Dec 2, 2024
In this episode, Sarah Stroup talks with Meg Griffiths, director of programs at Essential Partners (formerly the Public Conversations Project). Founded in 1989, Essential Partners (EP) uses a reflective structured dialogue approach to help people communicate across deep differences in identities and values in order “to address communities’ most pressing challenges.”
Meg Griffiths and her colleagues at EP have been leading professional development workshops at Middlebury since January 2019 as part of Middlebury’s Engaged Listening Project. She has over 15 years of professional experience in higher education and community organizations, and holds certifications and degrees from Boston College’s School of Theology and Ministry and from Georgetown’s Organizational Development Consulting and Change Leadership program.
In this conversation, Meg and Sarah talk about the ways in which dialogic practices can enhance student learning and strengthen campus communities. With scaffolding and careful question design, it is possible to disrupt established stories and patterns that can keep people from understanding and addressing the problems they face. The conversation also takes up common critiques of dialogue in the larger framework of conflict transformation.
To learn more about Essential Partners, click here: https://whatisessential.org/about-us
To learn more about Meg Griffiths, click here: https://whatisessential.org/people/meg-griffiths