Gaian Gathering Presenters

Bayo Akomolafe, Ph.D. (Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India)

Rooted with the Yoruba people in a more-than-human world, Bayo is the father to Alethea and Kyah, the grateful life-partner to Ije, son and brother. A widely celebrated international speaker, posthumanist thinker, poet, teacher, public intellectual, essayist, and author of two books, These Wilds Beyond our Fences: Letters to My Daughter on Humanity’s Search for Home and We Will Tell our Own Story: The Lions of Africa Speak. Bayo is the Founder of The Emergence Network and host of the postactivist course/festival/event, We Will Dance with Mountains. He currently lectures at Pacifica Graduate Institute, California. He sits on the Board of many organizations including Science and Non-Duality (US) and Ancient Futures (Australia). Read more on Bayo’s website.

Aravinda Ananda (Watertown, Massachusetts, United States)

Aravinda is a social ecologist living in Pequosette homelands in northeast Turtle Island, under the municipality of Watertown, Massachusetts. Read more on Aravinda’s website.

Héctor Aristizabal (Medellín, Antioquia, Colombia)

Héctor combines his experience as a psychotherapist, with his artistic work and activism. During his exile he worked in war zones and post-conflict using theater of the oppressed and other methodologies to explore alternatives to conflict and for the creation of community healing rituals. For many years, his work focused on training psychosocial teams in more than 50 countries such as Nepal, India, China, Northern Ireland, Senegal, Ukraine, Croatia, Afghanistan, Guatemala, and especially Syria and Colombia. In 2017 he returned to his native Colombia and with WTR practitioner Helena ter Ellen developed Reconectando, a project that accompanied the work of The Truth Commission using deep ecology, social theater and healing rituals while working with victims, ex-combatants and others involved in the war. He is also co-founder of Dreaming Action dedicated to creating a bridge between the best social and organizational practices. Hector was honored with the prestigious Otto René Castillo Award for Political Theatre and he is co-author with Diane Lefer of The Blessing Next to the Wound: A Story of Art, Activism, and Transformation. Connect with Héctor here. 

James Baraz (Woodacre, California, United States)

James has been a meditation teacher since 1978 and leads retreats, workshops, and classes in the US and abroad. He is a co-founding teacher of Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, California, where he started the Family Program and the Community Dharma Leader Program. He is the creator and teacher of the online Awakening Joy course, since 2003. James serves as a guiding teacher to One Earth Sangha, a Virtual EcoCenter devoted to Buddhist responses to climate change. James the co-author of Awakening Joy: 10 Steps to Happiness with Shoshana Alexander and Awakening Joy for Kids with Michele Lilyanna. Connect with James here. 

Molly Young Brown, M.A., M.Div. (Mt Shasta, California, United States)

Molly lives in Mt Shasta, CA with her husband Jim. In her work as a writer, workshop facilitator, and life coach, she draws on the Work That Reconnects, ecopsychology, psychosynthesis, and systems thinking, and specializes in working with activists. She co-authored with Joanna Macy both editions of Coming Back to Life (1998, 2014) and edits the online journal, Deep Times: A Journal of the Work That Reconnects. Her other publications include: Growing Whole: Self-realization for the Great Turning; Held in Love: Life Stories To Inspire Us Through Times of Change (co-editor Carolyn Treadway); and Lighting A Candle: Collected Reflections on a Spiritual Life.

Mark Coleman (San Francisco Bay Area, California, United States)

Mark Coleman is a Buddhist insight meditation teacher and has taught at Spirit Rock and beyond since 2000. He is passionate about integrating meditation and nature and leads wilderness retreats through his organization Awake in the Wild as well as guiding nature meditation teacher trainings. Mark took the very first WTR training with Joanna Macy many years ago and integrates that perspective and practices into his nature meditation work. Co-founder of the Mindfulness Training Institute, Mark also leads mindfulness teacher trainings in the EU and US. He is author of four books, two of which are dedicated to nature practice – Awake in the Wild – Mindfulness in Nature as a Path to Self-Discovery and more recently A Field Guide to Nature Meditation.
Mark lives in Sausalito, Marin and loves nothing more than hiking, biking and kayaking in the outdoors. Connect with Mark here.

Manon Danker (Amsterdam, North Holland, Netherlands)

Manon is a Dutch Facilitator of WTR, and shares Full Spiral Journeys regularly since 2015. She is a Sociologist and Environmental Scientist. She is also deeply engaged in the language of birds. Facilitating WTR has given her more hope about our human potential. It is incredibly healing to restore that and she aspires to stay present in the GT for letting our love for Gaia grow. Manon is currently setting up a FDP program for WTR. In recent years working with Voice, the Land, Art and Music is shaping her work and one of the recent highlights has been the collaboration with Dutch singer songwriter Nynke Laverman. Connect with Manon here.

