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Faculty


Aaron Johnson

Aaron is a facilitator, public speaker, and touch specialist working to identify and interrupt barriers between people. As co-founder of both Holistic Resistance and Grief to Action, Aaron takes the time to hold the stories of black people around homophobia, transphobia, internalized racism, and those that are Chronically Under Touched. Because oppression is a part of historical and present American culture, the long-term impact of those trauma stories should be acknowledged and held as a map for our collective healing. Aaron Johnson practices and invites various methods of moving through these stories, such as the communal listening ear, sound healing,…

Abigail Lynam

Abigail Lynam PhD has twenty years of experience in transformative learning and leadership development in higher education. Her doctorate is in adult development applied to teaching and learning for social and ecological change leadership development. She cares deeply about innovative ways of addressing social and ecological challenges to support the reciprocal flourishing of all of life. Abigail is core faculty for Fielding University’s School of Leadership Studies. Abigail joined the Pacific Integral faculty in 2013.

Akasha Saunders

Akasha is a pilgrim, educator, and developmental coach with over 10 years of professional experience. He brings a constructive developmental approach to fostering diversity, inclusion, and equity in organizations. He also brings experience and deep interest in spiritual development and evolution of human consciousness to his practice. Akasha is also known for his success working with men across multiple sociocultural differences. He designs and facilitates workshops and interventions, including for the Braveheart Men’s Retreats that focus on increased levels of awareness, inclusive masculinities, and leadership development. His engagement with client systems centers on partnership and fostering intimate conversations with groups…

Amber Zimmerman

Amber Zimmerman is a fourth generation woman artist. Art is a way of life for her and her family. Amber enjoys working with a variety of mixed mediums to create symbolic art that celebrates the connection and sacredness to the cycles of nature. Amber earned her B.A. from The Evergreen State College in Environmental Art, in 2000. She has been active in the local arts community and has participated in several group and solo gallery shows throughout Washington State. In addition to her studio work, Amber teaches art at Alpine Lakes Elementary, adult step by step painting classes, and mini…

Anne Liu Kellor

Anne Liu Kellor is a multiracial Chinese American writer, teacher, editor, and mother. Her essays have appeared in publications such as Longreads, The New England Review, Fourth Genre, Vela Magazine, Literary Mama, Waking Up American: Coming of Age Biculturally (Seal Press), and more. Anne has received fellowships for her work from Hedgebrook, Jack Straw, 4Culture, and Hypatia-in-the-Woods. Her memoir manuscript, Heart Radical: A Search for Language, Love, and Belonging was selected by Cheryl Strayed as the 1st runner-up in Kore Press’s 2018 contest. Anne teaches classes at the Hugo House and also works as a one-on-one writing coach in Seattle.To…

Anthony Back

Anthony Back is a physician and professor at the University of Washington’s School of Medicine in the oncology division. He is triple board certified in Hospice and Palliative Medicine, Medical Oncology and General Internal Medicine, and he serves as a director of the Cambria Center for Excellence in Palliative Care. Tony is one of the original founders of VitalTalk, a start-up that trains clinicians who work with seriously ill patients and families in compassionate communication. Tony is a certified instructor with the Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute, a compassion-based training program that was born inside Google and is now a…

Ashley Dahl, MSW, CMT-P

Ashley is a contemplative guide, coach and educator. A champion of compassionate awareness, Ashley possesses a keen ability to infuse contemplative practice into daily life, work and relationships. She brings a presence of calm thoughtfulness and humor as she blends the teachings of wisdom traditions with modern culture. Through coaching, meditation and somatic relaxation, Ashley supports individuals and organizations to live their full creative potential without sacrificing their well-being. You can learn more about Ashley at openspacemindfulness.com.

Bethany Bylsma

As a therapist, play, art, archetypal psychology, relationships and tears are used to tenderly help my clients uncover the stories of ache and joy that lie just beneath the surface of every human heart. As a clinical supervisor I have used my own stories of pain and growth over the past 10 years to mentor and teach. As a woman I am fiercely protective of the fire in the belly of woman to be seen, heard, and understood – EVEN in the messiest of emotions. ​ As an intuitive and playful artist, I have discovered that there can be much…

Bill Plotkin

Bill is a depth psychologist, wilderness guide, and agent of cultural evolution. As founder of western Colorado’s Animas Valley Institute (1981), he has guided thousands of people through nature-based initiatory passages and trains soul initiation guides. Previously, he has been a research psychologist (studying non-ordinary states of consciousness), professor of psychology, psychotherapist, rock musician, and whitewater river guide. Bill is the author of Soulcraft, Nature and the Human Soul, Wild Mind, and The Journey of Soul Initiation. His doctorate is in psychology from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Learn more about Bill and his work at http://www.animas.org

Brian Kerkvliet

Brian has a wide breadth of practical knowledge on how to partner with natural systems to bring forth stability and abundance. Brian and his wife Alexandra have been co-stewarding Inspiration Farm in Bellingham Wa, since 1994. They use both biodynamic and Permaculture practices the farm. Brian has taught permaculture courses at WWU and other PDC venues and events since 2009. Having completed several diverse Permaculture Design Certifications. He now runs a nursery, consults, installs projects and teaches workshops. Although Brian has a wide range of skill sets his passion is designing water resilient landscapes by building soil and appropriate scale earthworks to support plant and animal diversity. His…

Brian Thomas Swimme

My long life has been a search for an understanding of the universe rooted in both mathematical science and spiritual wisdom. Cosmogenesis: An Unveiling of the Expanding Universe is my latest update. Learn more at my website: https://storyoftheuniverse.org  

Callie Swanlund

The Rev. Callie Swanlund is an Episcopal priest serving half time in a church and devoting her other time to being a “priestpreneur.” She created a film and resource for formation/evangelism How2charist: Digital Instructed Eucharist and leads individuals and groups in the work of Dr. Brené Brown as a Certified Daring Way Facilitator. Callie is a mama, creator, lover, and dreamer who is currently building a missional initiative called The Epiphany Space for others to discover and use their creative gifts. She started #WholeheartedWednesday to invite deeper reflection and engagement on social media. Find out more at CallieSwanlund.com or @callieswanlund…

