About John Sarrouf

John Sarrouf has spent over two decades helping communities and institutions navigate conflict through dialogue and mediation. As co-Executive Director at Essential Partners, he has helped create community-wide initiatives for deliberative democracy in over 20 cities and towns across the country. He has supported over 40 colleges and universities to build capacity for dialogue and deliberation. John has facilitated dialogues on issues such as the role of guns in American life, police and the Black community, Israel and Palestine, interfaith relations, human sexuality in the Christian church, as well as a wide ranging array of environmental, scientific, and public health conflicts.

John has led national programs training faculty, pastors, and secondary school educators in dialogue-based approaches to difficult conversations in the classroom on topics spanning religion, immigration, race, and political division.

John was trained as a mediator when he worked in the theater serving as a union

representative for Actors Equity Association. His court mediation work came through his studies for his M.A. in Dispute Resolution from the University of Massachusetts. At Gordon College, he co-founded the Peace and Conflict Studies program and designed and taught Mediation Skills, Reconciliation and Conflict Transformation, and Negotiation. Most of John’s current mediation work is in support of co-parenting agreements and families navigating important life decisions.