Carol S. Pearson, Ph.D., D.Min., is an internationally known authority on archetypal (universal) stories that promote success and personal fulfillment, along with the narrative intelligence needed to decode the stories we live and anticipate where their plots lead. A respected scholar and higher education administrator, Dr. Pearson initially co-authored (with Katherine Pope) two books inspired by the works of Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell about the female heroic journey in literature: Who Am I This Time? and The Female Hero. She then felt called to write The Hero Within: Six Archetypes We Live By, which described how a heroic journey could be undertaken by everyday people as well as exceptional individuals, and which became a HarperCollins bestseller, introducing her to a wide reading audience in the U.S. and, in translation, numerous other countries.
Drawing on her experience speaking and consulting for many organizations as well as postgraduate studies in Jungian psychology, Dr. Pearson consolidated her knowledge in Awakening the Heroes Within: Twelve Archetypes To Help Us Find Ourselves and Transform Our World, which formed the basis of a 12-archetype system with applications to many fields and was similarly embraced by an international reading audience. She subsequently partnered with marketing executive turned consultant Margaret Mark to write The Hero and the Outlaw: Building Extraordinary Brands Through the Power of Archetypes, whose approaches and recommendations have been adopted by advertising and marketing firms throughout the world.
She then collaborated with psychologist Hugh Marr to develop the Pearson-Marr Archetype Indicator™ (PMAI™), a scientifically validated instrument, along with several supporting publications, most recently Dr. Pearson’s What Stories Are You Living? Discover Your Archetypes—Transform Your Life and Dr. Marr’s Finding Your Story: Using Archetypes to Guide Your Personal Journey. Dr. Pearson separately developed the Organizational and Team Culture Indicator™ (OTCI™), a tested instrument that identifies archetypes in organizational cultures. The OTCI was acquired by Kenexa, a global human resources company owned by IBM, which translated it into numerous languages and uses it with corporate clients all over the world under the name IBM Kenexa Cultural Insight Survey (IBM-KCIS). Other applications of Dr. Pearson’s 12-archetype system to leadership and organizational development are described in Mapping the Organizational Psyche: A Jungian Theory of Organizational Dynamics and Change (co-authored by John Corlett).
Dr. Pearson’s experience as a professor and leader in higher education was important to her additional contributions to leadership scholarship. She was the founding Director of the University of Colorado Women Studies Program, the first Director of the Women’s Studies Program at the University of Maryland, and Academic Vice President of Goucher College. She designed, directed, and taught in the Transformational Leadership Certificate Program at the Georgetown University Center for Professional Development. Later, she was Professor of Leadership Studies in the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland and Director of the James MacGregor Burns Academy of Leadership, where she initiated and co-led a three-year Leadership for Transformation Project with the Fetzer Institute. The resulting book, The Transforming Leader: New Approaches to Leadership for the Twenty-First Century, for which she served as editor, concluded with her essay “Reinforcing Change Through Transformational Communication.” Published by Berrett-Koehler, The Transforming Leader was honored by the International Leadership Association for making a significant contribution to the field of leadership.
Dr. Pearson served most recently as Executive Vice President/Provost and then President of Pacifica Graduate Institute. After leaving Pacifica, she wrote Persephone Rising: Awakening the Heroine Within, updating the Greek myth of Demeter and Persephone for our times. Persephone Rising was named a gold medalist in the category of books for women by the Nautilus Book Awards, an annual accolade of books in the genre of social and environmental justice.
Dr. Pearson’s other myth-based book, Magic at Work: Camelot, Creative Leadership, and Everyday Miracles (co-authored by Sharon Seivert) focused on leadership in the workplace. Her other publications include Educating the Majority: Women Challenge Tradition in Higher Education (ed. with Donna L. Shavlik and Judith G. Touchton); Maturing the American Dream: Archetypal American Narratives Meet the Twenty-First Century; Thinking About Business Differently: Organizational Systems and Leadership Archetypes; and The Inner Edge Book of Practices: Things You Can Do to Bring Spirit to Work (ed.)
Dr. Pearson blogged for Psychology Today for many years as well as on her own website and others. She is now semi-retired, musing about positive signs for our future on the interplay of archetypal stories, culture, and personal development. She lives with her husband and business manager, David Merkowitz, close to their children and grandchildren in the greater Washington, DC area.
Dr. Pearson may be contacted through her website, www.carolspearson.com.
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