The First Annual Story Field Conference

Registered Participants


Below are conference participant bios in an easy-to-scan list. To be listed here, please register.

 

Special opportunity: Those of us who can invest a bit more time and attention can get to know each other in more interesting ways. We have set up a Story Field Conference networking site on Attendr.com. To use it, we enter our bio information (including a photo) and Attendr then shows us a map where we and others are located. It also allows us to categorize our interests with searchable tags (key words) so we can easily find each other with similar interests. And it allows us to list who we know and who we'd like to meet -- and find out who wants to meet us. We encourage Story Field participants to give Attendr a try. It is a bit buggy and odd, but really quite useful. We've even put together some instructions to help you use Attendr. Since Attendr is designed to help us connect with each other, the more of us who use it, the more useful it will be for all.

 

Adin Rogovin - Facilitator, communitarian, integrated process designer, community dialogue organizer, non-profit adiministrator, poet. Serves on the boards of The Co-Intelligence Institute, Climate Neutral Network and Rooms for Peace, and works with Healthy Democracy Oregon and Evolutionary Life.

Alli Chagi-Starr - the Art and Outreach Director at Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in Oakland. She is a founder of Art in Action Youth Leadership Program, Dancers Without Borders, Another World is Possible Road Shows and the Radical Performance Fest. Her essays appear in Democratizing the Global Economy, Global Uprising, Voices from the WTO, The Political Edge and How to Stop the Next War Now. She offers workshops on the power of art, dance-theater and anti-racist strategies for movement-building, and has presented at Bioneers, the Esalen Institute, and at conferences across the U.S. and Canada. Alli is currently writing, "Movements for Mass Movements: Creative Tools for Changemakers." She has a B.A. in Cultural Organizing/Performance from the Art and Social Change Department of New College of California. Most recently Alli presented at Hollyhock, and organized arts and climate justice tracks at the US Social Forum in Atlanta.

Allison Quaid strives to be a healing catalyst -- for emotional worlds, inter-personal worlds, and the natural world. She is passionate about bringing more love, magic and art into the world. Working methods include art therapy with friends, facilitating dialogue around sustainability and climate change with San Francisco Bay Area leaders, and building community through participatory art installations. Latest venture is launch of a company, Creative Eco-Catalysts, to help companies create a culture of sustainability. See my work at www.creativecatalysts.org and www.bayarealliance.org and www.eco-catalysts.com (last website is work in progress). In terms of the 're-emerging story', I have been searching for answers since I was a little girl, and in the last three years have been using art and dialogue to illuminate chapters in that story. I look forward to stretching my mind & being inspired by fellow artists.

Amy Lenzo - an artist, photographer, translator, and imaginator using the medium of cyberspace to help people bring their visions into being, create an environment for their communities and help them find the ways to best communicate with each other. Amy uses the language of art - words and images, sound and rhythm - to illuminate the connection between all beings, and give us all a sense of being at 'home' in the natural world. http://allislight.typepad.com/beautydialogues

Anne Stadler - Seattle-based Open Space guide, consultant, award-winning television producer, co-founder of Spirited Work, an open space learning community of practice -- and passionately involved in radiant networking, communion/community making, inspired leadership, and spirited work, confident we are the radiant presence of the new story in the new world!

Anodea Judith - Visionary, myth-maker, spiritual teacher, somatic psychotherapist, workshop leader, and evolutionary activist. Author of Waking the Global Heart, to serve the realization of untapped human potential in the midst of humanity's impending crises by addressing the archetypal splits in our guiding mythologies. A leading interpreter of the chakra system for the West. http://www.wakingtheglobalheart.com

Ashel Eldridge - an Oakland-based artist and spiritual activist. Ashel received a Master’s degree in Transpersonal Psychology, and a certificate to heal with Tian Gong from Chinese Grand Master Li Tien, and helped launch Lotus Speech Meditation a Tibetan Buddhist tradition. Ashel (aka Seasunz) performs spoken word, rap and sings nationally with conscious Hip Hop, Reggae and Electronica bands including Wisdom and Bassnectar. He is currently a music and meditation facilitator with Art in Action Youth Leadership Program, where he works to empower low income youth from urban communities. In addition to several past recordings, including Solar Stereo, he is now working on a new recording project linking intergenerational and multi-cultural voices. Ashel’s vision is to bridge the many emerging and ancient traditions for planetary and personal well-being. His work aims to cultivate the links between both local and global movements for social justice, spiritual awakening and ecological healing.

Auli'i Mitchell - a Kumu Hula (instructor of the dance) of HÇlau `O Kahiwahiwa lÇua `O Aana (School of the `olapa or ancient dance) continuing the legacy of his grandfather and mother. He is a cultural practitioner and kumu hula who assists and teaches at Kua O Ka LÇ Public Charter School at Pu‘ala‘a on Hawai`i Island. Auli‘i is currently a Hawaiian Cultural Specialist and director of Cultural Surveys Hawaii, Hawai`i Office, specializing in cultural impact assessments in the field of Archaeology.

