MultiGenerational Consulting Services works with individuals, companies, families, and nonprofits that seek to create optimally functioning relationships and organizations. Services involve the exploration and assessment of a wide range of topics - among them; leadership, philanthropy, values, and happiness. Dr. Pamela Paresky is a psychologist who works with families in their decision-making processes regarding philanthropy, family businesses, and family governance,* and lectures and teaches seminars on leadership, happiness, and legacy. Her consulting clients include organizations as diverse as the US Air Force and Castle Rock Entertainment, and she brings to her consulting the unique insights she obtains from her research in the neuroscience of leadership.*

The Aspen Legacy Interview™

Dr. Paresky creates customized hardcover books through which younger family members learn about their elders. The narratives elicited through the Aspen Legacy Interview™ give insight into the passions, values, and motivations of families' originating generations.

Thoreau famously provided the challenge to “live deliberately.” The Aspen Legacy Interview™ provides a vehicle not only for younger generations to gain wisdom, but also for those participating in the interviews to recognize the threads that run through their lives and identify that which fills their lives with meaning.

Mary Oliver, in her poem, The Summer Day, asks, “What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” For families and organizations wishing to engage in high-level reflection, Dr. Paresky designs customized seminars that explore ideas about leadership, decision-making, timeless human values, and what it means to live a good life. The Aspen Family Seminar™ allows participants to confront these challenges and others while engaging in reflection and retreat.

* No Financial Advice: Dr. Paresky does not provide financial advice, investment advice, trading advice or any other advice. Her work with families engaged in intergenerational transfers of wealth revolves around family dynamics and intra-personal decision-making processes.

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The Aspen Family Seminar™ is an opportunity for families to come together to explore core values, the tensions among them, and their practical applications in a wide variety of contexts – among them: leadership, family governance, and philanthropy. Using classical and contemporary texts in Socratic, roundtable discussion, family members have the opportunity to transform their thinking about their roles and relationships, work and philanthropy, and about fundamental questions of personal meaning and happiness. The seminar is also an opportunity to examine issues related to wealth, clarify a vision for the next stage of life, and reflect on questions of legacy.

Led by MGC’s Psychologist, Dr. Pamela Paresky, and another moderator, the Aspen Family Seminar™ brings families together to meet in an idyllic setting conducive to thought, fellowship, and dialogue, and develop the ability to see family members in a new light while creating lasting bonds with members of other families. Through the unique perspectives participants bring to the table, the timeless wisdom of the chosen texts is illuminated and brought to life. By participating in thoughtful and civil discussions of classic and contemporary texts, families find common ground while coming to understand themselves and each other in ways very different than possible in everyday settings.

Participants’ completion of questionnaires in advance of the Seminar date allows Dr. Paresky and the second moderator to choose the appropriate texts for the needs of the participating families. Materials are sent in advance of the Seminar, and participants read the texts before arriving at the retreat.

Seminars vary in length from three to seven days, and are ideally composed of more than one biological family. Group size will generally range from ten to twenty-two participants. The cost to attend varies depending on the length of the seminar, and is inclusive of lodging, meals, group events, and materials. Airfare is not included. Although the Aspen Meadows campus retreat is the ideal Family Seminar offering, when prospective families are unable to travel, the Seminar can be further customized as “Mini Family Seminars” and brought to other locations.

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Dr. Pamela Paresky, a featured speaker at the 2012 National Character and Leadership Symposium, received her PhD in Human Development and Psychology from the University of Chicago where her work at the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) focused on Flow, relationships, and happiness. Her unique contribution to the field of social science through her examination of happiness in marriage was the finding that "double date night" may be more beneficial than "date night" for marital satisfaction.

Dr. Paresky is a pioneer in investigating the neural and cognitive correlates of leadership. In collaboration with Dr. Helen Fisher, she examines biologically-based leadership dimensions in conjunction with cognitive psychology and transformative learning.

Before her work at NORC, Dr. Paresky conducted field research in both the North West Territories of Canada where she lived with and photographed the Inuit, and in New York City where she studied the city's Native American population. She later taught college courses in cultural anthropology, and practiced psychotherapy with a philosophical focus.

Dr. Paresky lectures and leads seminars on happiness, legacy, and leadership, and brings to her consulting the unique insights she obtains from her research in the neuroscience of leadership. Her work has been published in several periodicals including The Washington Post, Aspen Philanthropist, and Aspen Peak Magazine, among others. Online, her articles have been featured on several sites, including AspenPost.net, BackboneAmerica.net, and the 76 Blog at the Centennial Institute.

Making a difference in the lives of others is the central focus of Dr. Paresky’s work and life. In the service of that commitment, she serves on the National Advisory Board of the Miami-based United Way Center for Excellence in Early Education as well as the Society of Fellows Advisory Committee at the Aspen Institute, and the Alumni Council for Phillips Academy (Andover). She has also served on The Human Development Steering Committee of the Statue of Responsibility Foundation, and the Advisory Board of Childhelp River Bridge, a Child Advocacy center in Colorado.

A Year of Kindness, Dr. Paresky's research-based guided journal, encourages people to record daily acts of kindness and thoughts of gratitude. Her forthcoming book, Losing Ourselves: Why the pursuit of happiness makes us less happy (working title) employs social science research, wisdom from religious traditions, and interviews with people who do meaningful things including philanthropist, Bill Gates Sr.; former CIA Director, James Woolsey; former lieutenant Governer of Maryland, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend; the late Reverend Peter Gomes; NIH Bioethcist, Ezekiel Emanuel; Buddhist Monk and translator for the Dalai Lama, Matthieu Ricard, and many others to illuminate what creates a meaningful and fulfilling life.

Dr. Paresky lives with her two children in Colorado where MultiGenerational Consulting Services is headquartered. She often works in New York, and travels extensively for her clients, speaking engagements, and field research. In addition to her interdisciplinary PhD, Dr. Paresky holds a Master's degree in Clinical Psychology, and a Bachelor's degree in Anthropology. The focus and goal of her current research is for each individual to lead the most fulfilling life possible – a life that matters.

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