In a July 1st Interfaith America piece, Chief Innovation Officer Mary Ellen Giess sat down with Convergence Founder and First CEO Rob Fersh and CEO and President Mariah Levison to speak about their upcoming book, From Conflict to Convergence: Coming Together to Solve Tough Problems.

The piece captured the motivation that drove Rob and Mariah to write the book and highlighted their expansive expertise noting from a statement from Rob saying,

“Mariah and I have both been in this area for over 20 years. Yet, we felt like our professional knowledge and skills were complementary, so we thought we could bring our expertise forward in a moment when the stakes have never been higher. This book is about political division and how people can solve all kinds of problems more effectively. ”

Mariah echoes Rob stating,

“I have seen with my own eyes that we aren’t as divided as it seems. I feel so lucky to have experienced that, and part of my motivation is to share that experience with others. 

While folks have different ideas about solving complex shared problems, they have a lot in common regarding the big picture and finding solutions.

As Rob said, we’ve always struggled as a nation to solve complex challenges, but in the past, we’ve had less diverse voices at the table so we could sweep problems under the rug. A silver lining of this really difficult national moment could be finding ways to have more challenging conversations and solve problems more effectively than ever.”