Passages: The Ethnographic Field School and First Fieldwork Experiences

General Editors: Tim Wallace and Alayne Unterberger

Madelyn Iris, Ph.D., completed her dissertation in anthropology at Northwestern University and quickly became engaged in the newly emerging field of ethnographic evaluation. For several years she served as a research associate at the Erikson Institute for Advanced Studies in Child Development, where she conducted qualitative program evaluation research. During this time she became interested in the problems of the frail elderly and shifted her focus to gerontology and the study of protective services. She joined the Buehler Center on Aging at Northwestern University as the assistant director for education. She was appointed Interim director of the center and was named the director of behavioral and social science research. Dr. Iris was an early participant in the Northwestern University Ethnographic School, was appointed Associate Director and was named director. She is an associate professor in the Department of Medicine, the Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University.Hermajor areas of focus now include social program research and evaluation, qualitative methods and the study of decision making and chronic illness, and Native American models of aging. She is a sustaining fellow of the Society for Applied Anthropology and a fellow of the Gerontological Society of America, and was the founding chair of the NAPA Mentor Program. Dr. Iris was elected president-elect of the National Association for the Practice of Anthropology.