Nancy W. Bauer, founding director of the organizational dynamics program in what is today the College of Liberal and Professional Studies and a longtime lecturer in the program, died on December 9, 2023. She was 94.

Dr. Bauer received her PhD in learning theory from Michigan State University. In 1978, she joined Penn’s faculty as an adjunct associate professor in the Graduate School of Education and as an academician in the College of General Studies in the School of Arts & Sciences (the precursor to today’s College of Liberal and Professional Studies). Also in the late 1970s, she founded the organization dynamics program in CGS. As related in an article celebrating the program’s 40th anniversary, the National Science Foundation contacted her about funding a program that connected adults to a research institution. With support from Penn’s provost, Dr. Bauer set about creating an innovative program, the first at Penn to offer courses for working professionals.

“The global aspect of the program is crucial for the future,” said Dr. Bauer in 2017. “People in organizational dynamics are going to make a huge impact on what this world is going to be. Penn is growing, and growing internationally all the time. There seems to be no limit to its scope. And that’s exciting.”

Dr. Bauer directed the organizational dynamics program until 1987, when she became CEO and editor-in-chief of WomenMatter, Inc., a non-profit, non-partisan web-centric organization that provided women with the information and quick access they needed to participate in the political process. During the 1990s, Dr. Bauer also became president of Bauer Associates Inc., a consulting firm specializing in innovation development and the use of information in changing behavior. She still remained at Penn as a lecturer in the organizational dynamics program, and also took a secondary position as a lecturer in city planning in the School of Design. She retired from Penn in 2018.

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