Theme: Gender Issues
Thursday, April 6th
This interactive session introduces the Gender Equity and Reconciliation International (GERI) process and provides an experiential taste of this methodology that was endorsed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu in 2013. Developed over 30 years across six continents, the GERI process applies principles of Truth and Reconciliation to gender and sexual injustice and builds trust and compassionate communication through interactive activities and group process. Together, women, men, and people of all genders and sexual orientations can jointly confront sensitive and often taboo issues relating to gender and sexuality—without shame and blame—and collaborate skillfully to reach a place of newfound respect, trust, and even mutual reverence. You are warmly invited to join this experiential introduction to the GERI process and discover its auspicious potential for transforming gender injustice and establishing “beloved community.” Facilitated by: William Keepin and Rev. Cynthia Brix, GERI’s co-founders; Alka Arora, Associate Professor of Women, Gender, Spirituality, and Social Justice at CIIS; and Jorge Rico, co-leader of GERI’s Latin America Project and its corporate training program.
April 6th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm | San Pablo Room, Residence Inn
Panelists
Alka Arora
Associate Professor of Women, Gender, Spirituality, and Social Justice | California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS)
Alka Arora, Ph.D, an Associate Professor of Women, Gender, Spirituality, and Social Justice at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), developed an educational framework called “Integral Feminist Pedagogy” that weaves together feminist, ecological, embodied, and contemplative paradigms. She has published numerous articles and serves as an educational consultant, leadership coach, and certified facilitator of Gender Equity and Reconciliation International workshops. Alka was featured in the documentary film Women’s Spirituality in Higher Education.
Jorge Rico
Trainer | Gender Equity and Reconciliation International
Jorge Rico, M.A. a Gender Equity and Reconciliation International (GERI) Trainer based in Providence, Rhode Island, co-leads the GERI Latin America Project and the GERI corporate training program, and also leads the Men’s Ministry at Concordia Center for Spiritual Living in R.I. Originally from Bolivia, he has 25+ years’ experience in Human Resources in the USA and Latin America, including developing numerous Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) initiatives in corporations.
Cynthia Brix
Co-Founder | Gender Equity and Reconciliation International
Rev. Cynthia Brix, Ph.D. (hon), is co-founder of Gender Equity and Reconciliation International (GERI), which has organized over 300 trainings in 14 countries for healing and reconciliation between women and men and people of all genders. An ordained interfaith minister, Cynthia co-leads retreats on interfaith spirituality and co-convened seven international conferences on “inter-spirituality.” She is co-author of three books with William Keepin, including: Women Healing Women: A Model of Hope for Oppressed Women Everywhere, and, most recently, the collection: Gender Equity and Reconciliation: Thirty Years of Healing the Most Ancient Wound in the Human Family.
William Keepin
Co-Founder | Gender Equity and Reconciliation International (GERI)
William Keepin, Ph.D., co-founder of Gender Equity and Reconciliation International (GERI), a one-time a whistleblower in nuclear science policy, is a mathematical physicist whose research on efficient renewable energy strategies for abating global warming influenced international environmental policy. He has published widely on scientific and spiritual topics and co-convened seven international conferences to foster collaboration between religions and science. Will is also the author of five books, including: Song of the Earth: A Synthesis of Scientific and Spiritual Worldviews, and co-author, most recently of the collection: Gender Equity and Reconciliation: Thirty Years of Healing the Most Ancient Wound in the Human Family.
Friday, April 7th
Developed over 30 years across six continents, the Gender Equity and Reconciliation International (GERI) program applies principles drawn from Truth and Reconciliation initiatives to seek to transmute gender and sexual injustice and achieve gender equality. The GERI process creates a unique forum for empathic truth-telling on sensitive issues and builds mutual trust and compassionate community through interactive activities and group process. Together, women, men, and people of all genders and sexual orientations can jointly confront difficult and often taboo issues relating to gender and sexuality—without shame and blame—and collaborate skillfully to reach a place of newfound respect, trust, and even mutual reverence.
