GLADi’s strategy stands on four interlocking pillars:

1. Awareness That Resonates

GLADi’s campaigns don’t just spread the word—they build a shared identity. Whether it’s through campus-wide listening tours, the iconic Generous Listening Booth outside Barnum Hall, or pop-up encounters across Tufts, our work makes generosity visible and contagious. We’re cultivating a Tufts culture where presence matters, attention is shared, and every student and staff member sees themselves as part of something larger.

2. Workshops & Events That Equip

Each semester, we host high-impact workshops on generous listening, dialogue skills, and restorative practices—developed with and for the Tufts community. These aren’t lectures. They’re interactive, embodied experiences that invite participants to listen more deeply to themselves, to one another, and to the world around them. Through speaker series and structured dialogues, we create public spaces to practice connection across disagreement.

3. Grassroots Leadership That Lasts

Top-down efforts only go so far. GLADi actively supports student- and faculty-led efforts to apply generous listening in real contexts—whether through book clubs, peer groups, classroom culture shifts, or community initiatives. We identify and mentor emerging leaders who carry the practice into their networks, with the support and resources they need to make it stick.

4. Research That Proves and Improves

GLADi is building the science behind the skill. Drawing on developmental science, our research goes beyond evaluation—it builds theory. We measure change at both the individual and community level, track long-term outcomes, and work with practitioners to refine and scale what works. This isn’t just about knowing that generous listening matters—it’s about knowing how it works, why it works, and what it takes to embed it into culture.

We live in a time of deepening disconnection. Polarization, loneliness, and rapid change threaten our ability to live and lead together. The solution doesn’t lie in better arguments—it lies in better listening. Generous listening is how we build trust before the crisis, navigate difference without collapse, and stay human in hard conversations.

Through GLADi, we’re setting a new standard: for education, for leadership, for community. Tufts is becoming the first “generous listening campus.” But the impact doesn’t stop at the campus gate.

With every student reached, every facilitator trained, every grassroots leader supported, we’re building momentum—for a future where listening is not a luxury, but a norm.