Valentina Parissi
President & CEO
Valentina Texera-Parissi has committed her career to promoting literacy, developing professional education for teachers, and fostering lifelong learning. As president and chief executive officer of the Great Books Foundation, Valentina leads the Foundation’s efforts to expand and strengthen inquiry-based learning, advocacy, and leadership. Building upon the Foundation’s 70-year history of helping people of all ages think critically, listen closely, and consider contrasting ideas with civility, Valentina believes that an inquiry-based approach is essential not only for learning but also for leadership.
We at the Great Books Foundation focus every day on facilitating thought-provoking discussions about ideas that really matter. Establishing meaningful conversations among diverse participants is central to our mission and has been the keystone of our work for over 70 years. Recent events have reiterated for us the importance of engaging with difficult and sometimes contentious issues, building community and civility, and ensuring that historically underrepresented voices are heard.
We pledge to continue this work by increasing our engagement with critical issues and taking concrete steps to address them in our programming, publishing, and organizational decisions.
To that end, so far this year we have:
- Hosted free online discussions of Ariel Investments CEO Mellody Hobson’s TED Talk, “Color Blind or Color Brave?”
- Invited free participation in online Shared Inquiry discussions of “The Hill We Climb,” Amanda Gorman’s inspiring Inauguration Day poem
- Created free lesson plans for content that directly addresses unequal treatment of Americans or the experiences of minorities in this country, including for “The Hill We Climb,” “Let America Be America Again” by Langston Hughes, and “Becoming Francisco X. Alarcón,” a nonfiction text about the Mexican-American writer
- Launched a discussion series for adults on our anthology Immigrant Voices: 21st Century Stories
We are committed to continuing our efforts to ensure that all voices are heard and have the opportunity to contribute to a more inclusive and equitable world. Participation in our free Shared Inquiry discussions has been very strong (more than 200 people have registered), and the conversations, though sometimes difficult, are hugely worthwhile. One participant in a recent discussion of “Color Blind or Color Brave?” said it best:
As educators, we can’t just say that ‘everybody is the same.’ It really resonated with me when Hobson said, ‘We don’t want to rob another generation of all the different things diverse people bring to the table.’
We know we can do more, and we are committed to doing so. As the Great Books Foundation’s president and CEO, I welcome conversations with you because we need your input. We need your commitment to engage and your willingness to explore in order to bring the strongest, most diverse range of ideas to our public discourse.
We at the Great Books Foundation focus every day on facilitating thought-provoking discussions about ideas that really matter. Establishing meaningful conversations among diverse participants is central to our mission and has been the keystone of our work for over 70 years. Recent events have reiterated for us the importance of engaging with difficult and sometimes contentious issues, building community and civility, and ensuring that historically underrepresented voices are heard.
We pledge to continue this work by increasing our engagement with critical issues and taking concrete steps to address them in our programming, publishing, and organizational decisions.
To that end, so far this year we have:
- Hosted free online discussions of Ariel Investments CEO Mellody Hobson’s TED Talk, “Color Blind or Color Brave?”
- Invited free participation in online Shared Inquiry discussions of “The Hill We Climb,” Amanda Gorman’s inspiring Inauguration Day poem
- Created free lesson plans for content that directly addresses unequal treatment of Americans or the experiences of minorities in this country, including for “The Hill We Climb,” “Let America Be America Again” by Langston Hughes, and “Becoming Francisco X. Alarcón,” a nonfiction text about the Mexican-American writer
- Launched a discussion series for adults on our anthology Immigrant Voices: 21st Century Stories
We are committed to continuing our efforts to ensure that all voices are heard and have the opportunity to contribute to a more inclusive and equitable world. Participation in our free Shared Inquiry discussions has been very strong (more than 200 people have registered), and the conversations, though sometimes difficult, are hugely worthwhile. One participant in a recent discussion of “Color Blind or Color Brave?” said it best:
As educators, we can’t just say that ‘everybody is the same.’ It really resonated with me when Hobson said, ‘We don’t want to rob another generation of all the different things diverse people bring to the table.’
We know we can do more, and we are committed to doing so. As the Great Books Foundation’s president and CEO, I welcome conversations with you because we need your input. We need your commitment to engage and your willingness to explore in order to bring the strongest, most diverse range of ideas to our public discourse.
Valentina Parissi
President & CEO
Valentina Texera-Parissi has committed her career to promoting literacy, developing professional education for teachers, and fostering lifelong learning. As president and chief executive officer of the Great Books Foundation, Valentina leads the Foundation’s efforts to expand and strengthen inquiry-based learning, advocacy, and leadership. Building upon the Foundation’s 70-year history of helping people of all ages think critically, listen closely, and consider contrasting ideas with civility, Valentina believes that an inquiry-based approach is essential not only for learning but also for leadership.