Duane Elgin Biography

Duane Elgin is an author, media activist, and evolutionary futurist:

AUTHOR: Duane is the author of PROMISE AHEAD: A Vision of Hope and Action for Humanity's Future (Morrow, 2000), AWAKENING EARTH: Exploring the Evolution of Human Culture and Consciousness (Morrow, 1993), and VOLUNTARY SIMPLICITY: Toward a Way of Life that is Outwardly Simple, Inwardly Rich (Morrow, 1981; revised 1993). He co-authored (with Joseph Campbell, Willis Harman, and others) the book, CHANGING IMAGES OF MAN (Pergamon, 1982). With Coleen LeDrew he co-authored the book, LIVING LEGACIES: How to Write, Illustrate, and Share Your Life Stories (Conari, 2001).

MEDIA ACTIVIST: for more than two decades, Duane has been concerned with the pivotal role of the mass media in enabling our society to communicate its way into a sustainable future. In this role, he has co-founded three non-profit organizations concerned with media accountability and revitalizing the conversation of democracy. For example, his media organization worked with the ABC-TV station in San Francisco in 1987 to produce an hour-long Electronic Town Meeting viewed by over 300,000 people during prime-time that demonstrated the workability of rapid feedback from a random sample of citizens. The bottom line: the public can have a public voice about our common future. See the website: www.ourmediavoice.org.

EVOLUTIONARY FUTURIST: In the1970s Duane was a senior social scientist at the Stanford Research Institute (now SRI International) in California, where he co-authored numerous studies on the long-range future; for example, Alternative Futures for Environmental Policy Making: 1975-2000 (for the Environmental Protection Agency), and Anticipating Future National and Global Problems (for the President's Science Advisor and the National Science Foundation). Duane has written dozens of reports and articles on themes ranging from the big story of human evolution to the value of the simple life, media accountability and the future of democracy, and the co-evolution of human culture and consciousness.

EDUCATION: Duane has an MBA from the Wharton Business School (1968) and an MA in economic history from the University of Pennsylvania (1969). In 2000, he received an honorary Doctor of Philosophy for work in ìecological and spiritual transformationî from the California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, CA.

WEBSITE: Awakening Earth is a website founded by Duane Elgin and its purpose is to provide knowledge and resources that foster a sustainable, compassionate, and creative future. Visit this website at www.awakeningearth.org.