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CONTRIBUTORS About
the Author Biographies
of Participants Mark Gerzon specializes in bringing together conflicting groups, troubled communities and fragmented organizations. He has worked extensively with public and private sector leaders both in the United States and abroad. He recently facilitated a meeting including representatives of the World Economic Forum, World Social Forum and the major multilateral institutions (World Bank, IMF, WTO), which developed ground rules and built trust toward public debates between these organizations. Gerzon's approach to leadership is grounded in years of research and writing in this field. His forthcoming book LEADERS BEYOND BORDERS: The Global Leadership Revolution is a synthesis of his current thinking about the kind of leaders needed in today's more global, complex world. His most recent book publication is A House Divided (Tarcher/ Putnam: 1996). A graduate of Harvard College, he currently lives with his wife, educator Rachael Kessler, in Boulder, Colorado. They have three grown sons and two grandsons. > > read his article Julia Butterfly Hill is a writer, poet, and an activist. She is the author of the national best seller, The Legacy of Luna, and the co-author of, One Makes The Difference, both published by Harper San Francisco. The 2002 Sounds True audio release, Spiritual Activation, captures Julia’s vital message as it was delivered during her standing-room-only appearances across the country. In 1999, Julia founded the non-profit organization, Circle of Life, to promote the sustainability, restoration, and preservation of life. She speaks regularly on university campuses, has addressed the UN, lobbied Congress, and has continued to stand on the front lines of environmental and social justice issues all over the world. Her courage, conviction, and profound clarity in articulating a message of hope, empowerment, love, and respect for all life, has inspired millions of people worldwide. For more information on Julia or Circle of Life, visit www.circleoflife.org. > > read her article Barbara Marx Hubbard is a visionary, futurist, author, speaker, social architect and spiritual pioneer. She is the president of the Foundation for Conscious Evolution, which has initiated a global educational process on the Internet, called Gateway to Conscious Evolution. It offers a new developmental path to the next stage of human evolution, linking participants with the finest teachers, innovators and thinkers of our time. People throughout the world are forming their own core groups and are beginning to emulate the practices of the Santa Barbara Community. We link up by phone with participants and leading teachers such as Jean Houston, Duane Elgin, Neale Donald Walsch, and Elizabet Sahtouris. We are inviting these friends to become faculty, building toward a Living School for Conscious Evolution. Recent books include: The Revelation: A Message of Hope for the New Millennium, Conscious Evolution: Awakening the Power of Our Social Potential, and Emergence: The Shift from Ego to Essence. Visit her website. > > read her article Aaron Kipnis, Ph.D. is a psychologist and core faculty member of Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, California. He is an international speaker and consultant on violence prevention to myriad policy makers, professional organizations, universities and institutes. Dr. Kipnis is co-author of What Women and Men Really Want and the author of Knights Without Armor: A Guide to the Inner Lives of Men, and Angry Young Men: How Parents, Teachers, and Counselors Can Help "Bad Boys" Become Good Men. > > read his article Julia Levine is a consultant to Los Angeles County Government agencies and non-profit groups in areas that include public policy, coalition building, community organizing and program development. Previously a Senior Program Officer at the First 5 LA, she led the Healthy Kids Health Coverage Initiative and helped develop the Universal Pre-School Initiative. Prior to coming to Los Angeles, she served as Director of Social Services to New York City, initiating the Child Welfare Advocacy Project (C-PLAN) that helped resolve problems with the child welfare system. She also directed a national childcare project through the Families and Work Institute, served as Director of Health & Human Services to Bronx Borough President Ferrer, and was Executive Director of the Citizens Advice Bureau. In addition, she has been a field instructor and adjunct faculty member at Columbia University and Hunter Schools of Social Work. She can be reached at: julieannelevine@aol.com, or by phone at 310-455-9389. > > read her article Peter Levitt's
most recent publications include Fingerpainting on the Moon:
Writing and Creativity as a Path to Freedom (Random House 2003)
and A Flock of Fools: Ancient Buddhist Tales of Wisdom and Laughter
(Grove Press 2004), translated and retold with Kazuaki Tanahashi.
He is mostly known as a poet, but he has also published fiction,
essays, and translations from Chinese, Japanese and Spanish. In
1989, he received the Lannan Foundation Literary Award in Poetry
for “works that represent exceptional literary achievement,
foster imaginative critical thinking, and call attention to essential
humanistic values in creative, skillful and provocative ways.”
For more than thirty years, he has taught workshops that combine
writing, creativity and spirituality. He lives in the Gulf Islands
in British Columbia. Lorin Lindner, Ph.D., MPH has been a clinical psychologist and health educator for over 20 years. She operates three rehabilitation programs for homeless men and women and one large sanctuary for homeless birds. She sees the problems of homelessness, and the conditions leading to it, as largely sociopolitical requiring a personal and community commitment. She recommends getting involved in something you love and devoting yourself to others (including other species), and believes it is an elixir of grace and compassion that will change the very way the world is conceived. Dr. Lindner’s publications include: To Love Like a Bird and Kinship with the Animals, 1998, edited by Michael Tobias and Kate Solisti-Mattelon; “Re-sensitizing Society” in the Journal of the American College of Forensic Examiners, July/August 1999. Dr.Lindner can be reached only occasionally at docllindner@yahoo.com. > > read her article John E. Mack,
M.D. is a former professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School
and founder of the Center for Psychology & Social Change (more
recently named the John E. Mack Institute). Tragically, John died
in an auto accident in September, 2004. He is sorely missed. His
work explores how extraordinary experiences can affect personal,
societal and global transformation. John is an author of many books
detailing how one's perceptions shape relationships with one another
and with the world, including the Pulitzer-Prize winning biography
of T.E. Lawrence, A Prince of Our Disorder, and most recently,
Passport to the Cosmos: Human Transformation and Alien Encounters.
