Center for Development History

The Center for Development History (CDH) is an initiative to capture and retain the lived experiences, lessons learned, and history of international development professionals who devoted the bulk of their careers to working with international NGOs, humanitarian relief organizations, firms, and universities. Our initial efforts focus on conducting oral history interviews with development practitioners, with the goal of making them publicly available to practitioners and researchers. We understand the value of learning from experience, not repeating the same mistakes, to achieve more impactful development results. CDH is a volunteer-led organization, affiliated with InterAction, and working with James Madison University to host the collection of oral histories and transcripts. As we build our collection and grow, we anticipate offering public events that address key topics of development, with a focus on the history of development and its impact on the future of development. The Center is co-founded by Jerrold Keilson, an experienced development professional, and Dr. Michael Gubser, a Professor of History at James Madison University and development consultant. Penelope Kogan supports as Director, Research and Collections.