Barbara Gilday - Spark plug, outside the box thinker, connector, bridge builder, imagineer. Taught in Ghana for 2 years in the 60s. 2 Years ago, joined a group of 20 delegates with Global Citizen Journey from N. America to join 21 in the Niger Delta to build a library and do citizen diplomacy. Last year, Co-Directed a group of 15 to join 15 in Ghana to build an orphanage/community center and do a variety of cooperative projects including a Town Hall using Appreciative Inquiry and Open Space. This year, raised $22,000 for a library collection of new books for my old school. ("World‚s best soft-sell arm twister.") This year, returning to collect stories to empower the story tellers and bring them back to open the minds and hearts of N. Americans for the purpose of societal and global transformation. Public Speaker, Workshop Leader, Healing Circles, Heart Centered Therapy, Community Minister.

Brian Good - I've wandered around looking for stories (and The Story) more than thirty years now. Heard a few, lived a few, invented some. Missed, lost, and scattered more. I wrote three unpublished novels. Since the stolen election of 2004, I've been a full time political activist. Having cultivated "observer" facility so long, the transition to "participant" status is stimulating and confusing.

Bruce McConnell - Public-private entrepreneur, wonk, and creative. Over the past 35 years Bruce has started, served in, led, and shut down successful for-profit, nonprofit, and governmental organizations of all sizes. His profession is to act, analyze, and advise where business, government, technology, and societal forces come together. His current vocation is to tell the story, in multimedia format, of how leadership and love can help birth an era of unprecedented global collaboration among all living things. Bruce is also president of Government Futures and McConnell International, Washington DC consultancies, sings tenor, and is married to Margaret Anderson.

Candi S. Foon - COO of The Integral Wellness Group (IWG).  IWG defines and implements policies, practices, systems, and program delivery in the areas of:  integral wellness, integral education, integral leadership, integral logistics, and integral spirituality.  She has over 20 years combined corporate and entrepreneurial business experience in management, sales, and administration with over 20 years teaching experience in the fitness and wellness industries - offering private consultation, classes, workshops, retreats, organizational consulting AND group facilitation to the staff of organizations.  She also has over 25 years volunteer experience, and 30 years as a spiritual practitioner.  Ms. Foon has a MS in Management; a BS in Business & Economics; and over 1500 + hours: Professional Training / Certificates of Completion in Health and Wellness; and Community Capacity-Building experience.  She is a graduate of the United Way's Project LEAD Program.

Carol Brouillet - longtime activist who organized three conferences on Strategies to Transform the Global Economy and (the first) marches on her Senators and Congresswoman in January 2002 to Demand a Congressional Investigation of 9-11. She publishes the Deception Dollars, and Co-Founded the 9-11 Truth Alliance, and the Northern California 9-11 Truth Alliance . She organized premieres of films, educational events, marches, rallies for 9-11 Truth, the San Francisco International Inquiry into 9-11, and produced the film Behind Every Terrorist- There is a Bush. She is also a mother of three boys and has held a weekly Listening Project in downtown Palo Alto since October 2001. She ran for Congress in 2006 on the Green Party ticket on a 9-11 Truth, Peace, Impeachment platform. http://www.communitycurrency.org

Cate Montana - CEO of Global Intelligence Press, LLC, publisher of the online newspaper, The Global Intelligencer, which explores stories about individual, social and global transformation. She is publisher and editor of The Bleeping Herald, the official newsletter for the film What the Bleep Do We Know?! and a former freelance journalist for the mainstream press. Prior to her writing and publishing career she worked in television production as a freelance editor for all the major networks. She is currently in pre-production planning on two movies based on the novelized memoirs of Alvin Schwartz, creator of the original Superman and Batman comic strips, with What the BLEEP co-creator Betsy Chasse. Ms. Montana lives in the middle of nowhere in the foothills of the Cascade Range in the Pacific Northwest.

Chris Jordan - Seattle-based photographic artist whose images portray the detritus of our mass culture -- piles of garbage, cell phones, crushed cars, and the like. His work is exhibited widely in the US and Europe, and has been featured in print media, blogs, documentary films, and radio and television programs worldwide. Chris is a father, husband, gardener, vegetarian, sometime jazz musician, and lately has an obsessive fascination with the sound of large Chinese gongs. http://www.chrisjordan.com

Dana Lynne Andersen - a visionary multi-media artist and performer, writer, playwright and teacher, pioneering the use of art and creativity as vehicles for shifting consciousness and catalyzing the evolution of humanity. Andersenís work is epic, cosmological and evolutionary -- sweeping panoramas of color and form which convey simultaneously the vastness of the universe without and the mysterious depths of inner space. Founder of the Awakening Arts Network for artists around the world who are awakening higher consciousness through the Arts. http://www.awakeningarts.com

David Drake - Organizational Consultant, Trainer, Academic, Blogge, Nonfiction author, Psychologist, http://narrativecoaching.com (awaiting further bio)

David Korten - author of the international best-seller When Corporations Rule the World and The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community, which uses story power to redefine prevailing cultures and ultimately the governing institutions of human societies to bring forth a new human era grounded in the partnership principles of Earth Community as defined by "The Earth Charter". He is co-founder and board chair of the Positive Futures Network (which publishes YES! A Journal of Positive Futures), founder and president of the People-Centered Development Forum, a board member of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE), and a member of the Social Ventures Network and the Club of Rome. He is based on Bainbridge Island, WA. http://thegreatturning.net

