For leaders, institutions, and communities navigating the aftermath of harm, fracture, or silence—this is a space to name what’s been hidden, reframe what matters, and build a narrative of a preferred future.
Renewed Language.
Restored Alignment.
Reclaimed Dignity.
The Work of Transforming Historical Harms and Imagining the Shared Future
Transforming Conflict Into Collective Vision
What does staying Stuck in the Past Cost You?
You know the current story isn’t working. The legacy you’ve inherited is complicated. The harm didn’t start with you, but it’s asking something of you now.
When organizations, institutions, communities, and leaders feel stuck, it’s rarely because they lack ideas. It’s often because the usual tools…strategy sessions, leadership coaching, even well-intentioned dialogue haven’t gone deep enough. They’re carrying histories they haven’t yet named. It’s about the stories beneath the surface; unspoken, unfinished, unresolved. The stories of harm that are always retold—the ones people won’t let go of.
My work meets you there. Together, we’ll uncover what’s been hidden, honor what still holds, and shape a narrative that reflects who you’re becoming, not just who you’ve been. This is the work of re-storying the aftermath with dignity, clarity, and imagination—the work of building a narrative of a preferred future.
Let’s begin the work that makes transformation possible.
I’m David. I Help You Make Sense of the Past…
So You Can Lead Into What’s Next.
We’ll look honestly at what’s been inherited—what still holds, what’s been avoided, and what needs to be honored, so you can move forward without leaving the most important parts behind.
We’ll look honestly at what’s been inherited—what still holds, what’s been avoided, and what needs to be honored, so you can move forward without leaving the most important parts behind.
Legacy Reckoning
What You’ll Gain from This Work
Conflict That Opens Not Closes
We won’t just manage the tension, we’ll use it. Together, we’ll build a container that allows for truth-telling, discomfort, and the kind of honesty that leads somewhere new.
A Narrative of a Shared Future
This isn’t about agreement. It’s about alignment. We’ll shape a story that invites everyone to see themselves in what’s next, rooted in memory, but led by what’s newly possible.
We start by getting still enough to hear what’s beneath the noise. We take in what’s been said, what hasn’t, and what’s been trying to surface.
Many coaches tell their athletes "you play the way you practice". I believe that. So our work will always begin by deep listening to leadership, to management, and to those whose voices and perspectives often go unheard or unconsidered. Based on what we hear through deep listening we discern all that is problematic and we listen for emerging possibilities. A process is designed that is unique to the institution and its context not simply something that is box-ready and cookie cutter. Finally, we implement a process that allows for collective participation in the crafting of a preferred narrative of a shared future. The steps are similar but the process is tailored to each individual context.
how we work together
1. We Listen.
3. We Design.
Together, we’ll name what’s actually happening—not just the symptoms, but the deeper stories, tensions, and truths shaping your current reality.
2. We Discern.
From what we’ve surfaced, we’ll co-create a process, a container for inquiry, discovery, and imagination. One that fits your context and invites participation.
This is where the work unfolds. Through conversation, experimentation, and shared reflection, we’ll begin living into a narrative of a preferred future.
4. We Build.
The work is real and rooted. We build processes you can carry forward without having to bring me back every time. Part of what I do is help you grow your own capacity, so this work lives on inside your team, not just with me and my team or any other outside consultant.
This feels too abstract. We’re looking for something actionable.
You tried resolution. I offer transformation. This isn’t about calming things down—it’s about surfacing what the conflict is trying to reveal, and creating a path forward that actually shifts the pattern.
We’ve already tried mediation. How is this different?
No. This isn’t training. It’s not a toolkit or a checklist. It’s a process that helps you name what’s been avoided, understand what’s been holding things in place, and begin working in ways that feel honest, human, and truly connected.
Is this just another DEI program?
Frequently Asked Questions
We don’t have the right language yet. Can we still begin?
Yes, and that’s the point. You don’t need the perfect words to start. My team and I will bring language, frameworks, and tools that help you name what matters, even if it’s still forming.
What if not everyone is ready to engage?
We start with who’s here. The invitation stays open. When people see something working, something real, and not forced, they often find their own way in. No one’s pushed. Everyone’s welcomed when they’re ready.
ARE WE JUST CHANGING THE WORDS AND LIVING WITH THE SAME PROBLEM?
That’s a fair—and frequent—question. No, we’re not settling for new words on old wounds. The Customer Saga process is designed to surface what’s unresolved, not rebrand it. We’re not here to improve the optics. We’re here to excavate meaning, realign intention, and reorient the story. Language is just one part of the work. The deeper invitation is to become new narrators of our shared future.
This Work
Doesn’t Fit
in a Box.
Neither Does the INVESTMENT.
Every engagement begins with a conversation because no two stories, no two institutions, and no two moments are ever the same.
Presence, process, and a path forward, carefully designed around your context, your capacity, and what’s truly at stake is what an investment covers. Whether it’s a one-day convening or a multi-year reckoning, the work is crafted to meet the depth of your need.
Multi-day retreats, multi-stakeholder facilitation, and long-term partnerships are scoped and priced based on scale, readiness, and desired outcomes.
Travel, design time, and preparation are built into all proposals. Limited sliding scale considerations may be available for grassroots or legacy repair efforts with demonstrated need.