Carol Wishcamper

Carol brings several decades of leadership experience in the education and non-profit sectors to her organizational development consulting practice.  She recently Co-Chaired  the Maine Wabanaki- State Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission, designed to promote inter-generational and intercultural healing.   She has held leadership positions on the Maine State Board of Education and the Maine Chapter of the Nature Conservancy as well as board service on numerous boards, including the College of the Atlantic and Waynflete School. She is currently a trustee of the Elmina B. Sewall Foundation.  In her consulting practice, she works with a full spectrum of public and…

Carolyn Berry

Carolyn Berry, LMFT, has spent over forty years guiding people to emotionally heal and to reach for their human potential. In this role she has served as the Go Shining Coach, a Marriage Family Therapist, wise woman mentor, and a workshop/retreat presenter. Carolyn became interested in “being happy” as a teenager, and strived to find that happiness during her adult years. It was in her late 60’s that she realized that she was authentically happy most of the time. She wrote the book, “From Misery to Happiness” in her early 70’s to share her journey to happiness. She has since…

Carolyn McCarthy

Carolyn is a lifelong writer and performer who cultivates attentiveness and joy. With a degree in Latin American Studies and Women’s Studies, she uses mindfulness to support the work of social justice, turning toward the difficult within and without. Zest, warmth, and wit enliven her teaching. Carolyn is a certified Mindful Self-Compassion teacher through the UCSD Center for Mindfulness. Her core practices: sitting meditation, time outside, solo living room dance parties. Visit her online at www.carolynmcc.com.

Cassandra Posey

Cassandra is a seer, knowledge seeker, creator, navigator, medicine maker, and go down each dopamine filling rabbit hole ADHD-er. Cassandra has been consumed by a quest for inner self knowledge and evolution. She is fascinated by the collaborative relationships and connections we have to each other and this planet. In 2018 Cassandra crafted natural remedies to end her battle with pharmaceuticals, a journey she had been on since the age of 9. She turned those remedies into a business called Cognitive Function, the U.S. cultivated, badass, AAPI, women founded Mushroom solutions brand! She aims to put farmers at the forefront…

Caverly Morgan

Caverly Morgan is a spiritual teacher, non-profit founder, speaker and writer who blends the original spirit of Zen with a modern non-dual approach. She is the author of The Heart of Who We Are: Realizing Freedom Together as well as A Kids Book About Mindfulness. Caverly is the founder of Peace in Schools, a nonprofit that created the nation’s first for-credit mindfulness class in public high schools. Her practice began in 1995 and has included eight years of training in a silent Zen monastery. Caverly leads meditation retreats, workshops and online classes internationally. Learn more at caverlymorgan.org.

Cedar Koons

Cedar Koons, MSW, is a seasoned practitioner of mindfulness meditation and a student of Prem Rawat since 1974. Cedar is the author of The Mindfulness Solution for Intense Emotions, and also a DBT team leader, trainer and consultant. Cedar has assisted at retreats led by Marsha Linehan, Roshi.

Chris Johnson

Dr. Chris Johnson has nearly 30 years of experience in teaching, speaking, writing, leading workshops, and facilitating retreats with a wide range of audiences in higher education, civic and faith-based organizations, and the business, not-for-profit, and social change communities. Chris works with state, regional, and national projects around issues of vocation, calling, and purpose; leadership development; social and ecological justice, and spirituality in life and work. He is a Circles of Trust® facilitator in association with Parker J. Palmer and the Center for Courage and Renewal. He is Founder and Principal of The Milkweed Group, LLC, whose work is to…

Christiane Seuhs-Schoeller

See Christiane’s Evolution @ Work roles in GlassFrog

Christie Lynk

Christie Lynk has facilitated learning and human development for 43 years through the fields of psychotherapy and education. She teaches at Seattle University and is Clinical Director in the Master of Arts in Existential Phenomenological Psychology Program. Partnering with organizations, groups and individuals through Conversations and Gatherings, Christie offers sabbatical intensives, contemplative retreats and consultation. She currently finds herself reimagining embodied rituals to hold the collective isolation, grief and trauma of our lives.

Christina Malecka

Founder, Digital Mindfulness Retreats® As a Seattle-based psychotherapist for 16 years, Christina has had a front-row seat to the emotional impacts of smartphones and social media on her clients, notably increased loneliness, anxiety, and alienation. In 2017, inspired by the work of Sherry Turkle, Nicholas Carr and her own transformative experience with digital fasting, Christina launched Digital Mindfulness Retreats which emphasize meditation, present-moment experience, social connection, self-reflection and tools for tech/life balance. A community organizer turned Licensed Mental Health Counselor, Christina brings over 25 years of experience with change-making, group facilitation, mindfulness training, and workshop development. She loves creating nurturing…

Clara Lindstrom

Clara is an archetypal astrologer, community-weaver, and spiritual guide. Her background includes an MA and doctoral work in Transpersonal Psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies, where she studied with Stan Grof, Rick Tarnas, Joanna Macy, and Brian Swimme, among others. Her twelve years at CIIS were also spent creating and hosting community gatherings and dance events. Drawn to liminal spaces since childhood, Clara’s work with Zen Hospice led to her becoming trained in psychedelic guiding and Hakomi therapy. She feels honored to witness the universe unfold as she helps individuals navigate significant thresholds and expanded states of consciousness.…

A group of people seated in a circle in Thomas Berry Hall

Community

Inviting in the wisdom of participants!

Craig Fleck

Craig Fleck has been working with organizations and leaders for 30+ years as a consultant and coach. He has designed and developed programs in change effectiveness, team-building, coaching, leadership development and cultural change. His clients include organizations across many sectors including healthcare, education, business, environmental, non-profit and cooperatives. He does extensive work in strategic planning, executive coaching and board development. Craig has been leading Powers of Leadership since 2009. He co-leads a program on Conversational Leadership with the poet David Whyte, Invitas, also hosted at the Whidbey Institute.

