Parker J. Palmer

Parker J. Palmer, founder and Senior Partner of the Center for Courage & Renewal, is a world-renowned writer, speaker and activist. He has reached millions worldwide through his nine books, including Let Your Life Speak, The Courage to Teach, A Hidden Wholeness, and Healing the Heart of Democracy. Parker holds a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California at Berkeley, along with ten honorary doctorates, two Distinguished Achievement Awards from the National Educational Press Association, and an Award of Excellence from the Associated Church Press. In 2010, Palmer was given the William Rainey Harper Award whose previous recipients include Margaret Mead, Elie Wiesel, and Paolo Freire. In 2011, he was named an Utne Reader Visionary, one of "25 people who are changing your world.

 

Also on this website: Learn more about Parker's latest book, Healing the Heart of Democracy. 

• See Parker J. Palmer's books and other Writings
• Speeches and Interviews with Parker Palmer
• Podcasts with Parker Palmer
• Parker J. Palmer on Facebook

A note from Parker

As founder and senior partner of the Center for Courage & Renewal, I take deep pride in the way this small non-profit organization provides support for people in the serving professions.

Since 1997—working through a network that now numbers 200 facilitators across the United States, Canada and Australia—the Center has offered programs to help teachers, physicians, clergy and others “rejoin soul and role,” renewing their passion for their work, reclaiming its basic values and deepening their service to others.

The Center's staff has done a remarkable job of putting wheels on some of the things I wrote about in The Courage to Teach, A Hidden Wholeness, and Let Your Life Speak. Amazingly, more than 50,000 people have been directly touched by Courage & Renewal programs and retreats to date.

At age 74 it's clear to me that, of all the things I've put my hand to, the Center's work is the most important. That's why I've decided to give this work most of my energies in the years ahead.

If you already know about this work—as tens of thousands of people do—I hope you will want to deepen your participation in it. If you are new to this work, I hope you will want to learn more about it.

I hope, too, that you will want to join me, the Center’s board, staff and friends, in helping to secure and expand the Center's important contribution to the growing movement to reclaim integrity and courage in professional and public life.