Anna Taft ’02 Shares Lessons From 20 Years of Intercultural Community Engagement

On Monday, Nov. 4, Whitman College will welcome back alum Anna Taft ’02, to discuss her new book, “Climbing Together: Relational Morality and Meaningful Action in Intercultural Community Engagement” (Brill, 2025). The event is open to the public, and will be held at 4 p.m. in Olin Room 129.

Taft graduated from Whitman with a Bachelor of Arts in Politics and went on to earn her Master of Arts in Liberal Studies from Skidmore College with a focus on Morality in a Pluralistic World. In 2004, she founded The Tandana Foundation, a nonprofit that supports community initiatives in Mali and Ecuador that work to create access to education, health, food security, water resources, environmental conservation and income generation.

In her upcoming book, Taft blends philosophical analysis with her deep understanding of intercultural work built through her years of experience working in community partnerships.

Nicole Simek, Director of the Center for Global Studies, encourages Whitman students to engage critically with Taft’s book to learn how to collaborate ethically with others in a global context.

“Taft’s book will be important to the campus community because it takes on a question at the heart of our college’s mission to help students lead ethical lives of purpose: How do we responsibly address the vast inequalities in power and resources that shape our interactions with others in our global world?” Simek says.

She encourages students of all majors to attend the event, especially those considering humanitarian or social justice work postgraduation.

“Beyond the subject matter itself, I’d also recommend attending the event to anyone curious to hear about how Anna, as a Whitman alum, connected her learning here to her postgraduate work and her approach to building community partnerships through the Tandana Foundation,” Simek says.

Autographed bookplates and a discount code for future book purchases will be available to the attendees, as well as a chance to win a free advance copy of Taft’s book.

In addition to her book discussion, Taft is currently on campus conducting a student workshop on “Andean Worldview and Global Interactions: Understanding and Strengthening Indigenous Culture in Otavalo, Ecuador,” as well as organizing a Día de los Difuntos event highlighting Indigenous Ecuadorian traditions.

This event is sponsored by the O’Donnell Endowment in Global Studies.