Founder | Alchemus Prime

Marilyn Cornelius, Ph.D., a facilitator, coach, teacher, researcher, author and the founder of Alchemus Prime, integrates tools from behavioral sciences, design thinking, biomimicry and meditation to foster transformative change at the individual, team, organization, policy, and community levels. Among her many achievements, she has authored or co-authored 32 books whose topics span self-love, mindful reflection, trauma, leadership, food and wellness, spirituality, ethics, and poetry; and also hosts two shows on Facebook, Mornings with Marilyn and Beyond Medicine.

Artistic Director | Kearny Street Workshop

Jason Bayani, MFA, a theater performer and author, is Artistic Director of the Kearny Street Workshop, the oldest multi-disciplinary Asian Pacific-American arts organization in the country. A Kundiman Fellow, his published works include: Locus (a 2019 Norcal Book Award finalist) and Amulet. He has written for World Literature Today, Muzzle Magazine, Lantern Review, and other publications and performs regularly around the country. His first solo theater show was 2016’s Locus of Control.

Facilitator

Amy Lenzo, who pioneered the World Cafe online process and has hosted hundreds of online World Cafes with people from all over the world since then, has been hosting conscious online engagement for over a decade and has been a cutting-edge leader in creating distinctly human interactive online spaces that help us connect with ourselves, each other and the natural world.

Co-Founder and Chief Relationship Strategist | Bioneers

Nina Simons, co-founder of Bioneers and its Chief Relationship Strategist is also co-founder of Women Bridging Worlds and Connecting Women Leading Change. She co-edited the anthology book,Moonrise: The Power of Women Leading from the Heart, and most recently wroteNature, Culture & The Sacred: A Woman Listens for Leadership.An award-winning social entrepreneur, Nina teaches and speaks internationally, and previously served as President of Seeds of Change and Director of Strategic Marketing for Odwalla.

Co-Founder | Weaving Earth Center for Relational Education

Dave Hage is co-founder of the Weaving Earth Center for Relational Education and a member of the Teaching Team for Weaving Earth’s adult programs. He has been facilitating circles for youth and adults since 2006 and is passionate about serving others in deepening their own relationship to self, to others, and to place.

Co-Facilitator | Ancestors & Money coaching cohort

justine epstein (she/they) is an organizer, facilitator, rites of passage guide, naturalist and activist dedicated to transmuting legacies and systems of harm through wealth redistribution, social justice movement building, ancestral healing, cultural rites of passage, embodied community and deep ecology. A guiding council (board) member of Weaving Earth, justine is also co-facilitator for the Ancestors & Money coaching cohort. 

Co-Founder | Village Farm at Stanley

Sam Burris-Debosky, a farmer, carpenter, rites-of-passage guide and lifelong student of the natural world, co-founded and directed Village Farm at Stanley, in Aurora, Colorado, an urban farm dedicated to food-justice and education. Sam is part of the Weaving Earth team co-hosting/facilitating the Community of Mentors at this year's Bioneers Conference.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Writer and Community Activist

Anneke Campbell, a writer and community activist who has worked as a midwife, nurse, English professor, yoga teacher and death educator; is the co-author (with Thomas Linzey) of: We The People: Stories from the Community Rights Movement in the U.S.; and editor of Nina Simons' book: Nature, Culture and the Sacred: One Woman Listens for Leadership. Anneke also co-produces and scripts videos for non-profit organizations, and writes essays and articles while completing a memoir on the intersection of history and politics in family life.

Co-Founder | Bridging Transitions

Birgitta Kastenbaum, co-founder of Bridging Transitions, offers conscious living and conscious dying education (including end-of-life doula/midwife training) and provides end-of-life support centering emotional, spiritual, and collective wellness. A community gatherer, she uses story and ritual to reconnect us to ourselves, each other, the natural world, and the sacred. Her work invites us to embrace new paradigms for dying, death, and grief that are rich in wonder and love. Bridging Transitions hosts a variety of community events, including End of Life Midwives In Conversation a free, virtual monthly offering.

