Circling the Wagons Coalition
Jacob Hess
National Coalition of Dialogue & Deliberation
Jacob Hess is a Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR) teacher who co-founded the non-profit, All of Life (www.alloflife.org) – which recently released a free online mindfulness-based class for those facing serious mental and emotional challenges.
During his Ph.D. program at the University of Illinois, Jacob helped develop and co-facilitate a liberal-conservative dialogue course for undergraduates, the first of its kind in the nation. Jacob also conducted research comparing narratives of liberal and conservative citizens and examined the larger community’s hesitancy towards holding batterer’s accountable for domestic violence. With Dr. Phil Neisser (State University of New York, Potsdam), Jacob co-authored a book on liberal-conservative dialogue entitled, “You’re Not as Crazy as I Thought (But You’re Still Wrong) Conversations between a Devoted Conservative and a Die-Hard Liberal” – featured on NPR’s This American Life.
Since completing his dissertation work on competing Prozac narratives, Jacob has published 13 peer-reviewed articles. He recently finished a discourse analysis of the conversation about romance in the United States: “Once upon a time, he wasn’t feeling it anymore: What’s killing romance in America.” Jacob is currently collaborating on a discourse analysis of 15,000 citizen comments exploring the particular challenges of dialogue at the intersection of gay rights and religious freedom – in partnership with Heidi Weaver, President of Love Boldly, Arthur Pena, a gay Christian man and Tracy Hollister, former Program Director for Marriage Equality U.S.A.
Jacob is a long-time member of the National Coalition of Dialogue and Deliberation and a current partner with Living Room Conversations. With the support of the Salt Lake Civil Network, Jacob is actively seeking collaborators to launch a new Village Square chapter in Utah (tothevillagesquare.com). He is married to Monique Moore, with two little boys who make sure their daddy smiles at least 9 times a day.
Recent Comments