PULLMAN, Wash. — Author, teacher and activist Parker J. Palmer will discuss “Working for Change in Higher Education: What Community Organizers Can Teach Us” during the 2002 Washington State University’s V.N. Bhatia Lecture on Excellence in Education.
The public lecture is set for 4:10 p.m., March 5, in Todd Auditorium.
Palmer works independently on issues in higher education, community, leadership, spirituality and social change. He serves as a senior associate of the American Association of Higher Education and as senior adviser to the Fetzer Institute.
Palmer founded the national Teacher Formation Program for K-12 teachers. He also developed a two-year program of quarterly retreats for the personal and professional renewal of teachers, administrators and counselors of public schools called the Courage to Teach Program. The program was piloted in Washington from 1996-98.
Palmer was named one of the 30 most influential senior leaders in higher education and one of the 10 key agenda setters of the past decade in a survey of 11,000 faculty and administrators. He also won the national award of the Council of Independent Colleges for Outstanding Contributions to Higher Education in 1993.
Palmer is the author of several books including “The Company of Strangers,” “To Know as We are Known,” “The Active Life,” “The Courage to Teach” and “Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation.”
Palmer graduated cum laude with a bachelor’s in philosophy and sociology from Carleton College. He received his doctoral degree in sociology from the University of California Berkeley.
The lecture is presented in honor of V.N. Bhatia, director emeritus of the University Honors Program.
