From Vision to Action (2024): A Book Talk with John Marks
On Tuesday, September 10, join the M.A. in Conflict Resolution at Georgetown University for a conversation with John Marks, Co-Founder and Former President of Search for Common Ground, for a conversation about his latest book From Vision to Action: Remaking the World through Social Entrepreneurship (2024). This event will be moderated by Professor Katherine Collin, director of the M.A. in Conflict Resolution.
About John Marks
John Marks was, until 2014, the President of Search for Common Ground, a non-profit organization he founded in 1982 and built with his wife Susan Collin Marks into the world’s largest peacebuilding NGO with 600 staff members and offices in 36 countries. He also founded Common Ground Productions and is still a Senior Advisor to both organizations. In 2018, his work was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. In addition, he is a Visiting Scholar in Peacebuilding and Social Entrepreneurship at Leiden University in the Netherlands. He is a best-selling, award-winning author, a former US Foreign Service Officer, a Skoll Awardee in Social Entrepreneurship, and an Ashoka Senior Fellow. He has been a Fellow at Harvard’s Institute of Politics and a Visiting Scholar at Harvard Law School. The UN’s University of Peace has awarded him an honorary PhD.
About From Vision to Action: Remaking the World through Social Entrepreneurship (2024)
Social entrepreneurs are people who launch ventures aimed at promoting positive change in their community and the world. Their bottom line is not financial profit but the common good. Drawing on his extensive career, John Marks has written a practitioner’s guide to the underlying principles of social entrepreneurship.
From Vision to Action offers a master class in effective negotiation and conflict resolution. It builds on a core strategy of understanding differences and acting on commonalities. Marks uses his own experiences of creating real-life breakthroughs during his time leading Search for Common Ground, which he founded and built with his wife, Susan Collin Marks, into the world’s largest peacebuilding nonprofit. Beginning with an improbable effort to promote cooperation between the CIA and the KGB, this book features examples that range from helping prevent genocide in Burundi to using children’s television to lessen ethnic tensions in Macedonia to creating a culture of mediation in Morocco. Readers learn key lessons, such as adapting to unexpected outcomes, communicating persuasive stories, and being incrementally transformational―or transformationally incremental. Bringing together compelling narratives and useful tools, From Vision to Action delivers practical guidance on building bridges and creating meaningful change.
Seating Information
Seating for this event is limited. All attendees must register in advanced on Eventbrite. Check-in for this event will begin at 1:10 PM. Doors will close at 1:30 PM. The event will begin promptly at 1:30 PM. Unclaimed seats will be released to waitlist ticket holders at 1:25 PM. Late arrivals will not be seated.