About Dr. Swenson

Richard A. Swenson, M.D., futurist, physician-researcher, author, and educator, received his B.S. in physics (Phi Beta Kappa) from Denison University (1970) and his M.D. from the University of Illinois School of Medicine (1974). Following five years of private practice, in 1982 Dr. Swenson accepted a teaching position as Associate Clinical Professor within the University of Wisconsin Medical School system-Department of Family Medicine where he taught for fifteen years. As a physician, his focus is "cultural medicine," researching the intersection of health and culture. As a futurist, his emphasis is fourfold: the future of the world system, western culture, faith, and healthcare.

Dr. Swenson has traveled extensively (to sixty countries, living abroad a total of three years), including a year of study in Europe and medical work in developing countries. During a week of teaching at a large church in Kuwait, he fished in the Persian Gulf in sight of Iran & Iraq with a Pakistani guide named Muhammad. He is author of eight books, including the best-selling and award-winning MARGIN: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives. His latest book, Contentment: The Secret of a Lasting Calm was released in 2013. His books have seen twelve translations and are known to exist in 150 countries.

He has given over 2,500 presentations, including both national and international settings, on the themes of margin, life balance, contentment, stress, overload, complexity, progress, profusion, societal change, future trends, dysfunctional mathematics, healthcare, faith, and the connection between science and theology. A representative listing of presentations include a wide variety of career, professional, educational, governmental, and management groups, most major church denominations and organizations, members of the United Nations, of Congress, of NASA, and of the Pentagon. A Minute of Margin was distributed to thirty heads of state at the 2012 Chicago NATO conference. He was an invited guest participant for the 44th Annual National Security Seminar.

Dr. Swenson has given keynote presentations to national medical conferences such as the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Association of Occupational Medicine, and the U. S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command Commander's Conference. He has given a dozen presentations at the Mayo Clinic as well as hundreds of other national, state, and local medical settings. He also has researched extensively and written on the future of healthcare, helping to initiate a national multidisciplinary group examining health care reform and exploring new paradigms. He was presented the Educator of the Year Award by Christian Medical and Dental Associations (CMDA) and the National Leadership Award from the Central States Occupational Medical Association for his original work on margin and overload. In 2017, he received CMDA's President's Heritage Award.

Dr. Swenson and his wife, Linda, live in Menomonie, Wisconsin. They have two sons, Matthew (& Suzie) and Adam (& Maureen), and a granddaughter, Katja Elizabeth.