Creator | Grieve and Breathe

Amber Deylon, a council facilitator, is the creator of Grieve and Breathe, a sacred ceremony that combines ritual, council and breathwork to help participants release grief and trauma stored in their bodies. She completed her Death Midwifery training with Bridging Transitions founders, Birgitta Kastenbaum and Cheserae Scala, and currently assists them in supporting families and educational retreats. Amber, who is also a board member of The New Normal Charity, came to her calling after her own journey with grief transformed her life and permitted her to move from surviving to thriving.

Director of Training and Capacity Building | National Compadres Network

Jerry Tello, of Mexican, Texan and Coahuiltecan ancestry, raised in South Central Los Angeles, has worked for 40+ years as a leading, award-winning expert in transformational healing for men and boys of color; racial justice; peaceful community mobilization; and providing domestic violence awareness, healing and support services to war veterans and their spouses. He co-founded the Healing Generations Institute and the National Compadres Network, where he is currently Director of Training and Capacity Building. He has authored numerous articles, videos, curricula, and a series of children’s books, and is a member of the Sacred Circles performance group.

Artistic Director | Kearny Street Workshop

Jason Bayani, MFA, a theater performer and author, is Artistic Director of the Kearny Street Workshop, the oldest multi-disciplinary Asian Pacific-American arts organization in the country. A Kundiman Fellow, his published works include: Locus (a 2019 Norcal Book Award finalist) and Amulet. He has written for World Literature Today, Muzzle Magazine, Lantern Review, and other publications and performs regularly around the country. His first solo theater show was 2016’s Locus of Control.

Facilitator

Amy Lenzo, who pioneered the World Cafe online process and has hosted hundreds of online World Cafes with people from all over the world since then, has been hosting conscious online engagement for over a decade and has been a cutting-edge leader in creating distinctly human interactive online spaces that help us connect with ourselves, each other and the natural world.

Writer and Community Activist

Anneke Campbell, a writer and community activist who has worked as a midwife, nurse, English professor, yoga teacher and death educator; is the co-author (with Thomas Linzey) of: We The People: Stories from the Community Rights Movement in the U.S.; and editor of Nina Simons' book: Nature, Culture and the Sacred: One Woman Listens for Leadership. Anneke also co-produces and scripts videos for non-profit organizations, and writes essays and articles while completing a memoir on the intersection of history and politics in family life.

Co-Founder | Bridging Transitions

Birgitta Kastenbaum, co-founder of Bridging Transitions, offers conscious living and conscious dying education (including end-of-life doula/midwife training) and provides end-of-life support centering emotional, spiritual, and collective wellness. A community gatherer, she uses story and ritual to reconnect us to ourselves, each other, the natural world, and the sacred. Her work invites us to embrace new paradigms for dying, death, and grief that are rich in wonder and love. Bridging Transitions hosts a variety of community events, including End of Life Midwives In Conversation a free, virtual monthly offering.

Founder | Our Bodhi Project

Sonali Sangeeta Balajee, an artist, organizer, facilitator, mindfulness/yoga instructor and health practitioner, is the founder of Our Bodhi Project, which supports healthy movement-building and organizing through deepening critical analyses, centering the health of all living systems, and enlivening the connection between social and spiritual wellness. Sonali spent 13 years in U.S. local government, working on social justice and racial equity initiatives and has extensive experience in community organizing. She also recently founded SSoMA (the Spiritual Social Medicinal Apothecary).

Executive Director | Center for Whole Communities

Ginny McGinn, Executive Director of the Center for Whole Communities and an artist, has a long history working on social and organizational change and in building partnerships across lines of power and privilege. Previously, Ginny served as president of Bioneers, where she was instrumental in greatly expanding the reach of its programs. Ginny facilitates and consults on organizational change around the country, using Whole Thinking Practices and the tools she and her colleagues at the Center for Whole Communities have helped evolve.

Action Lead Program Manager | Narrative Initiative

Orion Camero (they, their), a Filipinx queer visual storytelling educator and cultural organizer who honors the stories of their ancestors from the Central Valley farmworkers’ movements to Indigenous Babaylan resistance against the Spanish empire, is Action Lead Program Manager for Narrative Initiative (a story-based social change organization) and stewards the California Allegory, an epic collaborative image that acts as a centerpiece for intersectional justice education and cross-movement pollination.

