Mary Gordon Research Paper

Mary Gordon is a well known Canadian educator and founder of Roots of Empathy and Seeds of Empathy programs. Her devotion and dedication are to promote emotional literacy while building empathy among all children. Mary Gordon is recognized internationally as an award-winning social entrepreneur, educator, author, child advocate and parenting expert who has created and implemented programs supported by the power of empathy. Gordons mission “is to build caring, peaceful and civil societies through the development of empathy in children and adults” and her vision is to “change the world, child by child” (Gordon, n.d.).
Mary Gordon grew up in Newfoundland later moving to Toronto, Ontario where she devoted her knowledge and expertise to support families and founded Canada’s first school-based Parenting and Family Literacy Centre in 1981 (Roots of Empathy, 2018). The Ontario government adopted her model and …show more content…
Gordon was named the first female Canadian Ashoka Fellow, recognizing her as a member of an international circle of social entrepreneurs who have the creativity that enables them to envision contemporary and superior ways to address persistent social problems and the entrepreneurial skill and determination required to bring their ideas to forward (Roots of Empathy, 2018). Gordon is a member of Global Executive Board of Directors and in 2011 was named an Ashoka Globalizer enabling her to join a select group of Ashoka Fellows that supported extending their message and impact to the global level (Roots of Empathy, 2018). In 2017 she was invited to speak at a conference in Helsinki selecting Roots of Empathy in the ever-changing way we educate today inspiring the Dalia Lama to believe programs such as Roots of Empathy will bring about world peace (Roots of Empathy, 2018). Most recently she was awarded the Governor General’s Innovation Award in recognition of her contributions of shaping the future and inspiring the next generation (Roots of Empathy,