Theme: Nature/Culture/Spirit
Thursday, April 6th
Introduction by Carl Safina, Safina Center Founding President, Ecologist and Author
We have been killing whales for centuries, but we do so now out of ignorance rather than intent. As cetacean pods lose mothers and grandmothers, they lose wisdom inherited across generations on how to survive. Whale researcher Shane Gero will share some of what he has learned from the thousands of hours he has spent in the company of sperm whales, including how fundamentally similar their lives are to our own and how their cultures define their identity, just as ours do. Shane will explain why we need new approaches to whale conservation that recognize the biologically important divisions between different communities of whales, so we can respect their identity and cultural diversity; and how this can be extrapolated to the larger struggle to conserve biodiversity.
April 6th | 10:05 am to 10:27 am | Zellerbach Hall
Introduced by
Carl Safina
Founding President | Safina Center
Carl Safina, whose lyrical non-fiction writing about the human relationship with the living world won him a MacArthur “genius” prize, has written ten books, two of which have been named New York Times Notable Books of the Year, including his 2020 book Becoming Wild; How Animal Cultures Raise Families, Create Beauty, and Achieve Peace. Carl lives on Long Island, New York, with his wife, Patricia, and their dogs and feathered friends.
Keynote
Shane Gero
National Geographic Explorer and Founder | The Dominica Sperm Whale Project
Shane Gero, Ph.D., is a Canadian whale biologist, Scientist-in-Residence at Ottawa’s Carleton University, and a National Geographic Explorer. He is the founder of The Dominica Sperm Whale Project, a long-term research program detailing the lives of these enigmatic ocean nomads in the Eastern Caribbean. His research is motivated by a desire to understand animal societies, how and why they form, and sadly, what happens when they fall apart. Shane is also the Biology Lead for Project CETI who are applying machine learning and gentle robotics to decipher sperm whale communication. His science appears in numerous magazines, books, and television; and most recently was the basis for the Emmy Award winning series, Secrets of the Whales.
Surviving and thriving in these difficult times requires expanding our ability to be present with grief and getting to know it for its potential of regeneration and transformation. Through guided group conversation, intimate sharing, simple breath practices, and ritual with stone and water, we will touch into the gifts of connection and healing available to us when we take the time to tend to our grief in community. Please bring photos, written messages and/or responsibly sourced gifts from nature to adorn our communal grief altar. We will also have paper and nature offerings available for you to use. Facilitated by educators/end of life guides/community gatherers/activists: Anneke Campbell; Birgitta Kastenbaum; and Amber Deylon. (Note: to facilitate a safe space for all who join us, we will close our tent doors 5 minutes past the session start time.)
April 6th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm | Grief Altar Tent
Panelists
Anneke Campbell
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.
Birgitta Kastenbaum
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.
Amber Deylon
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.
Until fairly recently the dominant view among scientists was that non-human animals didn’t manifest real intelligence and certainly didn’t live in dynamic cultures, but, mercifully, those misguided ideas have been entirely demolished in recent years. More and more examples of sophisticated decision making, tool usage, emotional richness and complex social organization in more and more species have come to light (something Indigenous traditions have long held to be self-evident). In this session we will join two major figures in this burgeoning scientific and societal renaissance, one a longtime, world-renowned advocate for animal intelligence; the other a daring, visionary young scientist on the frontlines of research on animal societies, in a discussion about what we know and what we might be able to learn from some extraordinary animals, if we can get beyond our species chauvinism. With: Carl Safina, beloved author of such classics as Beyond Words and Becoming Wild; and groundbreaking whale biologist Shane Gero. Moderated by Kate Golden, science journalist and artist.
April 6th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm | Freight & Salvage
Panelists
Carl Safina
Founding President | Safina Center
Carl Safina, whose lyrical non-fiction writing about the human relationship with the living world won him a MacArthur “genius” prize, has written ten books, two of which have been named New York Times Notable Books of the Year, including his 2020 book Becoming Wild; How Animal Cultures Raise Families, Create Beauty, and Achieve Peace. Carl lives on Long Island, New York, with his wife, Patricia, and their dogs and feathered friends.
Shane Gero
National Geographic Explorer and Founder | The Dominica Sperm Whale Project
Shane Gero, Ph.D., is a Canadian whale biologist, Scientist-in-Residence at Ottawa’s Carleton University, and a National Geographic Explorer. He is the founder of The Dominica Sperm Whale Project, a long-term research program detailing the lives of these enigmatic ocean nomads in the Eastern Caribbean. His research is motivated by a desire to understand animal societies, how and why they form, and sadly, what happens when they fall apart. Shane is also the Biology Lead for Project CETI who are applying machine learning and gentle robotics to decipher sperm whale communication. His science appears in numerous magazines, books, and television; and most recently was the basis for the Emmy Award winning series, Secrets of the Whales.
