Sherry Phyllis Arnstein, (née Rubin) (11 January 1930 – 19 January 1997) was the author of the highly influential journal article "A Ladder of Citizen Participation". Working as a special assistant to the assistant secretary at the

U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is a Cabinet of the United States, cabinet-level United States federal executive departments, executive branch department of the U.S. federal government of the United States, fede ...

(HEW), she developed the insights that led to the development of her seminal paper in the field of

participatory decision making Citizen Participation or Public Participation in social science refers to different mechanisms for the Public consultation, public to express opinions—and ideally exert influence—regarding political, economic, management or other social dec ...

. In 1969, she wrote and published several papers that deal with public participation in decision making. Among them, "A Ladder of Citizen Participation" (1969), "Maximum Feasible Manipulation" (1972) and "A Working Model for Public Participation" (1975). Her first paper, in which she suggested different levels of public participation has a lasting impact in many areas of research, including geography, urban planning, public policy, health policy, and sociology, to name a few. Sherry Rubin was born in New York City to Bernard Rubin (born Russia) and Lucille Goldstein (born France). At a young age, her family moved to California. She studied physical education at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and after graduation worked as a caseworker in Alameda County Juvenile Court. In 1955, she moved to Washington, DC. and received a Masters in communications from

American University The American University (AU or American) is a private federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. Its main campus spans 90 acres (36 ha) on Ward Circle, mostly in the Spring Valley neighborhood of Northwest D.C. AU was charte ...

. After her work at HUD, she was a consulting public policy analyst at

Arthur D. Little Arthur D. Little is an international management consulting firm originally headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, founded in 1886 and formally incorporated in 1909 by Arthur Dehon Little, an MIT chemist who had discovered acetate. ...

, a senior research fellow at the

National Center for Health Services Research The National Center for Health Services Research was a United States government program tasked with conducting research into health services. It was established on July 23, 1974. It was transferred from the Heath Resources Administration to the De ...

, and vice president of the

National Health Council The National Health Council (NHC) is a nonprofit association of health organizations. Its members are national health-related organizations, including leading patient advocacy groups such as the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Assoc ...

. She served 10 years as executive director of the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine (AACOM) between 1985 and 1995.

References

1930 births 1997 deaths University of California, Los Angeles alumni American University School of Communication alumni Writers from New York City Writers from Washington, D.C. {{US-political-writer-stub