Chévanni Beon Davids (City of Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa)

Chévanni, a South African luminary with decades of experience in alternative education, wears various hats as an activist, devoted father, community organizer, prolific writer, and skilled facilitator. His indelible mark is etched into South Africa’s social and educational landscapes. Chévanni’s work revolves around the exploration of realizing children as people, education and Play ontology, deeply informed by community concerns. As the founder of the Reimagined Learning Community, he champions Unlearning, Ceremony, Restoration, and fostering a holistic approach to education. His unwavering commitment extends to the exploration of Indigenous ontologies, focusing on belonging, children, and community, propelling positive change and inclusivity. Connect with Chévanni here.

Marc Decitre (Brussels, Belgium)

Marc is a Brussels-based playwright, academic, and activist, who situates his work at the intersection of social ecology and eco-spirituality. His playwriting revisits the Tower of Babel story with an ecological twist to give voice to the emotional poignancy of our contemporary predicament. His academic work draws on Spinozist and ecofeminist philosophies of nature to explore how societies shaped by modernity may (re)open a space for affirming ecological values within a pluralist political sphere. His activist work focuses on translating body-based healing modalities (including the WTR and generative somatics) for French-speaking environmental activists. He has, among other things, co-organized a queer WTR workshop and developed a “Holocene deep time walk” that resituates the history of empire with the much larger evolutionary history of societies of reciprocity.

Jo delAmor (Ohio, United States)

Jo delAmor has been a staff member of the WTR Network since 2019. She is also a WTR facilitator and personal transformation coach focused on supporting parents through these unprecedented and challenging times. Her work is deeply holistic, incorporating reconnection to self, all our relations, the Earth and the Divine across Deep Time in service to mutual thriving and the ones yet to be. She presents the WTR in the context of understanding the roles that oppression and colonization have played in creating our current circumstances and with a strong commitment to actively undoing oppression. Drawing from her 20+ years of experience caring for children in a wide variety of scenarios she has created and facilitates a body of WTR-style work for New Paradigm Parenting in her Parenting in Tumultuous Times programs. She is the author of Raising Children in the Midst of Global Crisis: A Compassionate Guidebook for New Paradigm Parenting.

Janna Diamond (Atlanta, Georgia, United States)

Janna Diamond is a somatic practitioner and founder of Evolutionary Somatic Practice, an integrative and ecological approach to trauma healing in complex times, focused on guiding people to build inner resources for collective evolution. She has been facilitating embodied grief and healing work alongside the Work That Reconnects for over a decade. Janna serves on the Board of Interhelp, an organization that supports WTR facilitators to integrate liberatory, evolving edge, and culture-building practices. She is also a Regional Coordinator for the Climate Psychology Alliance of North America, works with frontline activists, and makes home in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. Connect with Janna here.

Silvia Di Blasio (Greater Vancouver Metropolitan Area, Canada)

Silvia is a facilitator for regenerative design and social change and a lifelong student and practitioner of permaculture, ecopsychology and the WTR. Silvia is a Weaver on the WTR Network team and facilitates courses at Gaia Education, provides eLearning support to the Capra Course and and co-facilitates “Cultivating Regenerative Livelihoods” with Della Duncan. Connect with Silvia here. Connect with Silvia here. 

Della Z Duncan (San Francisco, California, United States)

Della has been a Work that Reconnects facilitator for over 10 years and has led over 30 WTR workshops and retreats in over seven countries. Other areas of Della’s livelihood garden include supporting individuals as a Right Livelihood Coach, helping transition businesses and organizations as a post-capitalist consultant, teaching and facilitating courses and retreats on Regenerative Economics, and hosting the Upstream Podcast which challenges mainstream economic thinking through documentaries and conversations including, The Green Transition: The Problem with Green Capitalism and The Myth of Freedom Under Capitalism. Della is also the Course Development Manager of Fritjof Capra’s Capra Course on the Systems View of Life, a founding member of the California Doughnut Economics Coalition, a Senior Fellow of Social and Economic Equity at the London School of Economics, a Gross National Happiness Master Trainer, and a Senior Lecturer of Renegade Economics and Regenerative Livelihoods at the California Institute of Integral Studies, Santa Cruz Permaculture, Vital Cycles Permaculture, and Gaia Education. Connect with Della here. 

Barbara Ford (Portland, Oregon, United States)

Barbara has facilitated WTR and WTR-inspired workshops/gatherings since 2015, and has developed and presented on an expanded conversation about gratitude called Radical Gratitude. She has been a climate justice activist for over twenty years and works with activist groups, artists, educational institutions, and faith organizations in the exploration of the convergence of spirit, creativity, and activism. She is a visual artist and poet, and has worked with arts activists to grow the creative capacities within the climate justice movement. She is available to consult with WTR facilitators, with a particular interest in integrated the arts. Read more on Barbara’s website.

Shayontoni Ghosh (Hyderabad, Telangana, India)

Shayontoni is a writer, a theatre-maker and a facilitator of spaces of inner work, creative self-expression and community-care. Shayontoni has been offering WTR workshops online since 2020 and serves as a Weaver on the WTR Network team. Read more about Shayontoni here.