This session will highlight three GERI program areas that span a diverse spectrum of gender identities and intersectionalities, including: MeToo to WeTogether, LGBTQ+ healing; and Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). The presenters will share inspiring stories and impacts of the GERI programs in diverse countries and cultures, which demonstrate how the methodology of deep truth-telling and collective alchemy can dissolve root causes of gender conflict, through skillfully facilitated, heart-centered transformational experiences. Facilitated by: William Keepin and Rev. Cynthia Brix, GERI’s co-founders; Alka Arora, Associate Professor of Women, Gender, Spirituality, and Social Justice at CIIS; and Jorge Rico, co-leader of GERI’s Latin America Project and its corporate training program.
April 7th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm | Campanile Room, Hotel Shattuck Plaza
Panelists
Alka Arora
Associate Professor of Women, Gender, Spirituality, and Social Justice | California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS)
Alka Arora, Ph.D, an Associate Professor of Women, Gender, Spirituality, and Social Justice at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), developed an educational framework called “Integral Feminist Pedagogy” that weaves together feminist, ecological, embodied, and contemplative paradigms. She has published numerous articles and serves as an educational consultant, leadership coach, and certified facilitator of Gender Equity and Reconciliation International workshops. Alka was featured in the documentary film Women’s Spirituality in Higher Education.
Jorge Rico
Trainer | Gender Equity and Reconciliation International
Jorge Rico, M.A. a Gender Equity and Reconciliation International (GERI) Trainer based in Providence, Rhode Island, co-leads the GERI Latin America Project and the GERI corporate training program, and also leads the Men’s Ministry at Concordia Center for Spiritual Living in R.I. Originally from Bolivia, he has 25+ years’ experience in Human Resources in the USA and Latin America, including developing numerous Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) initiatives in corporations.
William Keepin
Co-Founder | Gender Equity and Reconciliation International (GERI)
William Keepin, Ph.D., co-founder of Gender Equity and Reconciliation International (GERI), a one-time a whistleblower in nuclear science policy, is a mathematical physicist whose research on efficient renewable energy strategies for abating global warming influenced international environmental policy. He has published widely on scientific and spiritual topics and co-convened seven international conferences to foster collaboration between religions and science. Will is also the author of five books, including: Song of the Earth: A Synthesis of Scientific and Spiritual Worldviews, and co-author, most recently of the collection: Gender Equity and Reconciliation: Thirty Years of Healing the Most Ancient Wound in the Human Family.
Cynthia Brix
Co-Founder | Gender Equity and Reconciliation International
Rev. Cynthia Brix, Ph.D. (hon), is co-founder of Gender Equity and Reconciliation International (GERI), which has organized over 300 trainings in 14 countries for healing and reconciliation between women and men and people of all genders. An ordained interfaith minister, Cynthia co-leads retreats on interfaith spirituality and co-convened seven international conferences on “inter-spirituality.” She is co-author of three books with William Keepin, including: Women Healing Women: A Model of Hope for Oppressed Women Everywhere, and, most recently, the collection: Gender Equity and Reconciliation: Thirty Years of Healing the Most Ancient Wound in the Human Family.
LGBTQ2SIA+ communities have long had to imagine and innovate relentlessly in their struggles for dignity and equality. In the face of newly empowered homophobic reactionary forces, queer visionaries have been engaging in ever more social, cultural, political and artistic creativity, forging new paths in a dazzling variety of forms. In this session we will hear from three inspiring, impressive and remarkably diverse innovators: Taylor Brorby, essayist, poet, environmentalist and author of the extraordinary memoir, Boys and Oil: Growing Up Gay in a Fractured Land; Niko Alexandre, a Black Queer forester and co-creator of the Shelterwood Collective, dedicated to a vision of Queer and Indigenous land stewardship and Afro-Indigenous food systems; Ashara Ekundayo, a queer, Black feminist interdisciplinary curator, cultural theologian, maker and the Founder/Director at Artist As First Responder. Moderated by Kristin Rothballer, independent consultant and Senior Fellow at the Center for Whole Communities.