Anuhea "BB" Haruki Hoshide Cooke, a māhū wahine (trans femme) of Kānaka Maoli, Japanese, Choctaw, Chinese, Irish and English ancestry, is a drag/burlesque performer, poet, dancer and Indigenous/queer rights activist working to protect the lands and waters of their people, and is also a core contributor to Lonoikamakahiki, a Native-led and intertribal Hawaiian prayer journey. Anuhea has organized alongside many movements, including Extinction Rebellion, Black Lives Matter, and the Run4Salmon. 

Executive Director | Indigenous Climate Action

Eriel Tchekwie Deranger (Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation), a leading global figure in Indigenous Rights and Climate Justice activism, is the co-founder and Executive Director of Indigenous Climate Action and is a member of the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change. She also sits on a number of boards of notable non-profit organizations (including Bioneers) and activist groups. She has organized divest movements, lobbied government officials, led mass mobilizations against the fossil fuel industry, written extensively for a range of publications and been featured in documentary films (including Elemental).

Director of Programs | Chapter 510

Jahan Khalighi, a spoken word poet, youth educator and community arts organizer, leads creative writing workshops for personal and collective transformation in a wide range of settings, from juvenile detention centers to classrooms, from community centers to boardrooms. He is currently Director of Programs at Chapter 510, a youth creative writing and publishing program in Oakland, CA. Jahan has performed widely, including at: TEDxSonoma, YBCA, Mission Cultural Center, Bioneers and Esalen; and some of his work has been published in Whoa Nelly Press. 

Founder | Santa Cruz Permaculture and the UCSC Right Livelihood College

David Shaw, a whole systems designer, facilitator, educator, and musician, founded Santa Cruz Permaculture and the UCSC Right Livelihood College, a partnership with the “Alternative Nobel Prize.” He supports communities locally and globally to transform their shared future through strategic dialogue and collective action.

Intercultural Conversations Program Manager | Bioneers

Nazshonnii Brown-Almaweri, Intercultural Conversations Program Manager for Bioneers’ Indigeneity Program, is a West Oakland-based STEAM educator who advocates for exposure and opportunities for historically excluded people, especially Black and Native youth. She has provided many middle and high school students with the space to learn about STEAM at the intersection of ancestral knowledge and their lived experiences and has worked to help Oakland youth thrive in disciplines such as engineering. Nazshonnii is also a farmer connected to the Gill Tract Community Farm in Albany and was previously a STEM tutor, media educator, and youth program assistant for the American Indian Child Resource Center.

Co-Facilitator | Ancestors & Money coaching cohort

justine epstein (she/they) is an organizer, facilitator, rites of passage guide, naturalist and activist dedicated to transmuting legacies and systems of harm through wealth redistribution, social justice movement building, ancestral healing, cultural rites of passage, embodied community and deep ecology. A guiding council (board) member of Weaving Earth, justine is also co-facilitator for the Ancestors & Money coaching cohort. 

Co-Founder | Village Farm at Stanley

Sam Burris-Debosky, a farmer, carpenter, rites-of-passage guide and lifelong student of the natural world, co-founded and directed Village Farm at Stanley, in Aurora, Colorado, an urban farm dedicated to food-justice and education. Sam is part of the Weaving Earth team co-hosting/facilitating the Community of Mentors at this year's Bioneers Conference.

Author, Consultant and Trainer

Anita Sanchez, Ph.D., of Nahua (Aztec) and Mexican American ancestry, is a consultant and trainer who seeks to bridge Indigenous wisdom and modern science for individual and societal renewal. Her award-winning work focuses on diversity, equity, inclusion and cultural transformation. Anita, a board member of the Pachamama Alliance and of Bioneers, is the author of seven books including the international bestseller: The Four Sacred Gifts: Indigenous Wisdom for Modern Times. She also leads an annual Pachamama Alliance journey into the sacred headwaters of the Amazon each year (her next journey is June 3-14, 2023).

Writer and Community Activist

Anneke Campbell, a writer and community activist who has worked as a midwife, nurse, English professor, yoga teacher and death educator; is the co-author (with Thomas Linzey) of: We The People: Stories from the Community Rights Movement in the U.S.; and editor of Nina Simons' book: Nature, Culture and the Sacred: One Woman Listens for Leadership. Anneke also co-produces and scripts videos for non-profit organizations, and writes essays and articles while completing a memoir on the intersection of history and politics in family life.

