ABOUT THE AUTHOR

CHARLES HALPERN is an innovative social entrepreneur who has led the way in bringing inner work and the cultivation of wisdom into the world of social activism. As chair of the Board of the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society, he is helping to integrate contemplative practice into mainstream institutions, in order to develop greater clarity, compassion, and effectiveness to face the challenges of the twenty-first century.

With his extensive record of institutional creativity and achievement, supported by twenty years of meditation, Halpern is the ideal person to write about the intersecting arcs of effective work in the world and the cultivation of the inner wisdom to deepen and nourish it.

An honors graduate of Harvard College and Yale Law School, he left a prominent corporate law firm to establish the first public interest law firm, the Center for Law and Social Policy, in Washington, D.C., and to help launch the public interest law movement. After serving as a member of the faculty at Georgetown and Stanford Law Schools, he was chosen as the founding dean of the City University of New York School of Law, a school devoted to training advocates for the poor and disadvantaged. He has lectured in Europe and Asia on public interest law, citizen participation in government processes, and new directions in legal education.

As the first president of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, he developed an innovative philanthropic program, supporting social justice advocacy and exploration of the contemplative perspective. He helped to launch many nonprofit organizations, assisting them to assemble resources and to develop effective programs.

During his years of creative leadership, Halpern has pursued a path of inner growth, which has energized and informed his work. His career has taken him from the inner circles of the legal establishment to the outer fringes of gritty New York politics, from vision quests in the New Mexican wilderness to the current debates about stem cell research.

Currently a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, Halpern consults to educational institutions, nonprofit groups, and foundations on management and program development, with an emphasis on the integration of the contemplative perspective into the life of organizations. He leads meditation workshops and retreats.

He lives in Berkeley, California, with his wife of forty-seven years, Susan Halpern, author of The Etiquette of Illness: What to Say When You Can’t Find the Words. They have three adult children and six grandchildren. They meditate regularly and explore the remote waterways of California by canoe.

Visit www.charliehalpern.com for photographs, drawings, cartoons, additional information on incidents and themes in the text, and developments since publication.