During the 2003 NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament, Geno Auriemma, the coach of the University of Connecticut, was asked to identify the team's key to success. He responded: "We have Diana (Taurasi), and you don't."
In community development, we are always concerned about our success and impact on communities, so we focus on measurement and evaluation, or M&E.
While it is not an exact science, numerous methods are available to quantify and qualify impact. One aspect of this process focuses on determining the factor(s) that caused the impact. A standard measuring stick is the concept of sine qua non, Latin for "without which not." Community development practitioners commonly refer to this as the "but-for-principle," where we attempt to identify evidence of causation related to an intervention (think educational programming and training, action planning and implementation, etc.) and observed outcomes (increase in knowledge, change in behavior and/or changes in quality of life). In other words, if not for (but for) "fill in the blank," this impact would never have occurred.
In practice, we know that community-level impacts are often the result of a complex mix of factors that all contribute in some tangible (and possibly intangible!) way. But we can all probably think of a time when a single individual (organization) or a group of individuals (organizations) came together with a unified purpose, merged assets, a culture of collaboration, and mutually agreed upon measures of success to make something magical happen that has positive community-level effects in the short term and, if done well, the long term.
We can easily apply sine qua non for the Purdue Extension Community Development team and our impacts across the state of Indiana (and beyond!). Why? Because Purdue Extension Community Development's key to success is no secret, it is a direct result of the hard work put in by our entire team. However, as we know, in this basketball-crazy state, every team has star players, and some teams are fortunate enough to have a generational player like Diana Taurasi.
We have Kris Parker.
May 2025 marks the twentieth year of Kris's making a difference through her work with Purdue Extension Community Development. Kris started as a Community Development educator in Porter County in 2005 and became a Regional Community Development educator in 2014. Positive impacts have followed her throughout.
Kris has embodied our mission to strengthen the capacity of local leaders, residents, businesses, and organizations to build resilient, inclusive, and sustainable communities through research-based resources and processes. Kris has also set the example for servant leadership on our team and set the bar extremely high for herself, her team members, and her community partners and stakeholders.
A Purdue Extension Regional Community Development educator colleague, Tamara Ogle, summed up Kris's impact on our team this way:
"When I grow up, I want to be Kris Parker."
Many colleagues in our profession across the United States and stakeholders across Indiana who have worked with Kris would probably concur.
Our award-winning Beginners Guide to Grant Writing program? Our newly revamped and award-winning Community Leadership program? The recently updated and expanded Facilitative Leadership program?
Kris Parker.
If Kris were reading this next to me, she would be in deflection mode, reminding me of all her teammates' significant contributions in creating, delivering, and evaluating these impactful programs. This is all very true, except all her teammates would likely reply, “But-for Kris Parker.”
As Program Leader, I have often benefited from Kris’s wisdom and expertise. I greatly appreciate her candor, revel in her profound insights, and cheer her on at every opportunity.
A great example was in 2017 when I was serving as Assistant Program Leader. During the awards ceremony at our Professional Development Conference, it was announced that Kris was the recipient of the Paul B. Crooks Award, which honors an outstanding Extension educator. According to the press release, “Parker was recognized for her robust facilitation and leadership skills, her championship of development opportunities in Indiana communities of all sizes, and her pioneering work in shaping Indiana’s next generation of community leaders.
When her name was announced, Kris looked at me, completely shocked. However, our team was not. Kris was being recognized for all her work across the state and for serving as the unbending foundation of our leadership and civic engagement thematic area. Or, as one Community Development educator colleague described it, “Michael, you might be the Program Leader, but Kris is the Matriarch of our Program Area.”
- Michael Wilcox, Assistant Director and Program Leader for Community Development