Kate Golden
Science Journalist and Artist
Kate Golden, science journalist and artist, is an editor at Bay Nature and a contributing writer at Sierra who often writes about climate, the ocean and its inhabitants. She spent two years living on a small boat in the South Pacific, and currently lives ashore in Sacramento.
All of us are aware of the tremendous losses suffered in the natural world as what many are calling the sixth great extinction unfolds, but mostly we are too busy to allow space for the grief we carry. Come join us in exploring how we can respond to our eco-grief and find solace through an embodied experience of our own interconnectedness with the natural world. Through creative visualization andthe use of our senses, wewill transform our grief into a compost that can feed personal and communal regeneration and resilience. Facilitated by educators/end of life guides/community gatherers/activists: Anneke Campbell and Birgitta Kastenbaum. (Note: to facilitate a safe space for all who join us, we will close our tent doors 5 minutes past the session start time.)
April 6th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm | Grief Altar Tent
Panelists
Anneke Campbell
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.
Birgitta Kastenbaum
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.
“The times are urgent, let us slow down.” Bayo Akomolafe
What are the most effective wellbeing practices and supports for this time of upheaval and uncertainty? Community leaders and activists, especially those of us who have suffered othering and colonization, are reporting greater stress, grief and mental health challenges. As current systems transform, collapse and shift, there is a great and growing need for radical artists, activators and healers to center collective wellbeing. Join Ginny McGinn of the Center for Whole Communities Collective and Sonali Sangeeta Balajee, founder of Our Bodhi Project and the Spiritual Social Medicinal Apothecary (SSoMA), in an experiential session in which they will lovingly guide us through mindful and creative practices designed to help us slow down, heal and collectively receive our greatest wisdoms.
April 6th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm | San Pablo Room, Residence Inn
Panelists
Sonali Sangeeta Balajee
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).
Ginny McGinn
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.
Friday, April 7th
Indigenous wisdom contains a deep and broad understanding of body, mind and spirit that allows for a more holistic orientation than the narrow perspective that has led us toward inner and outer crisis. But how can we integrate Indigenous wisdom into our daily personal and professional lives? This interactive session is designed for those who are already on or who wish to begin a journey toward establishing “kin-centric” harmonious relationships with people, communities, and the entire natural world. Facilitated by: Anita Sanchez, Ph.D., author of The Four Sacred Gifts: Indigenous Wisdom for Modern Times.
April 7th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm | San Pablo Room, Residence Inn
Panelists
Anita Sanchez
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).
It turns out that we humans have the power to fight climate change even after death. Join Katrina Spade of Recompose and John Christian Phifer of Larkspur Conservation as they describe the similarities and differences between natural burial and human composting. How do these two regenerative death-care practices compare from ecological, cost, and design perspectives? Why are they both considered to be critical tools in the climate healing toolbox?
April 7th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm | Magnes Museum
Panelists
Katrina Spade
Founder and CEO | Recompose
Katrina Spade, a designer and the inventor of a system that transforms the dead into soil (aka human composting), is the founder and CEO of the public benefit corporation Recompose, which led the successful legalization of human composting in Washington State in 2019 and became the first company in the world to offer the service in 2020. They have composted over 200 people to date, and the process is now also legal in Oregon, Colorado, Vermont and California. Katrina’s many honors include Echoing Green and Ashoka fellowships and a Harvard Kennedy School Visiting Social Innovator.
John Christian Phifer
CEO | Larkspur Conservation
John Christian Phifer, Executive Director of Larkspur Conservation and President of the Conservation Burial Alliance, utilizes his background as a funeral director, embalmer, end-of-life doula, funeral celebrant and home funeral guide to demystify death and bridge environmental advocacy and end-of-life care. His work, which led to the creation of Tennessee’s first conservation burial ground, was recently featured on PBS in the documentary Bury Me At Taylor Hollow.
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.
In North America, agency over how we die has moved from family-centered community care to costly corporate systems driven by profit. A medical conveyor belt disempowers and isolates our dying, causing hardship on already strained families and communities, compounding grief and trauma. But alternative end of life carers, community educators and innovators are bringing change to the way we die in America, reclaiming agency over a natural process by dispelling fear, sharing wisdom on accompanying the dying, tending to our dead, and facilitating grieving in community. Come explore how we can reclaim and reimagine our own dying and that of our beloveds. Facilitated by educators/end of life guides/community gatherers/activists: Anneke Campbell; Birgitta Kastenbaum; and Amber Deylon.
April 7th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm | Grief Altar Tent
Panelists
Anneke Campbell
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.
Birgitta Kastenbaum
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.
Amber Deylon
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.
Saturday, April 8th
Introduction by Alexis Bunten, Co-Director of Bioneers’ Indigeneity Program
“In community we pause, we open, we nourish, and we become.”