Tamila Gresham (Emeryville, California, United States)

Tamila has nearly 15 years of experience working with leaders across legal, academic, nonprofit, and business contexts to evolve organizational structures, processes, policies, and culture to distribute power in ways that foster belonging and are more just, especially for historically oppressed and marginalized communities. She honed her skills and social justice lens through her background as a lawyer, classroom teacher, senior People & DEI leader of a national nonprofit, and founder of a nonprofit serving communities across many intersections of marginalization. She brings that experience to bear as a co-founder of Harmonize Consulting, where she has helped steward over 60 organizations through internal change processes. She leads with the values of joy and fierce grace. Read more about Tamila here.

Belinda Griswold (Western Washington, United States)

Belinda is a mediator, communications director, attorney, and WTR facilitator specializing in racial justice approaches for a wide variety of organizations and people. She is passionate about building organizational, personal, and community resilience as we push for a just transition in our movements and economies. Belinda lives with her family, pit bull, and pony on Snohomish lands in Western Washington, and has recently been honored to work on Indigenous-led river and salmon campaigns throughout the Pacific Northwest. Learn more about Belinda here.

Ben Gross (United Kingdom)

Ben Ben Ji runs Wider Horizons Singing Circles and is the producer of Wider Horizons – The Transformational Gathering in Nature for Young Adults. He is a fully accredited Psychotherapist specialising in young people and families and is a university lecturer in the field of Ecotherapy. He has held monthly The Work That Reconnects Singing Circles throughout the country for the past two years. Ben Ben Ji learnt to play guitar and sing sacred songs, bhajans and Osho songs from the age of 7 in India. Learn more about Ben here and listen to his music here.

Rebekah Hart (Val-David, Quebec, Canada)

Rebekah is a climate aware psychotherapist, marriage and family therapist, eco-therapist, drama therapist and long-time facilitator of Work that Reconnects. Rebekah was one of the first facilitators to bring the Work that Reconnects to French Canada/Quebec, and particularly to Montreal. She has been a close student of Joanna Macy and has been facilitating and mentoring new facilitators in the Work that Reconnects for over 20 years. Much of Rebekah’s work has been centered around community empowerment and working with activists. For her master’s research, she developed a 10-week program for activists around the theme of collective care and burnout prevention, integrating Work that Reconnects and drama therapy. In her psychotherapy practice, Rebekah specializes in climate distress and eco-anxiety. She is a member of the Climate Psychology Alliance of North America, and is passionate about teaching other therapists how to integrate the Work that Reconnects into their work. Rebekah feels very fortunate to have encountered the WTR at a young age, and feels a sense of awe at the power and unfolding beauty of this work to help return people to their sense of innate inner power and belonging in the web of life. In these uncertain times, she hopes to continue to utilize the Work that Reconnects to support and build dynamic social/ecological movements of solidarity and resilience.

Lydia Violet Harutoonian (Bay Area, California, United States)

Lydia has studied dedicatedly and facilitated with deep ecology elder and Buddhist scholar Joanna Macy for the past 15 years, learning how we can metabolize planetary despair, anxiety, and community traumas into energy for resilience, action, and community healing. She founded and runs The School for The Great Turning, which creates access to an education that will empower humanity’s life-sustaining legacy. Lydia had the great honor of co-facilitating with Joanna Macy in the final 5 years of Macy’s facilitation career and continues to facilitate both online and in-person programs internationally. She has seen the WTR support many folks across communities and hopes to contribute well to the legacy of this work. 

Clare Hedin (Oakland, California, United States)

Clare is a multi-disciplinary artist, with an emphasis on sound, connection, healing, & creativity.  She explores communication as a way to track levels of consciousness and what might be possible next. Singer/songwriter, painter, writer, and sound healer, she researches our evolving consciousness, exploring the nature of being through energy awareness and deep listening. Her focus is on developing our innate creativity as it comes naturally to each of us. All this is underpinned by her impulse to protect Earth and deepen our relationship to Earth’s aliveness and life’s sentience! Connect with Clare here. 

Mwende Hinojosa (San Francisco, California, United States)

Mwende is leading the Law Center’s effort to refine and envision the story of the Law Center. She coordinates the Law Centers social media channels, newsletter, and blog and co-manages the Law Center’s online educational materials and website. She holds operational roles in the Internal Resilience, Abundance, and Finance Circles. She also contributes to programmatic work within the Food and Farm Circle. Mwende grew up in Porterville, CA – a town nestled in California’s San Joaquin Valley, heavily impacted by industrial agriculture and the prison industry. She studied International Relations at The Jackson School of International Relations at the University of Washington. While there, she conducted research on responsible apparel purchasing in Guatemala and on the lives of domestic service workers in Chile. Connect with Mwende here. 

