Grove Harris, former managing director of the Harvard Pluralism Project, speaker, writer, and consultant, Cambridge, MA
Grove Harris consults, speaks, and writes about religious diversity in America and the interfaith movement. She currently serves as the Program Director for the Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions, orchestrating over 500 programs for the next Parliament to be held in Melbourne, Australia, December 3-9, 2009.
She has recently presented at the American Academy of Religion, Brandeis University, the North American Interfaith Network, Union Theological Seminary, and the Global Youth Leadership Institute. As a Peace Commissioner, she recently represented the City of Cambridge at the International Association of Peace Messenger Cities in Krusevac, Serbia and on a delegation to Bethlehem, Palestine.
Grove Harris served as the Managing Director for the Pluralism Project through January, 2007. This award-winning project documents the religious diversity of America and offers resources for educators on its website, www.pluralism.org. Since joining the Project in 1994, she managed the extensive growth of the Project, dramatically increasing capacity, productivity, and outreach. Her work included building a network of researchers, receiving international visitors, public speaking, writing, and editing. Areas of research included religious diversity in the workplace and the interfaith movement. She is currently an affiliate of the Pluralism Project.
Her publications include the section on Paganism for the CD-Rom On Common Ground: World Religions in America, a chapter on Wicca and Healing, "Healing in Feminist Wicca," for Religion and Healing in America, Oxford University Press, 2005,the chapter “Pagan Involvement in the Interfaith Movement: Exclusions, Dualities, and Contributions,” in Crosscurrents, Spring, 2005, and the chapter entitled "Youth and the Pluralism Project" in Building the Interfaith Youth Movement: Beyond Dialogue to Action, edited by Eboo Patel and Patrice Brodeur, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc., 2006.
She has taught at the University of Massachusetts/Boston, at the Global Youth Leadership Institute well as at adult religious retreats, and leading a Maidens' group for teenage girls. She has led consensus training workshops in Germany and England. Her community activism has served causes including peace activism, urban open space, economic development for women, and religious freedom.
Her background is in Race, Gender and Class studies. She earned her B.A. in Women's Studies, Business, and Religion from the University of Massachusetts (1992). Her Master of Divinity degree from Harvard Divinity School (1996) incorporated studies of organizational development and business management into the study of religion and ethics. She is an initiated Wiccan Priestess, and leads public rituals for groups ranging in size from 20 to 300. She serves as the Wiccan Chaplain at MCI-Framingham, and is a Peace Commissioner for the City of Cambridge.