FRIENDS CONFERENCE ON RELIGION AND PSYCHOLOGY
Lebanon Valley College · Annville, PA · May 23–26, 2008

Alan Briskin, Ph.D., is an author, artist, researcher, and consultant whose interest in the dynamics of collective wisdom within group life spans three decades. He is co-founder with Sheryl Erickson of The non-profit, the Collective Wisdom Initiative, where he has worked with Margaret Wheatley, among others, to better understand groups and organizations that function well.

Alan’s interest in the spiritual life of groups took root in 1971 on an international kibbutz in Israel. Back in the U.S., he helped develop a free school in Maine, where students designed educational plans that engaged their passions. Later, after heading a model program for the deinstitutionalization of confined youth in Vermont, he brought his educational vision to prison reform, and later still, he served as the principal consultant to the George Lucas Educational Foundation.

In the medical community, Alan has designed and taught methods to help physicians communicate more meaningfully with patients. These ideas were formalized and expanded in the Relationship-Centered Care Network which he and colleagues founded. He has spoken on the role of spirit in groups to national and international forums, and he has facilitated dialogues on the subject around the globe.

Alan holds a doctorate in organizational psychology from the Wright Institute in Berkeley and is a professional associate of the Grubb Institute in London. He says his love of photography helped opened his inner eye to the beauty that enfolds us.

Alan’s most recent book, Daily Miracles: Stories and Practices of Humanity and Excellence in Health Care (2006) was named a book of the year by the American Journal of Nursing. His book, The Stirring of Soul in the Workplace (1996), helped shape the spirit and work movement of the late 1990s.