Palliative Care Consultant | Mettle Health

Ladybird Morgan, a registered nurse, social worker and craniosacral practitioner, has 20+ years’ experience in hospice and palliative care, addressing trauma, mental health challenges and repercussions of sexual violence. Ladybird, who guides medical practitioners, families, caregivers and institutions around the world on how to be present to difficult experiences, is currently a private palliative care consultant with Mettle Health and a staff member at Commonweal’s Cancer Care Help Program. She is also a co-investigator/study therapist with a University of Washington study of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy and a Learning Facilitator for Synthesis Retreat’s Psilocybin Practitioner Training.

Director of the Pain Management Department | Santa Cruz Community Health

Michael Amster, MD, a physician and researcher at the UC Berkeley Greater Good Science Center with twenty years’ experience in pain management, is the founding Director of the Pain Management Department at Santa Cruz Community Health. A meditation practitioner for 30+ years, he is also a certified yoga and meditation teacher who conducts research on awe and leads mindfulness retreats.

Director of Programs | Chapter 510

Jahan Khalighi, a spoken word poet, youth educator and community arts organizer, leads creative writing workshops for personal and collective transformation in a wide range of settings, from juvenile detention centers to classrooms, from community centers to boardrooms. He is currently Director of Programs at Chapter 510, a youth creative writing and publishing program in Oakland, CA. Jahan has performed widely, including at: TEDxSonoma, YBCA, Mission Cultural Center, Bioneers and Esalen; and some of his work has been published in Whoa Nelly Press. 

Founder | Santa Cruz Permaculture and the UCSC Right Livelihood College

David Shaw, a whole systems designer, facilitator, educator, and musician, founded Santa Cruz Permaculture and the UCSC Right Livelihood College, a partnership with the “Alternative Nobel Prize.” He supports communities locally and globally to transform their shared future through strategic dialogue and collective action.

Founder | Alchemus Prime

Marilyn Cornelius, Ph.D., a facilitator, coach, teacher, researcher, author and the founder of Alchemus Prime, integrates tools from behavioral sciences, design thinking, biomimicry and meditation to foster transformative change at the individual, team, organization, policy, and community levels. Among her many achievements, she has authored or co-authored 32 books whose topics span self-love, mindful reflection, trauma, leadership, food and wellness, spirituality, ethics, and poetry; and also hosts two shows on Facebook, Mornings with Marilyn and Beyond Medicine.

Community Organizer

Hilary Giovale, descended from Celtic, Germanic, and Nordic peoples and a “ninth-generation settler” is a “reparative philanthropist” and community organizer who seeks to follow Indigenous and Black leadership in support of human rights, environmental justice and an equitable future. She uses storytelling and ritual in her work with groups of fellow Euro-descended settlers to understand the impacts of colonialism, rekindle ancestral memory, divest from whiteness, and make reparations.

Undergraduate Student | UC Davis

Joe Sweeney is currently an undergraduate studying Wildlife, Fish & Conservation Biology at UC Davis. While in high school, he participated in the Bioneers Intercultural Conversations program that seeks to create a safe space for Indigenous and non-Indigenous youth to share their cultures and develop the skills to better support and uplift Indigenous voices and communities. The experience elicited in him the desire to explore the intersections between climate change, ecology, activism and traditional ecological knowledge (TEK). He hopes to pursue a career as a wildlife biologist, working on community based management solutions to the climate crisis.

Author

Clayton Thomas-Müller, a member of the Treaty #6 Mathias Colomb Cree Nation (aka Pukatawagan) in Northern Manitoba, Canada, is a Winnipeg-based, award winning Indigenous and human rights and climate activist who has campaigned across North America organizing in hundreds of First Nation and Native American communities to defend their territories against the encroachment of the fossil fuel industry with a special focus on stopping the expansion of the Canadian tar sands and its associated pipelines. Clayton is also an award-winning film director, media producer, and bestselling author. His book, Life in the City of Dirty Water, was a national bestseller and a CBC Canada Reads finalist.

