"If humanity is to pass safely through its present crisis on earth, it will be because a majority of individuals are now doing their own thinking. Ronald Gross has pioneered in improving the climate for such thinking." - Buckminster Fuller Ron Gross co-chairs the University Seminar on Innovation at Columbia University  and is the founder/director of Conversations New York, a widely-acclaimed program of free public community-based conversations .     He was formerly a Program Officer at the Ford Foundation, the Fund for the Advancement of Education, and the Academy for Educational Development.   Gross' books, which have been published in 27 countries ranging from Canada and Mexico to the UK, France, Russia, and China, cover the life-span from childhood to old age, including The Children's Rights Movement, Radical School Reform, High School, The Great School Debate, Peak Learning, The Lifelong Learner, The Independent Scholar, The New Professionals, Individualism, and The New Old.  His most recent book is Socrates' Way: Seven Master Keys to Using Your Mind to the Utmost. Gross's other writings have been featured in the New York Times Magazine and Book Review and similar periodicals, and he has been profiled in major media including the Times,  San Francisco Chronicle, Boston Globe,  Dallas Morning News, Vancouver Sun, Minneapolis Star, etc. Gross has supported lifelong learning initiatives in Europe, the Far East, Israel, Canada, and Mexico, sponsored by agencies such as the European Foundation for Management Development, the United Nations Educational, Social and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and the Ford and Rothschild Foundations.

Ronald Gross - (US) 516-487-0235 • Grossassoc@aol.com