Conversation Thought Leaders
Kevin Bayuk: Permaculture in the Era of Climate Change: Remembering Ourselves as Nature
Kevin works at the intersection of ecology and economy where permaculture design meets cooperative organizations intent on meeting human needs while enhancing the conditions conducive to all life. He serves as the Senior Financial Fellow at
Project Drawdown developing the business case to address climate change through existing practices and technologies. He is also a partner with
LIFT Economy where he provides strategy and technical support for social enterprises. And he is a founding partner of the Urban Permaculture Institute San Francisco where he frequently teaches classes, facilitates events and provides mentoring. Kevin has helped design and start food security gardens and public learning experiences intent on reminding people that we too, are nature. He is as fluent with information technology as with perennial polyculture agroforestry.
Ashanti Branch: Beyond the Mask - Guiding Youth Forward With the Arts & Emotional Support
Ashanti Branch, MEd works to change how young men of color interact with their education and how their schools interact with them. Raised in Oakland by a single mother on welfare, Ashanti left the inner city to study civil engineering at Cal Poly – San Luis Obispo. A construction project manager in his first career, his life changed after he tutored struggling students and realized his passion for teaching. In 2004, his first year teaching high school math, he started The Ever Forward Club to provide support for African American and Latino males who were not achieving to their potential. Since then, Ever Forward has helped all of its more than 150 members graduate from high school, and 93% of them have gone on to attend college, military or trade schools. In 2015 the Sundance Film Festival premiered the documentary, “The Mask You Live In,” that featured The Ever Forward Club. And this year Ashanti is a K-12 Edu Fellow at the Stanford Institute of Design, and working full-time on Ever Forward for the first time, in an effort to grow the organization to serve thousands of Bay Area students: www.everforwardclub.org
Kenn Burrows, MPH: From Violence to Wholeness - Rise of the Eco-Mind & Integral Education - Activism
Kenn Burrows, MPH has been an educator and consultant for over thirty years, teaching Holistic Health Studies at San Francisco State University since 1991. He is Producer-Director of the biennial conference: The Future of Health Care and founder of the Holistic Health Learning Center, an interdisciplinary library and community action center. He is also a member of the Executive Board of Media Freedom Foundation which oversees Project Censored, a national effort educating the public about media literacy, independent news, and the common good. Research and teaching interests include: holistic philosophy (inquiry into complexity, vitality, beauty and wisdom inherent in whole systems and integrative thinking), media literacy, stress and self-care skills, the world's wisdom traditions, collaborative leadership, new forms of activism and the evolution of human consciousness and society.
Kathy Emery, PhD: Developing Relationships & Building Movements
Kathy Emery is a popular SF State faculty member in Political Science, teaching courses about political movements and U.S. politics. She is the co-author of two books: Lessons from Freedom Summer (Common Courage, 2008), and Why is Corporate America Bashing Our Public Schools (Heineman, 2004). She also wrote the teaching materials for the teaching edition of The People's History of the United States (New Press, 1997), and she is the author of many articles. She has also been involved in SF politics as an activist and community organizer since 2001. www.educationanddemocracy.org
Bence Ganti: An Integral Model of Education & Development
Bence Ganti, MA (clinical psychology) is the founder and director of the Integral Academy of Hungary, one of Europe's most successful integral communities. Bence has studied integral psychology since 1996 and created his own school in 2006. His work has focused on personality development and an integral psychotherapy—including development of the Integral Flow Experience (group process). He's been a presenter, a workshop facilitator and panelist for the major integral conferences and gatherings in the USA since 2004. He moved part time to San Francisco in 2010, and now spends half his time here and half in Europe. He is also the founder and co-director of Integral European Conference.
Mickey Huff: State of the Media & Censorship-Finding Trustworthy News & Information in the Digital Age
When we live in the close-knit ecosystem called community, everyone follows and everyone leads.
~ Parker Palmer
~ Parker Palmer
The best way to view a present problem is to study its nature, it's intrinsic interrelationships, to discover the answer to the problem lies within the problem itself.
~ Abe Maslow
~ Abe Maslow
Mary Rockwood Lane, RN, PhD is the co-founder and director emeritus of Shands Arts in Medicine program at University of Florida (UF), Gainesville. She directed the program for over 15 years and is now an Associate Professor of Nursing at the University of Florida, where she teaches Creativity and Spirituality in Healthcare. In addition to writing numerous articles and books on art, spirituality and healing, she lectures and teaches workshops across the globe. She has been very involved in setting up art and healing programs in Florida and around the country. http://www.maryrockwoodlane.com
Tom Llewellyn: Building the Sharing Economy
Tom Llewellyn is the Organizing Director at Shareable.net
where he coordinates the global Sharing Cities Network,#MapJam, and other community sharing campaigns. In addition to organizing, he also works on Shareable’s weekly magazine, is co-editor of the
Shareable Guide to Sharing book series and speaks internationally about real, equitable sharing cities. Previously, he was the Education and Activism Director for Sustainable Living Roadshow touring the U.S. producing eco events and actions which promoted environmental, social and economic sustainability.
