We understand who we are through story. The stories we have internalized and claimed, consciously or unconsciously, influence our daily decisions and our larger choices. The power of the right idea, the right poem, or the right song at the right moment is hard to overstate. They can put corners on our
life trajectories— a change to our understanding can send our lives in an entirely different direction.
David LaMotte has connected with college students at campuses across the country, giving lectures and concerts, leading workshops, and spending time in classrooms, hallways, theaters, and cafeterias in informal conversation. Some of those interactions have had profound effects on the students that showed up.
David LaMotte is the real deal, someone who truly can change the thoughts, lives, and futures of students, faculty, and staff on our college and university campuses across the nation. Two years after his convocation here, I still hear students talking about his presentation and how relevant it was to their lives.
— Mindy Maddux, Asst. Dean, Drury University, Springfield, MO
LaMotte is a concert artist with 13 albums and 3000+ concerts on five continents to his credit. He has also presented lectures and workshops at events at the Scottish Parliament, the PC(USA) Mission to the United Nations, and colleges and conferences in India, Germany, Australia, and across the United States. Two professors at Westminster College in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania have built an entire course around his most recent book, You Are Changing the World Whether You Like It Or Not, taught for the first time in the spring of 2024.
He holds a master’s degree in International Studies, Peace and Conflict Resolution from the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, where he attended as a Rotary Peace Fellow. He is also the former Clerk of the AFSC Nobel Peace Prize Nominating Committee.
His most recent book looks at the downside of Hero Narratives — when one person’s dramatic action in a moment of crisis is held up as the key to large social change. This common presentation of history neglects the centrality of movements — many people making small efforts in the same direction. Hero stories, though intended to inspire, often have the opposite effect because we can’t imagine ourselves doing what heroes do.
Through historical examples and personal stories, he makes the case that movements, rather than heroes, drive large-scale change and that all of us can bring our gifts to movement work. It turns 
out that small efforts really do matter. There is no example in all of history of a hero effecting large-scale change in the absence of a movement, though it is often how we tell the story. His message is both hopeful and historically rooted, and helps students understand how to have meaningful positive impact on the world around them, and how to discern what is theirs to do and what is not.
LaMotte’s professional experience and life experience allow him to intersect meaningfully with many sectors of campus life. In addition to concerts and lectures, David loves to visit classes in subjects from Poetry to Political Science, from Social Justice to Small Business, and from Marketing to Music. As a practicing Quaker and a Presbyterian preacher’s kid, he also enjoys connecting with campus chaplaincy programs, especially in interfaith settings.
David LaMotte is a very good partner in this important work both for our world and for the human soul.
— Richard Rohr, Center for Action and Contemplation
LaMotte also does workshops with college faculty and staff, helping them frame their own work and impact.
If you would like to bring David to your campus, please feel free to get in touch. We can work with you to design what that might look like.
