“In our time we have come to the stage where the real work of humanity begins. It is the time where we partner with Creation in the creation of ourselves, in the restoration of the biosphere, the regenesis of society, and in the assuming of a new type of culture: the culture of Kindness. Herein, we live daily life reconnected and recharged by the Source, so as to become liberated and engaged in
the world and in our tasks.”

Dr. Jean Houston, scholar, philosopher and researcher in Human Capacities, is one of the foremost visionary thinkers and doers of our time. She has long been regarded as one of the principal founders of the Human Potential Movement and one of the leading experts in the field of myth and archetype.
 
In 1965, along with her husband Dr. Robert Masters, Dr. Houston founded The Foundation for Mind Research. She is also the founder and principal teacher of the Mystery School, a school of human development and cross-cultural, mythic and spiritual studies, dedicated to teaching history, philosophy, the New Physics, psychology, anthropology, myth and the many dimensions of human potential. This school is in its 27th year and takes place on both the East and West Coasts. She also leads an intensive program in Social Artistry with leaders coming from all over the world to study with her and her distinguished associates. This program in innovative leadership strategies is now in its 9th year. She is also the Founder and Program Director of the International Institute for Social Artistry and the Jean Houston Foundation.
 
A prolific writer, she is the author of 26 books including “ A Passion for the Possible”, “Search for the Beloved”, “Life Force”, “The Possible Human”, “Public Like a Frog”, “A Mythic Life: Learning to Live Our Greater Story”, and “Manual of the Peacemaker” . Her book “Jump Time” explores a new Global Paradigm and speaks boldly of a regenesis of human society. The questions raised in this book and the exciting possibilities suggested are producing new pioneers – Social Artists – working on the frontiers of this new global society.
 
As Advisor to UNICEF in human and cultural development, she has worked to implement some of their extensive educational and health programs, primarily in Myanmar (Burma) and Bangladesh. Working with the UNDP and UNHABITAT she has done intensive training of leaders in seven developing countries in their own development in the light of dramatic social change. With other international agencies, she has implemented the social development of indigenous people through the integration of their unique cultural gifts into their health and educational systems. In total, she has worked intensively in over 40 cultures and 100 countries.

Dr. Houston served for two years in an advisory capacity to President and Mrs. Clinton as well as helping Mrs. Clinton write “It Takes A Village To Raise A Child.” As a high-school student she worked closely with Mrs. Roosevelt on developing strategies to introduce international awareness and United Nations work to young people. She also worked with President and Mrs. Carter and counseled leaders in similar positions in many countries and cultures. She has advised such luminous figures as Mother Theresa and the Dalai Lama.
 
Dr. Houston has also worked with numerous corporations, including Xerox, Beatrice Foods, General Electric and Rodale Press. She has worked with governmental agencies, including the U.S. Department of Commerce, the U.S. Office of Technology Assessment and the Department of Energy. In the early nineties, under the auspices of UNICEF, she trained non-military leaders in Myanmar from departments of education, health, agriculture and welfare in her methods. In 1993 she brought in her team to bring new methods of education to Bangladesh (again under the auspices of UNICEF). Her work established multi-modal education in thousands of schools.
 
In the past five years she has been a consultant with the United Nations Development Program, training leaders in developing countries throughout the world in the new field of social artistry. To date, this training has occurred in Albania, the Eastern Caribbean, Kenya, Nepal, and the Philippines. In March 2007, under the auspices of UNHABITAT and CITYNET, she traveled to Nepal where she trained leaders from 12 Asian countries in the principles of Social Artistry in order to effect positive gains in the millennium development goals. So effective was this training that she was asked by Dr. Monica Sharma, the Director of Leadership and Capacity Development for the UN, to create an eponymous foundation dedicated to training thousands of people the world over in her techniques in Social Artistry who, in turn, would train some 100 million people over a period of ten years. In 2007 and 2008, the Jean Houston Foundation was formed and has held several trainings of trainers.
 
A past President of the Association of Humanistic Psychology, she has taught Philosophy, Psychology, and Religion at Columbia University, Hunter College, the New School for Social Research and Marymount College, as well as summer sessions in Human Development at the University of California at Santa Cruz and the University of British Columbia. She was Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the University of Oklahoma in their Scholar-Leadership Enrichment Program in 1982.
 
Dr. Houston presented the William James Lecture at Harvard Divinity School, the Orr Lectures at Wilson, and the Alfred Stiernotte Lecture in Philosophy at Quinnipaic College. She has spoken at hundreds of colleges and universities all over the world. She has directed two three-year courses in human capacities development and a program of cross-cultural mythic and spiritual studies, now entering its 27th year. In 2002 she instituted the first summer Institute in Social Artistry with participants coming from all over the world. 

Today, this ten-day program, now in its ninth year, continues to be very successful in training Western leaders in social artistry. A description of this program can be found at www.jeanhouston.org.
 
She has chaired many other academic and scientific convocations including the 1975 United Nations Temple of Understanding Conference of World Religious Leaders. Under the sponsorship of the Department of Commerce, she also help to initiate and then chaired the 1979 Symposium for leading government policy makers.
 
Her work has been the core of a great many teaching-learning communities throughout many parts of the world. In 1984, she created a national not-for-profit organization, The Possible Society, to encourage the creation of new ways for people to work together to help solve societal problems. Giving seminars to large groups of citizens in 17 cities throughout North America, she established ongoing teaching-learning communities devoted to the enrichment of their citizens and the betterment of their cities. Currently, she is offering a similar three-day program on the Magnificent Human and the Possible World to large groups in many American and Canadian cities.
 
In 1985, Dr. Houston was awarded the Distinguished Leadership Award from the Association of Teachers and Educators. In 1993, she received the Gardner Murphy Humanitarian Award for her work in psychology and the INTA Humanitarian of the Year award. In 1994, she received the Lifetime Outstanding Creative Achievement Award from the Creative Education Foundation. The following year, she was given the Keeper of the Lore Award for her studies in myth, archetype and culture. In 1997 she was made a Fellow of the World Business Academy. In 1999 she received the Pathfinder award from the Association of Humanistic Psychology. She was given the Millennium award in 2000.
 
Her PBS Special, A Passion for the Possible, has been widely shown. Her book drawn from the program was published by Harper San Francisco in August of 1997.
 
A powerful and dynamic speaker, she holds conferences and seminars with social leaders, educational institutions and business organizations worldwide. Her ability to inspire and invigorate people enables her to readily convey her vision – the finest possible achievement of the individual potential. That same ability lets her share with her audiences and students throughout the world the excitement of that possibility.
 
Jean Houston holds a B.A. from Barnard College, a Ph.D. in Psychology from the Union Graduate School and a Ph.D in Religion from the Graduate Theological Foundation. She has also been the recipient of honorary decorates. She is on both Twitter and Facebook.