Dave Gruenenfelder, M.A., Assistant Director

Dave Gruenenfelder, M.A., is the Assistant Director of ILLAPS. In that role he assists the ILLAPS Director with a variety of administrative tasks. He has been at the Institute since the fall of 2006. Prior to that he held a variety of positions, the longest of which was doing program evaluation for about 25 years with the Illinois Departments of Public Aid and Human Services. Other positions included a 1-year stint as a Social Worker at Alton (Illinois) State Hospital; 4 years in Chester, Illinois at Menard State Penitentiary as a Counselor; 1 year at the Illinois Capital Development Board; 1 year at the DHS Division of Mental Health central office, and part-time teaching in public administration and Political Science at Southern Illinois University Carbondale and Lincoln Land Community College. Dave has an M.A. degree in Sociology from SIUE and was ABD in Political Science at SIUC. Currently he helps ILLAPS to identify new funding initiatives and develop new projects and is involved with several Institute projects, including the IDOT Court Project, IDOT Mobile Capture & Reporting, an evaluation of a program for college graduates with disabilities who are veterans in Southern Illinois, and an evaluation of an Illinois Dept. of Human Services, Division of Mental Health program to assist mentally ill county jail inmates.