Biography

Prosocialorganizations have an explicit mission to make a positive difference in the world, such as eliminating poverty, developing renewable energy, fighting racism, or improving health. Although prosocial organizations are altruistically-oriented, they are also populated by human beings who hold an array of their own personal needs and private concerns. While these non-altruistic interests are not inherently problematic, they have been historically ignored or suppressed within most prosocial organizations. Ironically, when organizations don’t directly acknowledge and address their own private interests, those interests become problematic; people find ways to fulfill them outside of the organization’s oversight, often undermining prosocial work in the process. 

Dr. Oelberger's research takes up the understudied examination of prosocial organizations’ internal dynamics. Furthermore, she details how ignoring these internal dynamics leads to a range of deleterious outcomes, from systematic patterns of workforce burnout on an individual-level to inequitable forms of decision making on an organizational-level, which end up harming the ecosystem of prosocial work, on an institutional-level. She currently examines these dynamics across two crucial sets of actors within the prosocial ecosystem:

1) Funding and Context-Setting: Grantmaking Foundations. How do the non-altruistic interests of grantmaking foundations influence their decision-making processes and funding decisions? How do their resulting decisions impact the ecosystem of prosocial work, particularly along dimensions of equity and effectiveness?

2) Design and Implementation: The Workforce in Prosocial Organizations. How do the staff across various prosocial organizations approach, experience, and navigate their work? What are the implications of these processes for their personal wellbeing, their non-work relationships, their careers, and the people their organization serves?

This scholarship is critical, with high stakes for the workforce, for organizations, and for the vital work that they undertake. We must understand the internal dynamics of prosocial organizations for them to most effectively facilitate equitable and inclusive social change.

Dr. Oelberger’s research agenda, teaching interests, and service commitments are motivated by her experience in professional practice. She founded and led an international non-governmental organization (NGO) for seven years that supports community-based, rural education in East Africa, and she continues to provide consulting support for philanthropic foundations to inform their organizational design and programmatic practice. She enjoys integrating these lessons in both the content and process of her teaching.

Education

PhD in Organization Studies (Stanford University, 2014)

MA in Sociology (Stanford University, 2010)

PGDip in Maori and Pacific Nations Education (Victoria University of Wellington, 2006)

BA in History (Haverford College, 1999)