About Us

Call of Compassion NW is part of a worldwide emergence of the Compassionate Communities Movement. We are fueled by the fundamental compassion teachings found in all of the major world religions and spiritual practices. The original inspiration for our work includes the Dalai Lama’s visit to Seattle for “Seeds of Compassion” in 2008 and the Charter for Compassion, for which the eminent religious scholar and writer Karen Armstrong won the 2008 TED Prize.

In 2010, Seattle’s mayor and city council affirmed The Charter, becoming the first partner to the Ten Year Plan for Compassionate Cities. Call of Compassion NW is continuing the essential work of creating ever more compassionate communities in the Pacific NW. We do this by engaging an inclusive network of people who are committed to social and environmental justice, by cultivating alignment among radically diverse stakeholders, and by spreading solutions that elevate compassionate living conditions.

Meet the Board

Mark R. Jones, Ph.D. / President
CEO, The Sunyata Group Leadership Innovation of Sunyata (LIOS)

Mark Jones is an educator, researcher, and senior executive leader with over 35 years of entrepreneurial and entrepreneurial experience. He has led the Sunyata Group for-profit and non-profit entities since 2004, hosting and participating in “collaboratory educational, operational, and research projects to address extinction-level issues and high-leverage/impact problems such as social and environmental collapse and spiritual crisis (https://www.sunyatagroup.ws/tiki-index.php).

His focus is the development of enlightened communities (Bodhisangha) as resilient high-performance communities (Beloved Communities) to heal and sustain all aspects of the world (tikkun olam). . Jones has over 28 years of leadership experience in corporate, non-profit, elected, and appointed positions, including over 5 years at the executive level. He is responsible for over a billion dollars in cost savings, cost avoidance, and revenue generation for both his clients and employers. Moreover, Jones is a major advocate of international higher education institutions and corporate training programs.

Silvana Hale / Treasurer

Silvana Hale has a broad range of experiences, skills, and interests.  Born in Eritrea under bombardment, she was raised in Italy, emigrated to Venezuela, earned her CPA in Italy, worked as a Chief Accountant, married her husband John, a Peace Corps Volunteer, and came to the US where she completed her education with an MA in Sociology.  She then taught in a migrant ghetto school in SE Texas and later started a small business and became an entrepreneur.
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Silvana credits her passion for interfaith to 9/11 and her good friend Soraya from Saudi Arabia.  She knew her life in this country would never be the same, but she wanted to help.  She and John began to learn more about Islam and that began a decades long quest to engage, learn, understand, and share life experiences with people from other religions and spiritual traditions.  They were co-founders of a non-profit interfaith organization that has now merged to become Northwest Interfaith.  As Treasurer she enjoys the opportunity to share her accounting skills in an endeavor that reflects her life values.

Mark Hower, Ph.D. / Secretary
Chair, Antioch University MS Management and Leadership Program

Mark Hower has been a founding core faculty member in the Center for Creative Change at Antioch University Seattle for 15 years.  Over that time, he also held numerous administrative and leadership positions at Antioch, including director of the MS Management and later the BA Liberal Arts programs, and interim president of the institution.  Mark’s scholarship and teaching emphasizes collaboration, global pluralism, transformative leadership, community building, and experiential learning.  These interests are informed by Mark’s many years of association with the Peace Corps. 

Mark’s parents were Peace Corps staff in Brazil and Guyana, and his earliest memories come from that time.  After completing his undergraduate degree, Mark served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Sierra Leone, West Africa in a rural water supply program.  Mark later held several Peace Corps staff positions including: Country Desk Officer (stateside logistics coordinator) positions for start-up programs in the Baltics, Ukraine and Russia, and Country Director in the Kingdom of Tonga, South Pacific.

John Hale / CEO & Executive Director

John Hale is CEO/Executive Director of Call of Compassion NW and President of Northwest Interfaith Community Outreach.  He is applying his education and more than 20 years of extensive executive management experience to achieve clear and actionable goals through compassionate action in these non-profit organizations.

John is a mission-based strategist skilled at identifying and creating new, value-enhancement possibilities. He manages with a collaborative style and his lifelong dedication to spiritual action both guides and drives how he walks in the world.