Artistic Director | Kearny Street Workshop

Jason Bayani, MFA, a theater performer and author, is Artistic Director of the Kearny Street Workshop, the oldest multi-disciplinary Asian Pacific-American arts organization in the country. A Kundiman Fellow, his published works include: Locus (a 2019 Norcal Book Award finalist) and Amulet. He has written for World Literature Today, Muzzle Magazine, Lantern Review, and other publications and performs regularly around the country. His first solo theater show was 2016’s Locus of Control.

Founder | Santa Cruz Permaculture and the UCSC Right Livelihood College

David Shaw, a whole systems designer, facilitator, educator, and musician, founded Santa Cruz Permaculture and the UCSC Right Livelihood College, a partnership with the “Alternative Nobel Prize.” He supports communities locally and globally to transform their shared future through strategic dialogue and collective action.

Internationally Touring Appalachian and World Folk Ensemble

Rising Appalachia, an internationally touring Appalachian and world folk ensemble founded by Atlanta-raised, New Orleans-based sisters Leah and Chloe Smith whose soulful folk-roots sound traces back to their open-minded musician parents and to grassroots music communities in the hills and valleys of the Deep South as well as urban Atlanta, has consistently used its platform to activate, organize and support frontline justice work and community organizations. Fifteen years into an adventure that has taken this self-made, stubbornly independent band around the globe, they have recently released a new master-work, their seventh album, Leylines, recorded in California in a studio overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

Co-Facilitator | Ancestors & Money coaching cohort

justine epstein (she/they) is an organizer, facilitator, rites of passage guide, naturalist and activist dedicated to transmuting legacies and systems of harm through wealth redistribution, social justice movement building, ancestral healing, cultural rites of passage, embodied community and deep ecology. A guiding council (board) member of Weaving Earth, justine is also co-facilitator for the Ancestors & Money coaching cohort. 

Co-Founder | Village Farm at Stanley

Sam Burris-Debosky, a farmer, carpenter, rites-of-passage guide and lifelong student of the natural world, co-founded and directed Village Farm at Stanley, in Aurora, Colorado, an urban farm dedicated to food-justice and education. Sam is part of the Weaving Earth team co-hosting/facilitating the Community of Mentors at this year's Bioneers Conference.

Director of the Pain Management Department | Santa Cruz Community Health

Michael Amster, MD, a physician and researcher at the UC Berkeley Greater Good Science Center with twenty years’ experience in pain management, is the founding Director of the Pain Management Department at Santa Cruz Community Health. A meditation practitioner for 30+ years, he is also a certified yoga and meditation teacher who conducts research on awe and leads mindfulness retreats.

Co-Founder | Bridging Transitions

Birgitta Kastenbaum, co-founder of Bridging Transitions, offers conscious living and conscious dying education (including end-of-life doula/midwife training) and provides end-of-life support centering emotional, spiritual, and collective wellness. A community gatherer, she uses story and ritual to reconnect us to ourselves, each other, the natural world, and the sacred. Her work invites us to embrace new paradigms for dying, death, and grief that are rich in wonder and love. Bridging Transitions hosts a variety of community events, including End of Life Midwives In Conversation a free, virtual monthly offering.

Creator | Grieve and Breathe

Amber Deylon, a council facilitator, is the creator of Grieve and Breathe, a sacred ceremony that combines ritual, council and breathwork to help participants release grief and trauma stored in their bodies. She completed her Death Midwifery training with Bridging Transitions founders, Birgitta Kastenbaum and Cheserae Scala, and currently assists them in supporting families and educational retreats. Amber, who is also a board member of The New Normal Charity, came to her calling after her own journey with grief transformed her life and permitted her to move from surviving to thriving.

Palliative Care Consultant | Mettle Health

Ladybird Morgan, a registered nurse, social worker and craniosacral practitioner, has 20+ years’ experience in hospice and palliative care, addressing trauma, mental health challenges and repercussions of sexual violence. Ladybird, who guides medical practitioners, families, caregivers and institutions around the world on how to be present to difficult experiences, is currently a private palliative care consultant with Mettle Health and a staff member at Commonweal’s Cancer Care Help Program. She is also a co-investigator/study therapist with a University of Washington study of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy and a Learning Facilitator for Synthesis Retreat’s Psilocybin Practitioner Training.