A glimpse at one of
CC's co-founders...
Susan Partnow has a passion for collective leadership and peace making, as expressed in her generous sharing of professional skills to build community and deepen capacity for democracy and dialogue. For the past 20 years, Susan has helped create grassroots networks that work collaboratively, inclusively and with a commitment to nonviolence, justice and sustainability, from the founding of Families for Peace to the development of the People Web - and of course, Conversation Café!
She has participated in delegations of the Middle East Citizen Diplomacy Project and Peace Trees Vietnam and is founder and Executive Director of Global Citizen Journey , which is launching its inaugural journeys to the Niger Delta (2005) and Burundi (2007). She served as Board President of Kadima Community School and the Earthstewards , brought dialogue to the African American Jewish Coalition for Justice and helped create the curriculum for The Compassionate Listening Project. She is a co-creator of Conversation Cafes and co-facilitates Seattle's Citizen Summit for the Earth Charter.
Susan is a member of the Whidbey Institute's Spirited Work seasonal learning community, dedicated to the sustainable evolution of the earth, spirit, and human future. enjoys being a catalyst for individuals and groups seeking positive changes through retreats, training and private coaching. Her passion is to expand the collective capacity of groups through developing skills and practices to open up communication, collaboration, and creativity. She designs and facilitates experiences for organizations to work through conflict and release that energy to serve what they are trying to create. She has served on the Steering Committee of National Coalition on Dialogue and Deliberation, Advisory Board to The Radical Middle Newsletter (a project of the Center for Visionary Law, Business, and Public Policy ), co-founded Let's Talk America , and founded Global Citizen Journey .
Susan founded Partnow Communications eighteen years ago and has provided organizational development and training services to thousands of individuals and over 100 organizations in the public and non-profit as well as private sectors. She is especially dedicated to conflict resolution: to helping clients transform the energy locked in conflict to foster creative change, wise outcomes, and enhanced relationships. Susan specializes in the use of cutting edge approaches such as Appreciative Inquiry , Spiral Dynamics , Dynamic Facilitation , and Open Space Technology to help large, diverse groups facing complex issues and organizational change.
Susan's roots in communication began as high school teacher and speech pathologist. She received an M. A. in Communication Disorders from Northwestern University where she was a Rearwin Fellow, and a B.A. with honors from the University of California at Berkeley. Her management expertise grew out of many years of service as the director of a clinic for speech, language and counseling services and then as chief of a grant project to develop a bilingual language test at the University of Arizona.
Susan speaks Spanish and French and is the author of Everyday Speaking for All Occasions , Doubleday, 1998. She lives in Seattle with her husband, son and faithful dog and visits her daughter in New York as often as possible.