About Us > The Board of Directors

Richard Chasin is the Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the Harvard University Medical School and a Senior Associate of the Public Conversations Project. Chasin served as President of the American Family Therapy Academy and the Rockefeller Family Fund (1979-91). He has worked on several projects with Mark Gerzon including the Entertainment Summit (1987) and two Bi-Partisan Congressional Retreats (1997 & 1999).

Mark Gerzon, President of Mediators Foundation, has extensive experience building global teams. In the '70s he co-founded the Worldpaper, an international newspaper supplement. Gerzon directed the "Entertainment Summit" in the 1980s, resulting in the formation of a coalition of Soviet and American filmmakers.. In the last decade he brought together a group of social entrepreneurs from the major regions of the world, forming the "Global Partners." He is currently working on the Global Leadership Network and his forthcoming book, Leading Beyond Borders: Tools for Transforming Conflict into Synergy, which will be published by Harvard Business School Press.

H. Peter Karoff is Founder and Chairman of The Philanthropic Initiative (TPI), Inc. of Boston, Senior Fellow at the Tufts University College of Citizenship and Public Affairs, and Senior Lecturer in the Tufts Department of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning. Karoff has developed the conceptual framework of strategic philanthropy that TPI employs in advising clients on philanthropic policy design and development. He was President of the March Company, a real estate finance and syndication organization, before forming TPI. Frequently speaking and writing on philanthropy, he is also a published poet.

Rachael Kessler is the Director of the Institute for Social and Emotional Learning based in Boulder, Colorado. Kessler has also written The Soul of Education: Helping Students Find Connection, Compassion, and Character at School as well as other books and articles on how to welcome the inner life of both teachers and students into the classroom. The curriculum she developed is in use in school districts throughout the United States and Canada.

Bill Ury, Co-Founder, Harvard Program on Negotiation. Internationally renowned writer (Getting to Yes, The Third Side), anthropologist and negotiation trainer who works with leaders to develop “third side” strategies that can defuse conflict and strengthen community. Co-founder of the Program on Negotiation at the Harvard Law School.

John Steiner is a catalytic, visionary organizer and philanthropist who has played a pivotal role in the start-up of numerous organizations including the Threshold Foundation, the Social Venture Network and the Search for Common Ground. Steiner is also deeply involved in the evolution of Reuniting America, and has played key role in several transpartisan dialogues.