Mutima Imani (Berkeley, California, United States)

Mutima is a Social Justice Visionary, Master Trainer and Facilitator of the Work That Reconnects. Her signature work is to Heal the Heart of Humanity, by providing 21st Century Tools for Personal/Professional Development and Transformation. Imani is a Global Diversity Specialist highly skilled at bringing diverse groups together to resolve conflicts. Imani works with people conducting Civic Leadership Training and Restorative Justice Circles. She has a Master’s Degree in Public Administration with an emphasis in Phenomenology. Imani is passionate about how all things work together and what humans can learn from the natural world. For the last 5 years Imani has been on the Spiral Journey team with Molly Brown and Constance Washburn supporting people from all over the world to facilitate the WTR. As an African American Woman, Imani sees clearly how the climate issues and social justice issues overlap and feels it’s important to dismantle both issues at the same time. Imani has a global invitation and challenge to “Awakening to Loving Black” the word, the color and Black people. Connect with Mutima here. 

Dahr Jamail (United States)

Dahr is an award winning journalist and author. Dahr’s books include: Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq; The End of Ice: Bearing Witness and Finding Meaning in the Path of Climate Disruption; We Are the Middle of Forever: Indigenous Voices from Turtle Island on the Changing Earth (co-edited with Stan Rushworth). He also hosts the podcast Holding the Fire, in-depth interviews with indigenous leaders from around the world, uncovering ways of reckoning with environmental and societal breakdown. Dahr’s work has focussed on how the dominant culture is destroying life on Earth, in order to provide people with a clear understanding so as to enable us to see and feel this deeply. Only from that place, are we able to take in, deeply, what this means to all of us, and begin to go through the spiral in a good way. Connect with Dahr here. 

Dr. Lyla June Johnston (Taos, New Mexico, United States)

Lyla June is an Indigenous musician, scholar, and community organizer of Diné (Navajo), Tsétsêhéstâhese (Cheyenne) and European lineages. Her research focuses on the ways in which pre-colonial Indigenous Nations gardened large regions of Turtle Island (aka the Americas) to produce abundant food systems for humans and non-humans. Contrary to popular belief, Indigenous Peoples leveraged immense influence on their surrounding lands, fires, and waters in ways that could heal our planet today. Whether it’s periodically burning grassland ecosystems with low severity fires to maintain habitat for deer, buffalo, antelope, etc, or building intertidal rock walls that catch sediment and warmer waters to expand clam habitat, native people have a number of innovative strategies for scaling habitat for edible plants and animals whom they often view as relatives. Her work translates this poorly understood history to the Western world and highlights the connection between Indigenous land ethics, decolonial narratives, carbon sequestration, biodiversity augmentation, anthropogenic habitat expansion, and regional ecosystems connectivity. These success of the systems is believed to be due to their underlying value system of respect, reverence, responsibility and reciprocity. Learn more about her work here.

Chris Johnstone (Dyke, Scotland, United Kingdom)

Chris is co-author, with Joanna Macy, of Active Hope. He lives in the north of Scotland, and has been facilitating the Work That Reconnects since the late 1980s. With a background in medicine, psychological therapies, group work and coaching, Chris is also one of the UK’s leading resilience trainers. His work explores what helps us face disturbing situations (whether in our own lives or the world) and respond in ways that nourish resilience and well-being. His online courses for resilience and wellbeing at https://collegeofwellbeing.com reach people from more than sixty countries. More recently he developed the free video-based online course in Active Hope. Connect with Chris here. 

Gwyneth Jones (United Kingdom)

Gwyneth has been facilitating workshops and courses based around the Work that Reconnects since 2020, mostly online. Along with a range of amazing co-facilitators from across the globe, she has offered everything from introductory workshops to deep-dives, such as the 8-week programme “What Now? Realignment and Reconnection for Chaotic Times”. Gwyneth is based in North Wales, where she is slowly starting to offer in-person workshops and sharing circles to help people process the magnitude of what’s happening in our times. She is also a trained coach and her academic background is in Psychology who often writes about the intersections between psychology and the climate crisis, and works part-time as a Communications Manager on Egin.org.uk, a programme focused on helping communities in Wales to take action on the climate emergency. Learn more about Gwyneth here. Connect with Gwyneth here.

Sean Kelly (Bay Area, California, United States)

Sean is Professor of Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) where he and Joanna co-taught the course “The Great Turning.” He is the author of Becoming Gaia: On the Threshold of Planetary Initiation; Coming Home: The Birth and Transformation of the Planetary Era; and (with Sam Mickey and Adam Robbert) of The Variety of Integral Ecologies: Nature, Culture, and Knowledge in the Planetary Era. He is also co-translator of French thinker Edgar Morin’s book, Homeland Earth: A Manifesto for the New Millennium.

