Riane Eisler

Riane Eisler’s is best known for her international bestseller The Chalice and The Blade: Our History, Our Future, now in 23 languages. Her story begins in Vienna, Austria, where as a small child she and her family had to flee from the Nazis. They emigrated to Cuba and eventually to the U.S. Riane has said that this trauma could have destroyed her, but instead, it led to her life-long quest to understand why horrible things like the Holocaust can happen – and what we can do so they do not happen again. Riane has become an eminent social scientist, attorney, author, and social activist.

Her newest book,The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics – hailed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu as “a template for the better world we have been so urgently seeking,” by Peter Senge as “desperately needed,” by Gloria Steinem as “revolutionary,” and by Jane Goodall as “a call to action” – proposes a new approach to economics that gives visibility and value to the most essential human work: the work of caring for people and nature. Her work gives people grounded hope that change is possible and that we are not doomed to despair and destruction. As Riane says, “caring pays - in dollars and cents.”

Riane holds degrees in sociology and law from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). She taught pioneering classes on women and the law at UCLA and is a founding member of the General Evolution Research Group (GERG), a fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science and World Business Academy, and a commissioner of the World Commission on Global Consciousness and Spirituality, along with the Dalai Lama and other spiritual leaders. She is also co-founder of the Spiritual Alliance to Stop Intimate Violence (SAIV), www.saiv.net. She is president of the Center for Partnership Studies, www.partnershipway.org, dedicated to research and education.