Paula Goldman is a social entrepreneur, anthropologist, speaker and writer. She is Founder and Director of the award-winning Imagining Ourselves project at the International Museum of Women, and has lived and worked in over a dozen countries on human rights and poverty issues. Whether working on reconciliation projects in Bosnia, or initiating educational opportunities in India that forge professional paths for rural high school graduates, she finds satisfaction by instigating opportunities that result in improved lives. She has been profiled or featured in magazines, newspapers and broadcast media including O, the Oprah Magazine, the San Francisco Chronicle and CBS News. Speaking engagements have taken her from Northern California and New York to Ghana, Bangkok and Spain. She holds a Masters degree from Princeton University, is a PhD candidate at Harvard University, and was a fellow with the Human Rights Committee of the American Anthropological Association. Her first book Imagining Ourselves was published in 2006, and she is currently based in San Francisco, working on her second. She teaches at UC Berkeley and Mills College.

Blog Entries by Paula Goldman

Sustainability: There is no Enemy (?)

1 Comments | Posted September 10, 2009 | 11:20 AM (EST)


In the past several decades, we have seen a tide-shift in the way we think about social change. It is a shift towards recognizing the interconnectedness of issues; a paradigm in which words 'resistance' and 'domination' are being trumped by words like 'effectiveness' and 'results.' It is a shift away...

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Progressive Leaders React to Jones Resignation (Paraphrased)

Posted September 9, 2009 | 11:59 AM (EST)


The paraphrased comments below come from a series on speakers and events at the Momentum 2009 Conference in San Francisco -- a gathering of thought-leaders, social entrepreneurs, and activists, to share strategies for positive change.

Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, CEO, Green for All
People send me...

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Don't Move to Canada

Posted October 17, 2008 | 04:45 PM (EST)


The other day, I was having coffee in a café in Menlo Park, California -- a small town in the heart of Silicon Valley -- and overheard a horrifying conversation.

It was late morning on Tuesday. Four mothers, appearing to be in their early forties, had gathered to catch up....

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Delivering Hope In South Africa

Posted April 5, 2008 | 07:05 AM (EST)


Most changemakers can't exactly remember when it is they decided to commit themselves to attempting to better the world. They generally give vague answers to the question: the influence of a parent, or a general feeling of discontent about a particular issue.

Simone Honikman, however, remembers the moment vividly....

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The Network: Going Green(er) in Great Britain

Posted March 5, 2008 | 07:21 PM (EST)


I have to admit that, like many people, it was only recently that I woke up to the importance of global warming.

Before that, environmentalism was always someone else's issue. Something I was sympathetic towards, but in a vague kind of way. I recycled, poorly. I...

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Own Your Impact

Posted November 16, 2007 | 05:46 PM (EST)


A few weeks back, I found myself in Orlando, Florida, helping to lead a panel on using technology for social change at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing Conference.

We spent the afternoon in small breakout sessions. I had the pleasure of talking to a handful...

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On Leaving the Dormouse Behind

Posted March 7, 2007 | 01:26 PM (EST)


Can we agree that International Women's Day doesn't seem to get the attention it deserves? There are three and half billion plus women on the planet, and you'd think if it did, the noise would be deafening. But yet somehow it comes and goes like a whisper. At least...

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