Joseph Francis Xavier Paiva is recognized as the principal founder of the ICSD. While serving at the University of Missouri–Columbia in the early 1970s, he convened the first inter-university meetings that led to the 1974 creation of the Midwest Inter-University Consortium for International Social Development (MIUCISD). Paiva chaired the founding action committee, drafted the consortium’s memorandum of agreement, and served as its executive secretary, ensuring organizational stability during its formative years. A native of India raised in Sri Lanka, Paiva brought international and United Nations experience to his leadership, giving the consortium its early global outlook. His article “A Concept of Social Development” (Social Service Review, 1977) articulated the integrative vision linking social welfare, economic progress, and human rights that remains central to ICSD’s mission
Dr. Daniel Selvarajah Sanders was the first president and one of the principal founders of ICSD. As president from 1981 to 1989, he transformed the original Midwest consortium into an international organization, expanding membership beyond the United States and launching ICSD’s biennial international symposiums. Under his leadership, the consortium also established its first European branch, setting the pattern for global regional engagement. A scholar and administrator at the Universities of Hawai‘i and Illinois, Sanders was a leading voice for the social-development perspective within social work. Globally recognized for his advocacy of world peace and social justice, he helped define ICSD’s enduring identity as a multidisciplinary community committed to human betterment and international cooperation
John Finbarr “Jack” Jones was a pivotal voice in shaping social development as an academic discipline. As the founding dean of the School of Social Development at the University of Minnesota–Duluth (1971–1976), he led the first American graduate program built around social-development theory, establishing a model later adopted internationally through ICSD. Jones helped organize the consortium’s formative governance and co-edited early publications that articulated its purpose and philosophy. His co-edited volume Social Development: Conceptual, Methodological and Policy Issues (1981) with Rama S. Pandey remains a cornerstone of ICSD’s intellectual foundation
David Hollister played a dual role as early founder and later historian of ICSD. He joined the faculty of the University of Minnesota–Duluth during the formative period of the consortium and is named among the first pioneers who shaped the initial agenda for integrating social development into social-work education. Hollister’s contributions extended beyond those early meetings: he documented the consortium’s evolution and is cited as one of ICSD’s founders at major milestones, including the launch of the Social Development Issues digital archive in 2021. His continued scholarship and organizational work have preserved ICSD’s historical record and strengthened its connection between social-development research and practice.
Shanti K. Khinduka was an early chair of ICSD’s first governing board and later served as president of ICSD (2001–2005). During the consortium’s founding period in the 1970s, he served as a board chair while based at Washington University in St. Louis, helping shape the early administrative framework that sustained MIUCISD’s (later ICSD) operations. His leadership bridged ICSD’s formative and global eras, and his later presidency further consolidated the consortium’s international reach. Under Khinduka’s influence, ICSD strengthened its academic and institutional partnerships, particularly through the publication of the Social Development Issues journal and its connection to biennial conferences. His long-standing advocacy for scholarship rooted in equity, evidence, and global collaboration remains integral to ICSD’s philosophy.
Tom Walz served as chair of the consortium from 1978 to 1980, guiding the transition from a regional network to a stable inter-university structure. Walz’s university hosted one of the seven original member schools that signed the 1974 memorandum creating the Midwest Inter-University Consortium for Social Development (MIUCISD). His combination of practical social-work leadership and commitment to community engagement, which focused on developing social-development concentrations and interdisciplinary collaboration, embodied ICSD’s early mission to connect academic theory with applied human-service development worldwide. See One of a Kind: Tom Walz
Arthur Katz served among ICSD’s first sequence of governing chairs during its formative years in the 1970s. He helped establish the consortium’s early governance framework, transitioning MIUCISD from an informal collaboration into a structured inter-university body with elected officers and scheduled meetings. His organizational work provided the administrative continuity that allowed ICSD to expand beyond its regional roots. Katz’s leadership exemplified the early consortium’s goal to institutionalize cooperation among social-work schools and promote education and research in social development across university systems.