April 7th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm | Crystal Ballroom, Hotel Shattuck Plaza
Panelists
Ashara Ekundayo
Founder and Director | Artist As First Responder
Ashara Ekundayo is a queer, Black feminist interdisciplinary independent curator, visual artist and arts organizer whose creative practice is rooted in joy-informed pedagogies and the study and creation of Black archives, site-responsive ceremony, and artist-based strategies that illuminate the specific expertise of Black womxn of the African Diaspora. She is the founder/Director of Artist As First Responder, which serves as a platform to support creatives working to heal communities and save lives.
Nikola Alexandre
Co-Creator & Stewardship Lead | Shelterwood Collective
Nikola Alexandre, Co-Creator & Stewardship Lead of the Shelterwood Collective, is a Black queer forester with MA degrees in both Forestry and Business Administration from Yale who founded Conservation International’s Ecosystem Restoration Program. After attending a nature-based healing gathering following the Pulse massacre, Nikola committed his life to tending the earth and reclaiming land stewardship as a way of nurturing a future for the communities he belongs to, which led to his co-founding the Shelterwood Collective in Sonoma County.
Taylor Brorby
Fellow in Environmental Humanities and Environmental Justice | Tanner Humanities Center at the University of Utah
Taylor Brorby, a Fellow in Environmental Humanities and Environmental Justice at the Tanner Humanities Center at the University of Utah, is an award-winning, widely published writer and poet as well as a contributing editor at North American Review who also serves on the editorial boards of Terrain.org and Hub City Press. Taylor regularly speaks around the country on issues related to extractive economies, queerness, disability, and climate change, and is the author of Boys and Oil: Growing up gay in a fractured land; Crude: Poems; Coming Alive: Action and Civil Disobedience; and co-editor of Fracture: Essays, Poems, and Stories on Fracking in America.
Kristin Rothballer
Senior Fellow | Center for Whole Communities
Kristin Rothballer, a Senior Fellow of the Center for Whole Communities and a founding trustee of the Tyler Rigg Foundation, consults on strategy, programs, equity and organizational development for several nonprofits, foundations, and social and land-based enterprises. Kristin’s previous roles have included: Managing Director of the inclusive green economy nonprofit, Green for All; wilderness retreat leader for Ecology of Awakening; manager of earth-based retreat centers, including Bell Valley Retreat and Tunitas Creek Ranch; and Director of Programs at Bioneers. She also helped co-create the climate change-themed musical FIREROCK, and recently earned a Certificate in Spirituality and Social Change from Pacific School of Religion.
Saturday, April 8th
3:00 pm: Honoring Mother Earth and Bodily Sovereignty: Reproductive Rights, Equity and Birth Justice
Presented in collaboration with Full Spectrum Capital Partners
The war on Mother Earth is rooted in the war on the bodies of women and gender non-binary people’s bodily autonomy. As our cultural system rooted in patriarchy and misogyny goes into deeper crisis, the war on women and the feminine is accelerating. As people of all genders rise up to defend abortion access, reproductive rights and justice, the deepening collaboration between the reproductive and birth justice communities is helping us take a holistic, united approach to defending individual and collective rights to bodily autonomy and self-determination. In this session, we will learn from leaders working at the intersection of Birth Justice and Reproductive Justice about how we all can play a role in supporting efforts to ensure that all people have access to reproductive freedom. Hosted by: Taj James, co-founder of Full Spectrum Capital. With: Tenesha Duncan, co-founder and Managing Director of Orchid Capital; Cynthia Gutierrez, Program Manager for UCSF’s Hub of Positive Reproductive and Sexual Health (HIVE) and Team Lily programs.
April 8th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm | Campanile Room, Hotel Shattuck Plaza
Panelists
Tenesha Duncan
Co-Founder and Managing Director | Orchid Capital
Tenesha Duncan, a Black feminist strategist exploring the intersections of reproductive and economic justice, is the co-founder and Managing Director of Orchid Capital Collective, an impact investing firm leveraging integrated capital to fund the shift toward community driven comprehensive birth and reproductive care. Tenesha brings over a decade of experience in reproductive health, rights, and justice in direct service provision, care quality improvement, organizational development, coalition building and facilitation, philanthropy, and venture capital.
