The Consensus team can help any library chart a course for the future.  Team members include:

Jennifer Wilding, project director.  Wilding was the author of Making Book: Gambling on the Future of Our Libraries, a Consensus white paper about the structure and funding of libraries in metro Kansas City.  Wilding combines an understanding of library structure and funding with broad knowledge of public policy and 20 years of experience writing for the public.  In addition, she is a recognized leader in civic engagement.  She directs the KC Forums project for Consensus, which has conducted projects with MacNeil/Lehrer Productions and the Kettering Foundation.  She provides research and communications, process design and facilitation/training services for a variety of clients.

Thomas J. Hennen, Jr., principal, Hennen Library Consulting.  Hennen has been a practicing librarian for almost 30 years.  He is presently the director of Waukesha County Federated Library System in Wisconsin, and previously directed library systems elsewhere in Wisconsin and Minnesota.  Hennen is the author of Hennens’ American Public Library ratings (HAPLR), which uses data provided by 9,000 public libraries to create comparative rankings.  Hennen has published more than 40 articles on a wide range of topics, including library futures, standards and accounting.  His book for Neal-Schuman, Hennen’s Public Library Planner, was published in April 2004.

Mary Jo Draper, principal, Mary Jo Draper Communications (WBE).  She founded Draper Communications after 25 years as a print newspaper reporter and public radio news director.  Draper has worked with nonprofit groups, foundations and governmental clients on a variety of communication and planning projects.  Draper Communications was a principle contractor on the KC Safe City Initiative which involved more than 200 citizens and public safety professionals in a year-long planning process.  At KCUR Radio, the metro Kansas City NPR affiliate, Draper directed a year-long project on health care for children funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Martha Kropf, Ph.D., assistant professor of political science at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, formerly assistant professor of political science at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.  Dr. Kropf previously served as project coordinator for the University of Maryland Survey research Center, where she worked with all aspects of survey research, specializing in questionnaire design.  She coordinated projects for clients such as the Harvard School of Public Health, the Maryland Department of Public Health, and the Prince George’s County, MD, Public Schools.  In 2004, Dr. Kropf and her students designed and implemented a public opinion survey for the Kansas City, Missouri, Public Library.

Mary Outwater, Ph.D., director of the Public Opinion Learning Laboratory at the University of Oklahoma, where she conducts surveys and analysis for government, non-profit, and academic clients.  She also teaches various political science classes in the areas of political behavior and public opinion.  Prior to coming to Oklahoma she earned her B.A. from California State University, Long Beach, and her Ph.D. in political science at Ohio State University with a specialization in survey research.

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