Cynthia Price & Elizabeth Chaison

Learn more here: www.cmbaware.org/about-us

Dan McKee

Dan McKee has led self-awareness, experiential-based depth psychology, leadership development and mindfulness training, including the Warrior Monk Retreat, for more than 25 years. In Dan’s work, the guiding principles that inform all offerings are depth-authenticity, safety, emotional vulnerability and healing, fun, purpose and service; and are all grounded in fierce compassion and practical wisdom. Dan McKee founded the Awakening Life Learning non-profit in 2003, based on his desire that this mindful and mission-based organization be a home for practical and useful works to support purpose driven individuals and organizations.  In addition to leading the Warrior Monk Retreat for the past 25 years,…

Dave Boehnlein

Dave serves as the principal for Terra Phoenix Design. He received his B.S. in Natural Resources & Environmental Studies from the University of Minnesota. Dave is also the education director at the Bullock’s Permaculture Homestead on Orcas Island where he lived for seven years. With varied backgrounds such as organizational leadership, internship/apprenticeship program design, and trail work Dave brings a unique set of skills to the Terra Phoenix team. In the rainforests of Central America Dave learned about permaculture and tropical agroforestry systems. From there he went on to learn a wide variety of design and implementation skills with the Bullocks.…

David Whyte

David Whyte has written extensively on courageous conversations as a way of more fully engaging with our work, our relationship partners and our deepest desires. A poet, author, lecturer and Associate Fellow at Said Business School, University of Oxford, he has developed a body of work on creativity and organizational development. His pioneering work in the area of courageous conversations has brought him into some of the top organizations and executive education programs in the world.

Dean Marson

Dean Marson

Dean Marson is a Senior Instructor of Esalen® Massage. He has been teaching at Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California for the past 40 years and has lead workshops in the US, Canada, Europe and Asia, introducing hundreds of students to the pleasure and potential of bodywork and healing touch. He trained in other bodywork styles before becoming fascinated by the flowing, wholistic Esalen style and has since learned from and collaborated with numerous teachers at Esalen and elsewhere. Dean is a Registered Yoga Teacher and long-time meditator, and he weaves presence and connection, the essence of these practices, into all…

Deborah Koff-Chapin

Deborah is founder of  The Center for Touch Drawing, a networking point for the dissemination of the process into artistic, therapeutic, educational and spiritual practices. She is adjunct faculty at California Institute of Integral Studies and has served on the board of directors of the International Expressive Arts Therapy Association. She is the author of  Drawing Out Your Soul,  The Touch Drawing Facilitator Workbook, and creator of media to make the process accessible to all. Each summer since 1997, she has convened the Annual Touch Drawing Gathering, the deepest event of the year. See Deborah’s Curriculum Vitae.

Debra R. Baker

Live, Love, Lead, Liberate! Debra offers a successful history of serving and leading at various organizational levels. As a sage with a deep interest in human development and organizational health, Debra has become known for creative human-centered program development along with her zesty inclusive social learning and facilitation skills. Her areas of focus include equity, inclusion, and belonging, leadership development, change management, coaching, and organizational health. Debra has a 20+ years of experience working in the areas of criminal law, social justice, and government. Additionally, Debra teaches alongside her husband, Kevin Baker at Seattle University. “Debra Baker is one of…

Diana Sandoval

Diana Sandoval is a racial justice consultant and restorative practitioner, and a longtime facilitator of groups. She strives to bring compassion, wholeness, and embodiment to her life and work and is committed to nurturing a culture of care and truth. She previously worked in the fields of early intervention, health policy, parenting, and social-emotional development and was a founding member of Promoting First Relationships, a paradigm-shifting approach to supporting parents and children.

Douglas Bullock

A true “jack of all trades,” Douglas Bullock has been a permaculture designer, implementer, and educator for over 30 years. He has consulted on numerous properties and helped hundreds of people learn the permaculture skills necessary to design their land themselves. Douglas’ home on Orcas Island, WA, the Bullock’s Permaculture Homestead, is widely regarded as one of the most mature, well-functioning permaculture systems in North America. It serves as an excellent example of Douglas and his family’s design and implementation skills. Since the mid-seventies Douglas has lived and worked in the tropics periodically and has intimate knowledge of the tropical and…

Dr. Kristin Neff

Dr. Kristin Neff is an Associate Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. She is a pioneer in the field of self-compassion research, conducting the first empirical studies on self-compassion more than twenty years ago. She has been recognized as one of the most influential researchers in psychology worldwide. She is author of the bestselling books Self-Compassion and Fierce Self-Compassion. Along with her colleague Chris Germer, she co-developed the empirically-supported Mindful Self-Compassion program and co-founded the Center for Mindful Self-Compassion. They co-wrote the best-selling The Mindful Self-Compassion Workbook. For more info see self-compassion.org.

Erica Rayner-Horn

 Erica Rayner-Horn M.A., L.M.H.C.  Erica is a mindfulness-based psychotherapist based in Seattle, specializing in integrating mindfulness in her work as a therapist, presenter, workshop leader and writer. Weaving Western psychology with the wisdom and meditative practices of Eastern contemplative and spiritual traditions, Erica has developed a powerful approach that helps relieve stress, reduce anxiety and depression, and strengthen resilience for facing life-changing challenges such as serious illness, trauma and loss.  As a cancer survivor herself she brings her personal experience to her professional work and is passionate about teaching mindfulness as an effective way to live well and thrive with…

Faculty Bio

Details about this faculty member including and links to external pages you might want to make available to registrants.

Gayle Karen Young

Gayle Karen Young has focused throughout her career on being a catalyst for human and organizational development. She has a rich organizational consulting background with both corporate and nonprofit clients, and was in the process of becoming a monk when she became an executive instead. She joyously took on the role of Chief Culture and Talent Officer at the Wikimedia Foundation until early 2015, when she decided to return to private practice. Born in the Philippines to Chinese parents and raised in the United States, she carries a multicultural perspective, an adventurous spirit, and a deep commitment to expanding human…

Geneen Marie Haugen

Geneen grew up a little wild, with a run amok imagination.  Her matrilineal ancestors are the indigenous Sami of the European Arctic. A content creator and guide to the intertwined mysteries of nature and psyche with the Animas Valley Institute (www.animas.org), she has been on the faculty of the Esalen Institute and  Schumacher College. Her writing has appeared in Spiritual Ecology: The Cry of the Earth; Thomas Berry: Dreamer of the Earth; Parabola; Kosmos Journal; Ecopsychology; and many others.   She believes in the world-shifting potential of the human imagination allied with the planetary psyche. 

