Welcome. Below you will find a biography of Vicki Robin (and tribute to her coauthor Joe Dominguez) and links to her past work with the New Road Map Foundation and her current work teaching about Money, Happiness, Enough and Community. Please click the links and explore the world Vicki has generated in 30 years of dedication to a thriving, just and sustainable world.
Biography of Vicki Robin
Vicki Robin is a prolific social innovator, writer and speaker. She is coauthor with Joe Dominguez of the international best-seller, Your Money or Your Life: Transforming Your Relationship With Money and Achieving Financial Independence (Viking Penguin, 1992, 1998, 2008). It was an instant NY Times best seller in 1992 and steadily appeared on the Business Week Best Seller list from 1992-1997. It is available now in eleven languages.
Blessing the Hands that Feed Us; Lessons from a 10-mile diet (Viking/Penguin 2013) recounts her adventures in hyper-local eating and what she learned about food and farming as well as belonging and hope.
Called by the New York Times as the “prophet of consumption downsizers,” Vicki has lectured widely and appeared on hundreds of radio and television shows, including “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” “Good Morning America” and National Public Radio’s “Weekend Edition” and “Morning Edition”; she has also been featured in well over 100 magazines including People Magazine, AARP, The Wall Street Journal, Woman’s Day, Newsweek, Utne Magazine and the New York Times.
The President of the Atlanta Women’s Business Network said of Vicki’s 2009 presentation: Vicki, your talk last night was brilliant; we have not had so much fun in years and any speaker who can teach “money lessons” in the midst of the current economic woes AND have her audience laughing deserves praise – and attention!
Vicki has helped launch many sustainability initiatives including: The New Road Map Foundation, The Simplicity Forum, The Turning Tide Coalition, Sustainable Seattle, The Center for a New American Dream, Transition Whidbey and more. In the 1990’s she served on the President’s Council on Sustainable Development’s Task Force on Population and Consumption.
In addition to her sustainable consumption work, Vicki has been a leader in the field of dialogue. She co-created the Conversation Cafés method and initiative, promoting it first in Seattle and then throughout the world. Conversation Cafés are hosted conversations among diverse people in public places on subjects that matter (www.conversationcafe.org). Vicki has spoken at workshops, conferences and to the media (Readers Digest, National Public Radio, Utne Magazine, The New York Times, The Seattle Times and many local media) about the Conversation Café method and its possibilities for revitalizing our public life.
For fun, Vicki is a comedy improv actress, appearing frequently with her troupe, Comedy Island.
Born in Oklahoma in 1945, Vicki grew up on Long Island and graduated cum laude from Brown University in 1967. She received awards from Co-op America and Sustainable Northwest for her pioneering work on sustainable living. Vicki’s one of 61 visionaries featured in Utne Magazine’s book, Visionaries: People and Ideas to Change Your Life. A&E Entertainment’s show “Biography” honored Vicki as one of ten exceptional Seattle citizens. She currently lives on Whidbey Island in Puget Sound.
Joe Dominguez
From Joe’s Memorial Program
February 2, 1938 – January 11, 1997
“Life is no ‘brief candle’ to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.”
— George Bernard Shaw
Michael Toms writes, in New Dimensions,
I recall asking him during a “New Dimensions” program, “Joe, how can you live on so little?” He replied without missing a beat, “How can you live on so much?” I can still remember the mischievous twinkle in his eyes as he said it…. His message of service, simplicity, balance and common sense will continue to inspire others because of its pragmatism and relevance to these times.
Richard Seid’s article, “A Gentle Man of Vision,” in the Mexico City Times says,
Joe Dominguez might prove to be one of the most influential men of the 21st century. If Nobel prizes were given posthumously, in 10 or 20 years — or whenever the world comes to its fiscal senses — Joe would be in contention for the economics award. Probably not sooner because the excess materialism of the American Dream will not be seen as a threat to national security until then. Joe taught differently. He saw that through individual actions our profligate societies need to change their wasteful ways.
“In Memoriam,” in The New York Times:
He dedicated his life to leaving this planet in better shape than he found it…. He inspired hundreds of thousands of people to do the same by attaining financial integrity in their lives. He will not be forgotten.
“The Secret of Life” (below), written a number of years ago, is Joe’s attempt to express his truth in as few words as possible. It is his message and final gift to you.
The Secret of LifeBy Joe Dominguez The secret of life is simply you… your magnificence, your divinity. Love is the medium through which the divinity manifests. The medium is the message. Love is the message. When you love, you are carrying the message… You are manifesting your magnificence, your divinity. When you feel love, you feel good. When you feel good, you feel love. When you feel good, you feel god. When you feel god, you feel good. Love is your creation. Your natural state is the ecstatic experience of Love. It is simply the conscious experience of our aliveness, made manifest…shared. Love does not “happen” to us. We happen it. We happen it by removing that which blocks it. Living a life is simply the process of removing those barriers to experiencing Love. |
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