Interview with author and composer Kathleen Macferran

Kathleen Macferran is a facilitator, author, teacher, Certified Trainer and Assessor for the Center for Nonviolent Communication and the owner of Strength of Connection. She has spent much of her life bringing harmony to communities through music, including two decades as a classical music conductor and seven years as a public-school music teacher. Kathleen loves children and believes music and giraffes (the main characters in her children’s books) have much to teach us about interdependent social living. Central to Kathleen’s work is a vision for a peaceful, just, and sustainable world. She is committed to co-creating a world where peace replaces violence, love replaces hate, equity replaces inequity, and all people live meaningful lives. She passionately believes safe and inclusive schools have a critical role to play in creating that world. In addition to being a teacher for grades 5-12 and college level classes, Kathleen has decades of experience in school visits including school assemblies, classroom visits and working one on one with students. enforcement employees. Kathleen’s website is www.StrengthofConnection.com where her TEDx talks, books, workshops and music can be found. • Author of How Giraffe Found Their Hearts and How Giraffes Got Their Ears, children’s story picture books, and • Conductor for Giraffe Tales, a children’s CD setting these stories to music • Co-author with Jared Finkelstein of Choice: A field guide for navigating the polarization of our world and living interdependently • Certified Trainer for the Center for Nonviolent Communication (CNVC) • TEDxTalks: Houses of Healing, TEDxMonroe Correctional Complex; The Art of Listening, TEDxRainier; Fearless Women, TedxSeattle • Conductor on multiple Rainier Chamber Winds classical music recordings