Geoff Fitch

Geoff Fitch MA is a founding partner of Pacific Integral. Geoff is a coach, trainer, and facilitator of transformative growth in individuals and organizations. He has been studying and practicing diverse approaches to cultivating higher human potentials for twenty years, He also has twenty years experience in leadership in business.

Gregory Flynn

Gregory Flynn is a partner in Connection Works. He’s a coach, a facilitator, and a collaborator to those who are interested in a journey of personal and professional development. He began working in leadership development, facilitation, and coaching more than fifteen years ago in the non-profit field, supporting people as they found their voice at work. He’s since expanded his work to include the private and government sectors in both internal roles and as a consultant. He especially loves working with people – individually and collectively – who are in a state of transition. And, hey, these days, who isn’t?…

Haydeé Lavariega

Haydeé Lavariega, originally from Oaxaca, Mexico, bases her practice in her Indigenous values of collectivity, honoring the knowledges of her community, fighting for social justice and a vision of a better future for generations to come. Haydeé’s mission is to work in community organizing and community healing with decolonizing practices and anti-racist frameworks. She knows our work must be done together, intersectionally, to arrive to our collective liberation.

Howard Aposhyan

Dr. Howard Aposhyan is a Psychologist, educator and long-time meditator. A senior student of The Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, Howard’s specialty is bridging meditative disciplines with working skillfully with difficult emotions. Howard has a long-standing relationship to the Whidbey Institute, having taught a monthly meditation course there for 13 years. He enjoys spending time with his family as well as being active in the outdoors.

Jennifer Cornish

During her professional life Jennifer has focused on developing the skills that allow her to effectively facilitate the growth and development of non-profit and educational organizations so they can fulfill the commitments they make to their clients and communities. In particular, as an experienced mediator, Jennifer expresses her foundational belief that humans can resolve the differences that can arise when deeply held beliefs clash by working with groups whose mission is obstructed by conflict within the organization. As a long-time resident of New Mexico, Jennifer is currently facilitating a State-wide group of educators whose purpose is to develop a public school accountability…

Jenny Rhodes

Yoga is Jenny’s calling to help you find calm in the chaos, feel better in your body and inspire you into action! Over the course of two decades Jenny has sought the sanctuary of yoga philosophies and practices and has discovered this rich, ancient practice really works!Yogic breathing and meditation help her move through feelings of overwhelm, anxiety and everyday upsets with more ease and acceptance. Union of the physical yoga postures and breath have helped her build physical and spiritual strength from the inside out and have guided her through trauma, tragedy, and loss with a grace and resilience she didn’t know she possessed. Jenny loves inspiring students…

Jim Struve

Jim Struve, LCSW is Executive Director for MenHealing. He has been working with male survivors of sexual victimization for 45 years. MenHealing maintains an active team of 15 highly-qualified clinicians; 6 members of the team are assigned to staff each Weekend of Recovery retreat.

JoAnn Lovascio

Welcome! I am a somatic practitioner who has been in private practice since 1999. The work I do is called Core Energetics; it is a powerful direct method for awakening the inhibited flow of conscious life-energy, enabling clients to create a whole new level of contact with themselves, and with others—intimately and relationally. Clients find their way to me when they are ready to break through old, destructive patterns, or ready for a more embodied and integrated expression of their creativity and spiritual life. My bodily presence with its innate and trained intelligence is my instrument. If you bring yourself…

Joanna Dunn

Since she began teaching yoga in 2000, Joanna has studied a wide variety of styles and approaches to yoga and movement. The evolution has taken her toward what she now calls Virya Yoga – Yoga for Vitality and Longevity. Incorporating neuroscience and techniques for the aging body, Joanna weaves together Mindfulness Meditation, Somatic Movement and Alignment-Based Yoga in a friendly, accessible manner. A native of the Pacific Northwest, Joanna is honored to be bringing her work to the Whidbey Institute. You can find more information about Joanna at JoannaDunn.com.

Judith Blackstone

Judith is an innovative, experienced teacher in the contemporary fields of nondual realization and spiritual, relational and somatic psychotherapy. She developed the Realization Process, a direct path for realizing fundamental (nondual) consciousness, as well as the application of nondual realization for psychological, relational and physical healing. She currently has six books in publication and has taught the Realization Process for over thirty-five years throughout the United States and Europe. Her newest book is Trauma and the Unbound Body: the Healing Power of Fundamental Consciousness. Learn more here.

Judith Waldman and Kara-Lee Ruotolo

Judith Waldman, MSW, Director of “Women’s Journeys” and co-author of “Stand, Flow, Shine: Caring for the Woman Within” (standflowshine.com) brings many wonderful years as a national workshop leader, and trainer for other leaders. “Leading workshops and retreats for groups of women is a great pleasure in my life – providing experiences that are nurturing, healing, empowering, and joyful.” Kara-Lee Ruotolo, MA.Ed, began practicing and studying yoga in Seattle in 1995 and spreads her love of yoga and mindfulness wherever she can. She is passionate about community building and is currently bringing mindfulness into professional development trainings for teachers and administrators…

Jules LeDrew

Jules is a practicing herbalist, yoga teacher, and owner of Wild Standard Botanicals. She has the great privilege of stewarding the educational medicinal herb and food garden for the Whidbey Institute and develops nature-based education for the Waldorf School. She has been facilitating integrative health coaching, herbal science, sustainability, aromatherapy, medicine cultivation, native plant ID, and mind body education for over a decade. She holds a premed BS in Herbal Science from Bastyr University. The foundation of her work is informed by her expertise and compassion for emotional and spiritual inner growth through experiential nature based education.