Thao Kin (Vietnam)

Thao Kin is a trainer and facilitator from Vietnam with a focus on ecology & environment. She has a master in Sustainable Development in Ecology and holds a heart for compassionate space holding. Started her work in the non-profit sector in Vietnam in 2012, she has been working with different hats in numerous non-formal educational projects in Vietnam as coordinators, trainers, facilitators and course designers. She has a passion for Deep Ecology and is a Work That Reconnects Facilitator. Her calling is to bring the awe and enchantment of nature back to human consciousness through education and living experience. Learn more about Thao here. Connect with Thao here. 

Kurt Kuhwald (Oakland, California, United States)

Kurt is a spiritual director-companion certified by the (radical) Sisters of Mercy, was ordained in the Unitarian Universalist Faith and after two decades became a faith-rooted clergy/community organizer. He trained as a psychotherapist (with Dr. Carl Rogers in a trans-racial program). As a UU minister, he co-facilitated national anti-racism trainings for the UUA (along with serving on its Association-wide Journey Toward Wholeness Transformation Committee) for over a decade. He has been involved in the Work That Reconnects (as facilitator and Steward of the Work) for 18 years, He was an early supporter and co-facilitator of WTR intensives for men. In recent years he has been committed to bringing Anti-Oppression and Anti-Racism into the center of the WTR. Connect with Kurt here.

Nynke Laverman (Germany)

Nynke is a singer/songwriter, spoken-word artist and explorer. Nynke is Frisian, the Frisians are an ethnic group indigenous to the coastal regions of the Netherlands and northwestern Germany. She questions life and in so doing, doesn’t spare herself. Nynke depicts poetic, surreal worlds through acoustic music combined with electronics and earthy lyrics. This versatile Frisian singer has a voice that stays with you: ‘a leaf-blown shimmer of a voice’, The Independent writes. Nynke already has six albums and corresponding theatre productions to her name. She received several prizes and in 2013 international recognition followed with Alter. The many journeys Nynke makes leave their traces in her music. Especially her stay with a nomad family in Mongolia made a deep impression. Since then, our Western relationship to our environment has been a recurring theme in her work. In 2020/2021 Nynke launches Plant, a cinematic, musical journey revealing the experience of a woman who tries to find a way out of our human, concrete fortress, our materialism and highly scheduled lifestyle. Plant is a hopeful protest, in which Nynke for the first time clearly states her views on how we treat our planet. Spoken word plays a major part, and more than ever she inhabits the finest register of her voice: there where it becomes almost a whisper. Learn more about Nynke here. 

Sandra Lezarma (Ecuador)

Sandra is with Mushuk Away (Educación Alternativa y Comunitaria). You can connect with Sandra here.

Amy Lister (Toronto, Canada)

Amy brings more than 20 years of coaching, education and leadership development experience to supporting people exploring and integrating pivotal transition experiences in life and work so they can courageously live in alignment with their values while expanding their capacity for caring for self and the wellbeing of the planet. More recently, Amy graduated from the Toronto Art Therapy Institute (TATI), and, through her private practice, is supporting individuals and caregivers as a Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying) and as an Art Therapist. She holds degrees in: Outdoor & Experiential Education and Religious Studies from Queens University; a Masters in Curriculum, Teaching & Learning focused on Holistic & Aesthetic Education (OISE/ UofT); and, a post-graduate certificate in Executive Coaching (Royal Roads University). She carries with her years of voluntary experience in the realms of trauma-informed social justice, community based refugee resettlement efforts and a grassroots, interdisciplinary, and equity-oriented approach to international development efforts. Learn more about Amy here. Connect with Amy here.

Shala Massey (Grand Prairie, Texas, United States)

Shala (she/her) is a transformational space facilitator, holistic healing arts practitioner, and lover of music. Shala is passionate about creating sanctuaries for transformational leaders, and change-makers to activate their voices, be empowered in a rediscovery of their own unique gifts, and deepen their embodiment of co-creating a more regenerative culture for the next seven generations. Shala believes in sociocracy as a powerful tool in fostering the emergence of equitable, inclusive organizations and movements where every voice is heard and valued. Connect with Shala here. 

Woman Stands Shining – Pat McCabe (New Mexico, United States)

Woman Stands Shining is a Native American elder whose work explores the meeting point between ceremony and deep social healing. Pat was born into the Dine (Navajo) nation, and has also received spiritual training with the Lakota tradition. She travels and teaches widely on the indigenous science of Thriving Life. Her work seeks to revivify human knowledge and meaning-making, by restoring the holistic knowledge practices known to indigenous people. “To be the disembodied intellect and observer rather than passionate participant, and harmonious co-Creator, has led to a great mis-understanding of who we are, where we are, and how it is.” Learn more and connect with Pat here.

Uri Noy Meir (Crespina Lorenzana, Tuscany, Italy)

Uri is a social arts facilitator and consultant with over 12 years of experience using participatory methods. Uri mentors creative teams and project leaders worldwide to bring more social awareness to their lives and work. Uri graduated from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2009 (Theatre and Latin American Studies) and is based in central Italy. In his practice-based research, he employs Social Presencing Theater, Dragon Dreaming, Theater of the Oppressed, and Games to make visible trans-formative patterns in human ecosystems, build collective dreams, and empower people and communities to act for the future and earth, locally and globally. Learn more about Uri here. Connect with Uri here. 

