transformation and peace-building. He lived in Costa Rica and Nicaragua from 1988 to 1991, where he worked extensively throughout Central America. He accompanied Peace and Reconciliation Commissions during the negotiation of the end of the civil war in Nicaragua and helped establish the Culture of Peace Program and a UN Local Zone of Peace in post-war El Salvador.
Chupp has served as a community organizer, led a comprehensive community assessment and founded a nonprofit focused on mediation and violence prevention. He designed an appreciative inquiry process to improve race relations in a Polish American neighborhood experiencing demographic shifts. This work, which informed his dissertation, identified pathways for building trust across racial differences. He later collaborated to establish Appreciative Inquiry for Community and Social Change, one of the first systematic efforts to apply appreciative inquiry in nonprofit and community contexts.
He has published numerous articles, manuals and book chapters. A Spanish-language manual he co-authored with John Paul Lederach on transforming conflict and violence has been used throughout Latin America. He is a founding trustee of the National Peace Academy, adjunct faculty at the Summer Peace-building Institute at Eastern Mennonite University, and a faculty member at the Asset-Based Community Development Institute at DePaul University.
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Why I Teach
I believe that building trusting human relationships is the foundation for transforming ourselves and the world. Teaching offers a platform to connect with and learn from others committed to social change. As a facilitator, I aim to create a courageous space for exploration, self-expression, dialogue and learning. It is an honor and privilege to be part of a learning community with remarkable students from all walks of life. Together, we learn and co-create knowledge and practices to build community and transform systems and communities.
Why I Chose This Profession
I have been on a vision quest throughout my career, seeking to build community across identity groups. I spent years as a practitioner in community building, community organizing and conflict transformation. Social work provided the strongest theoretical and practice foundation for this work. I pursued this quest for community-led social change in both my social work practice and studies. Having initiated several change movements and nonprofit organizations, I realized the capacity to affect change was much greater through training, teaching, applied research and writing.