Joseph A. Lieberman

After graduating with a Bachelors Degree in Fine Arts from Boston University and a graduate Diploma in Education from Sydney Teachers College in Australia, it was inevitable that writer, illustrator, educator and author Joseph A. Lieberman would follow a two-tiered career track that would last right up until the present.

Throughout the 1970's and 80's, Lieberman was simultaneously involved in secondary and college education, gallery exhibitions, and the establishment of a global employment clearinghouse for teachers of English as a Second Language. He was heavily involved in TESOL, becoming Chair of Teaching English Internationally.

He spent most of the 1990's as a university lecturer, photojournalist and author in East Asia. Since his stories first appeared in The Boston Globe in 1981, he's published over 600 features and articles in newspapers, magazines and professional journals in seven nations, and produced two travel books. All five of his textbooks in Japan and Taiwan were self-illustrated. He's had 23 years of teaching experience in four nations at all grade levels above middle school, including universities and adult education, and has traveled to 48 countries on six continents.

After relocating to Eugene, Oregon in 1999, his interest in school shootings was sparked by meetings with key people involved in the Thurston High tragedy. The personal impact of these chance encounters and the continuance of other horrific events led him to an investigation into this disturbing phenomenon. His project eventually became a book revealing the synchronous nature and common roots of school shootings, workplace rampage and suicidal terrorist acts. School Shootings: What Every Parent and Educator Needs to Know to Protect Our Children, (Citadel Press/ Sept. 2008) examines how all these incidents interface at some level, from the earliest attacks to the most recent US campus shooting in 2008. Lieberman's view is that understanding how and why these terrifying events took place is the first step toward preventing them. It is the author's hope that his book will contribute to that end. For more information, visit www.schoolshootingsbook.com

In November, 2013, Lieberman branched off in a radically new direction, but with an equally ambitious goal. Working as co-author with Rabbi David Zaslow, their goal is to end nearly 2,000 years of misunderstanding and distrust between Church and Synagogue. That a rabbi’s book is being released by a liberal Christian publisher underscores the fact that this isn’t so much about religious divisions as it is about a shared history and emerging studies in religious politics. “Jesus: First-century Rabbi,” is published in hard cover by Paraclete Press.