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About us

Fielding (WE Immersion graduate) and Jeanette (WE Immersion Teaching Team) // photo by Republic of Light

Weaving Earth Center for Relational Education provides nature-based education for action at the confluence of ecological, social and personal systems change. We believe that education must critically engage inherited systems of separation and domination, and at the same time, responsibly recollect a deeper human inheritance: stories of interrelationship, belonging, dignity and respect. At the root of this deeper inheritance is the embodied remembering that humans are a part of nature, not apart from it. From this orientation, we work with youth, teens, adults, and organizations in the Bay Area and beyond to build a more just and resilient future.

You can click on the icons below to jump to a section, or scroll down the page to read through them all. 

Gratitude
& Lineage

Gratitude
& Lineage

What
WE Do

What
WE Do

Our
Values

Our
Values

Relational Education

Relational Education

Core Curriculum

Core Curriculum

Commitment
to Lifeways Back

Commitment
to Lifeways Back

Team
Ecology

Team
Ecology

Students
& Alumni

Students
& Alumni

GRATITUDE AND CARE FOR LINEAGE

Thousands of years before colonization, southern Pomo people lived in the territory where we now work and reside. Members of the Pomo, Coast Miwok, Onatsatis and other local nations reside here today. This land is their land, still. Acknowledging and working to reconcile the past and ongoing damage done by colonization is part of the healing needed in these times.

As part of that effort, we are committed to understanding the differences between cultural appreciation, appropriation, and misappropriation. Discerning the difference between healthy exchange and misappropriation rests in understanding historical and present-day power dynamics and how new cultural practices are adopted. 

We are blessed to have been influenced and supported by myriad teachers, elders, allies and landscapes over the years. How we care for these relationships and teachings is a core aspect of our work at WE. We strive to do so with authenticity and integrity, and are committed to the healing and long-term commitment this work requires.

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WhAT WE DO

VISION, PURPOSE AND APPROACH

river (WE Immersion graduate) // photo by Republic of Light

Weaving Earth Center for Relational Education provides nature-based education for action at the confluence of ecological, social and personal systems change.  

All of our programs:
Are nature-based, following natural cycles of learning and growth
Are dedicated to equity, justice and social responsibility
Strive to cultivate deep connection to nature, self-love, and community service to protect both people and the planet
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Our Values

HOW WE DO WHAT WE DO

Our organizational values have been shaped by many and will continue to evolve as we learn and grow. These are the touchstones that we return to as Weaving Earth staff, to anchor ourselves in learning and growth, and to navigate the complexity of the world to the best of our abilities. We do not present these as rules for others to follow, but as a way of letting the world know who we are and what we believe. If they inspire or challenge you, great! We see this as a living document and know it will continue to grow and change through the years.

There are 28 organizational values for you to explore. Click the moon icon images or use the right/left areas to switch slides. 
Love Is Our Guide
We celebrate love not only for what it is but also for what it does. We imagine love as a multifaceted, animating energy that generates and flows through all of creation. Love encourages us to see the beauty in all beings and creates room for hope and possibility. Love compels us to move into closer contact with the world and supports our discernment for when and how to hold a healthy boundary.
We Celebrate Magic
We celebrate mystery, creativity, synchronicity, intuition and the spaces in between. We recognize that magic is felt and expressed differently by everyone and that it transcends the English language and the false binaries created and upheld by cis-heteropatriarchy.
The Earth is a Bountiful, Beautiful and Amazing Living Organism
The manifestations of life and place on this planet are a never-ending source of inspiration. We return time and again to the simple practice of giving attention and gratitude to the many more-than-human beings and ecosystems we live among.
What We Do to the Earth, We Do to Ourselves

