 About David Gershon
“David is a brilliant social architect who is able to see key patterns and principles between levels of change – from the individual, to the household, to the neighborhood, to the community, to cities, to states and nations, and to the entire planet. His knowledge about the process of social innovation and diffusion and his discoveries over decades of experimentation and research in large system change efforts merit serious consideration by all of us who seek a more hopeful future for our human community. His work illuminates our common yearning for connection with others, and provides the practical tools needed to achieve it at every level necessary to invent our world anew. I loved the way this book stimulated my thinking and spirit.”
– Juanita Brown, Co-Founder, The World Café
David Gershon, founder and president of the Empowerment Institute, is one of the world’s foremost authorities on behavior-change and large-system transformation, and applies this expertise to issues requiring community, organizational, and societal change. His clients include cities, government agencies, large organizations, and social entrepreneurs. He has addressed a wide diversity of issues, ranging from environmentally sustainable lifestyles, livable neighborhoods, and disaster-resilient communities to organizational talent development and cultural transformation. Over the past thirty years the empowerment programs he has designed have won many awards, and a major academic research study described them as “unsurpassed in changing behavior.”
David used this proficiency to conceive and organize, in partnership with the United Nations Children’s Fund and ABC Television, one of the planet’s first major global consciousness-raising initiatives, the First Earth Run. At the height of the Cold War, using the mythic power of relaying a torch of peace around the world, this simple and profound act of global unity engaged the participation of twenty-five million people in sixty-two countries, the world’s political leadership and, through the media, an estimated 20 percent of the population on the planet. Millions of dollars were raised to enable UNICEF to provide care to the neediest children of the world.
Gershon is the author of ten other books, including Low Carbon Diet: A 30 Day Program to Lose 5,000 Pounds, winner of the 2007 “Most Likely to Save the Planet” Independent Publisher Book Award; and, with his wife, Gail Straub, the best-selling Empowerment: The Art of Creating Your Life As You Want It. Considered a master social architect and trainer, he co-directs the Empowerment Institute Certification Program—a school for transformative social change. He has lectured at Harvard, MIT, and Duke and served as an advisor to the Clinton White House and the United Nations on empowerment and sustainability issues.
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“David Gershon, an unusually talented and effective organizer, has spent most of his adult life teaching people how to take control of their destinies. The world has changed dramatically during those years, and David has been astute and nimble enough to change with it. His attitudes and techniques are different today from when I first met him a quarter-century ago, though his values remain intact. Social Change 2.0 is an insightful summary of what David has learned during a career of helping to build a better world. Anyone who wants to effect change—whether to promote a global clean-tech revolution, or to organize a preschool program in their neighborhood—will find valuable truths here.”
– Denis Hayes, CEO, Bullitt Foundation, and Co-Founder, Earth Day
“I met David twenty years ago when he was the inspiration behind the Global Action Plan sustainable lifestyle movement. With Social Change 2.0 he demonstrates that he has lost none of his brilliance in the intervening years. I predict that this book will become the defining resource for those wishing to create sustainable, low carbon communities, and social change in general. It is a must-read for helping us traverse the challenging times ahead.”
– Lawrence C. Bloom, Chairman, World Economic Forum, Global Agenda Council on Urban Management
“David Gershon is one of the most accomplished social innovators alive today. This timely book offers the rare gift of proven and transferable solutions that can be applied to a wide range of problems confronting humanity. I have seen and experienced firsthand the effectiveness of this social change model. If you wish to change the world, I cannot recommend this book too highly!”
– Michael Dowd, author of "Thank God for Evolution: How the Marriage of Science and Religion Will Transform Your Life and Our World"
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