Social change is born, thrives and sustains on thoughtful and strategic communications. Today’s guest is a master at that, David Fenton. He has a list of credentials to his name for having supported, implemented and initiated change in areas of this country and world they so needed to be.
David is the Chairman of Fenton and founded the agency in 1982 to create communications campaigns for the environment, public health and human rights.
As much of what we do here at A Better World is using media for social change in so many respects, David is someone who has educated and continues to be inspire us.
David also leads the agency’s Clean Energy and Climate practice, while contributing to other NGO, foundation, government and corporate responsibility clients.
The National Journal called David “the Robin Hood of public relations,” while PR Week named him “one of the 100 most influential P.R. people.” Some of his best-known campaigns include aiding the rise of MoveOn.org, stimulating the rise of organic food sales, a decade representing Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress, saving swordfish from extinction with a coalition of top chefs, running Yoko Ono’s campaign that successfully stopped fracking in New York State, working with Al Gore and the United Nations on climate change, public health campaigns against tobacco and toxic chemicals, helping to found Business for Social Responsibility and many others.
David has worked with governments and international NGOs in Africa, Israel, Europe, Japan, Latin America and the Caribbean and is a member of the Council of Foreign Relations.
He has helped incubate and launch a series of non-profit organizations, including the pro-peace, pro-Israel group J Street, Climate Nexus, the Death Penalty Information Center, the Central America and the Southern Africa media projects, Environmental Media Services (which later became Resource Media) and the American Freedom Campaign against the abuse of executive power.
David started his career as a photojournalist in the late 1960s – his book “Shots: An American Photographer’s Journal,” was published in 2005. He was formerly Director of Public Relations at Rolling Stone magazine and Co-Producer of the No-Nukes concerts in 1979 at Madison Square Garden with Bruce Springsteen, Bonnie Raitt, James Taylor, Jackson Browne and other artists. He is the father of 4 sons and is a native of Manhattan where he lives with his wife. https://fenton.com/
Mitchell Rabin is the Founder, President and CEO of A Better World Promotions & Media, with a background in psychology stress management, acupuncture and social entrepreneurship. He is a counselor, and executive coach all as a means of educating and inspiring clients and students alike to lead others by modeling humane, eco-sensitive and integrity-based values. He has been a consultant to business leaders and CEOs of green and health-oriented start-ups over the past 25 years. He is an impassioned environmentalist and social entrepreneur using media, the cultural arts & business as agents for change. www.abetterworld.tv www.mitchellrabin.com . www.abetterworld.net ,
A Better World TVWatch the TV shows on Manhattan Cable TV every Monday at 7pm EST
on Fios, ch. 35 (RCN: ch.84 / Spectrum: ch.1997)
Mon., 7-27-20, 7pm EST: Mitchell’s guest today is Duane Elgin, an internationally recognized speaker, author, and social visionary who looks beneath the surface turbulence of our times to explore the deeper trends that are transforming our world. In 2006, Duane received the International Goi Peace Award in Japan in recognition of his contribution to a global “vision, consciousness, and lifestyle” that fosters a “more sustainable and spiritual culture.”
His books include: The Living Universe: Where Are We? Who Are We? Where Are We Going? (2009); Promise Ahead: A Vision of Hope and Action for Humanity’s Future (2000), Voluntary Simplicity: Toward a Way of Life that is Outwardly Simple, Inwardly Rich (2010, 1993 and 1981), and Awakening Earth: Exploring the Evolution of Human Culture and Consciousness (1993). With Joseph Campbell and other scholars he co-authored the book Changing Images of Man (1982). In addition, Duane has contributed chapters to twenty-two books, and has published more than a hundred major articles and blog posts.
In the early 1970s, worked as a senior staff member of a joint Presidential-Congressional Commission on the American Future looking ahead from 1970 to 2000. He then worked as a senior social scientist with the think-tank SRI International where he coauthored numerous studies of the long-range future; for example, Anticipating Future National and Global Problems (for the President’s Science Advisor), Alternative Futures for Environmental Policy (for the Environmental Protection Agency), The Future of the Automobile (for the Ford Motor Co.), and Limits to the Management of Large, Complex Systems (for the President’s Science Advisor).
As a speaker, Duane has given more than 300 keynotes and workshops with audiences ranging from business executives and civic groups to churches and college students.
For the past three years, he has been the executive director of a project that has brought together more than a dozen “Great Transition Stories” that offer new cultural narratives for our collective imagination and that can serve help guide us toward a sustainable and meaningful future. He is now developing a growing number of collaborations with organizations in business, film and media, colleges and universities, and more.
He has an MBA from the Wharton Business School, an MA in economic history from the University of Pennsylvania, and an honorary Doctor of Philosophy for work in “ecological and spiritual transformation” from the California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, CA.
Over the past thirty years, Duane has co-founded three non-profit organizations working for media accountability, citizen empowerment, and a trans-partisan ‘community voice’ movement using the television airwaves legally owned by the public.
Duane is married to Coleen LeDrew Elgin, and he is also a father and grandfather. Duane and Coleen have collaborated on various projects such as the video overview of Duane’s book, The Living Universe and a book they co-authored, Living Legacies..
His professional website is: www.GreatTransitionStories.org