Beyond Separation

We are nature. False notions of separation from the Earth enable isolation, dis-ease, and extractivism. Conscious connection to the natural world enables belonging, interrelationship, care-taking, and well-being. We have a deep commitment to tend and care for life on this planet.
We Learn from Ecological Wisdom
Ecological wisdom continues to teach us about interdependence, differentiation, self-organization, the capacity to adapt and respond, pacing, regulation, cycles, change, place-based wisdom, dynamic relationship and community relations. We are grateful for the wise guidance of the ecosystem and see ourselves as an integral part of this greater whole.
Complexity Requires Both/And Thinking

Beyond Either/Or Thinking

Either/Or thinking can lead to siloed disciplines, individualism, and fractured pieces of a whole. Both/And thinking can allow for multiple truths, diverse perspectives, and relational learning. We strive for both/and thinking.
Leadership is Differentiated and Interdependent
We uphold leadership as a moment-to-moment practice, drawn from the wisdom of the circle. We practice being guided by the question “Who has the creative spark for what’s needed now and next?” This kind of listening is both personal and collective and manifests through each of us in different ways. We work to cultivate the capacity to “hear” that spark and to act with courage and humility when it arises. We work to create systems that cultivate that depth of collaboration in the circle.
Mistakes are Seeds of Learning and Growth

Beyond Perfectionism

We acknowledge that “mistakes” are inevitable. We practice separating the person from the mistake, giving and receiving feedback for learning and growth, and not taking things personally while being personally accountable to our learnings. We build capacity for tending to relationships if “mistakes” cause harm. Developing and trusting this capacity can minimize guilt, shame, concealment, punishment, and withdrawal.
Conflict is an Opportunity

Beyond Fear of Open Conflict

We endeavor to be “bump-friendly,” practicing our capacity to respond to tension and misunderstanding with respectful skill and an eye for power dynamics, accountability and repair. We believe conflict can be a path to new awareness and behavior.
Questions are the Ally of Understanding

Beyond Defensiveness

We emphasize “how” and “what” questions rather than “why” and “yes/no” questions, knowing that every answer earned leads to more questions. We practice understanding others before being understood and asking for clarification rather than assuming we know what was meant by words or actions. We see defensive reactions as an entry point toward deeper self-knowledge rather than a rationale for closing off. We practice accepting non-closure and the possibility that some perspectives are incommensurable.
Power is Inherent Within Systems, We Endeavor to See and Share It

Beyond Dominance

Power is the ability to exert influence within a system. The power dynamics within any given system fall somewhere on a spectrum between absolutely concentrated and completely distributed. We believe that an evolved understanding of power relations is one of the paradigm shifts needed in these times, and we are committed to learning and practicing the truth of what that entails.
We Know Less Than We Think We Do
The universe is vast and mysterious. There will always be more to learn and understand, and there are innumerable experiences and perspectives we will never have. Because our individual perspectives are limited, we strive for cultural humility and an openness to learning and taking the learning deeper in each moment. We celebrate the power of “I don’t know.”
Knowledge is Socially Constructed

Beyond Objectivity

Our socialized identities shape how we see and understand the world. Objectivity is impossible, though the myth of objectivity is alive and well. Understanding that we are each having a subjective experience of the world is key to taking on new ideas and awareness. Truth is relative. We recognize how our social positionality shapes our perspectives and reactions.
We All Have Something to Learn From One Another

Beyond Expert Syndrome

We believe that mentoring is an essential ingredient to the transmission of skills and perspectives, between generations and across spectrums of difference. At its best, mentoring is collective and reciprocal, whereby the hats of “teacher” and “student” are ever in flux and shared by many.
We Need Each Other and We’re in this Together

Beyond Individualism

Imagining and generating life-affirming systems change requires a coordinated and diverse network of active allyship and mutual accountability. There is no personal salvation; We recognize that everyone’s liberation is interconnected.
Systems Change Requires Behavior Change
Intellectual critiques are not enough. The revolution will not be only intellectual—it must be embodied, which takes practice and accountability, particularly to those who are most impacted by that which needs transformation. Without tangible changes in behavior, personal and systemic, business-as-usual continues uninterrupted.
Discomfort is a Necessary Component of Learning & Growth