Asher Miller (Corvallis, Oregon, United States)

Asher has served as the Executive Director of Post Carbon Institute for the last fifteen years, having first joined the organization in early 2008 to manage its Relocalization Network program. Over that time he’s had a hand in numerous publishing efforts, events, and creative projects, including serving as one of the co-hosts of PCI’s dark humor podcast Crazy Town. Asher has worked in various capacities in the nonprofit sector since receiving his BA in Creative Writing in 1996 from Colorado College, starting his career at Steven Spielberg’s Shoah Foundation before eventually finding his calling with Post Carbon Institute, helping others understand and respond to the global sustainability crisis. He lives in Corvallis, Oregon but has called many places home, including The Netherlands, Israel, and communities across both coasts of the United States. Connect with Asher here. 

Simon J. Mont Esq. (Longmont, Colorado, United States)

Simon has been facilitating conversations and change processes for individuals, groups, and organizations for 15 years. After beginning in the fields of community dialogue and Restorative Justice, Simon moved to organizational change and movement building eight years ago. After studying at Berkeley Law and immersing himself in Oakland’s social movement scene, he co-founded the Nonprofit Democracy Network and Harmonize Consulting and has accompanied more than 60 organizations through change processes. Simon is trained as a lawyer, energy healer, nondual meditation teacher, kundalini yoga teacher, and is currently in school to become a Rabbi. Simon leads with values of integrity and prayerfulness. Connect with Simon here. 

Jen Myzel (Sebastopol, California, United States)

Jen is a facilitator of the Work that Reconnects, musician, elementary school teacher, and children’s book author. Jen’s three musical albums and children’s book ‘Yellow Lotus Flower’ are inspired by her ten years of study with Joanna Macy, founder of the Work that Reconnects. Jen aims to inspire compassionate action on behalf of all life through her songs, stories and facilitation. Jen is a facilitator through School for the Great Turning and Dayenu: A Jewish Call to Climate Action. Jen lives in unceded Miwok and Southern Pomo territory in Northern California with her husband and two year old son. Learn more about Jen here.

Frieda Nixdorf (Grass Valley, California, United States)

Frieda is committed to creating multi-faceted, holistic experiences that improve personal connections with nature. She earned a BA in Religion and Visual Culture from UC Santa Cruz and an MA in Psychology from Meridian University. She has taught Eastern and Western Psychology at several community colleges, and Soul Purpose at the graduate level, always incorporating WTR practices, since 2011. Frieda is particularly interested in the intersection of Psychology and the healing power of nature. Frieda facilitates WTR and Soul Purpose workshops and serves as a Weaver on the WTR Network team. Learn more about Frieda here. 

Ilaria Olimpico (Crespina Lorenzana, Tuscany)

Ilaria is a Social Arts Facilitator and Focusing Trainer certified by The International Focusing Institute of New York. She accompanies groups and individuals on the journey to reconnect with ourselves, Nature, and others. Her facilitation map combines Focusing, Social Presencing Theatre/Theory U, Aesthetic of the Oppressed, and the Spiral of Work That Reconnects. Ilaria worked with migrants and refugees in Italy on social inclusion and conflict transformation projects from 2018 to 2023. She has been working for more than 10 years in peace and intercultural education programs with teenagers and adults. She collaborates as a trainer with the University of Florence, CISP University of Pisa, and University of Applied Science Würzburg (FHWS). Ilaria is co-founder of the collective TheAlbero, member of ImaginAction, and a member of the Organizing Committee of PPLG. She writes short stories and poems on orientexpress.na.it and on the blog imaginaction.org/thealbero. Learn more about Ilaria here. 

Dolly Rateshwar (Mumbai, Maharashtra, India)

Drawing on her experience working for some of the largest multinational companies (including MySpace, Google, and LinkedIn), co-founding the media start-ups Tesseract Imaging and Qyuki, and leading initiatives in media and tech innovation through interdisciplinary collaboration at MIT Media Lab India Initiative, Dolly co-developed a social impact organization that gives underserved kids in her community free and easy access to after-school hip-hop: “The Dharavi Dream Project” brings hip-hop artists to the streets and creates a space where kids can share their thoughts and express themselves through music and dance. Connect with Dolly here. 

Catarina Rosa (Lisbon, Portugal)

Kenzi or Catarina, Master-level biologist specializing in animal vocalizations, behaviour and evolution. Dancer and teacher with more than a decade of experience, in Portugal (her native land) and internationally, integrating the Orchidaceae collective since its inception. Moving through different styles and somatic and mindfulness techniques and explorations, she is currently most excited to water the seeds of movement in non-dancers. Eco.femi.activist, communications manager, translator, animal trainer, curator of festivals and workshops. She is a founding member of the Dunas Livres Association, which educates about and legally defends the preservation of the wild Portuguese coast. She is part of the roots and communications teams of the Ecoversities Alliance, a global network that supports projects in the search for the change of paradigm in education and livelihoods. A hopping bird between sea, mountains, desert, rurality and urbanity, deep lover of Nature and the humans that care for her. Connect with Catarina here. 