David Tresemer has a doctorate in psychology, and has written in many areas, ranging from The Scythe Book to a book about mythic theatre, War in Heaven: Accessing Myth Through Drama. His most recent book is Star Wisdom and Rudolf Steiner: A Life Seen Through the Oracle of the Solar Cross. With his wife, Lila, he has co-authored several plays produced in the United States, including My Magdalene (winner of Moondance 2004, Best Script), and a DVD, "Rediscovering Mary Magdalene."  In 1990 he co-founded the StarHouse in Boulder, Colorado, for community gatherings and workshops of various kinds - from music to personal development. With his wife, he co-founded Healing Dreams Retreat Centre in Australia. He has also founded the Star Wisdom website, which now offers readings from the Oracle of the Solar Crosses, an oracle relating to the heavenly imprint received on a person's day of birth.

Emily Bouchard - a mystic nomad thrilled to find myself heading to a conference where there is a chance to connect in meaningful ways that truly make a difference in the world -- as this is my heartfelt passion in life. I’m blessed to be coming with my best friend and life partner, Darryl, whose story of life inspires me to live my dreams -- such as founding www.blended-families.com and living the majority of the time on the road, going where our hearts lead. My goal is to be of service to the individuals I meet and do what I can to further peace in the world. I could not think of a more auspicious way to launch the “Got Heart?” Project.

Frank Dunn - An Episcopal priest, Frank holds a degree in English from Randolph-Macon College. He studied at Princeton Theological Seminary and did further graduate work at The General Theological Seminary, New York City. After becoming ordained he served churches in Charlotte, NC; Newtown, CT; and Lynchburg, VA. He is currently the Senior Priest of St. Stephen and the Incarnation Episcopal Church in Washington, DC., a congregation known for its radical social action as well as its deep pastoral care and its hospitality to the arts. He is currently enrolled in a doctoral program at Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria. Frank's love of preaching and storytelling originates in a family of raconteurs in Horry County, SC. Humor, fiction, and poetry are among the media through which he practices a ministry of helping people make connections between their faith and their everyday lives, especially as they seek Truth in the midst of the changes and transitions they experience. Visit www.saintstephensdc.org

Gabriel Shirley - an entrepreneur and consultant working at the convergence of leadership development, human potential, emergence and technology. He has worked with small startups and Fortune 50 companies on cutting edge projects with people who are passionate about making a difference in their organizations, industries, and communities. He is a contributor to The Change Handbook, Appreciative Inquiry Practitioner and a member of the Open Space Institute (US) Board. He lives in Seattle. http://gabrielshirley.com

Gabrielle Kelly - founder of the Australian International Documentary Conference and the CEO of Archangel Australia - evolutionary media, strategy and dialogue for an evolving world. She is a co-director of global documentaries on climate change and sustainable development and business. She has run internet companies in Sydney and New York and is currently developing a film on systems thinking and the future with Dr Ervin Laszlo and George Monbiot and an internet product- A Good Enough History of the World. Inspired by the view that the 20th century was about knowledge and the 21st century is about integration of knowledge, she thinks that global democratic progress needs the skills of synthesis and integrated thinking to be developed en masse and quickly. Social entrepreneur, facilitator and leader, she creates pattern-breaking environments and media to unlock people's capacity and desire for a positive global future.

Gayatri Erlandson - Psychologist, humorist, philosopher, social architect, spiritual activist and publisher of Spirit in the Smokies Magazine for 12 years in Asheville, NC, now online exclusively and subtitled "Forum for Living NEWStories." Based on the idea that we are powerful creators learning to do so consciously, it encourages people to claim their creative power as story/reality makers, and to connect with others to co-create a new world. She believes the evolution of consciousness and the condition of our world are one. Gayatri is passionate about co-creating with others and the unseen, has facilitated several Open Space gatherings, been a student of Appreciative Inquiry, NonViolent Communication, Sociocracy, conscious language and Perelandra processes, and has taught her own Co-creative Group Process in various Intentional Communities and related conferences. She lives in a community of 10, enjoys exploring her own creative abilities—plus volley ball, badminton, hiking, singing, chanting and laughing. http://spiritinliving.com / http://livingnewstories.com.

George Johnson - I coach visionaries. I am a visionary AND everything I do is about stories. I have developed a program called a "Better Way to Live and Work". It is a structure and format for creating a Vision Story for your life. I am partnering with a man from Sydney, Australia to bring Video Vision Stories to the world. If you go to my blog you can see the channel he has put together of Vision Videos and if you scroll down you can see my Vision Story 2015 and my Vision for Humanity. I live a blessed life. Before being a Visionary Coach I was (and still am) a serial entrepreneur. I have started multiple companies, grown them and sold them. You can read more here I can't wait to meet all of you and learn how it can be a force to change the world.