Tom has also co-founded several community and sharing based initiatives including: Asheville Tool Library, REAL Cooperative (Regenerative Education Action & Leadership) and the worker-owned Critter Cafe.
Jackie Mahendra: Supporting Social Movements with Digital Advocacy and Media Presence
Jackie Mahendra is the Director of Strategic Collaboration, at Citizen Engagement Lab, where she is founder of a network initiative called OPEN-US (Online Progressive Engagement Network, US), whose aim is to strengthen the ecosystem of tech-savvy groups pushing for progressive change in the US. Before this she was Director of Organizing and then Director of Storytelling at Change.org, the world’s largest campaigning platform. Prior to that, she led online strategy for the immigration reform advocacy group America's Voice, where she helped seed changes in deportation policy that now protect millions of immigrant families from coast to coast. A board member of Netroots Nation, Jackie has given dozens of talks on innovation strategy, immigration advocacy, and digital storytelling – and spearheaded programs to promote diversity and innovation. Jackie enjoys writing, practicing yoga, and advising social impact startups. She also co-founded ethical clothing company ishi and serves on the Board of Directors of CodeWalker Academy, whose mission is to build the pipeline of women and minorities into tech.
Erin McCandless, PhD: The State of World Peace 2016: Challenges & Opportunities for Transformative Change
Erin McCandless, Ph.D is a scholar and practitioner with over two decades of experience working on and in conflict-affected settings, on issues of peacebuilding, statebuilding, governance, development and resilience – and their intersections. Dr. McCandless is Academic Director of Peacebuilding at The New School in New York, Honorary Senior Lecturer at the University of Kwazulu Natal in South Africa, and founder and Co-Executive Editor of the international, refereed Journal of Peacebuilding and Development. She consults widely across the United Nations system and with other international organizations, and is deeply engaged in high level policy processes on peacebuilding. She also has an avid interest in exploring how humanistic psychology can meaningfully intersect with more structurally driven peacebuilding efforts. More information on her and her more than fifty publications, including three books and several major United Nations policy shifting reports, can be found on her website: www.erinmccandless.net
Aftab Omer, PhD: Emergence of Human Capacities in Transformative Learning
Dr. Aftab Omer is the founder and president of Meridian University in Petaluma, California. He received his Bachelor’s from M.I.T. and his Doctorate from Brandeis University. Formerly the President of the Council for Humanistic and Transpersonal Psychologies, Aftab is a fellow of the International Futures Forum and The World Academy of Arts and Sciences. Aftab’s research has focused on the emergence of human capacities within transformative learning communities and his work includes assisting organizations in tapping the creative potentials of conflict, diversity and complexity. His published articles include “The Spacious Center: Leadership and the Creative Transformation of Culture” and “Between Columbine and the Twin Towers: Fundamentalist Culture as a Failure of Imagination.”
Dr. Donna Rockwell is adjunct faculty at the Michigan School of Professional Psychology, where she developed the mindfulness curriculum and is a grant recipient for the Mindfulness Initiative. Dr. Rockwell is also adjunct faculty at Saybrook University’s College of Integrative Medicine and Health Sciences. She writes a blog: Mindfulness in Everyday Life, for The Huffington Post, and teaches mindfulness courses across the U.S. She is working to create a bridge between the greater mindfulness community of scholars, teachers, scientists, and practitioners, and frontline mental healthcare providers through mindfulness presentations at the American Psychological Association Convention and other national and international conferences, highlighting the value of mindfulness in clinical psychology training and practice. She has an upcoming book chapter, “Mindfulness as Therapy: How Buddhist psychology contributes to enhancing therapist efficacy and client outcomes,” in The Changing Faces of Therapy: Evolving Perspectives in Clinical Practice and Assessment (in press). Dr. Rockwell’s other research interest is the psychology of fame and celebrity, and she is often quoted in print, broadcast and social media. http://donnarockwell.com
Jim Rough is a social innovator, author, and director of The Center for Wise Democracy. He originated Dynamic Facilitation for achieving breakthroughs to impossible-seeming issues, the Wisdom Council Process for evoking true democracy in large systems of people, and Society’s Breakthrough for transforming society’s biggest problems. For over twenty years he has presented seminars on these innovations all over the world. Jim is author of Society’s Breakthrough! Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People (2002). See a 5 min. video how a Wisdom (Civic) Council was used in Austria to empower local residents to help manage the intractable problem of massive numbers of refugees entering their region: https://vimeo.com/135618811
Len Saputo, MD: The State of Healthcare & A Call for Radical Reform
Len is a board-certified internist with 50 years of experience. He has pioneered the development of an integrative, holistic, person-centered, preventive health care model called “Health Medicine.” He is the founder of the Health Medicine Forum, a non-profit educational foundation and the Health Medicine Center in Walnut Creek. Len is a practicing physician, motivational speaker, television and radio personality, and was formerly ranked number one in the world in men's senior tennis by the International Tennis Federation. He is the author of the Nautilus Gold Award winning book, A Return to Healing: Radical Health Care Reform and the Future of Medicine. Len's free website, www.DoctorSaputo.com, has more than 2600 audio and video files organized to provide completely free integrative information on more than 30 common health care conditions.
