Advisors, Mentors, Coaches, and Colleagues

Intellectual Resources and Wisdom Sources

Advisors to the Institute include policy analysts, business executives, educators, caregivers, union leaders, trade association leaders, political leaders, community activists and leaders, academics from several disciplines, authors, faith leaders, ethicists, futurists, professional researchers, professional consultants, and topic-specific and topic-focused knowledge leaders and experts.

The books, thoughts, insights, concepts, precepts, and contexts that anchor the work of the Institute have been influenced. Impacted, and enhanced by a broad set of solid, wise, insightful and competent people who have been deeply appreciated sounding boards, feedback generators, topical co-thinkers, and periodic co-developers of the basic Institute teachings, functional paradigms, and core beliefs.

All of the key teachings included in these books have had significant and useful input, feedback, dialogue, and learning-focused iterative interactions with experts in each of the key Institute focus areas.

The learning process has been enriched by discussion, dialogue and even some debate. Each of the books went through more than a dozen drafts before reaching their publication point. Each of the books will continue to be enhanced and periodically rewritten as the learning process continues for each set of issues. and many of the same people who offered steerage in the past will continue to steer a bit in the future.

The Institute is deeply grateful to the people who have been willing to take on those roles and provide that insight. The Thank You page on The Three Key Years book lists some of the key people whose input was important to that work. That list for that book was accurate but totally inadequate as a complete list and could easily have included a dozen more names whose input and guidance was a major asset for that book.

The almost iconic authors of the five key books that provide external support for the faith and science sections of this website have all indicated that they find their institute descriptions of their book useful. George Ellis, Perry Marshall, Frank Wilczek, and John Thatamanil have all posted approval of the reviews on their social media links, and Francis Collins wrote a supportive email about his review.

Perry Marshall and George Ellis have each provided several layers of additional information and research on those topics that have been extremely useful.

The Institute wants to express gratitude to several other people who have also offered insight, wisdom, coaching, and feedback for both the website content and for the InterGroup Understanding books.

George Ellis has shared several of his current pieces on the relationship between quantum physics and quantum biology, and conscious and intentional steerage of the actual functional processes that create our biological reality. He continues to lead the world in thinking in those key areas. He also co-authored a book with Stephen Hawking that’s directly linear to the current thinking in those areas.

John August is at the top of the coaching and insight list for his consistently wise and insightful, timely and well considered advice, coaching and feedback on the books and site materials over multiple years.

Dr. Randy Steer is also very much appreciated for his wisdom and support, and for the extremely insightful reviews he wrote for each of the main books.

Howard Ross has been a source of wisdom, feedback, and encouragement for the books and site as well. His own almost iconic books about bias and diversity also shaped some of the thinking in the books and web site and his feedback has been very much appreciated. He is helping steer the Race Amity Institute work today that supports the most current thinking on racism issues for our country.

Lenny Mendonca has been both wise and visionary in his feedback and encouragement of both the child brain development work and the basic Peace agenda.

Dr. Paul Dovre has been particularly wise and insightful, and his encouragement, guidance, insights and feedback have been much appreciated at multiple levels. His book of Chapel Meditations as President of Concordia College inspired a couple of the Institute insights.

Ian Morrison has not only been an inspiration and provided encouragement for several pieces of this work, but he also wrote much-appreciated reviews of the books included in the tool kit.

Melanie Greenberg has also been a much-appreciated source of wisdom, guidance, and encouragement for some of the Peace work — and her Peace Alliance designation of the Institute founder as a Senior Fellow of the Peace effort was very much appreciated.

Chip Hauss not only wrote an extremely wise book about Peacemaking; he has been encouraging on the direction these thoughts and pieces have taken.

Robert Berg has not only offered insight; he co-authored the piece on birth to death education thinking and policy that was featured at the World Academy of Arts and Sciences annual education summit in Rome in one of their most recent meetings and is included on this website, and he is an international icon for the Peace process itself.

Ross Thompson not only provided invaluable feedback and wisdom in the initial writing of the Three Key Years book — he has also provided support for the overall inter group interaction agenda and continues to be a strong national leader in the child development movement and industry.

Michael Goze has provided support, feedback, encouragement, and insights into the use of these materials with the most relevant audiences and his leadership at the American Indian Community Development Corporation has led to sharing of key information with key people in important ways.

Dean Ornish has provided strong support and insight for several parts of this agenda, and has made appreciated connections with key experts and people in relevant positions for significant portions of this work.

Michael Tippett has provided feedback on multiple pieces of the process. He is a rector of an Episcopalian church and brings both his Yale Divinity School training and training at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst into context for his understanding of these issues. He spent time in the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards as a commander in some challenging settings — and he’s led several parishes in their faith agendas as a shepherd of those very real and relevant flocks, as a loving and wise leader for their faith and their lives. Tippett partially represented the Institute on a fact-finding sojourn in Israel and Palestine as context for this work there. He functions officially as Chaplain for the Institute, and he’s helping steer the work that relates to getting the Institute to be more useful and relevant to people in the faith world today.