Grace Alvaro Caligtan - Alter/native educator, second generation Illocana and Kankanay Igorot, writer, producer, cultural bridge builder/translator across difference, community organizer, and youth worker. Serving as the visionary force behind Grace Intelligence, Grace shares her talents and partners with organizations that value and understand the critical need to foster girls' and women's health and wellness as a key strategy for community and planetary healing.   Her most recent play, My Body-My Space addresses the honest conversations needed between mothers and daughters to talk about relationship safety, STDs, and HIV. Her musings can be found on: http://pukengkengliberationfront.blogspot.com and http://hipnanay.blogspot.com

Greg Scott - Seattle musician, composer, and singer/songwriter in a duo with Leslie Eliel, who is also attending the Story Field Conference. Greg provides recording services for acoustic music and audio books, and also drives Seattle's very cool hybrid city buses. Greg says, "Leslie and I are interested in using music to amplify story, and are toying with a new idea called Hooks for Humanity (early-stage idea)." (Song sample: Gonna Get Better.)

Harry Pickens - Activist, Community Organizer, Process Host; Musician, Songwriter, Composer and Performer; Curriculum developer; Wild Card. (awaiting further bio)

Heidi Nelson - Berkeley, CA, conference organizer (especially spirituality symposia), software trainer, networker, historian, substance abuse counsellor, astrologer, performance program coordinator, holistic grad student field placement worker, and student of processes like Nonviolent Communication, World Cafe, Participatory Decision-Making, and online collaboration.

Jane Hughes Gignoux - storyteller, workshop leader, author of Some Folk Say: Stories of Life, Death, and Beyond -- her work is all about helping people change their "story" both personally and culturally -- facilitator, artist, art activist, Certified Celebrant, Founding member of the IONS (Institute for Noetic Sciences) Member Resource Council and the Steering Committee for The Coalition for OneVoice; coordinator of the IONS Elder Council. International presenter on "changing the story." http://www.lifedeathbeyond.com

Janet R. Rae - Visionary, initiator, pioneer, igniter, event host, community leader. With an MA in Communication Disorders, Janet originally specialized in language development and communication skills. After the birth of her son in 1997, her focus shifted to a more spiritual and planetary context. Janet started a study group in Tucson that focused on Quantum Physics, spirituality and oneness. Her company, Wisdom Writings, hosted events for this community such as: the Arizona premier of One, The Movie; Don Alejandro, head council of the  Mayan Elders; and the founder of Mind Imaging Technologies, Mark Evan Furman.  She was then asked to pioneer the first World wide organization of the study groups forming from the movie, What the Bleep??!!.  Her new projects include hosting a traveling “talk-show” type of event that introduces the “new” and hosting a new genre of conferences focused on the individuals attending making a difference around the world. http://www.wisdomwritings.com

Jennifer Myronuk - co-founder of StoryField.com and is a documentary and community media director/producer. Inspired by her interest in oral history, Jennifer launched StoryField as a collaborative software project to help oral historians and documentary producers better organize their projects (including her own!). She is a producer/director of "Straight Talk-TV" (KSAR-15) and was the former founder/director of the Women's History Exchange, a non-profit dedicated to finding and preserving women's stories. She was the Director of Public Relations & Marketing for Waves in Motion and the Managing Editor for ISO Productions/FileMaker Magazine. She currently is serving her first term on the Santa Clara County Commission on the Status of Women and is interested in documenting contemporary political and community history of women, especially in California. http://www.storyfield.com/team_myronuk.html

Jim Channon - An omnivore and comprehensivist -- proto-mythologist, social architect, story teller,and strategic designer. I am just the kind of guy who would stretch a long canvas out ... position all the global stories on the canvas in systems cartoons ... then script a mental narrative inter-weaving the ideas and then verbally wail out a story paced by music using some strange dialect and costume. After the conference I would stuff that canvas in a bag of my proto-mythologies that support this work with other global activists. Among my proto-mythologies are: The First Earth Battalion for armed forces (movie in progress), Captain Planet for kids (cartoon series), Project Earthrise (3D virtual world for global leaders), and Goplanet (print-on-demand book on-line at café press for global visionaries). Homebase Hawaii website: arcturus.org ....Goplanet!!!! I'd love to do 15 minute pieces on 100 year positive vision for planet earth and a storytelling-to-music piece with composer Gary Malkin.

John Abbe - process artist, evolutionary geek, science fiction and leading-edge culture aficionado, and Nonviolent Communications trainer in the U.S. (he lives in Eugene, OR), Europe, India, and Sri Lanka. Worked with the Center for Group Learning and the Co-Intelligence Institute on collective self-reflective processes. Interested in the role that process arts - in person and online - can play in our culture's shift from power-over to power-with ways of seeing, being and doing. http://ourpla.net

Jonah Sachs - Jonah’s pioneering communications work has helped hundreds of progressive organizations break through the media din with strategic, inspiring messages. Jonah’s visionary use of viral marketing has been featured in dozens of top TV networks (CNN, Fox News, MSNBC) radio outlets (NPR, CBC) and newspapers (e.g. The New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times). In 2001, Jonah was named one of “The Thirty People Cleaning up the Earth” by Shift magazine. In 2004, Food and Wine Magazine featured him as a “2004 Tastemaker” for thinking up the most successful Flash advocacy movie in the history of the web, The Meatrix. Jonah is also a hands-on web designer. He's the creative force behind the web presences of such pre-eminent organizations as the ACLU, Heifer International and Environmental Defense. Along with partner Louis Fox, Jonah is widely considered a leader in the powerful movement to spread progressive political and social messages through use of the Web.

