EUGENE B SHIRLEY
Biographical Info I've been deeply influenced by process thought since the early '80s when I had John Cobb as a professor at Claremont Graduate School. I never completed a graduate degree, but John and I became friends and remained in touch, collaborating when we could -- including for a documentary film project titled WORLDVIEW that came close but didn't happen in the end (the content as we mapped it out was similar to much of the "Seizing an Alternative" conference content in 2015), and more recently for Pando Populus, which we co-founded. Early-on in my career, I was deeply interested and active in human rights, especially as related to religious believers under communism, producing a book and film; I continued with strong Soviet and Russia interests, producing five films related to the cold war or immediate aftermath. During this time I was a Fellow at the U.S. Institute of Peace. I then continued to produce documentary films, focusing on big ideas in finance, education policy, and culture (in China off and on over 6 years, with architect IM Pei). I then founded and ran a financial technology company for roughly a decade, prior to launching Pando as a non-profit education products and services provider focused on civic engagement for sustainability. I live in Los Angeles with my husband, a computer scientist, and our young daughter.