Foreign Friend: A Podcast on Modern China with Peter Gassman

Dr. Peter J. Glassman is an educator and author who has worked extensively in early childhood, elementary, and post-secondary education in North America, Europe, and Asia.

Peter has taught at Columbia University, Tulane University, and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He has been awarded permanent visiting professor status in the People’s Republic of China. He has served as Provost at New England College, and Dean at The University of Macau and The California Institute for Integral Studies.

He currently serves as Vice-President for Curriculum and Instruction at The Early Learning Institute in Palo Alto, California.

Peter consults widely on issues concerning education, cross-cultural communication, and education policy for education and government groups. He is an experienced organizational leader with a record of inspiring profound and persisting institutional growth.

He has been a Fulbright professor, a Fellow of the NATO Atlantic Council and a Fellow of the American Council of Learned Societies. He has won awards for outstanding teaching from Columbia University, Tulane University, Hangzhou University and Guangxi Normal University.

Peter’s core competency is teaching young people to believe in themselves, and to believe in their power to drive change. He is particularly effective in helping young people discover, accept, and manage the forces in civilization and the parts of our own mind that inhibit our faith and impede our action.

Peter has lived and worked in North America, Asia and Europe, and was raised with foster brothers from Sudan and Japan. He has an uncommon joy in human diversity, and an unusual ability to transact effectively across cultures.

Peter is the author of three books and numerous essays on human creativity and community. He received his Ph.D. degree in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University.

Peter and his wife, Karen Lam, live in Vancouver, B.C.