"My purpose is to imagine, design and create the conditions for natural human connection. I am here to infuse a sense of belonging together, at home in one human family, through fun, joy, and compassion."

— MARY ALICE PROFFITT

Superconnector & Relationship Builder

Born and raised in a large family in Atlanta, Georgia, Mary Alice Proffitt has spent her life engaged in the work of connecting people of difference and bringing them together. She is most comfortable in what she calls “the radical center” and has spent decades of academic study and practical work in the fields of mediation, conflict resolution, dialogue facilitation, political consulting and civic engagement.

She is trained and licensed as a professional mediator through her studies at Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont. She interned with her mentor, esteemed New England mediator Neal Rodar of State and Main Mediation in Montpelier and Burlington, VT. She is additionally trained and licensed as a Real Dialogue facilitator by academic, author and Jungian psychoanalyst Polly Young-Eisendrath of The Center for Real Dialogue in Stowe, Vermont.

Expert in Modern Etiquette

Mary Alice’s life’s passion, both professionally and personally, is to create the conditions for people to better understand each other and to enjoy being together in community. Mary Alice is comfortable at the intersection of all the things you’re not supposed to talk about at Thanksgiving dinner: politics, religion and the related conflicts of this age of chaos, polarization and social upheaval.  

Mary Alice is licensed by and works in partnership with The Emily Post Institute – the gold standard in etiquette training. Her modern etiquette business, Civil Society, is a leading platform for teaching, training and inspiring a new cultural conversation about how we can re-learn the practical science of good human behaviors. In this tableaux of post-COVID life, the rapid onset of Artificial Intelligence, and the ever-increasing global flow of people and resources, Mary Alice helps us remember our individual responsibility for the collective good.

Open-Hearted Academic

Mary Alice earned her B.A. in English Language & Literature from The University of Virginia where she studied Southern literature and the intersection of race and religion in American history and culture. At Harvard she graduated with an M.A. in Religion & Public Life where she studied and wrote her thesis independently under the mentorship of Buddhist Studies Professor Charles Hallisey.  The book she wrote at Harvard (in process of publication) explores our culture’s current journey away from organized religion in this self-described “spiritual but not religious” moment.

Mary Alice’s research, study and writing emphasizes the critical importance of analog time together and “the simplicity of human connection.” Her academic work explores the root causes of our mass cultural estrangement from family and community; how isolation and loneliness can be caused by the loss of these key social supports; and how we can navigate reconciliation in an increasingly migratory moment in human history. Mary Alice teaches us how to reclaim our personal agency, how to re-learn time tested principles of good etiquette, how to listen deeply and how to embrace our imperfections.

Creative Entrepreneur

Mary Alice is, at heart, a people person and a creative entrepreneur. Her professional experiences have allowed her to travel through diverse worlds: mentoring international graduate students at Yale University’s School of the Environment, teaching middle school students in urban public schools, and grassroots organizing in the intimate rural spaces of small town America. She founded, owned and operated Down Home Kitchen – a destination Southern food restaurant in the capitol city of Montpelier, Vermont that brought together people from all perspectives and persuasions to enjoy soul food in a most unlikely destination. Through her careful curating and design, she created spaces for hundreds of events where people could gather and grapple with the most pressing public issues of the day. In each case, Mary Alice has been both learner and teacher; bringing her humility, positivity, and curiosity to the community she has served. 

With the launch of Civil Society, her new business and brand, Mary Alice is taking on what she believes to be the most pressing need of our day: teaching and practicing civility in current culture.

Education