Do good while advancing your career! John Bilorusky, PhD, and Vera Labat, MPH, are administrators at Western Institute for Social Research, a longtime OPEN EXCHANGE lister in our Schools and Certifications category.

The Western Institute for Social Research (WISR) is a multiethnic academic institution serving mature adults who are working on BA, MA and PhD degrees in areas related to their professional and community involvements. Although some of these adult students at WISR are enrolled as part of "mid-life" career changes, most are advancing their careers and their long-standing personal and community interests through their studies.

WISR students actively engaged in social change projects such as: developing progressive approaches to better serve the needs of homeless families; formulating effective verbal and somatic methods in working with survivors of trauma; probing the organizational and legal aspects of workplace bullying; examining lessons learned from elders who have been involved in social change movements over the years; addressing the health inequities facing African-American communities; and promoting interpersonal relations and public policies which will lead to greater peace and justice at home and abroad.

WISR's approach to action-oriented research centers on the idea that it is crucial that all of us come to see ourselves as builders of knowledge, individually and collectively.

We encourage students to draw on their own experiences, and on the experiences of others with whom they are in contact, to develop ideas and strategies that can make a difference.

Some people call this "participatory research" where "researchers" are the people who are involved in trying to make a difference in the communities in which they live and/or work. In our view, those who are most expert and knowledgeable about important community issues are not distanced from what they are studying, but deeply engaged in all of the complexity and "messiness" of the problems and the ideas with which they are wrestling.

We encourage students to be concerned with human values and social justice, in contrast to the myth of value-free research or research that serves—even if only indirectly—the status quo.