About the Author

Donald L. Kirkpatrick is an active author, consultant, teacher, and speaker. He retired after more than 30 years with the Management Institute, University of Wisconsin where he planned and conducted meetings for all levels of management. He now holds the title of professor emeritus.

Kirkpatrick received three degrees from the University of Wisconsin in Madison: a BBA in accounting, an MBA in personnel management, and a PhD in counseling and adult education. His dissertation was on evaluating a human relations program for supervisors, where he developed his famous four levels for evaluating training programs.

His professional background includes positions as training manager with International Minerals and Chemical Corporation and human resources manager with Bendix Products Aerospace Division. He consulted for many organizations in the United States, including Blockbuster, Caterpillar, Ford, General Electric, IBM, PacifiCorp, United Nations, and World Bank. In foreign countries, he conducted programs in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, France, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Netherlands, Poland, Singapore, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, and Venezuela. He is a past national president and a Gordon M. Bliss award winner of the American Society for Training & Development. In 2004, he received ASTD's highest award, Lifetime Achievement in Workplace Learning and Performance. In 1997, he was elected to Training magazine's HRD Hall of Fame. He is a former national board member of the Society for Human Resources Management and a winner of a Research and two Best Book of the Year awards.

Kirkpatrick has written many articles and six books, including No-Nonsense Communication (1998), Improving Employee Performance Through Appraisal and Coaching, 2nd edition (2006), Managing Change Effectively (2002), Developing Supervisors and Team Leaders (2002), Transferring Learning to Behavior (coauthored with son, Jim) (2005), and Evaluating Training Programs: The Four Levels, 3rd edition (2006), which has been translated into Spanish, Polish, Turkish, and Chinese.

He has also written supervisory/management inventories on communication; human relations; time management; managing change; performance appraisal and coaching; and leadership, motivation, and decision making.

Kirkpatrick is a Gideon, senior elder at Elmbrook Church in Brookfield, Wisconsin, and chairman of the Board of South Asian Ministries, which supports a missionary in India. His hobbies include fishing, golfing, playing tennis, and watching the Wisconsin Badgers and Green Bay Packers.

He is married to Fern whom he met in the University of Wisconsin band. They have four children and five grandchildren.