jylani ma'at

jylani has trained and facilitated many people in the practices of meditation, mindfulness, movement, and integrative nutrition in schools, studios, and communities around the world. As both a teacher and nurse, she enjoys learning healing practices from indigenous cultures. Her Yoga Nidra Teacher Training with Tracee Stanley and Chanti Tocoronte-Perez, has been the deepest and most embodied experience of her life. She facilitates meditation and yoga nidra to guide people back to themselves. As one born into a family of educators and medical practitioners, jylani ma’at’s background as both a teacher and a nurse came as no surprise. She inherited a legacy…

Karen Boss

Karen Boss is an editor at Charlesbridge where she works on fiction and nonfiction picture books, middle-grade nonfiction, and novels. She holds an MA in Children’s Literature from Simmons College and regularly acts as a mentor for their Writing for Children MFA program. She often teaches workshops and short-term courses about picture books. Karen also has an MA in higher education administration and worked at colleges and in the nonprofit sector for 15 years. In her free time, Karen saves her pennies so she can travel to a new country each year, and she often plans “Auntie Karen adventures” for…

Karen Schwisow

Karen has been a teacher of yoga and meditation since 2005. She continues to deepen her understanding of these ancient wisdom traditions and how they are relevant to our lives today.  Through compassionate listening, authenticity and humor she empowers you to experience your own innate ability to heal and thrive. She is a Certified MBSR teacher through UMass Medical Center, and Founder of Three Trees Yoga & Healing Arts Center in Federal Way.

Kumudini Shoba

Kumudini Shoba is from a family in Sri Lanka with a long “Vaidhya” (healer) tradition. She is a Master Herbalist who has studied both eastern and western herbs. She also has a master’s degree in bio-organic chemistry.

Larisa Benson

Larisa Benson hosts the Government Joy Network, a network of civic designers and social leadership entrepreneurs working to humanize government from the inside out. A three-time national award winner for innovation in the public sector, she launched the Executive MPA program in 2003 and taught leadership for over a decade at the University of Washington’s Evans School of Public Policy and Governance before working for Washington State Governor Gregoire. Larisa is a Leadership Embodiment coach with black-belts in lean six-sigma and taekwondo, and she teaches with Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute, a compassion-based training program that was born inside Google…

Lydia Violet Harutoonian

Lydia Violet Harutoonian has studied dedicatedly with deep ecology elder and Buddhist scholar Joanna Macy for the past decade, learning how we can metabolize our pain for the world into energy for resilience, action, and community. She is the founder and director of The Music As Medicine Project, an organization dedicated to creating accessible programming that combines live music, music education, Macy’s work, and social justice work as tools for cultivating resilient cultures in our communities. Lydia Violet is also an accomplished Iranian-American multi-instrumentalist, and in her solo project she weaves together Southern blues, American roots, and Iranian folk music…

Mara Grey

Born and raised in Hawaii, Mara fell in love with the Pacific Northwest and has made her home there for over thirty years. She first studied Botany at the U. of Washington, then went into horticulture. She is the author of “The Lazy Gardener” and “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Flower Gardening” and is currently working on a new book, “Planting Joy – Bringing Your Inner Life Into Your Garden.” A longtime Celtic harpist, she is now performing as a storyteller with harp accompaniment.

Mari Kong

Mari Kong is a consultant with the Solfire Consulting Group and is passionate about supporting organizations in facing their most pressing diversity, equity, and inclusion challenges.   Her passion for diversity and inclusion issues led her to earn a Ph.D. in Human and Organizational Systems at Fielding Graduate University. Mari recently retired from the San Diego Police Department after a 19-year career.  She had multiple roles in different communities and environments within the department.  As a result of these experiences, she desires to shift the culture of policing toward becoming more inclusive, with greater demographic variety and intellectual diversity. Her personal…

Marie Sheffield

In 2015, Marie Sheffield, MA, L.C.P.C., learned about Personal Leadership (PL) as a fellow at the Institute for Intercultural Communication. She has integrated PL into her own facilitator training for the Intercultural Peer Support Program at the Center for Grieving Children in Portland, Maine. Through that work, she supports children resettling from war and persecution. She provides ongoing trainings in Personal Leadership, including with AmeriCorps, both the New Hampshire and Maine public school districts, recipients of the 21st Century federal grant, and the Multilingual and Multicultural Center, Portland, Maine. Marie loves to expand the possibilities of PL by finding ways…

Marilyn Strong

Marilyn is a former Director of Education at The Chinook Learning Center, where she studied with Thomas Berry in the early 1980’s, and holds an MA in Spirituality and Culture from Matthew Fox’s Institute in Culture and Creation Spirituality, where she studied with Brian Thomas Swimme in 1986. As a Jungian-oriented spiritual counselor, an ordained minister, a ceremonialist, a singer, and a trained Death Midwife, Marilyn leads workshops, facilitates weddings, memorial services, and home and family funerals. After years of exploration and teaching on the Divine Feminine, she currently offers on-line courses and leads small groups of women on pilgrimage…

Marta Mulholland

Marta brings a lifetime of experience in the performing arts  to her work at the Whidbey Institute.  She is a facilitator of movement-based expressive arts and holds a masters in psychology. She sees the creative process as a bridge to helping us understand life experiences and build more intimate and trusting relationships which can lead to individual and collective healing. Her work history is an eclectic mix which includes Sign Language interpreting, co-founding Calyx Community Arts School, working at the Abused Deaf Women’s Advocacy Services, managing the Power of Hope summer camp, choreographing musicals, landscaping, and short-term stints in China,…

Mary DeJong

Influenced by the lives of Celtic saints, Joseph Campbell’s The Hero’s Journey and the emerging field of ecopyschology, Mary facilitates retreats and pilgrimages in the Pacific Northwest and in Iona, Scotland, that strengthen the unique and mystical interconnection of participants, the sacred, and the natural world. She has studied and practiced within the Celtic Christian spiritual tradition, her own maternal line heritage, for over twenty years, receiving mentoring and vocational guidance from Vivienne Hull, co-founder of the Chinook Learning center and the Whidbey Institute and the director of the Iona Retreat Programs. Mary is also a graduate scholar of the School of Celtic…

Mary Lane Potter

Mary Lane Potter has published a novel, a book of linked short stories, short stories, and creative nonfiction essays, as well as several academic books and numerous essays on feminist theology, sexual and domestic violence, historical theology, and spirituality. She’s completed a new literary novel and is currently working on a book of essays focused on the body. Learn more at www.marylanepotter.com.