If you’re ready for the kind of work that can’t be downloaded, delegated, or rushed—let’s begin.
For more than four decades, David has stood at the intersection of law, theology, public health, mental health, philanthropy, and mediation. Few practitioners in the world bring this breadth of formation to the sacred task of narrative transformation.
His covenant is not to “fix problems” but to unearth the narratives buried beneath them — the inherited harms, the silences, the fractures in trust. He then helps institutions and communities reclaim what still matters, release what no longer serves, and co-create the narrative of a preferred future.
David’s presence is as distinctive as his process: deeply invitational, radically dignifying, and always rooted in discernment and imagination.
Dr. David Anderson Hooker is not simply a facilitator.
He is a steward of transformation.
Restoring the conditions for truth-telling.
Excavating harm. Reclaiming story. Reimagining futures.
This is not consulting.
This is covenant.
A Career Shaped Like a Tapestry
David’s professional journey cannot be reduced to titles alone — it is a weaving of disciplines, geographies, and commitments that converge on one theme: repairing the conditions for truth-telling.
CounterStories Consulting
Founder and Principal Narrator. Guiding leaders and institutions through narrative excavation and re-storying — where stories buried in silence are brought into the light.
Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame
Associate Professor. Forming a generation of peacebuilders by placing narrative practice at the very core of peacemaking.
Chicago Torture Justice Center
Board Co-Chair and Founding Member. Co-creating a haven for survivors and a global model for communal healing.
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Mission Agency
Lead Facilitator of a national transformation. Shepherding a denomination through reckoning, repair, and reimagination.
The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Co-creator of a five-year denominational initiative to confront legacies and cultivate new futures.
Annie E. Casey Foundation
Vice President, Atlanta Civic Site. Embedding equity and narrative clarity into philanthropic vision and practice.
Community Economic Development Academy
Founder. Training community leaders to move from economic survival to systemic influence.
Fanning Institute, University of Georgia
Senior Fellow. Designing readiness-based leadership models to weave networks of transformation.
U.S. Nuclear Waste National Dialogue
Co-Lead Designer. Convening stakeholders around one of the nation’s most complex policy challenges, transforming fear into collaboration.
Coming to the Table / STAR Training, Eastern Mennonite University
Director of Research & Training. Advancing racial healing and trauma-informed transformation practices.
State of Georgia
Assistant Attorney General. Bringing integrity and equity into the legal system.
National Institute for Dispute Resolution
Senior Program Officer. Shaping the national field of mediation and seeding what would later become the discipline of conflict transformation.
Formations of a Narrative Artisan
David’s academic journey is not a sequence of degrees — it is a layering of disciplines, each one deepening his ability to hold complexity and call forth transformation.
Law. Trained in jurisprudence, he learned to read the invisible codes that shape power, policy, and justice.
Public Health. Grounded in the ways bodies, systems, and communities carry trauma across generations.
Public Administration. Formed to see institutions not as monoliths but as living organisms capable of change.
Theology. Rooted in the sacred imagination required to speak of covenant, dignity, and futures yet unseen.
Psychology. Attuned to the inner landscapes of individuals and communities navigating aftermath.
Ph.D. in Narrative Practices, Tilburg University (Netherlands). The culmination of a lifetime’s inquiry: how story can become the primary site of repair, discernment, and possibility.
This breadth of study reflects David’s conviction: no single discipline can hold the fullness of human experience — and transformation requires law, health, spirit, and story woven together.
In Covenant with David
To work with David Anderson Hooker is to enter into covenant — a sacred invitation that carries weight, dignity, and possibility. Institutions that step into this work can expect:
The Courage to Confront Inherited Harms.
Not with defensiveness or denial, but with clarity and reverence. Naming the wounds embedded in systems and cultures.
The Grace to Reclaim What Still Matters.
Honoring sacred fragments worth carrying forward — even amidst loss, rupture, and change.
The Imagination to Co-Create a Preferred Future.
Moving beyond harm-centered memory into hope-centered design.
The Experience of Being Held in Dignity.
Every process is as deeply human as it is organizational, carried with care and reverence.
Signature Distinctions
Every master leaves behind a collection of signatures — indelible marks that distinguish their craft. For David, these are not titles, but ways of being:
Narrative Architect.
Reading the invisible structures shaping institutions and reframes them for possibility.
Practitioner–Scholar.
Embodying the rare fusion of rigorous academic inquiry and field-tested practice.
Global Presence.
From nuclear policy to grassroots healing, from philanthropic boards to faith-rooted communities — his work carries both scale and intimacy.
Covenantal Commitment.
More than facilitation. More than consulting. This is sacred work, held with reverence.
A Word From His Work
"David Anderson Hooker does not repair stories. He restores the conditions for communities to tell them truthfully — and to live into a different future."
This is not about strategy.
This is about story.
It is about meeting the moment with the clarity, humility, and vision it demands — and doing it together.
Let’s begin. Let’s build.
A Word From His Work
"David Anderson Hooker does not repair stories. He restores the conditions for communities to tell them truthfully — and to live into a different future."
This is not about strategy. This is about story.
It’s about meeting the moment with the clarity, humility, and vision it demands. And doing it together.
Lets begin. Let’s build.
Let’s Play.
About Dr. David Anderson Hooker
Then come closer. Learn how a city remembered itself through story. Where healing became the architecture of transformation.
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