Larry Parks Daloz
Laurent A. Parks Daloz, father of Kate and Todd, grandfather of Maeve and Hannah, and husband of Sharon Parks, is Principal of Leadership for the New Commons and Senior Fellow of the Whidbey Institute in Clinton, WA. He holds a B.A. in American History and Literature from Williams College, an M.A.T. in English and an Ed.D in Educational Planning from Harvard. After serving in Nepal with the Peace Corps, he based his doctorate on two years of research in New Guinea.
A co-founder and first academic dean of the Community College of Vermont, he subsequently served as a faculty mentor with Vermont College and Johnson State College. He later became Professor in Adult Education at Lesley College and has taught at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Columbia Teachers College. For nine years he served as Associate Director and Faculty with the Whidbey Institute in Clinton, Washington.
He is author of the award-winning book, Effective Teaching and Mentoring (second edition entitled Mentor: Guiding the Journey of Adult Learners), and co-author with Sharon Daloz Parks and Cheryl and Jim Keen, of Common Fire: Leading Lives of Commitment in a Complex World (Beacon Press, 1997). He has published widely in adult education and holds an honorary doctorate from the University of New Hampshire. Currently he is working on a book about men for the 21st century.
Sharon Daloz Parks
Sharon Daloz Parks is Principal of Leadership for the New Commons and Senior Fellow at the Whidbey Institute in Clinton, WA. She holds a B.A. from Whitworth University, M.A. from Princeton Theological Seminary, and doctorate from Harvard University, the Divinity School. She has held faculty and senior research positions at Harvard’s Schools of Divinity, Business, and Government. She has also taught at the Weston Jesuit School of Theology and currently teaches in the Executive Leadership Program at Seattle University as well as the School of Theology and Ministry.
She speaks and consults nationally in the area of leadership and ethics for corporate, non-profit, and other professional groups across sectors, especially in business, higher education, and religion. She is the author of Leadership Can Be Taught: A Bold Approach for a Complex World (Harvard Business Press, 2005) and Big Questions, Worthy Dreams: Mentoring Emerging Adults in Their Search for Meaning, Purpose, and Faith (Tenth Anniversary Edition, Jossey-Bass/Wiley, 2011). Her other publications include co-authored Common Fire: Leading Lives of Commitment in a Complex World and Can Ethics Be Taught? She is the recipient of four honorary degrees.