Yuria Celidwen is of Nahua and Maya descent from the highlands of Chiapas, Mexico, born into a family lineage of mystics, healers, and poets. Her scholarship centers on Indigenous forms of contemplation and has developed into a broader statement she calls the “ethics of belonging.” It has become evident that when we pay attention to the world around us, all we hear is urgency. It is time for community reflection. Yuria will share two core guiding principles from her scholarship, Kin Relationality and Ecological Belonging. She will explain how these concepts can help us access an ever-expansive unfolding of a path of meaning and participation rooted in honoring Life.
April 8th | 11:36 am to 11:58 am | Zellerbach Hall
Introduced by
Alexis Bunten
Co-Director, Indigeneity Program | Bioneers
Alexis Bunten, Ph.D., (Aleut/Yup’ik), Co-Director of Bioneers’ Indigeneity Program, has been a researcher, media-maker, manager, consultant, and curriculum developer for organizations including the Sealaska Heritage Institute, Alaska Native Heritage Center, and the FrameWorks Institute. She has published widely about Indigenous and environmental issues, and is the author of So, how long have you been Native?: Life as an Alaska Native Tour Guide.
Keynote
Yuria Celidwen
Senior Fellow | Other & Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley
Yuria Celidwen, Ph.D., of Indigenous Nahua and Maya descent, born into a family of mystics, healers and poets from Chiapas, Mexico, conducts research at U.C. Berkeley’s Department of Psychology at the the intersection of Indigenous studies, cultural psychology, and contemplative science; is a Senior Fellow at the Other & Belonging Institute; co-chairs the Indigenous Religious Traditions Unit of the American Academy of Religion, and is part of the steering committee of its Contemplative Studies Unit. She also works with the United Nations on the advancement of Indigenous peoples’ rights and the rights of the Earth and is a teacher of Indigenous epistemologies, spirituality and contemplative practices.
The world seems to be unraveling—the ever-worsening climate crisis; slews of ethnic and religion-based violent conflicts; the erosion of democratic structures around the world, etc. We are confronting what some are calling a great “poly-crisis.” In this presentation, climate scientist, Buddhist Zen priest and grief ritual facilitator Kritee Kanko will explore how climate grief and intersectional traumas resulting from legacies of white supremacy and heteropatriarchy shape our nervous systems and shrink our ability to act wholeheartedly. She will explain how “difficult” emotions and traumas around injustices can be “composted” so that they fuel our movements for climate justice, and she will share strategies on how to draw power from vulnerability to heal, build resilience and belonging, and act collectively for a better world.
April 8th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm | Golden Bear Room, Hotel Shattuck Plaza
Panelists
Kritee Kanko
Climate Scientist, Buddhist Zen Priest and Grief Ritual Facilitator
Kritee Kanko, born in India, weaves her quest for racial justice, climate action and trauma healing into her work as a climate scientist, Buddhist Zen priest and grief ritual facilitator. She co-founded Boundless in Motion and the Rocky Mountain Eco-Dharma Retreat Center, two non-profit organizations based in Boulder, Colorado. She previously directed the Climate Smart Agriculture program in India for the Environmental Defense Fund for 11+ years.
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.
The emotion of awe can help us address some of humanity’s biggest challenges, be they climate change, racism or political strife. The reason is that, when we experience awe, we feel more connected, kinder, and more caring toward others and all life on Earth. Awe opens our minds and hearts. Awe is in us and surrounds us all the time, but most of us don’t know how to access it. In this 75-minute experiential session, based on evidence-based research, we will learn to access awe in the ordinary moments of our lives, resulting in improved health for us and the people we connect with. Facilitated by Michael Amster, MD, researcher at the UC Berkeley Greater Good Science Center, and longtime yoga and mindfulness meditation teacher.
April 8th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm | San Pablo Room, Residence Inn
Panelists
Michael Amster
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.
Climate grief along with intersectional traumas resulting from legacies of social injustice shape our nervous systems and can shrink our ability to act wholeheartedly, but our hope in these complex, chaotic times lies in the fact that if we can “compost” our “hard” emotions (grief, rage, fear and confusion) and traumas, we can harness the resulting energy to fuel our movement for climate justice. The very fear and grief that can incapacitate us can be transformed into creativity and courage if we can ignite the power of vulnerability in our quest for belonging, healing, resilience and effective collective action. This interactive session is intended for those who desire a direct embodied experience of what it might mean to be witnessed or to see and hear another as we “compost” our grief and anxieties in the presence of a receptive, committed and compassionate community. Facilitated by Ladybird Morgan.
PLEASE NOTE: Because of the nature of this session, we will be closing the entrance door at 5 minutes after the start time.
April 8th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm | San Pablo Room, Residence Inn
Panelists
Ladybird Morgan
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.
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