Valerie Tarico

Valerie Tarico, Ph.D., is a former fundamentalist Christian and graduate of Wheaton College, a bastion of Evangelical education. She holds a doctorate in Counseling Psychology from the University of Iowa and completed postdoctoral studies at the University of Washington. Trusting that her own doubts were morally meaningful, Dr. Tarico committed to follow her spiritual questions wherever they might lead. Ultimately they led her away from Evangelicalism. She now speaks to churches and secular...See more

Valerie Tarico, Ph.D., is a former fundamentalist Christian and graduate of Wheaton College, a bastion of Evangelical education. She holds a doctorate in Counseling Psychology from the University of Iowa and completed postdoctoral studies at the University of Washington. Trusting that her own doubts were morally meaningful, Dr. Tarico committed to follow her spiritual questions wherever they might lead. Ultimately they led her away from Evangelicalism. She now speaks to churches and secular groups on topics such as moral development, the psychology of belief, and wisdom convergence. In 2008, in response to Seeds of Compassion, Dr. Tarico founded WisdomCommons.org, an interactive website that allows users to find and discuss information on universal ethics - values that are shared across secular and religious wisdom traditions. She writes regularly for The Huffington Post and ExChristian.net where she sustains a lucid critique of fundamentalist religion in light of recent scholarship in social sciences. Her articles can be found at www.ValerieTarico.com and followed at Twitter (ValerieTarico). See less