Join Parker Palmer, Peter Block, Sushama Austin-Connor and other social innovators in this Abundant Community Conversation. This event will include music and poetry and attendees will be invited to be active participants in this emerging conversation.
***This event will take place on Zoom. Zoom info will be provided in confirmation email when you register.***
Sushama Austin-Connor is the host for this Abundant Community Conversation. She is the interim Executive Director at Faith Matters Network. She served as an administrator at Princeton Theological Seminary for ten years and was the Founding Program Director of the Black Theology and Leadership Institute (BTLI) at Princeton Theological Seminary. Through BTLI and a range of additional program leadership roles at PTS, she has stewarded a high-impact national network of faith leaders, researchers, congregants, and community leaders committed to social justice and community improvement. Prior to her Seminary work, Sushama worked in leadership roles at Harvard Divinity School, Wellesley College, and the United Church of Christ. She was recently ordained in the New Jersey Association of the United Church of Christ. Sushama recently completed a Doctor of Ministry degree through Drew University. Her dissertation, entitled, “A Theology of Liberative Wellness for Black Women Clergy” focused on an adaptive self-care framework and model for pursuing black clergywomen’s physical health and well-being undergirded by Womanist and Black theology.
Parker J. Palmer is a writer, speaker and activist who focuses on issues in education, community, leadership, spirituality and social change. He is founder and Senior Partner Emeritus of the Center for Courage & Renewal, which offers long-term retreat programs for people in the serving professions, including teachers, physicians, non-profit leaders, and clergy. He holds a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California at Berkeley, thirteen honorary doctorates, two Distinguished Achievement Awards from the National Educational Press Association, and an Award of Excellence from the Associated Church Press. Palmer is the author of ten books—including several award-winning titles—that have sold over two million copies and been translated into twelve languages: Healing the Heart of Democracy, The Heart of Higher Education (with Arthur Zajonc), The Courage to Teach, A Hidden Wholeness, Let Your Life Speak, The Active Life, To Know As We Are Known, The Company of Strangers, The Promise of Paradox, and On the Brink of Everything: Grace, Gravity and Getting Old. In 1998, the Leadership Project, a national survey of 10,000 educators, named Dr. Palmer one of the thirty “most influential senior leaders” in higher education and one of the ten key “agenda-setters” of the past decade. Since 2002, the Accrediting Commission for Graduate Medical Education has given annual Parker J. Palmer “Courage to Teach” and “Courage to Lead” Awards to directors of exemplary medical residency programs. In 2005, Living the Questions: Essays Inspired by the Work and Life of Parker J. Palmer, was published. In 2010, Palmer received the William Rainey Harper Award whose previous recipients include Margaret Mead, Elie Wiesel, Marshall McLuhan, and Paolo Freire. In 2011, the Utne Reader named him one of 25 Visionaries on its annual list of People Who are Changing the World. In 2017, the Shalem Institute in Washington, D.C., gave Palmer its annual Contemplative Voices Award, “created to honor those individuals who have made significant contributions to contemplative understanding, living and leadership and whose witness helps others live from the divine wellspring of compassion, strength, and authentic vision.” In 2021, the Freedom of Spirit Fund, a UK-based foundation, gave him their Lifetime Achievement Award in honor of work that promotes and protects spiritual freedom. A member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quaker), Dr. Palmer and his wife, Sharon Palmer, live in Madison, Wisconsin.
Peter Block is an author, consultant and citizen of Cincinnati, Ohio. His work is about chosen accountability, and the reconciliation of community. Peter is the author of several best selling books.He has a new book coming out in November that you can pre-order now. It’s called Activating the Common Good: Reclaiming Control of Our Collective Well-Being. “Community: The Structure of Belonging” came out in 2008 and he co-authored “The Abundant Community: Awakening the Power of Families and Neighborhoods” with John McKnight. His writing is about ways to create workplaces and communities that work for all. They offer an alternative to the patriarchal beliefs that dominate our culture. His work is to bring change into the world through consent and connectedness rather than through mandate and force. He is founder of Designed Learning, a training company that offers workshops designed by Peter to build the skills outlined in his books. Peter serves on the Board of Directors LivePerson, a provider of online engagement solutions, and the Cincinnati Access Fund; he also serves on his local neighborhood council. He is director emeritus of Elementz, an urban arts center in Cincinnati and is on the Advisory Board for the Festival in the Workplace Institute, Bahamas. He was the first Distinguished Consultant-in-Residence at Xavier University. With other volunteers in Cincinnati, Peter began A Small Group, whose work is to create a new community narrative and to bring his work on civic engagement into being. Peter’s office is in Mystic, Connecticut. You can visit his websites at peterblock.com, abundantcommunity.com, designedlearning.com, commongood.cc, restorecommons.com and asmallgroup.net. He welcomes being contacted at pbi@att.net. He lives with his wife, Cathy Kramer in Cincinnati, and helped raise a bunch of kids.