Biography
Rich Tafel spent a career bringing together coalitions of unlikely partners to solve the most significant challenges of our day. He created the Cultural Translator(c) project to increase empathy and diversity intelligence in high-conflict organizations and communities.
He serves as the Director of Marcum’s Social Capital advisory, where he bridged the gap between world-changing businesses to engage strategies to change the world for the better. Before this role, Tafel worked in the public policy arena, putting together diverse coalitions to achieve historic civil rights and healthcare breakthroughs in the United States and worldwide.
Working in the social entrepreneurship space, he facilitated the nation’s first state-wide social venture competitions. He himself co-founded the Workplace Wellness Council of Mexico and SameSky Health, the nation’s leading health equity company providing healthcare access to patients in their own language.
As a pastor, he serves on the National Council of Churches, where he has led Christian-Muslim dialogue. He chairs the board of Citizen University, teaching young leaders the power of civic engagement. Rich also co-founded the American Project at Pepperdine School of Public Policy, focusing on alienation and loneliness in American culture. In 2021 he became a Senior Fellow at George Washington University’s Center for Excellence in Public Leadership.
Tafel is a graduate of the Harvard Divinity School. He is the author of Party Crasher, where he shares his strategies for building coalitions as the founder of Log Cabin Republicans. In 2021, he also wrote a chapter for the award-winning book, “How to Heal Our Divides: A Practical Guide.”
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