Center for Future Consciousness

Department Member, Future Studies

About

Tom Lombardo, Ph.D. is the founder and Executive Director of the Center for Future Consciousness in Scottsdale, Arizona and a leading researcher, writer, and speaker on the topic of the future. The author of The Evolution of Future Consciousness and Contemporary Futurist Thought, Dr. Lombardo brings a unique and powerful synthesis of contemporary science, psychology and philosophy to the field of future studies and futures education.

Dr. Lombardo is also the recently retired Faculty Chair of Psychology and Philosophy at Rio Salado College in Tempe, Arizona. He is a graduate of the University of Connecticut and the University of Minnesota and a graduate fellow of Cornell University. He has served as the Chief Psychologist and Educational Director at John Madden Mental Health Center, the Dean of Forest Institute of Professional Psychology, and the Chair of the Psychology Instructional Council at Maricopa Community Colleges. His first book, The Reciprocity of Perceiver and Environment, is the best selling volume in Lawrence Erlbaum’s Resources in Ecological Psychology and has been translated into Japanese.

Dr. Lombardo is an award-winning educator with over thirty years professional experience. He has supervised college faculty and faculty departments, and designed innumerable college courses, including complete undergraduate and graduate programs. His disciplinary background is very broad and highly integrative. Aside from psychology and philosophy, he has extensively studied intellectual history, evolutionary theory, cosmology, the philosophies of science and time, science fiction, and most recently futurist literature, ranging from the future of science and technology to the future of psychology, human society, culture, and religion. He has also worked in academic, clinical education, and mental health settings, and is well versed in theories and practices of human growth, personal development, and self-fulfillment.

Dr. Lombardo has been designing and teaching college courses and giving professional presentations on the future for the last fifteen years. He is a regular contributor to the World Future Society conventions. He has given presentations on “The Pursuit of Wisdom and the Future of Education” at the School for the Future in Den Bosch, The Netherlands; “Science Fiction as the Mythology of the Future” at the NASA Contact Conference and the World Future Society; “The Future of Science, Religion, and Spirituality” and “The Evolution and Future Direction of Marriage” (with Jeanne Lombardo) at the World Future Society; “The Second Enlightenment: Wisdom and Enhanced Future Consciousness” at the Second Enlightenment Conference, “Ethical Character Development and Personal and Academic Excellence” at Central Piedmont Community College; and, as the keynote address, “The Future of Psychology and the Psychology of the Future” at the New Mexico Psychological Association Convention. In the summer of 2008, he presented workshops in Rio de Janeiro and Belo Horizonte, Brazil on “Consciousness of the Future and the Future of Consciousness,” and gave presentations at the World Future Society on “The Future Evolution of Humanity, Consciousness, and the Human Mind” and “Utopian Visions and Values for the Future” (with Jeanne Lombardo). Most recently he has given presentations on “The Ethics of the Future” and “The Ontology of the Psychology of Creativity” at the World Future Society and “Wisdom, Enlightenment, and the Future” at the Wisdom, Science, and the Future Conference in San Luis Obispo, California. 

Dr. Lombardo’s publications include: “Evolving Future Consciousness through the Pursuit of Virtue,” “The Value of Future Consciousness,” “The Pursuit of Wisdom and the Future of Education”, “The Evolution and Future Direction of Marriage” (with Jeanne Lombardo), and “The Wisdom of Future Consciousness” published in the annual World Future Society Anthologies; “Thinking Ahead: The Value of Future Consciousness” published in The Futurist; “The Psychology and Evolution of Future Consciousness” published in The Journal of Future Studies; “Time, Future Consciousness, and Personal Responsibility” published in Personal Responsibility: The Power of You; “Understanding and Teaching Future Consciousness” published in On the Horizon; and “The Future Evolution of the Ecology of Mind” published in the World Future Review. He also published a series of articles on science fiction and futurist thinking, “Accelerating into the Future,” “The Future Worlds of Science Fiction: Simmons’ Hyperion Epic,” “Reflections of Human Civilization: Alternative Realities in Robert Sawyer’s Neanderthal Parallax” (with Jeanne Lombardo), and “Cosmic Visions of the Future: The Science Fiction of Stephen Baxter” in the World Future Society newsletter Learning Tomorrow as well as a series of articles on “Developing Constructive and Creative Attitudes and Behaviors about the Future” in the World Futures Study Federation publication Futures Bulletin.

Dr. Lombardo’s two most recent books on the future, The Evolution of Future Consciousness and Contemporary Futurist Thought, provide a detailed psychological study of the human capacity to think about the future and trace this capacity from prehistoric times through myth, religion, secular philosophy, evolutionary science, science fiction, and futures studies, concluding with a comprehensive review of contemporary theories and visions of the future. Future Survey describes the books as “awesome,” “heroic,” and an “ambitious synthesis”; Wendell Bell, Professor Emeritus of Yale University, uses the terms “brilliant”, “encyclopedic”, and “masterpiece”; Walter Truett Anderson, President of the World Academy of Art and Science, states that the books represent “a maturing of future studies, placing it solidly within the larger frameworks of human thought, and I would recommend it to anyone practicing or teaching in that field”, and Tim Mack, President of the World Future Society, refers to the books as “innovative, thoughtful, enlightening, and entertaining.” As he states, “Dr. Lombardo has accomplished what most of us can only dream about.  He has produced two innovative, thoughtful and weighty overviews of the study of the future, written from two dynamically different perspectives, at the same time.  And as an added bonus, the two books compliment each in highly original ways.”

Dr. Lombardo is a member of the World Future Society and the World Future Study Federation, an Affiliate of Communities for the Future and the Foundation for Conscious Evolution and an Educational Advisory Board Member for the Acceleration Studies Foundation. This last year he was also appointed to the Editorial Board of the Journal of Future Studies. Additionally, he is one of the key developers of the World Futures Study Federation Pedagogical Resources in Futures Studies. His website (www.centerforfutureconsciusness.com) contains a wealth of informational resources on the study of the future. In the spring of 2009, Dr. Lombardo was selected as the “Educator of the Quarter” by the international futurist magazine FUTUREtakes.

In his faculty position as chair of psychology and philosophy at Rio Salado College, Dr. Lombardo spearheaded and developed a comprehensive approach to teaching and assessing deep learning, critical thinking, educational ethics, and wisdom related capacities within all the courses in his departments. He also created a faculty self-evaluation and self-development plan, as well as a workshop that focuses on the growth of wisdom in teachers and educators. For Dr. Lombardo, the development and modeling of wisdom should be the central goal of education. Specifically regarding his ongoing interest in the virtue of wisdom, which he describes as the “highest expression of future consciousness,” he has contributed numerous papers to the premier wisdom website The Wisdom Page. While resident Futurist Faculty, Dr. Lombardo provided various workshops and presentations on futures related topics for Rio Salado staff and students, including “Globalization” and “The Exploration and Colonization of Outer Space.”

Tom Lombardo is married to Jeanne Belisle Lombardo, his intellectual partner and soul mate. Jeanne is also an educator and writer. They have five children between them, ranging in ages from 16 to 30. Together they continue to develop The Center for Future Consciousness, an educational institute dedicated to the enhancement of future consciousness and the evolution of humanity. When they are not in their study, Tom and Jeanne enjoy hiking in the desert, weightlifting, gardening, swimming, art, and music.

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