The Whirlwind Institute is a social change strategy center directed by Mark and Paul Engler. We provide articles, analysis, and research on critical issues facing progressive movements in the United States and internationally.
We are movement strategists, theorists, and practitioners who have been writing about organizing and progressive politics for more than two decades. We believe that today we need bigger, more coordinated social movements than ever. We formed the Whirlwind Institute to help seed new movements, grow existing ones, and create conditions in which different campaigns and organizations can work together. We aim to offer resources that assist participants in drawing best practices from movement history, avoiding the mistakes of the past, and operating at greater levels of scale and ambition.
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Mark Engler, Co-Director
Mark Engler is a writer based in Philadelphia, an editorial board member at Dissent, and co-director of the Whirlwind Institute, a social change strategy center. His latest book, written with Paul Engler, is entitled This Is an Uprising: How Nonviolent Revolt Is Shaping the Twenty-First Century (Nation Books).
Mark’s articles on social movements, the global economy, Latin American affairs, militarism, domestic politics, and the environment appear in publications including The Nation, N+1, The Guardian, Salon, The Atlantic, the Los Angeles Times, Rolling Stone, The New Republic, Audubon, Jacobin, Boston Review, the San Francisco Chronicle, Mother Jones, Waging Nonviolence, Grist Magazine, and In These Times. His work has been featured in anthologies including Beautiful Trouble, Liberating Faith, and Democracy in Print: The Best of The Progressive Magazine, 1909-2009.
Mark’s articles have been translated into more than 20 languages. He is a member of the Authors Guild.
An archive of Mark’s articles can be found at www.DemocracyUprising.com. He can be reached by e-mail here.
A longer bio for Mark is available here. Higher-resolution photos of Mark are available here (photo credit: Milton Lindsay) and here (photo credit: Amanda Slattery).
Paul Engler, Co-Director
Paul Engler has spent more than two decades as an organizer and social movement trainer. He is founding director of the Center for the Working Poor, co-founder of the Momentum training, and co-director of the Whirlwind Institute, a social change strategy center. He is the author, with Mark Engler, of This Is An Uprising: How Nonviolent Revolt Is Shaping the Twenty-First Century (Nation Books).
Paul worked as a community organizer for low-wage workers in the 2000s, and he has been active in social movements including the global justice movement, the anti-war movement, the immigrant rights uprising of 2006, and Occupy Wall Street. In his work, Paul draws from a grounding in the Christian contemplative tradition. He is certified as an instructor in Centering Prayer, based on the teachings of Fr. Thomas Keating. Paul maintains a daily meditation practice and spends an average of 10-20 days each year in monastic and meditation retreats. He holds a master’s degree in marriage and family therapy, and he is a licensed psychotherapist in California (No. 115707).
Paul can be reached by e-mail here.
A higher-resolution photo of Paul is available here.
The Whirlwind Institute is a 501(c)3 organization. We are grateful for your support! Foundations and institutional donors, please contact us by e-mail here. Individuals can donate to help us sustain our work by subscribing to our newsletter and contributing on Substack. The donations of paid subscribers allow us to freely offer our content so that anyone, anywhere in the world, can learn more about strategies for social change.