Beyond Right to Comfort

Forming new awarenesses, practicing new behaviors, and embracing change can sometimes feel like one’s safety is at risk. It is an individual and collective responsibility to listen continuously for the nuanced differences between discomfort and a lack of safety, and how those fluid categories are contingent on social position and personal history. As we re-distribute discomfort, the recognition that liberation is interconnected becomes more apparent.
Examine Assumptions, Question Beliefs, and Be Willing to Change
Change is nearly impossible if we remain in insulated environments and experiences that do not challenge our perspectives with new information, approaches, and beliefs. We practice holding our attitudes lightly and with humility, inquiring within for implicit assumptions, differentiating between opinion and informed knowledge, and stretching towards flexibility, adaptability, and change.
Practice What We Teach
Integrity necessitates that we are active practitioners of the teachings we offer. We endeavor to walk our talk, dissolve the lines between “life” and “work” and to act in alignment with our values and offerings to the world.
Design Good Systems, Be Willing to Make Them Better (Beyond Breakdown & Burnout)
We strive for clear and effective organizational systems that deepen relationships, respect, commitment, and the impact of the work. Wasted resource within an organization (talent, time, money, energy, e.g.) is an indication that a system needs attention.
Make Relationships Regenerative

Beyond Extractivism

Changing business-as-usual requires that we move beyond mentalities of exploitation and innocence (“out of sight, out of mind”). We accept that everything we do has an impact, regardless of whether we understand that impact, and we do our best to take responsibility for those impacts. We celebrate the sacredness of life and strive to leave things as they were, or better than we found them.
Disseminate Teachings in Ways that Respect Cultures and Lineages of Learning

Beyond Extractivism

Cultural exchange has been happening for thousands of years and is not problematic in and of itself. We commit to discerning the difference between healthy exchange and misappropriation, which rests in understanding historic and present-day power dynamics and how new cultural practices are adopted. Far too often, members of dominant groups take cultural elements from oppressed groups without consent, understanding of the cultural element, or regard for the harm such actions cause—this theft perpetuates the oppression and reaffirms mistrust, which we seek to avoid in all circumstances.
Personal Resourcing Fuels The Movement

Beyond Individualism, Despair, and Burnout

Joy, gratitude, health, and well-being are acts of radical resistance. We strive to become and remain healthy cells within the bigger body, knowing that what we each need to do so differs, both as individuals, and because society distributes the foundations of well-being (fresh food, clean air, clean water, relative safety, et cetera) inequitably. As Christina Baldwin reminds us: “Ask for what you need and offer what you can.”
The Human Body Is Inherently Wise
Our bodies are a wealth of wisdom. Somatic practices are a gateway into multifaceted learning, listening and knowing. We are committed to learning to listen to the whole body, allowing the body to guide and aligning the mind, heart, body, spirit, soul.
“Move at the Speed of Trust” ~ adrienne maree brown​
This is inspired by adrienne maree brown, who borrows Mervyn Mercano’s remix of Stephen Covey’s “speed of trust” concept. brown writes: “Focus on critical connections more than critical mass—build the resilience by building the relationships.” Our movement is only as strong as our relationships. We strive to prioritize relationships over results.
Justice is a Practice, not an Event or a Destination