Joshua Gorman - lives in Washington, DC, where he is a student at George Mason University completing a degree titled "Global Youth and Social Change." As a youth activist, he is involved with youth projects locally, nationally, and globally. He is working to build a global youth movement as a member of the World Spirit Youth Council and is mobilizing a new generation of politics as a Youth Co-Director for Reuniting America. His largest project is capturing the story of his generation in a cosmic coming-of-age narrative titled Generation Waking Up. http://futuremajority.com/blog/joshua_gorman

Julie Stroud - professional grant writer for non-profit causes, i.e. a storyteller for hire. Her role in working with clients (arts, social service, and healthcare) is to help them tell their story in the most compelling way possible. Currently working with the American Composers Forum in St Paul, MN. http://www.composersforum.org which has for eight years run a program called Continental Harmony serving 120 locations in all 50 states, through which a composer tells a community's story through music written for them -- healing long-held racism... anticipating the transition from one economic force to the next... a river that both destroyed a town and is its lifeblood -- with a persistent theme of people wanting to write and rewrite their own stories – often healing stories creating a new reality by working together to imagine a different future. Also working on several projects that meld medicine and music, as well as with other clients to help foster integrative healthcare.

Karen Kudebeh - creator of the "timespiral" -- an art form that turns timelines into dynamic visual and kinesthetic experiences. Timespirals illustrate where we have come from, in a form that grounds and opens us to the power and possibility inherent in our present moment and place, awakening awe and reverence for who we are, and where we stand. Karen is or has also been a city planner, a mother, an advocate for policy integration in the air quality field, and an active community member now in Boulder, CO.

Kaye Williams - creator of the World Saver's Toykit and The Game of Exchange -- which take a community from struggles around "good guys and bad guys" to tracking the "good buys and bad buys" and celebrating the health of the local community and economy, generating a story field for evolutionary change. It has a boardgame and a neighborhood census, among other parts -- and could someday include playback video with networked involvement. She feels called to organize in her rural Kentucky county for radical human rights in family, local economy and waterway protection. She is a co-op manager, local food activist, and author of Vital Energy Rising and other books." http://www.motherworld.net / http://www.motherworld.net/story

Kevin W. Kelley - artist, consultant, best-selling author (The Home Planet), and entrepreneur with an ability to effectively translate complex information about our existence into simple but powerful visualizations that convey deep intuitive understanding. Kevin is head of World Perspectives, a corporation specializing in the gathering, creation and dissemination of inspiring earth imagery. Kevin co-authored the widely acclaimed Embracing Earth, New Views of Our Changing Planet -- the first book to present an integral perspective of the earth's five interconnected systems: the geosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, cryosphere and biosphere -- and is currently producing Luminous Universe, a powerful new 3D multi-media interactive visualization to connect us, scientifically and spiritually, to our place in Space, Time, and Evolution. http://thehomegalaxy.com

Larry Victor - WorldWeaving for 72 years, with many useful stories to share. No remembrances or imagination in sensory mental imagery; use computers since 1982 in compensation. Ancient PhDs in physics and educational psychology - transdisciplinary. Retired educator. Decades of activism. Desiring to shift from text to participatory multimedia - currently exploring many new tools, seeking partners. I critique fundamental assumptions of most successful change agents and programs as to sufficiency for goal achievement (e.g. ignore deep diversity in cognitive functioning, best techniques for educating and organizing are grossly inadequate, etc.) I have many synergistic positive alternatives - to present as stories. Developing "Colab Studio" as facility to seaf (support, enable, augment, facilitate) small teams in f2f, synchronous creative action: processing, editing, and creating new sems (semiotic structures) for cyberspace. I have had the evolutionary perspective for human metamorphic emergence since high school. Old website contains a sampling of my essays (an early "blog"): http://home.comcast.net/~nucoms.

Les Ihara, Jr. - state senator, deliberative democracy activist, and community leader. Thirty years ago, Les committed his life to the transformation of politics in Hawai'i. He became immersed in politics, with key roles in major election campaigns, his political party, and state constitutional convention. Before becoming a state representative in 1986, Les committed to walk a path of integrity, and practice forgiveness. During eight years in the House of Representatives, he led reform initiatives for open voting in committees, broadcasts of legislative proceedings, and capitol support services for citizens, earning him two Common Cause awards. Les has held key leadership positions in the senate, while leading political reform efforts in partnership with citizen activist groups. Les is a longtime deliberative democracy leader in the Hawai'i legislature, and has actively worked on national deliberative projects with the Kettering Foundation, and National Conference of State Legislatures. http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/site1/senate/members/sen9.asp

Leslie Eliel - A book editor from Seattle who "helps authors and small publishers create books that examine solutions for our troubled planet." She helps with Evidence of Humanity, Yes! Magazine, sings and writes songs with Greg Scott (who is also attending the Story Field Conference), and tries to stay on top of the weeds in her garden and on her desk. She and Greg want to work with other Story Field folks imagining and moving toward a feasible future. They are particularly interested in the role of the "inarticulate sage" -- people, from artists to mathematicians, whose most natural forms of expression are nonverbal but who are nonetheless insightful and important to the unfolding story. They cherish courteous, skillful use of language and the pacing of discourse to help defuse defensiveness and fear. (Hear a sample of their music here.)