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Kirk Schneider, PhD: The Experiential Democracy Project
Kirk Schneider, Ph.D. is a leading spokesperson for existential-humanistic psychology, current president of Division 32, Adjunct Faculty at Saybrook University and Teachers College, Columbia University, and Vice President of the Existential-Humanistic Institute. Kirk has written over 100 articles and authored or co-authored 10 books including The Paradoxical Self, Horror and the Holy, The Psychology of Existence (with Rollo May), The Handbook of Humanistic Psychology, 2nd Ed. (with Fraser Pierson and James Bugental), Rediscovery of Awe, Humanity’s Dark Side: Evil, Destructive Experience, and Psychotherapy (with Art Bohart, Barbara Held, and Ed Mendelowitz), Awakening to Awe, and most recently, The Polarized Mind. Kirk's primary focus will be on what he terms the "Experiential Democracy Project." Drawing from the principles of existential-humanistic therapy, the Experiential Democracy Project facilitates a person-to-person (or "I-thou") encounter between legislators or community activists who conflict over issues of significant moral import. How supporting "here-now" understanding between ostensibly opposing parties is a possible path to empathy and compromise/consensus.
Tiffany Shlain: How Technology & Media Shape Us & The Importance of Constructive Media
Tiffany Shlain is a renowned speaker who has been featured at Google, Harvard, NASA, The Economist Ideas conference, Good Morning America, TEDWomen and TEDMED. She is also an Emmy-nominated filmmaker who runs a film studio and lab called: The Moxie Institute and a nonprofit Let it Ripple: Mobile Films for Global Change that makes free films for schools and creates global events to catalyze conversations around important topics; i.e. annual: Character Day:which focuses on reinforcing character strengths/human virtues (vs. deficiencies) and constructive movements toward needed change. Let it Ripple that has had four films premiere at Sundance, won over 70 awards, and has had three of their films selected by The U.S. State Department to screen at embassies around the world to foster dialogue across borders. www.moxieinstitute.org/tiffanyshlain and www.letitripple.org
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Isabelle Wachsmuth, MSc, MPH has been working for World Health Organization (WHO) since 2003 and has 20 years of international expertise promoting and implementing knowledge management solutions in both high and low income countries. She is currently Project manager, Health Systems and Innovation Cluster, Service Delivery & Safety (SDS), Emerging Issues at WHO Geneva. Her duties include: the integration of traditional, alternative and complementary medicine (T/CAM) with conventional medicine and Quality Universal Health Coverage (to strengthen health systems and services). She is also part of the steering group for the global campaign of information-based healthcare, and coordinator and lead moderator of the WHO Global Francophone Forum—Health Information For All
Artistic Support
Poster by Vianca Salanga
School of Visual Philosophy
We foster a learning community focused on art as an educational stimulus—a central part of life, with artists among the most well-educated and creative thinkers in society. We believe artmaking is a skill and a way of being, thinking and interacting with the world. Our way of teaching is designed to engage people on multiple levels—using art as a context for teaching all subject matters.
Lisa Rasmussen and Ceylan Hulya: Art 4 All People—Activating the Artist Within
Lisa Rasmussen, MFA and Ceylan Hulya, MA are professional artists, advocates of transformative art and co-founders of Art 4 All People. They founded Art 4 All People out of an intention to create a sanctuary that fosters creativity, community, imagination and reverence for life. Established in Malibu, California in 2012, A4AP works to showcase the power of art by activating the artist and healer within—awakening the best in the human spirit and inspiring deep, positive change in self and society. A key aspect of their mission is the pioneering of the YogART Way, a transformative yoga and art workshop. They also facilitate art & soul coaching, art retreats, nature treks, community outreach events, gallery exhibits, an online gallery, and an artist representation agency.
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