Mary Price Dunn
Creator of The Legacy Workshop
As a distinguished leader in the nonprofit sector, Mary has pioneered programs to engage people – just as they are – in courageous and hopeful change. While serving as CEO of a charitable foundation, she developed a groundbreaking, grassroots initiative to help people build stronger, healthier communities in the rural towns and villages of New Mexico. It continues changing lives today.
Later, as a consultant helping nonprofits build organizational and resource capacity, Mary recognized that “legacy” holds a much deeper meaning for most people than the property we leave behind at the end of life. She shares this wisdom:
“As human beings, we long to be seen and understood for all that we are and what we are becoming. We want to know that the value we are creating in our lives will be meaningful to others – that it will be a gift, our true legacy to future generations.”
In the Legacy Workshop, Mary leads transformational conversations that bridge the spiritual dimensions of life with the practical. She provides insightful and gentle guidance for people to explore the landscape of their lives and discover the qualities that make their life a true gift for others. And, she encourages conversations with loved ones so that their legacy becomes just what they want it to be.
Mary presents the Legacy Workshop to small groups in corporate, nonprofit and healthcare settings, as well as online. She also licenses and trains facilitators to present the Legacy Workshop in their own organizations.
Mary’s Personal Story
At the age of 68, my father discovered he had an aggressive cancer that had metastasized to his bones. The prognosis was poor. Feeling deeply vulnerable on a journey he had no way to map, he found care and consolation in a cancer support group. There, he was encouraged to think about what was most important to him, how he wanted to spend the time he had left, and the kind of care he wanted at the end of life. They stressed the importance of having an up-to-date will or trust, as well as healthcare directives stating his wishes about end of life care and appointing someone to make decisions if he could no longer do so.
The cancer patients also were invited to complete a questionnaire about their values and beliefs, describing what had mattered most in their lives and how they wanted to be remembered. My father was inspired to begin writing about aspects of his life he had never communicated to anyone. But that was not enough. Having a conversation with family about his values and wishes became supremely important. He needed to find the courage to express what was in his heart, and talk about what life had meant to him and the memories he wanted to leave with us.
As a man who rarely spoke about feelings or painful experiences, this was my father’s Everest. He called the family together from far and wide, and as we sat together around the living room table, my father shared what he had written about his personal legacy. He asked first and foremost that we remember him for all that he tried to be and to give to his family, and forgive him for all the things he failed to say or do.
Of all my memories with my father, his words that day are what I remember most about him. His conversation with us about his personal legacy was the greatest gift he could have given. A gift I have held close to my heart ever since.
This is why I created the Legacy Workshop, so beautifully inspired by my father’s story. The Legacy Workshop gives everyone the opportunity to find meaning and clarity in their life, and to create a legacy that bestows to others all the blessings of their life – both spiritual and material. It is a wonderful opportunity for self-discovery, healing and renewal.
If you are an individual looking for guidance and inspiration on your life and legacy, join us!
If your organization supports people facing some of life’s more difficult passages, contact us about how the Legacy Workshop can be your resource for healing and renewal.
Because legacy matters.