Lila Sophia Tresemer - group facilitator, playwright, transformational photographer and videographer, ceremonialist (for over 30 years), minister, co-founder of The Path of Ceremonial Arts, and President of the Board for The StarHouse, a trans-denominational temple in Boulder. Lila continually co-creates programs to build a global community which honors the re-emergence of the Divine Feminine; promotes Sacred Union between Masculine and Feminine, and celebrates the Sacred in all beings. With her beloved partner, David, she has written and produced a trilogy for the theater about Divine Feminine, called “Remembrance”, including stories involving Mary Magdalene, Inanna, and the Cathars. Lila and David have also created Healing Dreams, a retreat in Australia which honors the Dreamtime memory of the Aboriginal people and seeks to preserve that corner of paradise as a place of power on Flinders Island in Tasmania. http://www.PathOfTheCeremonialArts.org

Lion Kimbro - Circulates transhuman fairy tales, depicted in passionate floral schematic, reciting reason's eternal imagination. http://www.speakeasy.org/~lion/

Lisa Longworth - Her near death experience after life threatening brain surgery in the seventies has continued to inspire Dr. Longworth's work as a professional artist, counselor, university expressive arts director and entrepreneur. A magna cum laude graduate in the arts from the University of California San Diego, she also holds a doctorate in transpersonal psychology and expressive arts therapy. Since 1986 her Cocoon to Butterfly™ counseling practice has helped clients creatively navigate life transitions with more passion and purpose in their daily life. A fine artist since 1975, she has invented an original style of art - Floating Paintings™. Her paintings, which are privately collected and travel in exhibitions worldwide, will be seen at the Story Field Conference. The imagery of her art reflects the internal metamorphosis of personal change and evolution, expressing the beauty and power of transformation - a beauty and power which can stop the mind and unify the world. http://lisalongworth.com

Lorraine Cook - Program coordinator for Oregon Health Sciences University School of Nursing’s distance learning program for RNs for the past 14 years in Ashland, Oregon. My inner journey has been my life-long passion. While my husband is gratefully retired and our two children (twins) are eagerly coming up on their senior year of college, at this point in my life, I feel like I’m moving into a deeper calling. I have a heart for storytelling, poetry, writing, acting, creating rituals and celebrations, making connections between people and ideas, and gathering women in circles. One of my dreams is a global gathering of women -- the 5th Women’s World Conference -- perhaps a tipping point away from domination, toward partnership culture. Another is a simple idea—aiming for cultural humility rather than cultural competence. I'm full of curiousity and happy anticipation about this journey we are taking together.

Louis Fox - Co-Founder and Executive Creative Director of the values driven communications firm Free Range Studios, A trained filmmaker, Louis has translated hundreds of important and often difficult messages into entertaining forms, motivating millions of web users to take actions that better the world. Directing and co-writing the company's numerous animation and video  productions, including the record-breaking 2003 online hit, “The Meatrix”, has earned  him top honors at film festivals and awards ceremonies including South By Southwest, The Webby Awards, Resfest, and the Annecy International Animation Festival. In addition to directing, Louis also particularly enjoys providing the voices for many of Free Range's animated characters. He lives in Berkeley, CA with his partner Juliana and their new baby Lila, where they are actively researching sustainable/permaculture communities around the world, both for a new book and to model their own lives on.

Luana Busby Neff is from the island of Moloka‘i where she grew up with eight siblings. Her background is grounded in integrating Hawaiian cultural beliefs and practices with everyday and special rituals. She is a member of the Protect Kaho‘olawe ‘Ohana, Ka LÇhui, and ‘±lio‘ula‘okalani: cultural groups dedicated to political awareness, education, and preservation of our lands. Owner of Hawaiian Force, the Nation of Hawai`i’s leading clothing store.

Margo McLoughlin - Canadian storyteller and writer, currently based in Victoria, BC. A graduate of the Harvard Divinity School, Margo is part of a team at the Fetzer Institute, which has been gathering world tales of generosity to use as tools for reflection, renewal, and dialogue. Since 2005, Margo and other members of the Generosity of Spirit team have worked with community activists in Misssippi, medical faculty in Indiana, grant-makers in Michigan, as well as teachers and educators in Michigan and California. Stories, Margo has been discovering, often have a curious way of reflecting some aspect of where we are on our own path. They invite us to expand our vision of what's possible, while reflecting the very real dilemmas of living in the world. Margo is also a student of the Pali language. She has translated and adapted several stories from the Buddhist tradition. Her CD, JATAKA: Stories and Music of Buddhist India was released in 2006. http://jataka.org

Mark Jones - CEO of The Integral Wellness Group (IWG) -- a "think-tank" of strategic thinking partners that addresses extinction-level issues and problems. He is a Master "Systems Architect" specializing in the optimization of individual and organization value, performance, and contribution - through integral leadership; generative and healthy organizations and communities; informatics, and institutionalized business and political savvy.  He has over 25 years fulltime professional experience, including experience serving at a senior executive level (CEO|CIO|CTO|CTA|VP| Chief Architect | Chief Scientist | . . . ).  He has served 20 years in leadership capacities in elected and/or appointed positions.  He has been a spiritual practitioner for over 40 years, and a spiritual teacher for over 30 years.  He has a MS in Management; a BA in Systems Analysis; and over 2500 hours technical, management, executive, and community capacity-building training.  He is a graduate and Past Chair of United Way's Project LEAD Program.

