About the Founders (Press Kit)

John Grim and Mary Evelyn Tucker, Co-Directors of the Forum on Religion and Ecology, together organized a series of ten conferences on World Religions and Ecology at the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School. They also edited the ten volume series from the conferences distributed by Harvard University Press.

Mary Evelyn Tucker is a Senior Lecturer and Senior Scholar at Yale University where she has appointments in the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies as well as the Divinity School and the Department of Religious Studies. She is a co-founder and co-director with John Grim of the Forum on Religion and Ecology. Together they organized a series of ten conferences on World Religions and Ecology at the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School. They are series editors for the ten volumes from the conferences distributed by Harvard University Press. She is Research Associate at the Harvard Yenching Institute and at the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies. She is the author of Worldly Wonder: Religions Enter Their Ecological Phase (Open Court Press, 2003), Moral and Spiritual Cultivation in Japanese Neo-Confucianism (SUNY, 1989) and The Philosophy of Qi.(Columbia University Press, 2007). She co-edited Worldviews and Ecology (Orbis, 1994), Buddhism and Ecology (Harvard, 1997), Confucianism and Ecology (Harvard, 1998), and Hinduism and Ecology (Harvard, 2000) and When Worlds Converge (Open Court, 2002). With Tu Weiming she edited two volumes on Confucian Spirituality (Crossroad, 2004). She also co-edited a Daedalus volume titled Religion and Ecology: Can the Climate Change? (2001). She edited Thomas Berry's book, Evening Thoughts: Reflecting on Earth as Sacred Community (Sierra Club Books and University of California Press, 2006). Until 2005 she was a professor of religion at Bucknell University where she taught courses in Asian religions and Religion and Ecology. She is a member of the Interfaith Partnership for the Environment at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and served as a member of the International Earth Charter Drafting Committee from 1997-2000. She is a member of the newly appointed Earth Charter International Council. B.A. Trinity College, M.A. SUNY Fredonia, M.A. Fordham University, PhD Columbia University.

As a professor of religion John taught courses in Native American and Indigenous religions, religion and ecology, ritual, and mysticism in the world's religions. His published works include: The Shaman: Patterns of Religious Healing Among the Ojibway Indians (University of Oklahoma Press, 1983) and, with Mary Evelyn Tucker, a co-edited volume entitled Worldviews and Ecology (Orbis, 1994, 5th printing 2000). In the 10 volume series on "World Religions and Ecology," John has edited Indigenous Traditions and Ecology (Harvard, 2001). He also co-edited the Daedalus volume titled Religion and Ecology: Can the Climate Change? (2001). He is currently a visiting scholar at the Institution of Social and Policy Studies, Yale University and President of the American Teilhard Association.