Tidbits You Probably Didn't Know About David
Now in his senior decades, Dr. Gruder characterizes himself as a recovering psychologist and professional troublemaker.
By the time David was 21 he had already served as the director of a crisis intervention center & hotline, and as the administrative assistant to a university president. By the time he was 23, he had also served as an administrator for the first professional association in the field of integrative health and medicine, the Association for Holistic Health. He became an entrepreneur in 1980. He later went on to become the co-founder, first president, conference director, code of ethics co-author, and certification program co-developer, for a professional nonprofit that is now approaching its 25th year of flourishing, the Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology.
David's parents sent him to Woodstock when he was 15 and this experience planted the seeds for his life’s mission: to equip leaders & influencers who are called to help repair & evolve the world, with inner, outer & spiritual mindsets & skills to maximize their positive impact.
David was sung to sleep as a child, rather than read to sleep, and this probably explains why he started performing as a child and was expected to become a professional musician (and actually was one for awhile). By the time he graduated high school, he had already completed 7 semesters of college-level music theory, had been the vocal director for two musicals, had performed in just about every kind of vocal and instrumental musical performing group (from barbershop quartet to pit orchestra for musicals to marching band and much much more), and had received a prestigious award for outstanding musicianship. He minored in music in college although the music department treated him like a music major. His many years of formal training were in trombone (classical, jazz and musicals), voice (classical and musicals), vocal direction, conducting, acting (lead roles in multiple musicals), and radio broadcasting.
David's parents drove him nuts with their editing while he was growing up because they had completely opposite and conflicting giftedness as writers: his father was an excellent researcher and technical writer and his mother was a published poet. David went on to become the Executive Editor of a newspaper, which he worked his way up to after beginning as its proofreader.
David grew up immersed in constitutional law because that area of law was his father's first love as an attorney and he loved to talk about this at the dinner table. Since David was a teenager in the 1960s, this resulted in many heated discussions!
A native New Yorker who lived there until he was 21, David has lived in San Diego since 1975.
Despite his wide variety of professional roles and nonprofit involvement, he most loves spending plenty of time with his bestselling-acupucturist-artist wife Laurie Morse and their two cats. The live in San Diego, California.
About David Professionally
Dr. Gruder serves leaders, executives, entrepreneurs, work teams, helping professionals, and advanced self-developers in the private, nonprofit and public sectors, he has given multiple hundreds of media interviews (including multiple times in Forbes, Inc, Entrepreneur, & Nonprofit Performance, in addition to radio and TV), provided keynotes, training, mentoring & consulting in 7 countries on 3 continents, and over the internet. From serving on boards of directors and as Special Counsel, to being a TEDx Speaker, to training a group of World Trade Organization Ambassadors. His big gift is the ability to translate intentions and values into step-by-step implementation procedures that enable individuals, enterprises and causes to walk their talk.
Trained in Master Planning (50-100 year high-level strategic plans) a decade before he completed his doctorate in psychology, Dr. Gruder has been a master curriculum designer and trainer for many decades. He earned his PhD in clinical & organizational development psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology in 1982. He is licensed in California as a psychologist (PSY9266) and is a retired marriage & family therapist (MFT18889).
Dr. Gruder was the first recipient of a leadership award that was named in his honor, and has also received an award for his work in creating collaborative cultures in organizations. He has authored, co-authored, been Psychology Editor for, written chapters for, and been featured in 26 books. The books he has authored have won 8 awards in “Politics & Society,” “Culture Change,” “Business & Leadership,” “Health & Wellness,” “Mental Health,” “Psychology,” and “Self-Help” (2 times). Named “America’s Integrity Expert” by Radio & TV Reports, his media presence has included being featured in Forbes 17 times, in Inc 2 times, publishing numerous articles including in Nonprofit Performance Magazine 3 times, and formerly co-hosted the Integrity Talk Radio show. As a young man, he was also the executive editor of his college newspaper.
Since the 1970s, Dr. Gruder has held administrative, leadership and training roles in virtually every sector of the human potential movement. As a result, in addition to being an acclaimed thought leader in the area of integrity, his expertise includes Ethical Power Effectiveness, Strategic Integrated Self-Development, Leader Effectiveness, High Performance Team Collaboration, Holding People Accountable Without Being a Tyrant, the Psychology of Effective Messaging & Marketing, Entrepreneur Success Psychology (including Sequencing Effectiveness), the Psychology of Successful Rainmaking With Funders, Visibility Creators & Customers, and Skills for Repairing Our Hyper-Polarized Perpetual Stress Society.
Whether your audience is executives, entrepreneurs, thought leaders/influencers, helping professionals, or advanced self-developers, Dr. Gruder has an array of A-List keynotes and training programs that will delight them. He can adapt any of his many existing presentations & programs to your specific audience, or rapidly develop a custom program exclusively for your needs.
David's main website is www.DrGruder.com.
Current Positions Dr. Gruder Holds
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Founder & President, Integrity Culture Systems™, including the Gruder Academy for Actualizing Human Potential & the SuperChange Catalysts ™ Program
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Founding Partner, NimbilityWorks™
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Co-Founder & Chief Integrity Officer, NuGen Development & the Lydian Foundation
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Business Lifespan & Exit Plan Psychologist, Blue Sky Business Resources
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Legacy Faculty, CEO Space International
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Founder, Integritize America Project, including the Capitol Hill Integrity Restoration Project, in collaboration with the SynerVision Leadership Foundation
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Co-Host, The One Thing Podcast With David & Laurie
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Co-Developer & Trainer, ManKind Project (MKP) Shadow Watcher Training Program (he is also a certified Ritual Elder with MKP)
