David Hunter

Social Investment Advisor, Connecticut Opportunity Project

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David currently serves as Social Investment Advisor to the Connecticut Opportunity Project at Dalio Education. Previously he served as Director, leading the Connecticut Opportunity Project team and driving the initiative forward in pursuit of its mission to invest in and strengthen youth-serving organizations seeking to improve the lives and prospects of disconnected and disengaged young people in Connecticut. He joined the team as Director in July 2020.

David has authored numerous books and articles in the social sciences, on performance management to drive outcomes, and issues in psychotherapy, and has consulted internationally to direct-service organizations, advocacy groups, unions, funders, and public sector entities. 

Previously, David was Director of Assessment and Knowledge Development at the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, where he developed ways to evaluate, measure, and understand the results of the Foundation’s grantmaking.  He also helped grantees improve their capacities to “manage to outcomes” through what evolved into intensive, four-day “Theory of Change workshops,” detailed in his acclaimed book Working Hard—and Working WELL. 

David began his career in academia and then moved into front-line human services where he worked with marginalized groups including those with chronic mental illness.  He then entered administration and became CEO of an acute-care State Psychiatric Hospital in Connecticut.  He led the hospital through a major turn-around and by the end of his tenure it was rated by the Joint Commission for the Accreditation of Health Care Organizations as being in the top five percent of all hospitals in the United States. 

David earned a PhD in Anthropology at Yale University and an MSW at the University of Connecticut.