Merv Antonio - Aside from the tall tales that he used to tell his parents growing up, his earliest integration of hope, imagination and story was at the age 8 when, in his best television broadcaster voice, he would describe with great passion and detail about how the Chicago Cubs won the World Series. Sadly, three decades later, that story remains fiction, but in between the waiting he has crafted a life around theater and drama supporting and developing stories of award-winning playwrights, actors and directors. He is a recent graduate of the Organizational Systems Renewal program from Seattle University and is currently exploring ways to integrate story, inquiry, whole person learning, aikido and theater to generating sustainable connection, collaboration and change in organizations, individuals and communities.

Michael Dowd - evolutioinary evangelist promoting the Great Story of evolution and the sacred unfolding of the universe as the 13.7 billion year story of all our lives. He and his scientist wife Connie Barlow have lived for over five years on the road teaching and preaching evolution and its God-given power to transform lives and the world. He is author of EarthSpirit: A Handbook for Nurturing an Ecological Christianity and the forthcoming (Oct 2007) Thank God for Evolution!. During the mid-to-late 1990s he managed the first government funded program in the U.S. designed to produce large-scale citizen behavior change along ecological lines — the Portland Sustainable Lifestyle Campaign. http://wwww.TheGreatStory.org

Michael Schacker - Philosopher-historian-writer-composer-singer. I believe the world has begun the "Regeneration Revolution", the ecological version of the Industrial Revolution, when the new paradigm transforms all institutions and industry. I just started up the Global Curriculum, a new paradigm school on the Web, with e-courses and blog discussions for lifelong learners and progressive youth. I am seeking a publisher for a book called 21st Century Transformation, which gives the New Story of Who We Are, How We Got Here and Where We Are Going. I work in idea management software and Concentrating Photovoltaics (45% efficient solar). I have also created the Global Regeneration Plan, 10,000 "Regenerative Zones" based on Regenerative Economics and Regenerative Agriculture. I am partnering with Dr. John McMillin, the scientist who saved Ethiopia from the Dust Bowl of the 1980s, funded by World Vision. This video shows what Regenerative Zones can do.

Nadia Chaney - an emcee, poet, musician, budding novelist, and multimedia visual artist who loves to dance and imagine. She brings clarity, compassion, gentle critical intelligence, exuberant creativity and a solid foundation of love, non-violence and respect. Her arts empowerment work includes violence prevention, unity-work, hip hop classes in detention centres, self care-for-employability programs, a massive car-free volunteer-run festival, and lots more. Nadia mostly works in collective, non-profit scenarios, but is also interested in enlightened for-profit work. http://www.beatboard.org/members/nadia_chaney/index.html

Nancy Glock-Gruneich - Education and organizational development professor, technical writer, researcher, and founder of HIGHER EDge, to expand our capacity to create a livable future by reinventing higher education, including all of the professions. Involved with the full range of questions related to systemic change and planetary renewal or "conscious evolution". Currently on the National Steering Committee of the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation (NCDD) and writing an Introductory Toolkit that will briefly describe and analyze many of the tools in common use for public engagement, inter-group reconciliation, and systemic change. Co-chair of the multi-stakeholder consensus-building Santa Cruz Economic Initiative. Formerly Vice President for Learning for the Foundation for California Community Colleges and senior staff in the Chancellorís Office of the California Community Colleges, where she authored the Curriculum Standards Handbook and researched distance learning. http://www.higheredge.org

Patricia Varley, M.H.S.A. is a Paradigm Bridger  who focuses on integrating professional, personal and spiritual growth. As a national speaker, trainer/facilitator, business/personal coach, and author, she works with entrepreneurs, business owners, companies and national organizations across industry lines in "Reinventing Success from the Inside Out" by "Reclaiming the Wholeness of People." This approach opens new paths to fresh ideas, clarity of thinking, accessing their full potential and ultimately enduring achievement. Her areas of expertise include Marketing, Sales and Networking, Leadership Mastery, Navigating Through Transition and Work/Life Balance. Patricia's strong leadership, coaching and communication skills in combination with her entrepreneurial spirit and understanding of personal development, create an environment where individuals and groups can realize the importance of living and working with passion while contributing their unique purpose to the world. Patricia works nationally and splits her time between Naples, Florida and Aspen, Colorado - see www.patriciavarley.com, 1-800-529-0063.

