Some history. I was born in England in 1951. I survived life at a British public school and then Oxford University. In 1977 Celia and I married and moved to the U.S. after I completed my PhD in experimental high energy particle physics. After a year living in Boston, where I was on the faculty at Tufts, we moved to Vermont.
During the next five years I became a co-owner of Solar Alternative, a Brattleboro solar energy company that manufactured and sold solar hot water systems around New England, while Celia went back to school and became an occupational therapist. In 1983 I split up with my business partner and started teaching computer science at Marlboro College. About the same time, I started doing independent IT consulting. Celia, meanwhile, had started to work as a pediatric occupational therapist in the public schools. We bought some land and built a house.
In 1992 I created and started to run what are now called peer conferences. The next year it became too crazy to both teach and consult, and I reluctantly resigned my teaching position to become a full-time consultant. Celia has now retired from occupational therapy, and is a Guardian Ad Litem, working with families and children in the Vermont Courts.
I retired from IT consulting in 2004 and began writing a book about peer conferences Conferences That Work: Creating Events That People Love which was published in 2009. I am the founder and/or treasurer and/or board member of several educational and local non-profit organizations, and love to sing and dance.
Adrian J. Segar
Revised: January 5, 2010