Juliana Tafur

Director of Bridging Differences program at UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center

Juliana Tafur is the inaugural Director of the Bridging Differences program at UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center. A Colombian-American, her work focuses on strengthening social connections across lines of race, religion, culture, politics, and more, to foster a culture of understanding and belonging in the United States and beyond. With experience as a social entrepreneur, workshop creator, TEDx speaker, Emmy-nominated senior producer, and award-winning documentary filmmaker, she has been working to foster human connection across complex societal divides for more than a decade. Juliana is a 2021-2022 Obama Foundation Scholar at Columbia University—a mid-career fellowship that recognized and deepened her work in the bridge-building field, expanding her research on intergroup relations, political polarization, and conflict transformation. She has led and facilitated speaking engagements and training sessions on bridging differences at more than 30 higher education institutions and organizations, and is now leading the implementation of a state-wide, multi-year initiative in Colorado to ease polarization and promote a sense of belonging in every community across the state. She’s an honors graduate of Northwestern University, with dual degrees in Journalism and History.