I study how communities can use participatory, youth-led approaches to data, evaluation, and leadership. My work lives at the intersection of community informatics, social work, and critical pedagogy.
I run Learning Partnerships with youth-serving organizations, using developmental evaluation and participatory action research to transition leadership to those most impacted by the issues programs seek to solve. I also write and research on data justice — the political economy of data collection, AI in nonprofits, and community-controlled data infrastructures.
I believe learning should be co-created, anti-racist, and anti-colonial; that classrooms should embody the worlds we hope to build; and that technology should serve people, not machine-ify them.
Recent Developments
Fink, A. & Zobitz, J. ARNOVA Annual Conference, Philadelphia, PA
VeLure Roholt, R. & Fink, A. Critical Youth Work, Weimar, Germany
Fink, A. & VeLure Roholt, R. Critical Youth Work, Weimar, Germany
Fink, A., Nienow, M., & Brito, M. European Conference on Social Work Research, Aberdeen, UK
Augsburg University
National Association of Social Workers – MN Chapter
Co-PI with John Zobitz National Science Foundation, $220,956
Fink, A. & Goldkind, L. Economic Anthropology, 12(2)
Nienow, M., Apgar, D., Fink, A., & Quinonez, J. Advances in Social Work, 25(2)
Goldkind, L., Ming, J., & Fink, A. Human Service Organizations: Management, Leadership & Governance
Fink, A. Internet Policy Review, 13(2)
Fink, A., Habtamu, B., Kunkel-Linares, A., Pence, M., Woller, K., & Alexander, I. Disrupting Hierarchy in Education, Teachers College Press
Fink, A. & VeLure Roholt, R. Social Service Review, 96(4)