User:Storywise

Paul Costello is an Australian educator, writer, and the founding director of The Center for Narrative Studies,) He is a recognized expert and leader in the area of narrative practice. He has designed numerous training and leadership programs that use the power of stories for transformative change, and he is the architect behind the innovative narrative design of the 2000-2008 Washington Ireland Program (WIP)which he directed. He is also the founder of Rosies Friends on the Street Rosies, Friends on the Street, a street outreach to the homeless that operates in 6 cities in Australia, and more recently, he founded the South African Intern Program in 2006. In 2008, when he retired from these intern programs, he received recognition from the United States 110th Congress and the Northern Ireland Assembly for his contribution to peace and reconciliation and for developing a powerful narrative way of peace-building. In 2009, he embarked on his most challenging project to create a new leadership program for the Middle East, called New Story Leadership Inc. The first class of five Palestinian and five Israelis came to Washington for the inaugural program in 2010 and a second class graduated in August 2011. He holds degrees in History, Divinity, Education and an MFA from American University and he has recently published “The Presidential Plot” a book on how stories shape American political and cultural life.