About the
Center for Global Awareness

The Story of the Center for Global Awareness
by Dr. Denise R. Ames

The Center for Global Awareness (CGA) officially began in June 2003, when my daughter, Mia, designed a simple website that flashed onto the Internet for the first time. I founded CGA after feeling inspired to broaden my research and teaching on holistic world history, the global economy, and global education. In 2002, I taught numerous workshops on the global economy for lifelong learners, and the positive response encouraged me to continue. While teaching at Central New Mexico College, I expanded these workshops and developed additional programs on global topics for the general public.

After several years of teaching in the Albuquerque, New Mexico, area and enjoying many wonderful experiences, I decided to broaden my teaching and research focus. At that point, CGA evolved in a new direction. Beginning in 2005, I conducted numerous workshops and classes across the country for educators on holistic world history, the global economy, and global education. A particular highlight was leading a week-long globalization workshop for educators in Singapore in 2006.

As luck would have it, I reconnected with a friend I had first met in a globalization study group in 2003: Nancy Harmon. We crossed paths again while serving on the board of a local non-profit in 2007. By the end of 2009, Nancy was concluding her long and varied teaching career and was looking for a project that would keep her connected to the educational community. One cold December evening, we met for dinner at a local Thai restaurant in Albuquerque and talked nonstop about forming a partnership to write, publish, and disseminate holistic, globally focused books and educational materials. With Nancy’s background in English, my background in social studies, and our shared passion for global issues, it was a perfect match.

Nancy and I wrote a detailed business plan and concluded that forming a non-profit organization would be the best strategy. We immediately dove into the long and complicated IRS application process for obtaining 501(c)(3) status. As with most things, it took much longer than expected. By May 2010, we finally mailed off the hefty application, anticipating a favorable response within a few months.

Now that we were officially a non-profit, we could finally move forward with our ambitious plans for CGA. We launched a new website and established our social media presence. We then spent another full year working diligently to get everything in place. As the somewhat frustrating year of 2012 came to a close, we looked to 2013 with renewed optimism.

June 2013 marked the 10th anniversary of the CGA, and it seemed like we were finally making progress. We had finished five books that were available for sale through our website, we had a blog site and posted regularly on it and on social media, and we had sent out monthly newsletters. In the meantime, I had been asked to travel to several countries over the years—Iran, Turkey, China, and Germany (twice)—to develop educational resources about those countries. I thoroughly enjoyed the experiences.

In 2015, I participated in an educational tour of Bahrain, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, sponsored by the Bilateral U.S.-Arab Chamber of Commerce. I used this opportunity to write a lesson plan and blog posts about the region. The trip aligned perfectly with the publication of my sixth book in 2016, Human Rights: A Universal Values System?

After much reflection, we decided to launch a new program at CGA called GATHER: Global Awareness Through Engaged Reflection. GATHER is a conversation-based study program that connects small groups of concerned adults. Each group meets to enhance their global awareness by studying and discussing pressing global and cultural issues. Using a unique four-dimensional approach called SEEK—See, Evolve, Engage, and Know—participants see different perspectives, evolve attitudes and skills to interact with those who are different from them, engage with others to promote positive systemic change, and become more knowledgeable of critical global and cultural concerns.

Alongside other projects, we spent much of 2016 and 2017 preparing and planning for GATHER. During this time, I also completed my seventh book, Five Worldviews: The Ways We See the World, which was published in 2017.

The Center for Global Awareness has undergone several changes since the COVID-19 disruption in 2020. I shifted much of my focus to marketing and writing about Five Worldviews, the book I first completed in 2018, releasing a timely second edition in 2021. It continues to sell well among educators. I have also chosen to apply many of the global awareness principles that I developed for educators and students for travelers. Nancy has chosen to enjoy her retirement and focus on her passion for helping refugees. We still see each other regularly and share the highs and lows of our CGA journey.

Many teachers and others requested additional materials from the workshops I presented, particularly on my holistic approach to world history. I had been developing this approach since my graduate work and my years teaching at Illinois State University in the 1990s. In 2008, I decided it was time to take on the challenge of writing Waves of Global Change: A Holistic World History. With sadness, I taught my final semester at Central New Mexico College that same year and then began writing full time.

Writing proved more challenging than I expected. The book went through several rewrites and extensive editing by others, and at times it felt as though I might never finish. During that period, I began thinking about starting an educational non-profit that would offer holistic, globally focused books and resources for educators and students from grade 9 through university. It seemed like an overwhelming task for one person. Little did I know, however, that CGA was about to take another new direction.

While we waited, we decided it would be wise to continue writing and developing resources so that, when we officially launched our new non-profit, we would already have materials available. Nancy worked on her book, International Folktales for the ESL Classroom, and edited several of my manuscripts. I completed my holistic world history book as well as an educator’s handbook for teaching it. I then plunged into researching and writing two new books—one on the global economy and the other on the financial sector.

One day in September 2010, I opened the mailbox to find a letter from the IRS. I assumed it would say, “Congratulations, you are now a member of the non-profit community.” But that wasn’t the case. Instead, we were asked to submit additional information—and then, a few months later, even more. As the months dragged on, we began to think our application was doomed.

Then, on a crisp, clear fall day in October 2011, I opened another letter from the IRS—this time, our acceptance. I was stunned. Nancy couldn’t believe it. After all the delays and uncertainty, we were officially a non-profit.

Now that we were officially a non-profit, we could finally move forward with our ambitious plans for CGA. We launched a new website and established our social media presence. We then spent another full year working diligently to get everything in place. As the somewhat frustrating year of 2012 came to a close, we looked to 2013 with renewed optimism.

June 2013 marked the 10th anniversary of the CGA, and it seemed like we were finally making progress. We had finished five books that were available for sale through our website, we had a blog site and posted regularly on it and on social media, and we had sent out monthly newsletters. In the meantime, I had been asked to travel to several countries over the years—Iran, Turkey, China, and Germany (twice)—to develop educational resources about those countries. I thoroughly enjoyed the experiences.

Significant changes came to CGA in 2018. It had been a decade since Nancy and I had taught in the classroom, and global education was losing favor with some educators, while a social justice approach was gaining traction. We decided it was time to step back from our roles as global educators and pursue new interests.

I enjoyed teaching, so I reasoned that transitioning from educators to lifelong learners was a natural next step. I thought it would be rewarding to teach Five Worldviews and other content through adult education programs in Albuquerque. I enthusiastically submitted proposals and refined my courses. I revisited some of my tried-and-true topics—holistic world history, the global economy, Five Worldviews, human rights, and cross-cultural awareness—while also introducing new ones, such as Indigenous Wisdom and a Transformative Worldview. The classes were well received, and I genuinely enjoyed the experience.

From 2018 until COVID-19 struck in March 2020, I continued teaching lifelong learning classes at various venues in Albuquerque. In early 2020, I published my eighth book, Divided: Five Colliding Worldviews and How to Navigate Them. Then COVID-19 arrived, and like many others, it turned my life upside down. My adult education classes were cancelled, leaving me in a state of uncertainty.