Cynthia Gutierrez
Program Manager | UCSF's Hub of Positive Reproductive and Sexual Health (HIVE) and Team Lily programs
Cynthia Gutierrez (she/ella) is an award winning first-generation Nicaraguan Salvadoran reproductive justice organizer, full spectrum doula, cultural strategist, writer, and public speaker. Her work looks at the intersection of reproductive justice, the criminal injustice system, disability justice, and environmental justice. A graduate of the 2021 Rockwood Leadership Institute’s Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice cohort, Cynthia is currently: Program Manager for UCSF's Hub of Positive Reproductive and Sexual Health (HIVE) and Team Lily programs; an abortion storyteller with We Testify: and on the boards of ACCESS Reproductive Justice, the California Coalition for Reproductive Freedom, and Women's Voices for the Earth.
Taj James
Co-Founder and Curator | Full Spectrum Labs
Taj James, co-founder and Curator at Full Spectrum Labs, a Principal with Full Spectrum Capital Partners, and co-founder and a Senior Advisor at Movement Strategy Center, is a father, poet, strategist, designer, and philanthropic and capital advisor. Taj seeks in his work to connect community stewards with capital stewards in order to bring financial value into alignment with sacred values in ways that build community wealth.
4:45 pm: Loveworthy: Birth Equity & Justice – Honoring Our Relationships to the Web of Life
Presented in collaboration with Full Spectrum Capital Partners
Old knowledge about how to welcome new beings into the world and honor the sacred cycles of life and death, held by wisdom keepers in our communities, is returning around the globe. Faced with the significant harm created by the medical-industrial complex on Black, Indigenous, people of colorBIPOC people giving birth, midwives, doulas and public health practitioners are coming together to create community birth centers and networks of community care that are becoming cornerstones of wellness around the world. This reclamation of the sacredness of birth is a part of the broader shift to center the care and creativity of women and gender-non binary people whose wisdom is the basis of growing a “care economy.” Hosted by Indra Lusero, Director of Elephant Circle. With: Leseliey Welch, MPH, MBA, co-founder of Birth Detroit and Birth Center Equity; Tenesha Duncan, co-founder and Managing Director of Orchid Capital; Kiki Jordan, Midwife and founder of Birthland Midwifery.
April 8th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm | Campanile Room, Hotel Shattuck Plaza
Panelists
Indra Lusero
Founder | Elephant Circle
Indra Lusero, a Colorado licensed attorney, founder of Elephant Circle and the Birth Rights Bar Association, designed Colorado’s ambitious Birth Equity bill package that passed in 2021 and has been involved in legislation to eliminate the shackling of incarcerated people during pregnancy and birth and improve midwifery and birth center regulations. As a Queer, Genderqueer, Latinx parent, Indra is attuned to the importance of people on the margins leading the dismantling of oppressive systems to build a more equitable world.
Leseliey Welch
Co-Founder | Birth Detroit and Birth Center Equity
Leseliey Welch, MPH, MBA, is a public health leader with a business mind and a visionary heart, holding love as a guiding value, a way of being, an action and a politic. She is Co-founder of Birth Detroit (Detroit's first freestanding birth center) and Birth Center Equity, a mom and a tireless advocate for work that makes communities stronger, healthier and more free.
Tenesha Duncan
Co-Founder and Managing Director | Orchid Capital
Tenesha Duncan, a Black feminist strategist exploring the intersections of reproductive and economic justice, is the co-founder and Managing Director of Orchid Capital Collective, an impact investing firm leveraging integrated capital to fund the shift toward community driven comprehensive birth and reproductive care. Tenesha brings over a decade of experience in reproductive health, rights, and justice in direct service provision, care quality improvement, organizational development, coalition building and facilitation, philanthropy, and venture capital.
Kiki Jordan
Midwife and Founder | Birthland
Kiki Jordan, born and raised in Berkeley, is a local community midwife and founder of Birthland Midwifery, which is currently working to bring a perinatal wellness and birthing site to Oakland. Former Director of the Marin Family Birth Center, Kiki sits on the board of the California Association of Licensed Midwives and is Board President of the National Association of Certified Professional Midwives. Trained in an apprenticeship model that honored the tradition of community-based reproductive healthcare, she is passionate about creating accessible pathways to midwifery care and has a particular interest in healing models that can improve trans-generational traumas experienced by Black women.
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