Information about Dr. Mack Joanna Macy,
Ph.D. is an Eco-philosopher and scholar of Buddhism, general systems
theory, and deep ecology. She is also a leading voice in movements
for peace, justice, and a safe environment. Interweaving her scholarship
and four decades of activism, she has created both a ground-breaking
theoretical framework for a new paradigm of personal and social
change, and a powerful workshop methodology for its application.
Her wide-ranging work addresses psychological and spiritual issues
of the nuclear age, the cultivation of ecological awareness, and
the fruitful resonance between Buddhist thought and contemporary
science. Her work helps people transform despair and apathy, in
the face of overwhelming social and ecological crises, into constructive,
collaborative action. Her books include World as Lover, World
as Self (Parallax Press, 1991), Coming Back to Life: Practices
to Reconnect Our Lives, Our World (with Molly Young Brown,
New Society Publishers, 1998); and Widening Circles: A Memoir,
(New Society Publishers, 2000) Deena Metzger is a novelist, poet, essayist, ritual practitioner and healer. Story is her Medicine. Her focus has been on the deeper meanings and healing possibilities of the stories we live. She works with individuals suffering physical, emotional and spiritual illness and teaches and lectures on the ways of writing and creativity. Deena has developed a training program for the 21st Century in the creative, political, spiritual and ethical aspects of healing. She and her husband, the writer Michael Ortiz Hill, have brought the tradition of Daré to North America for the sake of restoring beauty and bringing healing to individuals, community and the natural world. Deena’s latest books include Entering the Ghost River: Meditations on the Theory and Practice of Healing; the novel, The Other Hand, and Writing for Your Life: A Guide and Companion to the Inner Worlds. Visit her website. > > .read her article Ralph Metzner, Ph.D. is a psychotherapist and professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco. He has been involved in the study of states of consciousness and their role in psycho-spiritual transformations for over 40 years, ever since collaborating with Leary and Alpert in their Harvard research on "consciousness-expanding" substances such as psilocybin. His books include The Unfolding Self - Varieties of Transformative Experience, Ayahuasca - Human Consciousness and the Spirits of Nature, and Green Psychology - Transforming Our Relationship to the Earth. He is also the founding president of the Green Earth Foundation, an ecological educational organization devoted to healing and harmonizing of the relations between humanity and the Earth. > > read his article Sharon Negri has worked on ecological issues for 25 years through recruiting, motivating, and facilitating others to take action. As founder and director of WildFutures, Sharon brings together scientists and conservationists to find innovative solutions to protecting wildlife and their ecosystems, and provides tools and trainings to assist them in reaching their conservation goals. Sharon also co-founded the Mountain Lion Foundation in California and was instrumental in helping pass a statewide initiative that banned trophy hunting of mountain lions. In 2001, she co-produced a dramatic and compelling film "On Nature's Terms" that aired on local PBS stations around the country. Shiva Rea, M.A. has been living yoga for seventeen years. Her teacher intensives explore the art of teaching yoga in practical, creative and life transforming ways. She is known for bringing the roots of yoga alive for modern practitioners through the integration of movement meditation, yogic philosophy and art, nature's vitality, spontaneous humor and joy. As a mother and yogini, she embodies yoga as an evolutionary path that embraces the fullness of life. She is a leading teacher of vinyasa flow yoga worldwide, writes for Yoga Journal, and is the author of home practice CD's, videos, and the new Yoga Shakti DVD series available since July 2004. She can be reached at: www.shivarea.com. --read her article John Seed is founder and director of the Rainforest Information Centre in Australia. Since 1979 he has worked for the protection of the rainforests in South America, Asia and the Pacific. He creates sustainable development projects for the forests’ indigenous inhabitants and ties the benefits for the people to the protection of their forests. He has written and lectured extensively on deep ecology and has been conducting Councils of All Beings and other re-Earthing workshops around the world since the mid 80's. With Joanna Macy, Pat Fleming and Professor Arne Naess, he wrote Thinking Like a Mountain – Towards a Council of All Beings (New Society Publishers). He is an accomplished bard and songwriter and has produced 5 albums of environmental songs and has scripted and produced several films. Contact John at: JOHNSEED1@OZEMAIL.COM.AU and rainforestinfo.org.au. or phone: 61-2-66213294.--read his article Laura Sewall, Ph.D. began a life-long study of vision following a radical awakening of “the senses” through the Bates Method of Vision Improvement,. She received a Ph.D. in visual psychology and neurophysiology from Brown University in 1989 and subsequently developed a theory of ecological perception. She is the author of Sight and Sensibility: the Ecopsychology of Perception (Tarcher /Putnam, 1999). Laura taught ecopsychology at Prescott College, an environmental college in Arizona, for a dozen years, during which time she lectured widely and helped pioneer the field of ecopsychology. Also during this time, Laura became increasingly motivated toward environmental activism and is now learning environmental law. She currently resides on the coast of Maine, serves on the local land trust and Water District boards, and is generally interested in stirring up trouble for the sake of all living beings. |