AbouT one

ONE - Organization of Networks for Empathy is a global platform that enables multidisciplinary, multisector, and multicultural collaborations to deepen our understanding of empathy, and to develop strategies, scholarship, and empathy-building experiences that consider the wellbeing of the whole —all of humanity, and our planet. ONE utilizes Designing for Empathy® as an intellectual framework. ONE’s journey began with the Empathy-Building Through Museums Initiative in 2014, and produced six Empathy Summits, first of which was hosted by HH The 14th Dalai Lama in 2018, in India; and, two reference books:  Fostering Empathy Through Museums (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016) and Designing for Empathy: Perspectives on the Museum Experience (American Alliance of Museums, 2019), both edited by Elif M. Gokcigdem, PhD. In 2021, Dr. Gokcigdem founded: Elif M. Gokcigdem, LLC (d.b.a ONE - Organization of Networks for Empathy), a consulting firm based in Virginia, USA, that offers empathy-based capacity-building solutions customized for groups, organizations, and systems, while inspiring a global community of empathy-builders to gather for exploration, collaboration, and innovation. Contact: info@oneempathynetwork.com

Elif Gokcigdem (she/her) is the founding president of ONE - Organization of Networks for Empathy, and the editor of:  Fostering Empathy Through Museums (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016) and Designing for Empathy: Perspectives on the Museum Experience (American Alliance of Museums, 2019), which are considered as reference books in empathy-building through museums, a field of inquiry she pioneered in 2014. Dr. Gokcigdem developed Designing for Empathy® as a unique, patented intellectual framework, and ONE as an international platform for multidisciplinary, multisector, and multicultural collaborations to deepen our understanding of empathy, and to develop strategies, scholarship, and empathy-building experiences that consider the wellbeing of the whole —all of humanity and our planet. In 2018, Dr. Gokcigdem curated and co-chaired the world’s first empathy summit titled: Fostering Universal Ethics and Compassion through Museums with His Holiness The 14th Dalai Lama in Dharamshala, India. Elif grew up in Istanbul, Turkey, studying history of Islamic art and mysticism, and later, museum studies in the US. Currently, she leads ONE, teaches at the GWU Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, and serves as a member of the Board of Trustees at the Museum of Us. Contact: info@oneempathynetwork.com | @ElifGokcigdem | @one.empathy.network