Peggy Holman - co-author of The Change Handbook, organizational consultant, and convener and host of conversations that matter (including a seven-year project with Journalism that Matters) and Evolutionary Salons. She believes in the great promise of emergent practices like Open Space, Appreciative Inquiry, and Dynamic Facilitation to unleash the human spirit for individual and collective good. Her current inquiry is into the dynamics of emergence, disturbance, conscious evolution, and story, with the belief that the emerging worldview that embraces them all is potentially a revolutionary contribution to the current discourse -- political, social, economic, moral -- that affects our lives. http://www.opencirclecompany.com

Shalini Kantayya - filmmaker, educator, and activist who uses film/video as a tool to educate, inspire, and empower audiences. Shalini believes in making films that spark positive social change. The mission of her production company, 7th Empire Media is to bring a professional voice to the unheard through media. Shalini finished in the top 10 out of 12,000 filmmakers on FOX's On the Lot, a reality show by Steven Spielberg and Mark Burnett, in search of Hollywood's next great director. A William D. Fulbright Fellow in documentary film, her work received the first prize award for best documentary at the Asian American Film Festival. Her latest film, a sci-fi film about the future of water, is available at www.adropoflife.tv.

Sheila Kinkade - A writer and communications consultant who works to help nonprofit organizations "tell their stories." For more than a decade, she has captured the stories of grassroots visionaries whose innovative solutions to local challenges transformed their communities. Sheila's work for various international development organizations has taken her to over 40 countries, from mountain villages in Uganda to high schools in Serbia. Common themes in her work include youth development, social entrepreneurship, women's leadership, and the role of technology in development. Sheila is co-author of Our Time is Now: Young People Changing the World and has written three nonfiction children's books. She inhabits a cottage in the woods outside of Baltimore, Maryland.

Sheri Herndon - My life passion-purpose is global transformation and discovering personal-collective practices that take us there. Integral to this is the practice of engaging our deep creative potential for being social architects of our world and identifying evolving leverage points for profound change. As a futurist and integral generalist my awareness flows to connections between things and making those connections visible and nurturing new synapses. Positive media is another passion, seen through the navigating question: what are the positive 'images of the future' drawing us forward, and understanding how that weaves with new media. After co-founding Indymedia in 1999, I spent 4 years creating and developing the technical-social architecture/process for our grassroots global communications network. For the previous decade my world was producing and making media, and nurturing independent media's growth and impact. Now, my focus has turned toward the role of consciousness, imagination and soul for inspiring profound vertical-horizontal change and nurturing collective spaces.

Skye Burn - Grew up in fifties on an isolated island in NW Washington State, without telephone, radio, or television; entered mainland culture in 1963 as an outsider. Observed patterns in the dynamic of culture that indicate we are collectively moving toward a goal. Presented initial research on the emerging narrative in 2000 and work in the world began. Currently, Director, Alliance for Creation, a fledgling organization working to understand the dynamic of culture as a creative process and develop a model for use in leadership training and development in various systems; Honorary Professor of UNESCO Chair located at Russian Institute for Cultural Research in St. Petersburg. BA, Psychology of the Creative Process; MA, Leadership in Social Artistry; award-winning poet, visual artist, cabinet-maker, published articles include "The Goal of History"; "The Readiness Factor", "Optimal Conditions for a Change of Heart and Mind"; and "Redefining Responsibility in an Era of Global Citizenship".

Stephen Silha - a communications consultant, writer, news reporter and facilitator. He has worked with a range of philanthropic and nonprofit organizations and co-convened the first national symposium on the Media and Philanthropy at the Chicago Tribune. For four years he has co-convened the Media That Matters seminar. He is a board member of the Washington News Council, a forum for media fairness. He has worked with teens to convene 9 youth-adult dialogues. http://www.journalismthatmatters.org

Sue Mosher - Following successful careers in desktop software and broadcast news, Sue is currently studying mythology and depth psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute to prepare for whatever passion seizes her next. She has been a writer and editor since she published her first neighborhood newspaper at age 10 and also has been known to plant a tree, preach a sermon, wield a sword, and say a prayer. Having lived in nine cities on three continents, she currently enjoys looking out on her garden in Arlington, VA. http://www.turtleflock.com / http://dunyaza.blogspot.com

Tom Atlee - a holistic evolutionary activist and political philosopher, essayist, founder of the Co-intelligence Institute and Evolutionary Life newsletter, author of The Tao of Democracy, and organizer on the cross-country Great Peace March of 1986. He has served on several nonprofit boards -- for peace, environmental, group process, and conscious evolution organizations -- and has consulted internationally. For 14 years he has considered the capacity for ongoing, conscious co-creation and collective modification of our cultural stories to be a vital step in our evolution. He is an occasional guitarist, singer, poet, songwriter, artist, and calligrapher. http://co-intelligence.org / http://evolutionarylife.org


Participants for whom we do not yet have bios


Allan Wallace
Allison Quaid
Anne Dosher
Aulii Mitchell
Bill Scarvie
Diane Baron
Fritz Hull
Jennifer Keller
Jo Hannah
Jonah Sachs
Darryl Bouchard
Juliana Hepp
Kenyon McDonald
Laurelyn Baker
Lea Endres
Luana Neff
Lynnette Bazzell
Omar Farouk Zubaedi
Patricia Varley
Paula Fuga
Roosevelt Finlayson


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This conference is being organized with support from the Kellogg Foundation and the Co-Intelligence Institute.
Illustration credit: Dana Lynne Andersen, in
From Lava to Life: the Universe Tells our Earth Story by Jennifer Morgan -- Courtesy of Dawn Publications