When Jeffrey Bucholtz was attending college at UC Santa Barbara, he met a friend and mentor who changed his life forever: she inspired him to see how he could help people through social justice work and culture change.

“In particular she helped me see that I could use my talents along with my privileges as a white man to help inspire others to participate in creating that same change,” he said.

Throughout the last 17 years, Jeffrey has taken on numerous roles related to the passion he developed for creating social change. He has been an activist, public speaker, and organizer who has spoken out about issues including sexual violence, relationship violence, and violence prevention.

Today, Jeffrey is an adjunct faculty member at Southwestern College and teaches courses on violence against women and popular culture and identity at San Diego State University. He is also the director of We End Violence, a social business that seeks to make our culture a safer place for survivors of violence to share their stories and encourage men to recognize their role in preventing violence by other men, among other goals.

When Jeffrey speaks at our conference later this month, he will give a TEDx Talk about the ability we all have to create meaningful social change, which he says is far more within our grasp than we often realize.

“The hard part is that we have to make choices to create that change and we have to recognize how much we value that change in order to be motivated to make those choices,” he said. “So in the talk we will explore what we will gain, and we will consider how much benefit there is to a world full of respect and dignity. That way all those choices become something we WANT to make, that we NEED to make.”

Jeffrey hopes that after his talk, viewers and listeners will feel inspired to try to build a healthier world and that their efforts will make a difference.

For more information about We End Violence, click here.