The Story of Collins Educational Foundation,
(formally the Collins Family Foundation)
and the Collins Foundation Press

The launch of the Collins Educational Foundation (CEF), known in its earlier years as the Collins Family Foundation (CFF), is the latest chapter in a story of friendship, commitment, sharing of talents, and a collaborative effort to make a positive contribution to the future of our species and our planet. Dwight Collins founded the Collins Educational Foundation , a non-profit whose mission is to provide leadership in humanity’s efforts to live sustainably on planet Earth. He is retired from a business career in Operations Management and now a founding instructor and Chair, MBA Program at the Presidio Graduate School in San Francisco..

Dwight met Russ Genet in the Air Force over 30 years ago and they have been best of friends through many life adventures. Russ Genet (A Research Scholar in Residence at California State Polytechnic University and Adjunct Professor of Astronomy at Cuesta College—both in San Luis Obispo, California) and Cheryl Genet (Adjunct Professor of Philosophy, also at Cuesta College) were childhood friends who went separate ways and did not see each other again for nearly four decades. They reunited, fell in love, married, and started a new life together. Cheryl met Dwight, of course, through Russ and all three bonded in their mutual vision for the future.

The CEF has been the primary supporter of the Humanity Series Conferences that were launched in 2007. These Humanity conferences, inspired by Russ book Humanity: The Chimpanzees Who Would Be Ants (a science story of how we came to be and what our future might be), were co-convened and chaired by Russ and Cheryl. The final conference in the series Science, Wisdom, and the Future, generated the idea and momentum for the Flourishing Earth Project, the latest project of the CEF. The conferences are unique in that they are broadly interdisciplinary in their approach to dialogue between science, the humanities, and cultural research and wisdom.

The Collins Foundation Press grew out of the Dwight’s support for publication of Humanity and the publication of the subsequent CFP conference books and developed as a natural extension of the CEF. As Cheryl stepped into the management role, learned the publication process, developed the website, and worked with Dwight and Dannielle Tassell to develop the operations center, the Press took formal shape. The mission of the CFP is to publish top-quality books that engage readers in broad interdisciplinary discussions of humanity's scientific, political, social, philosophical, theological, and artistic endeavors towards creating a flourishing and sustainable future.

Russ remains in an advisory capacity to the Collins Educational Foundation but has recently reinvigorated his participation in ground-breaking developments in Astronomy. His Alt-Az Initiative is inspiring the R & D of a new generation of lightweight, alt-az research telescopes. Russ is documenting these developments in an astronomy book series published by the CFP. The CEF will be working with him on educational astronomy projects.

Science is always the foundation for Dwight, Cheryl, and Russ’ work, but they recognize that humans have varied responses to, and uses of, the knowledge that scientific research brings to the human experience. The vision for the emerging Collins Educational Foundation is to continue the interdisciplinary, multi-perspective project legacy of the CFF, further developing new dimensions through social media, expanded conference topics, and a series of books and other publications and projects that contribute to the vision and implementation of a sustainable future and a flourishing Earth.