Our Team
Grok The World Co-Founder & Partner
Christine King, MA
Christine King, MA has a passion for personal and planetary transformation. For over 20 years, she has supported groups, individuals, and couples in deepening their communication, compassion, and empathy skills.
When Christine discovered Marshall Rosenberg’s Nonviolent Communication (NVC), she resonated deeply with NVC consciousness and became a certified trainer. In 2003, along with Jean Morrison, Christine co-founded Nonviolent Communication Santa Cruz to teach and spread NVC consciousness. In 2006, they began designing and developing GROK products.
Fueled by her work in the field of education and a strong interest in personal growth and social justice, Christine has traveled, studied, lived, worked and taught overseas in Europe, India, the Caribbean, and the Far East. For over 30 years she raised children, chickens, bees, and a garden in the Santa Cruz countryside.
Christine taught UC Santa Cruz courses in transformation until 2020 when she retired: Transformative Action, Transformation Communication, Transformative Justice, and Awakening Compassion. Working with college students has been one of the most joyful experiences in her life and she continues to stay in contact with a number of her former students and TAs.
In 2018 Christine and her husband Mark moved to the San Francisco bay area. She thoroughly enjoys her new position as Nana to two awesome grandkids, while continuing her love of gardening, traveling, yoga, meditation, reading, and playing GROK with family and friends.
Grok The World Partner
Mary Goyer, M.S.
Mary Goyer, MS is an executive consultant, holistic counselor & trainer specializing in the intersection of leadership development, trauma healing, and communication in the workplace. She draws upon her traditional training in Marriage & Family Therapy (MFT), her background as an instructional specialist, and her expertise in mindfulness & somatic healing techniques to help professionals in struggling teams tap into their creative, collaborative potential, so they can make a bigger impact.
Mary spent the first leg of her career as an educator, counselor, and consultant working with vulnerable “tweens” and teens in traditional school settings. She supported students directly for years, and continues to offer her work providing trauma-informed professional development for educators. Mary’s passion for cultivating community through interpersonal skills trainings is part of her holistic approach, supporting the sustainability and resiliency of educators, and the academic success of youth. She has recently started designing corporate/school partnership projects, which aim to resource more schools with social-emotional programming to benefit entire communities.
Mary’s current organizational work is characterized by her warm, interdisciplinary approach for business leaders wanting to make a difference. She combines her teaching, coaching, and counseling backgrounds to implement step-by-step culture change strategies in organizations wishing to scale consciously. She helps them cultivate the relationship skills that support collaboration, innovation and a healthy culture – so they can be the change-makers they’re meant to be.
VP of Everything
Claire Schwartz, M.A.
As a new parent in 2019, the core principals of NVC have never been more important to Claire as they are now. Practicing compassion and empathy for herself, her daughter and her husband have helped her navigate the ups and downs of family life.
With a broad work experience in hospitality, travel, higher education and community foundations, Claire brings her expertise in administrative support, customer relations and content creation to her work at GROK the World. She’s grateful to be working with Christine and Mary, two women she highly admires..
Promoting Empathy In Over 40 Countries!
To contribute to life in a positive and life-serving way, we began our business in 2006 to promote a more peaceful and empathetic world. Galloping Giraffe Enterprises began with the original GROK cards that morphed into our current version. We have shipped to over 40 countries and it is now translated into other languages.
We were so inspired developing this product that we continue to create more materials for your use, sharing, learning, and satisfaction. Thank you for being part of this all!
― Jean and Christine