So, my name is Peter Bokor. I live in New York. Just to briefly say my background educationally and professionally, I was at first, which you'll see in some weird way add up to a unity, deeply immersed in the studies of classical languages, and mythology, and cosmology from different cultures. Then, I moved into science enter into doctorate at the Rockefeller University in genetics looking at embryology and in particular we're looking at the question of how does a single cell begin to grow into an animal, which is sometimes called pattern information. And more recently in my life, I became a social worker and learned a lot about trauma, and addiction, and worked with homeless people in New York who were suffering from chemical addictions.
I went through a massive crisis 10 years ago. I'm 59, so 10 years ago, I had been 49, and while I was doing those different careers, I was always in a community, a very intense spiritual community doing meditation and mindfulness practices. For 30 years I thought I was, you know, the most competitive meditator you could imagine and very high in the spiritual plane and all of that stuff.
There is something in us pure and untouched. I believe that about in every human being. And to find that strength in myself and to suffer through the feelings, I learned that if, as we were speaking earlier, if there is fear, anger, all of these feelings that are inside me, if I allow them to metabolize through my body, I will become free of them. If I try to block them, they will never go away, and they return, and maybe even get stronger, and that's how most of my first life had been, first part of my life. I actually feel like someone who died and was reborn not in a Christian rebirth kind of way, but in a spiritual psychological way.
And the day after Trump got elected I sat up in bed, you know, I had been in science, I know something about climate, I was tangentially interested, but it hit me at a brand-new level, and it felt like a new reawakening. I woke up and I said, "Climate change is actually happening and we just elected a denier, and a cabin of deniers to the White House. What is going on?"
And I'm involved in a charitable foundation. I've been doing philanthropic work for 20 years, nice, good things, but nothing that really had my heart behind in a very deep way. And I woke up and I said, "I'm going to learn about climate change. I'm going to bring this to the foundation." And I have never used our foundation as a calling card. I started sending out emails with the label blast on foundation in the subject area saying, "Hi. I'm starting climate change program. I want to hear your logic of what you do, how you figure out your priorities, and I want you to talk to me." And I started getting phone calls because maybe I was going to give a grant. So, I got phone calls and appointment saying, "Yes, can you come in tomorrow?" I was like, "Yes, I can." And I spent the last two years visiting at least 50 groups across the country. And through Synergos, we got to meet with the Bloomberg group, very high-end. But I've been working with people where $5,000, $10,000 makes an enormous difference in their lives and bringing those groups together, meeting with those groups has been fantastic, and that's again going back to that sense of the opposite. I do think there's a split in the philanthropic world. I've been told only 2% of the money in America from foundations get down to the grassroots. And so, I'm on campaign to get wealthier individuals and foundations to look more at the grassroots again.
Biography
Peter Bokor is currently working on climate change issues: specifically exploring the intersection of carbon tax policies with the needs of environmental justice communities. He is affiliated with Our Climate, Citizens' Climate Lobby, Dream Corps and We Act for Environmental Justice in their campaign to bring more solar panels and green jobs to northern Manhattan.
Peter has a doctorate in genetics from the Rockefeller University an MSW in Social Work from Fordham University. He has worked as a clinical social worker with homeless populations suffering from substance abuse and mental illness in Manhattan. He is trustee of the Morton and Jane Blaustein Foundation. He is also a board member of Peer Health Exchange, which trains college students to teach health and life skills in inner city public schools.