Sherry Arnstein

Working as a special assistant to the assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW), she developed the insights that led to the development of her seminal paper in the field of participatory decision making.

In 1969, she wrote and published several papers that deal with public participation in decision making.

She studied physical education at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and after graduation worked as a caseworker in Alameda County Juvenile Court.

After her work at HUD, she was a consulting public policy analyst at Arthur D. Little, a senior research fellow at the National Center for Health Services Research, and vice president of the National Health Council.

[2] She served 10 years as executive director of the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine (AACOM) between 1985 and 1995.