Reverend Mark E. Fowler

CEO, Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding

I challenge the assumption that only certain people need accommodations at work. We're asking the wrong question when we ask why someone needs an accommodation at work.

THE PROBLEM AFTER NEXT: One important challenge organizations are underestimating is the reliance their employees have on the integrity of the company. Institutions in all sectors are undergoing a transformation and the one constant in the lives of most people is work. The workplace will continue to be the place where people look for fairness, opportunity, and the practice of humanity.

BIO: Rev. Mark Fowler guides Tanenbaum to the fulfillment of its mission to promote justice and build respect for religious difference by transforming individuals and institutions to reduce prejudice, hatred, and violence. As CEO, Rev. Fowler is responsible for all of Tanenbaum’s departments, the design and implementation of all Tanenbaum trainings, and the expansion of Tanenbaum programs nationally and internationally.Rev. Fowler represents Tanenbaum on the United Nations Multifaith Advisory Council for the UN Interagency Task Force on Religion and Development.As architect of Tanenbaum’s Corporate Membership Program, Rev. Fowler has conducted trainings at GSK, Merck, Turner Broadcasting, PwC, The Walt Disney Company, CVS Health, Aetna, Bloomberg, Sodexo, Google, Moody’s, Bank of America, Walmart, and Target, among others. He has also managed the design of Tanenbaum’s Religious Diversity Leadership Summit and the Religious Diversity Symposium, which convene senior leaders, DEI practitioners and advocates to strategize on creating religiously inclusive workplaces.Rev. Fowler led the evaluation of Tanenbaum’s Education program and managed the process and creation of its second editions of the Religions in My Neighborhood and World Olympics curricula.Rev. Fowler is a sought-after keynote speaker and facilitator in all of Tanenbaum’s core program areas and has addressed organizations globally on issues of equality in race, gender, sexual orientation and religion. Recently, Rev. Fowler was a guest on the Jesse Jackson Jr. radio program.Over the course of Rev. Fowler’s tenure at Tanenbaum, he has presented at the National Council on the Social Studies, the United Nations, the Newseum, the OutNEXT Summit, and the Forum on Workplace Inclusion regarding prejudice reduction, conflict resolution, bias and bullying.Rev. Fowler earned a B.A. in English and Education at Duke University and was trained as a Mediation and Conflict Resolution Specialist with the NYC Department of Education. Rev. Fowler also is a graduate of the One Spirit Interfaith Seminary, is an ordained Interfaith/Interspiritual minister, and is an instructor of first and second-year students at One Spirit Interfaith Seminary.