The Author PARKER J. PALMER is a highly respected writer, lecturer, teacher, and activist. The Leadership Project, a 1998 survey of 10,000 American educators, named him one of the thirty most influential senior leaders in higher education and one of the ten key "agenda-setters" of the past decade. Author of six other books including the bestsellers Let Your Life Speak, The Courage to Teach, and A Hidden Wholeness his writing has been recognized with eight honorary doctorates and several national awards. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley and lives in Madison, Wisconsin.