Ep 432: Shaylyn Romney Garrett | The Upswing

Outlier On Air | Founders, Disruptors, & Mavens

Shaylyn Romney Garrett is writer and changemaker pursuing connection, community, and healing in a fragmented world. She is the co-author with Robert D. Putnam of The Upswing: How America Came Together A Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again. Her work also includes the uniquely revealing portraits of religious communities across the United States in American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us, which won the Woodrow Wilson Award for best political science book of 2010-2011. She is a founding contributor to the Aspen Institute’s initiative, Weave: The Social Fabric Project, and writes about her personal journey back to community on her blog, Project Reconnect.

Shaylyn has also had a successful career as a social entrepreneur. With her husband, James, she co-founded Think Unlimited, a nonprofit venture working to catalyze social innovation in the Middle East. She speaks Arabic and lived in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan for six years, during which time she created an original Arabic language curriculum on creativity and critical thinking, and partnered with Queen Rania Al-Abdullah to bring it to Jordanian public schools.

Shaylyn’s nonprofit work has been featured by the New York Times, FastCompany, Harvard Business Review, and Arab Investor. In 2011 she was honored with the Draper Richards Kaplan Social Entrepreneurship Fellowship, and was a finalist in the global Echoing Green Competition. She was twice awarded a membership to the Clinton Global Initiative, and has been a speaker at TEDx.

Shaylyn holds a BA in Government from Harvard University, and is a returned Peace Corps volunteer. She is also a permaculturalist who loves to get her hands in the dirt, and thinks a lot about healthy soils as a model for thriving human communities. She lives in the beautiful red rock desert of Southern Utah with her husband, her daughter Sophie, her son Aeon, and her loyal dog Dewey.

Connect w/ Shaylyn:

Website | Book