Kathleen Rude (Glenview, Illinois, United States) 

Kathleen is a Work That Reconnects facilitator (since 2008) and mentor, an author and a healer. She serves as a Weaver for the Work That Reconnects Network and was mentored by Joanna Macy. Kathleen fell in love with the natural world as a young child and found her voice for environmental activism at age 10. The Redemption of Red Fire Woman is Kathleen’s first novel. She received spiritual training from indigenous elders in the Blackfoot and Northern Ute traditions; these sacred teachings continue to inform her healing practice and ceremonial work. Connect with Kathleen here and here.

Carmen Rumbaut (San Marcos, Texas, United States)

Carmen entered WTR via friends in Buddhism in 2017 while living in the Seattle area, and quickly began to facilitate gatherings (both live and online), attend the beginnings of the Anti-Oppression Resource Group, and serve as a member of the editing team for Deep Times Journal. Carmen is a political and climate activist, who attended and facilitated in Al Gore’s Climate Reality Leadership. She is a child immigrant, retired social worker and attorney and is bilingual in Spanish and English. 

Yuka Saito (Berkeley, California, United States)

Yuka first encountered Joanna’s work shortly after the great earthquake and tsunami of 2011, and since then Yuka has been studying with Joanna and promoting the WTR in Japan. After moving to Berkeley, California in 2013, Yuka’s focus shifted from individual healing to greater interest in social transformation, community building, social justice, the climate and broader ecological crisis, and women’s empowerment. Yuka is the Japanese translator of Coming Back To Life: The Updated Guide to The Work That Reconnects, by Joanna. Macy and Molly Young Brown (2016), which was published in 2020 as カミング・バック・トゥ・ライフ––生命への回帰––. Connect with Yuka here. 

Agatha Santana, (Favela Da Paz Institute in Brazil)

Agatha works with Ecoversities Alliance in Favela Da Paz Institute in Brazil.

Ayya Santacitta (San Rafael, California, United States)

Ayya was born in Austria and did her graduate studies in Cultural Anthropology, focusing on dance, theatre and ritual. She also worked in avant-garde dance theatre as a performer and costume designer. In 1988 she met Ajahn Buddhadasa in southern Thailand, who sparked her interest in Buddhist monastic life. She trained as a nun in England and Asia from 1993 until 2009, primarily in the lineage of Ajahn Chah. Since 2002, she has also received teachings in the lineage of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. Ayya co-founded Aloka Vihara in 2009 and received Bhikkhuni Ordination in 2011. She is committed to Gaia as a living being and resides at Aloka Earth Room, currently located in San Rafael, CA. Information about Aloka Earth Room can be found here.

John Seed (Melbourne, Australia)

John was involved in the creation of experiential deep ecology/the Work That Reconnects with Joanna Macy in 1986 and has been facilitating the workshops that they designed together ever since. At present he is offering such workshops monthly around Australia as well as online. He is also a regular contributor to Work That Reconnects webinars as well as podcasts and other forums. He came into deep ecology via his work protecting the world’s rainforests, which started in 1979 and continues to this day. In 1995, he was awarded the OAM (Order of Australia Medal) by the Aussie Government for Services to conservation and the environment. He is an accomplished film-maker, bard, and author. Learn more about John here.

Linda Seeley (San Luis Obispo, California, United States)

Linda is an environmental activist and facilitator at San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace. Learn more about Linda here.

Jess Serrante (Oakland, California, United States)

Jess is a coach, trainer, facilitator and teacher with over a decade of experience leading and supporting groups of environmental activists. Jess supports climate leaders to do visionary, creative work, while living lives full of joy and satisfaction. Her passion for climate justice is at the core of her work and mission as a coach is to support climate leaders to be nourished by their life and work rather than burning out and to do work that truly lights them up. Jess is currently in production of the “We Are The Great Turning” podcast with Joanna Macy (coming early 2024). You can connect with Jess here. 

Gretchen Sleicher (Port Townsend, Washington, United States) 

Gretchen is a singer, songpasser, songwriter and facilitator of The Work That Reconnects. She delights in weaving group singing and harmony-making into her workshop facilitation, to enhance the meaning and message with the joy of collective song. You can connect with Gretchen at Songs for the Great Turning.

Nina Simons

Nina Simons is the co-founder and Chief Relationship Strategist at Bioneers, and leads its Everywoman’s Leadership program. She is also a social entrepreneur who is passionate about reinventing leadership, restoring the feminine, and co-creating a healthy, peaceful, and equitable world for all. She speaks and teaches internationally at schools, conferences, and festivals, and co-facilitates transformative workshops and retreats for women that share practices for regenerative leadership through relational mindfulness. Learn more about Nina here. 

