Philip Snyder

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Philip Snyder
Philip Snyder
Title Fulbright Scholar
Visiting Scientist
N.E.T.S. Academic Staff
Key Project(s) Cyprus Conflict Resolution Trainers Group
CYBER KIDS
Future Worlds Center Evolution
Degree(s) PhD in Anthropology with Specialization in the study of place
University(ies) Cornell University
Specialization(s) Conflict Resolution
Environment and Sustainability
Organizational and Program development



Dr. Philip Snyder was a Fulbright Scholar in Cyprus who between 1997-1998 implemented a number of conflict resolution workshops in Cyprus and supported peace builders in their early efforts to formalize a peace building organization. He collaborated with the Technology for Peace project of the Cyprus Neuroscience and Technology Institute. After his scholarship run out, he was hired by CYBER KIDS as Head of the CYBER KIDS Internationalization Unit. Ever since he left Cyprus in 2000, he continues to visit every few years to see old friends and to support Future Worlds Center in its strategic challenges.


Dr. Snyder is currently a Senior Research Associate and Consultant as well as a member of the N.E.T.S. Board of Trustees.

Short Bio

Philip has a doctorate from Cornell University in anthropology and a specialization in the study of place. He served as executive director of several complex NGOs for more than twenty-three years, including a large, multifaceted center at Cornell University (the Center for Religion, Ethics and Social Policy), a regional land conservancy (Finger Lakes Land Trust), and the International Office of the Global Ecovillage Network based in Denmark (www.ecovillage.org). He was awarded a Senior Fulbright Fellowship for the year of 1997 to coordinate the citizen conflict resolution program of the Fulbright Commission, working with Turkish and Greek communities in the divided island of Cyprus. A key contribution Dr. Snyder made was a series of workshops about sustainability and the environment with activists from both sides of the Green Line. Philip combines a background in all facets of organizational and program development together with ongoing research and consulting work in sustainable development, environmental regeneration, and the human relationship with landscape. He is currently a Fellow with the Dorothy Cotton Institute, Building Global Community for Civil and Human Rights Leadership.


  • Doctorate from Cornell University in Anthropology.


  • Former executive director for over 23 years on several large complex

NGOs, also taught as an adjunct professor for 18 years.


  • Senior Fulbright Scholar coordinating the Cyprus Fulbright Commission conflict resolution program (1997); also worked the next year in the international program of CYBERKids.


  • Consultant in sustainable development, ecological land use and organizational development. Currently a Fellow of the Dorothy Cotton Institute, Building Global Community for Civil and Human Rights Leadership


Selected publications

• Earthkeeping Initiation: Can Boys Come of Age in Today’s World? Lead article, Voice Male: changing men in changing times, Fall 2010 volume 14 no. 51
• The Milk of the Mountain: a memoir of place in the west of Ireland. Book manuscript in progress.
• A Couple’s Odyssey. Unpublished manuscript with Patricia Dell Paine.
• Forward to The Finger Lakes Region of New York: a view from above. Charles Feil and Ernest Rose, co-authors. VFA Publishing. 2005.
• Recovering the Sacred in Nature. Chapter in Ecovillage Living, Jackson and Svensson, ed. Chelsea Green: 2002.
• Foreword to Navajo and Tibetan Sacred Wisdom: Circle of the Spirit by Peter Gold. Inner Traditions International, 1994.
• Nature, Culture and Prospects for Sustainable Development in Cyprus. Chapter in manuscript: Cyprus Prepares for the 21st century.
• Land Protection in the Finger Lakes Eco Justice Quarterly Vol. 14, #3, Summer 1994.
• Caretaking: Finding a Rhythm in Working with the Earth The Land Steward Vol. 6, #3, Summer 1994.
• Recovering a Sense of Place The Land Steward Vol. 5, #4, Fall 1993.
• Earthkeeping: the Watercourse Way and Earthkeeping EcoVillage at Ithaca Newsletter,January 1993; October, 1992.
• The Primacy of Mind and the Necessity of Transformation: a review of Global Mind Change: the Promise of the Last Years of the 20th Century by Willis Harman. Eco-Justice Quarterly Spring, 1989.
• "The One Percent Plan: a People to People Step Towards a Durable Peace" article in Choices and Connections, Carolyn MacPhail, ed. 1987. Note: this essay formed the impetus for the founding of 1% for Peace/Business Partnership for Peace. I was on the executive committee of the board for seven years until the merger with Businesses for Social Responsibility.