Barnett Pearce, Ph.D.

  • Special Assignments Faculty Member, School of Human and Organization Development, Fielding Graduate University, Santa Barbara, California.
  • Founding member, Public Dialogue Consortium, 58 West Portal Ave #267, San Francisco, CA 94127.
  • Co-Principal, Pearce Associates, 214 Yarborough Lane, Redwood City, CA, 94061.
  • Faculty Member, Dialogue, Deliberation and Public Engagement Graduate Certificate Program. 
  • Member, National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation.

Barnett was facing serious health issues. A student of his at Fielding had put together a website to keep those of us interested in his journey updated: http://www.barnettpearce.net/

Barnett was both a scholar and practitioner. In University settings, he was best known for his part in developing the theory of the Coordinated Management of Meaning” or CMM. He wrote seven books and over one hundred articles and chapters. He was a Senior Visiting Fellow at Linacre College, Oxford University, in 1989, and a Fulbright Fellow in Argentina in 1997. Before retiring from Fielding Graduate University in 2008, he was a member of the faculty at the University of North Dakota, University of Kentucky, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and Loyola University Chicago, serving as Chair of the Departments of Communication at Massachusetts and Loyola. He had a Ph.D. from Ohio University.

As a practitioner, he worked as consultant, coach, facilitator and trainer. He put his theory (CMM) into practice, following the maxim that if we get the pattern of communication right, the best possible things will happen. He strove to create the preconditions for dialogic communication, working in city and local communities, business and nonprofit organizations, and educational institutions. His work took him to North and South America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and Africa.