MaryLiz Smith

MARYLIZ SMITH has been bringing her unique style of music and insight into the world for many years. When she brings her signature of music into the domain of organizations, she asks age-old questions of identity in work, relationships, and self. She is an independent coach, international performance artist, composer and community leader. Her presentations take many different forms, from keynote talks at conferences to residential retreats. She forms longstanding relationships with individuals and communities.

Meg Gluckman

This is Meg.

Megan Anderson

The Rev. Megan Anderson is an Episcopal priest who currently serves as the Chaplain at The Bishop’s Ranch retreat center in Northern California. She is deeply passionate about spreading the transformative power of mind, body, and spirit wellness. As a Nutritional Therapist, fitness instructor, and meditation teacher, Megan loves to introduce people to bite-sized practices that can lead to powerful transformation. For example, did you know that a brief deep breath gratitude meditation before meals can aid in digestion, or that early morning movement can boost energy and detoxification pathways? Megan works with individuals and groups to establish sustainable practices…

Michael Pilarski

Michael has been farming organically since 1972 with medicinal herbs being his main crop for the last 25 years.  He has worked with over 1,000 species of plants. He has taught extensively in the fields of regenerative farming, permaculture, medicinal herbs, plant spirit medicine, native plants, plant propagation, ethnobotany, forestry, sustainable wildcrafting, agroforestry, medicinal food forests and related disciplines.  Michael took his first permaculture design course (PDC) in 1982 and started teaching PDCs in 1988.  His current main focus is researching planetary regeneration and climate stabilization.  

Michelle Cassandra Johnson

Michelle is an author, activist, spiritual teacher and practitioner, racial equity consultant and trainer, and intuitive healer. She approaches her life and work from a place of knowing we are, can, and must heal individually and collectively. Michelle teaches workshops and immersions and leads retreats and transformative experiences nationwide. As a dismantling racism educator, she has worked with large corporations, non-profits, and community groups. Michelle was a Tedx speaker at Wake Forest University in 2019 and has been interviewed on several podcasts in which she explores the premise and foundation of Skill in Action, along with embodied approaches to racial…

Micki O'Brien

Micki O’Brien, M.A. has spent the past 20 years engaged in contemplative practice, including both teaching and writing from a spiritual place, and supporting individuals of all ages in using their uniqueness well. As a Greatness Teacher and Coach, she sees the best in each person and situation, and empowers others in doing the same. Her signature talk, “What if That’s a Superpower,” about recognizing that our perceived weaknesses can actually point to our strengths, was a precursor to the Divine Happiness experience she’ll be facilitating, “Happy HERE: The Human Place Between Heaven and Earth.” In addition, she manages transformational…

Monica DeRaspe-Bolles

Monica is a doctoral student at CIIS in the Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness program. Her area of research is the “Third Story of the Universe” and the potential emergence of a new structure of experience fostering cosmogenic awakening. She and Brian Thomas Swimme collaborated to write the video series “Story of the Noosphere” and its forthcoming companion book. Monica lives on the Pilchuck River in Snohomish, Washington amidst her children, her grandchildren, and the family she has led in business for decades.

Nicole Tsong

Nicole is a bestselling author and founder of Nicole Tsong Coaching. She successfully pivoted an award-winning journalism career to teaching yoga at the White House, and is now the author of three bestselling books while running her own successful six-figure business. You’ll get exclusive access to the energy practices that drive how she runs her business and how she wrote her books, plus best practices for putting them into action and using them every day to stay on track with purpose. Nicole’s mission is to help high-achieving women know why they are here, to break out of templates that hold…

Palmira Figueroa

Palmira Figueroa, was born and raised in Mexico City. Since migrating to Seattle 17 years ago, Palmira has been passionate about immigration justice, working and volunteering with immigrant organizations and making trips to our southern border – bringing solidarity and money to organizers who help refugees. She understands the power of community and of loving solidarity. She loves grassroots fundraising as a way to fund movements for our collective liberation, family time and dancing Oaxacan music with “Grupo Cultural Oaxaqueño”.

Pam Emerson

Pam Emerson has worked at the intersection of ‘environment’ and ‘justice’ within local and Federal government agencies for close to 25 years. She is currently a green infrastructure planner and policy advisor with Seattle’s public water utility. In addition, she founded and co-convenes her agency’s antiracist white caucus practice space and supports work teams and executives striving to build a more relational culture.  Pam brings grounded community/volunteer experience as a Womxn’s March organizer, a board member and pro-bono communications strategist with immigrants’ rights organizations, and as a grassroots music producer. Pam has sought out inner healing in service to collective liberation within a range of communities…

Pamela Hopkins

Pamela Hopkins brings over 25+ years of experience as a business leader, a leadership development practitioner, a strategic consultant and an executive coach.  She brings an integrated approach to solving strategic issues facing her clients in today’s complex workplace environments.  A true scholar-practitioner, Pamela intentionally leverages the best of both worlds, through research-based content and real-world business experience to generate innovative, meaningful solutions. Pamela’s endless energy and commitment to creating inclusive, healthy workplace environments, coupled with her deep passion for social justice, has distinguished her as a thought leader in both organization effectiveness and the equity, diversity and inclusion fields.…

Pamela SeaMonster

Pamela is a traditional storyteller, plant medicine specialist, indigenous rights and environmental activist, weaver/artist, award-winning documentary filmmaker (McMinnville Film Festival), Co-Founder and Chairwoman of People Of The Confluence, Vice-chairwoman of the Snohomish Tribe and a cultural educator. She has spent her whole life working to preserve and grow the traditions of her indigenous people, and to bring as much healing, community and opportunity to Indian Country as possible. She’s been recognized by Indigenous communities and settler governments for her community work, and won awards for her film yehow’ (yehow.org). Co Founder and Chairwoman of People Of The Confluence Apart from…

