Speaker: Thom Bond

Teaching Compassion at Scale

Thom Bond brings 27 years of study and training experience in human potential to his work as a writer, speaker and workshop leader. His passion and knowledge of Nonviolent Communication (NVC) combine to create a practical, understandable, humorous, and potentially profound approach for learning and integrating skills that help us experience more compassion and understanding.

Thom is a founder and the Director of Education for NYC NVC, The New York Center for Nonviolent Communication (a United Nations Civil Society Organization).  He is best known as the creator and leader of The Compassion Course, a comprehensive online NVC-based training,  Since 2011, more than 14,000 participants in over 110 countries have learned to communicate compassionately through this year-long course. As a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), it grows in participation every year and is now offered in four languages, funded entirely through donations.  The course continues to grow at near-geometric rates with a current roster of over 5,000 participants, and commenced a new cycle on June 21, 2017.

Thom began his career as an environmental engineer and planner on smart buildings before shifting to leading Fortune 100 corporate trainings.  In 2002 he learned the peacemaking process of nonviolent communication pioneered by Marshall Rosenberg, and was inspired to help share it widely, starting NYC NVC in 2004.  Over the past fifteen years as a disciple of Marshall Rosenberg, Thom has touched hundreds of thousands of clients, participants, readers and listeners. He has been featured in The New York Times, New York Magazine, Yoga Magazine, and is a regular guest on radio and television.

He is described as concise, inspiring, sincere and optimistic, applying transformational and spiritual perspectives to real-life situations. Many of his students become active facilitators, trainers and practitioners.

Thom is also a founder of The Compassion Project Fund, a founder of The Orianimus Community Project, and a member of the Advisory Board for the Communications Coordination Committee for the United Nations (CCCUN). He is the author of "Shifting Toward Compassion" (theexercise.org), and "64 Days for Peace" an open source, online, self-led small-group curriculum.

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