Rich Tafel

About

​Rich Tafel is a strategist who builds bridges between unlikely partners to create successful coalitions to solve the most significant challenges of our day. 

A minister by training, Rich is the pastor of the Church of the Holy City in Washington, DC, where his ecumenical ministry translates spirituality for a rising generation. His spiritual entrepreneur training helps participants transform their inner life as they transform the world, training leaders in his Cultural Translator model to overcome polarization. A graduate of Harvard Divinity School, he served as an Assistant Minster at Harvard’s Memorial Church. 

He has served as a representative on the governing board of the National Council of Churches for the last seven years.

Rich is a pioneer in the social entrepreneur field, having provided strategy to over one hundred social ventures. He facilitated the nation’s first statewide social entrepreneur competition for the state of Michigan. He serves as the Director of Social Capital Advisers at Marcum LLP, where he works with for-profit and nonprofit entities to build business models to create transformative change.

He has long sought to bridge the divide in the public policy sphere in America. He has spent his career bridging divides and is the author of Party Crasher (1999, Simon & Schuster), where he built successful coalitions in the battle against AIDS and gay marriage. He has appeared on most major political programs. Before his work in Washington, DC, he served as Adolescent Health Director for the State of MA.

He is co-founder of the American Project at Pepperdine School of Public Policy and serves as a Senior Fellow at George Washington University’s Center for Excellence in Leadership. He serves as President of Citizen’s University, the premier national organization focused on educating the rising generation on civic engagement. He holds a Master of Divinity degree from Harvard University.