Helen Sui (Shanghai, China)

Helen is a full time coach, trainer and facilitator, focused on areas of self-knowledge & discovery, consciousness transformation & evolution, and life awakening & sustainability. Her life purpose is to live life in a full and holistic manner. 

Kathleen Sullivan

Kathleen has been engaged in nuclear weapons and nuclear power abolition for more than 30 years. She received her doctorate at Lancaster University, UK, writing a feminist critique of nuclear technology, using Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein as a containing metaphor with plutonium as the Monster. Kathleen has worked internationally over decades with her long-time mentor Joanna Macy to forward conversation and action for Nuclear Guardianship. She has been a consultant to the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs; was the principal author of disarmament related curricula for the UN’s Cyberschoolbus website, and co-wrote Action for Disarmament: 10 Things You Can Do! Kathleen produces nuclear themed films and projects that focus on art for disarmament — utilizing visual arts, music and dance. She has supported the facilitation of hibakusha voices in conferences and UN fora on humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons, and is a Nagasaki Peace Correspondent and Hiroshima Peace Ambassador.

Anne Symens-Bucher (Oakland, California, United States)

Anne is a co-founder of Canticle Farm, located in the Fruitvale District of East Oakland. Inspired by the life of Francis of Assisi, Canticle Farm is an intentional community doing the Work That Reconnects. For more than 35 years, Anne has been involved in work for justice, peace, nuclear disarmament, nonviolence, and ecological sustainability. She is a founding member of Nevada Desert Experience and currently serves on its Board. Anne also serves as Joanna Macy’s executive assistant. She has traveled extensively with Joanna, participated in dozens of Joanna’s workshops and is herself a facilitator of the Work That Reconnects. 

brontë velez (Gualala, California, United States)

brontë’s work and rest is guided by the cosmology and promise of sabbath for black people and the land. as a black-latine transdisciplinary artist, trickster, educator, jíbare and wakeworker, their eco-social art praxis lives at the intersections of black feminist placemaking, abolitionist theologies, environmental regeneration, death doulaship, and the levity of absurdity. the prayer of their life is to support safe and hilarious passage through climate collapse. they embody this commitment of attending to black health/imagination, commemorative justice (Free Egunfemi) and hospicing the shit that hurts black folks and the earth through serving as creative director for Lead to Life Design Collective and ecological educator for ancestral arts skills and nature-connection school Weaving Earth. Connect with brontë here.

Constance Washburn (Lagunitas, California, United States)

Constance is an activist, educator, director and a facilitator of the Work That Reconnects living in California. Since 1994 she has attended many intensives with Joanna Macy. Along with Molly Brown and Mutima Imani, Constance has been leading WTR retreats and workshops in Northern California and running the Spiral Journey: a Facilitator Development Program. Constance is one of the founding Weavers of the WTR Network. She’s also a founding member of the Conscious Elders Network and leads workshops and retreats for Elders in the WTR. Connect with Constance here.

Adrián Galarza Villasenor (Fresno, California, United States)

Adrián is an integral ecopsychologist, contemplative practitioner, international facilitator, author, and ritualist whose work weaves the psycho-spiritual study of the Earth-human relation, animist principles, and contemplative wisdom. He’s the founder and director of the Bioalchemy Institute and the Work That Reconnects Latin America, author of a few books in Spanish and English, editor of the first anthology on the applications of the Work That Reconnects in Latin America, and translator of Joanna Macy’s and Molly Brown’s seminal book, Coming Back to Life: The Updated Guide to the Work That Reconnects. He’s Core Faculty in the East West Psychology Department at the California Institute of Integral Studies and Adjunct Faculty at Naropa University. Connect with Adrián here.

Constance Washburn (Lagunitas, California, United States)

Constance is an activist, educator, director and a facilitator of the Work That Reconnects living in California. Since 1994 she has attended many intensives with Joanna Macy. Along with Molly Brown and Mutima Imani, Constance has been leading WTR retreats and workshops in Northern California and running the Spiral Journey: a Facilitator Development Program. Constance is one of the founding Weavers of the WTR Network. She’s also a founding member of the Conscious Elders Network and leads workshops and retreats for Elders in the WTR. Connect with Constance here.

Nicole Wires (United States)

Nicole (she/her) was born on Arapahoe, Cheyenne and Ute land in the beautiful Rocky Mountains and is a mountain creature through and through. The majority of her political and spiritual awakening happened on Ohlone land, through prison abolition, anti-mass incarceration, and racial justice movement organizing. After spending ten years supporting folks returning from San Quentin Prison at Planting Justice, Nicole is currently facilitating collective self-governance to support the Great Turning with the Nonprofit Democracy Network. She is a student of plants, trees, mountains, dance, and movements. She is dedicated to reclaiming ancestral right relationship to land and community through the recognition of our profound interdependence.

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