Get to Know Dale McGowan, FBB Executive Director

Staff Spotlight: Dale McGowan

Dale McGowan, a former college professor, currently serves as the Executive Director of Foundation Beyond Belief. Dale is editor and co-author of Parenting Beyond Belief and Raising Freethinkers, the first comprehensive resources for nonreligious parents. Dale is regularly involved in teaching nonreligious parenting techniques via his blog The Meming of Life as well as holding seminars that impart secular parenting methods.

After being named the 2008 Harvard Humanist of the Year by the Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard, Dale went on to incorporate the Foundation Beyond Belief in 2009, after identifying the need to demonstrate humanism at its best. This would be done by supporting efforts to improve this world and this life, and to challenge humanists to embody the highest principles of humanism, including mutual care and responsibility. The charitable giving program was launched in 2010.

In 2009, Dale served as U.S. Communications Coordinator for Nonviolent Peaceforce, a global civilian peacekeeping organization based in Brussels. While living in Minneapolis, he was a charter member of the Critical Thinking Club, Inc., and has taught critical thinking skills in the college classroom, the corporate boardroom, and public venues.

Dale holds degrees in physical anthropology and music theory from UC Berkeley as well as a Ph.D. in music composition and theory from the University of Minnesota.