Peggy Horan with Esalen Massage

Peggy Horan

Peggy Horan gives Esalen Massage in a field of deep presence, comfort, and support, using stretches and deep muscle work to bring healing and relaxation to her clients. She has been practicing and teaching Esalen Massage for five decades and is the author of Connecting Through Touch, A Couples Massage Book. Movement studies have been an integral part of her life, participating in 5Rhythms® workshops with Gabrielle Roth, as well as studying and performing both African and Middle Eastern dance. Her committed daily yoga practice sustains her youthful vitality and vibrant approach to life. During her years at Esalen, she also studied…

Peggy Taylor

Peggy Taylor, M.Ed., is a master facilitator, musician, and writer known for her innovations in creative facilitation. She is co-founder of PYE Global and Power of Hope, international NGO’s dedicated to unleashing the creative potential in young people. pyeglobal.org

Penny Livingston

Penny has been teaching internationally and working professionally in the land management, regenerative design permaculture development field for 30 years and has extensive experience in all phases of ecologically sound design and construction as well as the use of natural non-toxic building materials. She specializes in site planning design of resource rich landscapes integrating, rainwater collection, agroforestry systems, edible and medicinal planting, spring development, pond and water systems, habitat development and watershed restoration for homes, farms, co-housing communities and businesses. She is currently teaching online courses with Ecoversity and the Permaculture Skills Center. She co-created the Ecological Design Program and…

Peter Kessels

See Peter’s Evolution @ Work roles in GlassFrog

Placida Gallegos

Placida Gallegos has been an organization development consultant and executive coach for the past 30 years engaged in supporting diverse individuals, groups and organizations in thriving and achieving optimal outcomes.  Her work spans a wide range of industries including corporations, non-profits, foundations, educational institutions and governmental agencies.  Solfire Consulting Group specializes in strategic culture change work, supporting organizations in recognizing and more fully utilizing their diverse talent and untapped potential through the practice of inclusive leadership. Throughout her career in academia and organizational consulting, she has supported the creation of healthier, more inclusive cultures where people can contribute their individual and cultural strengths.  Recent…

Rabbi Olivier BenHaim

Rabbi Olivier BenHaim officiates at Bet Alef—an inclusive, progressive, independent Jewish community deeply rooted in the enduring evolving wisdom of our ancient texts and traditions, yet unafraid to borrow and build from other sources in the service of offering a transformative personal spiritual encounter to all who come under our roof. Rabbi Olivier’s biography is available here.

Rachel Morell

Managing a group therapy practice in Greenlake has me helping new therapists start their own businesses, teaching Simple Practice, chatting with clients, and billing insurance. So, while I don’t know immediately know what it’s like to sit with clients every day, I am surrounded by and love many people just like you. This has been a wild couple of years for so many people I love and I’m here to give you a break from being the person who has to know what to do next. Photography clients have thanked me for helping them laugh more. Friends love me for…

Rashid Hughes

Rashid is a meditation teacher, restorative justice facilitator, yoga instructor, and the co-founder of the Heart Refuge Mindfulness Community for BIPOC in Washington DC. He is also the creator of a rest-centered meditation practice called the Four Pillars of R.E.S.T. and sometimes referred to as R.E.S.T.-A Practice for the Tired & Weary. His work stems from his conviction that all people have the inherent capacity to love and to feel whole because love is the ground of our shared being. Through a variety of contemplative-based practices, Rashid passionately facilitates processes of rediscovering belonging and meaning in the present moment.

Raymond Neal

Raymond Neal is a Project Director at Human Impact Partners. As a native Wisconsinite he takes great pride in the opportunity to support the development of healthy communities. Raymond has always sought opportunities to cultivate experiences and relationships, placing a premium on growth and development. Mindful and introspective, honest and charismatic, Raymond has a personality that thrives in any industry focused on human development. He’s a listener, a thinker, a perpetual learner who isn’t afraid to have difficult conversations. He is passionately devoted toward creating a more just world and firmly believes that in order to do so, one must…

Rebecca Colwell

Rebecca is a talented integral facilitator, strategist and coach, co-creator of Integral Facilitator programs, and the CEO of Ten Directions. For over thirty years she has been facilitating and inspiring others to practice facilitative leadership and meet the challenges of a wide range of cultural and social issues. Rebecca has become a well-known innovator for design and facilitation of multi-stakeholder strategy development and multi-disciplinary projects that cross organizational boundaries. She has led many “firsts” in initiatives related to better futures for health, energy, design in business, culture production, natural and cultural heritage, and economic development. Rebecca’s warm, playful and irreverent…

Rick Ingrasci

Rick Ingrasci, MD, MPH, is a social entrepreneur with a rich background in psychiatry and holistic medicine. Best known for his philosophy that “If you want to create a new culture, throw a better party,” Rick is director of the StoryDome Project and coaches NGO leaders. newstories.org

Robert Gilman

Trained as an astrophysicist, Dr. Robert Gilman decided in the mid-1970s that “the stars could wait, but the planet couldn’t.” He then turned his attention to the study of global sustainability, futures research, and strategies for positive cultural transformation. This event is a distillation of his four decades of experience with catalyzing results-oriented change. His on-the-ground sustainability efforts have included co-founding the Context Institute, creating and editing the award-winning In Context, A Quarterly of Humane Sustainable Culture, co-founding the Global Ecovillage Network, doing Citizen Diplomacy with the former USSR, serving as a City Councilman in Langley, Washington, and working with…

Sarah Manchester

Sarah is a longtime meditator and a practice instructor in Nalandabodhi—the sangha established by Tibetan meditation master Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche.  She believes that meditation has been the biggest influence in her personal and professional life, in that it has given her a tool for having a deeper understanding of herself.  In addition to time on the cushion, Sarah is a psychotherapist and a mother of two adult sons.  She loves spending time outdoors. She has led weekend and day-long meditation retreats at the Whidbey Institute and this will be the second retreat that she has co-led with her husband, Howard…

Sarri Gilman

Sarri Gilman, LMFT has been a licensed marriage and family therapist since 1986, during which time she was also an Executive Director for several non-profits for 20 years and worked seven years teaching leadership to managers and executives. She is an author, speaker, community leader, Fellow of the American Institue of Stress and creator/founder of the Transform Your Boundaries® workshop and Naming and Taming Overwhelm® workshop. For more information, visit www.sarrigilman.com.

