David Cooperrider

David Cooperrider (born July 14, 1954), is the Fairmount Minerals Chair and Professor of Social Entrepreneurship at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University, and Faculty Director at the Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit at Case. Cooperrider also teaches at University of Pennsylvania as well as Claremont University, where he is The Peter F. Drucker Distinguished Fellow. Cooperrider is the founder, together with Suresh Srivastva, of the theory of Appreciative Inquiry. Cooperrider's original doctoral dissertation "Appreciative Inquiry Into Organizational Life" has been cited as “the first, and as yet, the best articulation of the theory and vision of appreciative inquiry.” It was completed and defended in 1985. Early life and education Cooperrider grew up in Oak Park, Illinois, and later completed his undergraduate studies at Augustana College in 1976. He earned a Master's of Science at Sir George Williams University in 1983 and his Ph.D. from Case Western Reserve University in 1985.