Tippett’s insights into Christian theology and human behavior, and the basic sets of values and beliefs that we need to run our lives, are hugely appreciated and anchor the thinking of the Institute at several key and evolving levels.

John Cochran has been a thought leader, mentor, ally, and healthcare guru. He led the largest private physician group in America as their executive director and has personally visited African villages to do life changing plastic surgery for indigent children in those settings. He provides insights, wisdom, and support for several key parts of this agenda.

Marcus Bright has also provided insight and support and has written some inspirational pieces that have guided parts of this thinking.

Susan True has been a source of guidance, insight, and support that has been much appreciated.

Professor Ernest Simmons, the head theologian and emeritus religion department head at Concordia College, has written two important books and several key articles on the Trinity and quantum physics entanglement issues that broke new and important ground for Christians. He’s provided insight, support, wisdom and encouragement in much-appreciated ways to the Institute. He’s shared key information in important ways with important thought leaders who can benefit from knowing it. He’s also provided direct feedback on several of the Institute thought pieces on the various elements of theology and quantum theory, in ways that lead thinking for everyone in those areas.

Lorie Halvorson has provided guidance, feedback, and important steerage, and she has been a major source of direction and support for the entire effort.

Kelli Johnson has been a great source of feedback, insights, wisdom, and her unceasing research and inquiry into related areas has provided unexpected and useful connections and information about multiple key points.

Linda Halvorson has been a source of wisdom and insight, both from her long-standing work as the leader of Emerge — her human potential training and development program — and from her own extensive and focused reading and thinking in a number of related areas. She has provided excellent editing support, feedback, and guidance at several points in the process.

Jean Bradford has been a source of encouragement, insight, wisdom, and counsel for the entire Institute agenda. Bradford has also provided strong steerage on some important issues.

Ron Pollack has been a source of guidance, insight, and support on some key issues. He has been a strong source of encouragement for the whole process.

Luke Visconti has been a source of information, data, insights, wisdom, and support. He set up a keynote presentation at the Diversity Inc. annual meeting that is one of the anchor presentations on this website.

Peggy O’Kane has had a number of areas of both insight and support.

Patrick Dougherty has been an excellent source of information and feedback for economic linkages to some key issues.

Aaron Sojournor has also been a great source of insight, information, and support. His research on the huge economic benefits that arise from helping children very early in life should be required reading by economists.

Arthur Rolnick has also been a source of inspiration, insight, and support.

Katherine Stevens has expanded the learning base for key areas of the child-related books and the national symposium she set up at the American Enterprise Institute for Dr. Beatrice Beebe and the institute chair for the brain development part of this agenda is much appreciated.

Art Caplan has provided much appreciated feedback and responses to some of the key pieces and has been an ethical inspiration for the work.

James Heckman was a source of brilliant insight and very useful encouragement for the child-development work. His endorsement of the Three Key Years book is very much appreciated.

Conor Williams has been a solid source for important research and has offered appreciated encouragement for these efforts and this work.

Martin Meeker has been a wonderful creator of context and a strong supporter for several of the agendas.

Andy Stern has been both a source of encouragement and insight, and his new book about the potential power and value of an income floor for Americans helped shape some of the more recent thinking about the InterGroup topics.

E. O. Wilson has not been directly involved in any way, but his insights in many areas were foundational for much of this work and this work is heavily in his debt.

Sons Jonathan, Seth, Charles, Derek, and Michael all have offered their own insights, support, opposition, wisdom, and advice about both the website and the books, and both the website and the books are better for their impact.

The five InterGroup Understanding books would not have been possible without Gina Halvorson. She shepherded them from raw text into final edited copy, and she did it with patience, amazing discernment, and much appreciated support.

This is not a complete list of people who have been guiding and influencing this work, but it lists a few key people and thanks them for doing what they did and being who they are.

The world is full of wise and well-informed people — and The Institute is deeply grateful for the wise, experienced, well-grounded and informed people who have been willing to offer both guidance and support to the work we are doing.

As a next step, we intend to use the internet and the website as tools to facilitate additional dialogue and continuous shared learning on those key issues. That exact process has not been figured out yet, but smart people are thinking about it. It will be part of what we do and where we are going. More to come on those interactions. In the meantime, enjoy the books and the website.

Our country is at significant risk of becoming just another multi-tribal country at war with itself — like the 125 other multi-tribal countries experiencing that pain and damage today — or we could rise above it all and be a wonderful place to live with all children taking advantage of the huge epigenetic opportunities that they all have, and with each community experiencing a self-reinforcing sense of Us in the most positive ways.

We could have a wonderful future.

This Institute was created to help us achieve that goal.

The people listed here are definitely assets in that process.