Shannon Patterson

Shannon Patterson is the founder of Connection Works. Her passion is to help people navigate “the complexity in here” and “the complexity out there” by deepening their connection to themselves, each other, and the work they do.  Whether that complexity is a personal leadership challenge, a team’s tricky dynamics, or shifting an organization’s culture, she helps bring more clarity to the complexity people face by helping them understand what’s happening beneath the surface. Shannon draws on her experience and education in leadership and organizational development as well as her variety of professional experiences – ropes course instructor, yoga teacher, university…

Sharmayne Arrington

Sharmayne Arrington, LMHC is a therapist, consultant and clinical supervisor. She holds a Masters Degree in Counseling Psychology from the Seattle School of Theology & Psychology and owns a private practice in Tacoma Washington. Her work focuses around psycho-spiritual abolitionism, mainly with African-American women & femmes. She seeks to dissolve internalized oppressive harm by co-discovering ways to live in a false construct in the midst of its glorious breakdown. She sees how we as people have had to become imbalanced in order to cope with an imbalanced system, and seeks to help reclaim equilibrium. Sharmayne is trained and certified as…

Starhawk

Starhawk is an author, activist, permaculture designer and teacher, and a prominent voice in modern earth-based spirituality and ecofeminism. She is the author or co-author of thirteen books, including The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess and the ecotopian novel The Fifth Sacred Thing, and its sequel City of Refuge. Her most recent non-fiction book is The Empowerment Manual: A Guide for Collaborative Groups, on group dynamics, power, conflict and communications. Starhawk teaches permaculture design grounded in spirituality and with a focus on activism through the  Earth Activist Training which she co-founded with Penny Livingston. She travels internationally, lecturing and teaching on earth-based spirituality, the tools…

Steve Schapiro

Steve Schapiro teaches, writes, and consults in the areas of adult development and adult learning, with a focus on transformative learning and social justice. He is a member of the faculty in the School of Leadership Studies at Fielding Graduate University, where he has also served as Dean for Academic Affairs. He has spent over 30 years teaching for social justice and inclusion, and leading dialogues across difference in regard to issues of race, gender, and sexual orientation. He is co-editor of the book, Innovations in Transformative Learning: Space, Culture and the Arts. and editor of the book, Higher Education…

Tara DeNuccio

Tara DeNuccio brings a passion for the discovery and experience of life in its muti-dimensional expression. Her commitment to integration of embodied life has been supported by study and practice in the domains of meditation and the healing arts, integral and somatic coaching, integral facilitation, and human development across the lifespan.

Tatyana Fertelmeyster

Tatyana Fertelmeyster, MA, LCPC, is founder and principal of Connecting Differences, LLC. She works as a consultant, trainer, and coach with organizations, teams, and individuals. For Tatyana, Connecting Differences is her passion and not just the name of her consulting company. Tatyana is fascinated with process rather than content. She sees tolerance as one’s ability to tolerate oneself while engaging with others across differences and from that perspective Personal Leadership becomes her main approach. She uses PL to help develop the effectiveness and resilience of professionals working with diversity and intercultural relations. She uses it to teach leaders to effectively…

Tyler Dunning

Tyler is a professional writer, working from home in Belgrade, Montana, as an Associate Editor at Only One, a storytelling platform for ocean conservation, where he writes & edits articles and produces short films.

Victoria Santos

Victoria Santos’ commitment to social justice, racial equity and compassionate service has expressed itself in many forms over the past 30 years, including non-profit leadership, consulting, and community-based organizing in the U.S. and internationally. Victoria has a strong affinity for leading group processes and exploring the ways that intersectional and structural oppressions express themselves in systems, cultures and individuals. She loves facilitating rituals, healing spaces and authentic communication to support individual and collective healing, discovery and change.

Vipin Thekk

Vipin Thekk is a coach, facilitator, and social entrepreneur. He designs and facilitates transformational journeys for individuals and institutions to adapt and thrive in times of rapid change. His passion for unleashing human potential has led him to launch programs and organizations around issues ranging from youth entrepreneurship to re-imagining parenting for the 21st century, as well as the Changemaker Communities Initiative. He is also a Kundalini yoga teacher and Gestalt Awareness practitioner.

Wendy Halowski

 Wendy Halowski, Dip. DH; BHSc.MSc; has co-facilitated programs for people living with acute and chronic illnesses (including cancer) and caregivers through the Tzu Chi Institute which integrates both conventional and complementary methods of health care. The focus of her work is integrating the body, mind, emotions and spirit to enable individuals to be present in their lives as they unfold. She has practiced as a clinical counselor in Vancouver, British Columbia for over 25 years working with couples and individuals to pursue healing, wholeness and seek out their own inner wisdom.  She is also a SoulCollage® facilitator using a unique…

Wendy Palmer

Wendy Palmer is the founder of Leadership Embodiment, a process that uses principles from the non-violent Japanese martial art of Aikido and mindfulness to offer simple tools and practices to increase leadership capacity and respond to stress and pressure with greater confidence and integrity. Wendy holds a sixth degree black belt in Aikido and has practiced mindfulness for over 40 years. She has worked with executive teams and individuals for Twitter, Genentech, Jazz Pharmaceuticals, The Gap, NASA, Salesforce, McKinsey & Co, Oracle, Unilever, The BBC, Gates Foundation, The George Washington University, Comcast, Accenture, BlackRock Funds, and The Daimler Chrysler Group.…

Zakiya Rhodes

Zakiya is a life-long lover of movement – from playing organized sports in high school and college, to teaching in-studio and online barre classes for a boutique fitness company. Movement has always been a constant in Zakiya’s life, and a way to cultivate mind-body connection. For most of her life though, mind-body connection wasn’t something that she was conscious of— her awareness of this connection became apparent once she found mindfulness. It was then that Zakiya understood the importance of moving her body with intention. When leading movement, Zakiya strives to create a judgment-free, supportive space in order to promote…