Research & Resources

The Eleanor Foundation recognizes working women as vital community assets. Yet their economic contributions to neighborhoods nationwide is often overlooked or underestimated. As a research-driven grantmaker, the Eleanor Foundation invests our resources in studies that inform our investments, as well as in others' efforts to advance working women and their families.

Our Principal Researchers

We bring the work of nationally respected academicians and public opinion pollsters to build the case for investing in working women as an effective community development strategy.

Malcolm Bush, Ph.D.
Malcolm Bush is a Research Fellow at The University of Chicago's Chapin Hall. A highly respected economic development expert, he previously led the Woodstock Institute and its research and policy projects that informed community reinvestment strategies nationwide. His policy and research writings include Families in Distress: Public, Private, and Civic Responses, published by the University of California Press.

Richard Day, Ph.D.
Richard Day is President of Richard Day Research (RDR), a long-standing full-service market research firm serving global companies, local governments and nonprofit clients. RDR's work has been used by major media outlets including the Associated Press, Chicago Tribune, Time, Morningstar and USA Today.

Mark Mellman
Mark Mellman is one of the nation's leading public opinion researchers and communication strategists. As CEO of The Mellman Group, his firm's clients include Fortune 500 companies, foundations, government agencies, political figures and public interest groups. The Mellman Group was named “Pollster of the Year” by the American Association of Political Consultants for its fuel economy standards research program in 2008.

Gary Orfield, Ph.D.
Gary Orfield is a nationally renowned civil rights scholar whose work has helped facilitate a sea change in U.S. education policy. Currently, he is Director of the Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles, a multidisciplinary research and policy think tank, at the University of California, Los Angeles. Gary's work has been quoted in leading national media including the Chicago Tribune, National Public Radio, New York Times, The Economist and The Washington Post.

Janet Smith, Ph.D.
Janet Smith is an associate professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is Co-Director of the Nathalie P. Voorhees Center for Neighborhood and Community Improvement, a unit of UIC's College of Urban Planning & Public Affairs—a nationally recognized innovator in education, research and engagement in support of the nation's cities and metropolitan areas.