Beyond Utopias

In action for justice, dominant folks are “late to the conversation” inherently. We are committed to continuing education, leading with humility, deep listening, and avoiding the archetype of “pioneer,” “trailblazer,” or “the good oppressor.” We endeavor to stay on the hook by recognizing that every action is an opportunity to promote healing, justice, and fierce love.
Systems Change Is Urgent—The Quality of Our Responses Don’t Have to Be
The situation is urgent, but when we rush, we run the risk of harming relationships and also reinscribing patterns of dominance and oppression. We seek to slow down and prioritize relationships over results.
Humans Are Capable of Living Beyond Dominance
The systems of dominance that shape our lives — extractivism (oppression of the Earth), ableism, ageism, anti-immigration, anti-Semitism, cis-genderism, colonialism, fat-phobia, heterosexism, Islamophobia, nationalism, racism, religious persecution, and sexism— will ultimately fall. How do we ensure they won’t be replaced by new supremacy systems? We can study historic/current injustices, practice in the present, and perhaps most importantly, summon the skill to imagine a future in which dominance doesn’t define how we relate to one another and the earth. Imagination and action are the right and left steps of our movement.
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Relational Education

How do we educate for our times? Weaving Earth has focused on creating educational experiences aimed at remembering and strengthening our relationships to self, to community and to the planet upon which we all depend. The health of any system—ecological, social, economic or otherwise—is defined by the relationships between the elements that make it up.

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chipping sparrow // photo by Jenny Erbes (WE Immersion graduate)

Core Curriculum

Education for our Times

Original Illustration by Lara Birchler

Education today must critically engage inherited stories of separation and domination, and at the same time responsibly recollect a deeper human inheritance: stories of interrelationship, belonging, dignity and respect. We believe this orientation supports the conditions for much-needed systems change. 

We organize our curriculum into four, interrelated areas of study and practice:

EARTH INTIMACY

ECO-SOCIAL CO-LIBERATION

EMBODIMENT

PRAYERFUL ACTION

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Commitment To LIFEWAYS BACK

The United States claims to be established on principles of equality—yet not all people are treated equally by or within U.S. society. Since its inception, the U.S. has been designed to privilege, prioritize and empower certain identities over others through the systems of white supremacy and racism, cis-heteropatriarchy, classism, ableism, and American exceptionalism (to name just a few) — click ‘Learn More’ below and scroll to the bottom to see a short glossary, in case any of these terms are new to you. All identities that deviate from the “societal norms” created primarily by white, land-owning men, are targets of personal and structural discrimination, resulting in individual pain and systemic inequity. Therefore, the notion that wealth simply accrues to those who work hard is a cultural myth—a myth that upholds colonialism, white supremacy, cis-heterosexual male dominance and extractive capitalism.

Weaving Earth is committed to interrupting ongoing systems of inequity and the resulting lack of access to programs and education for marginalized identities. Recognizing the intersecting barriers of colonialism and white supremacy, Weaving Earth created a Lifeways Back Fund to cover tuition for all BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) participants. Any money BIPOC choose to pay would go to the Lifeways Back Fund for future BIPOC participants. This is not a scholarship fund, and we do not assume that individual BIPOC applicants do not have access to wealth—these funds are offered with a prayer for collective liberation.

You can join the effort by donating to our Lifeways Back Fund

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we TEAM ecology

All
ADULT PROGRAMS
SERVICE TEAM
EXECUTIVE BOARD
MEDIA TEAM
YOUTH AND TEEN PROGRAMS
ADVISORS
All
SERVICE TEAM
EXECUTIVE BOARD
MEDIA TEAM
ADULT PROGRAMS
YOUTH AND TEEN PROGRAMS
ADVISORS

We Students and ALUMNI

Inspiring New Generations of Changemakers

WE teen backpacking trip // photo by Sam Edmondson (WE Associate Director)

ADULTS:

Since our inception in 2013, Weaving Earth has graduated more than 100 participants from our 10-month intensive program, the WE Immersion. Nearly ⅔ of our participants completed multiple years of training. Applying their training, WE Immersion graduates are making a difference in dozens of programs and organizations around the country, working with children, families, and communities to care for the earth and one another.

YOUTH:

Through our year-long programs, teen backpacking trips, summer camps, and weeklong events, we’ve nurtured a love for nature and people in hundreds of young hearts and minds.

Check out their work

Sam Edmondson

ORGANIZATIONAL SERVICE TEAM
Bio

Sam (he/him) is the Associate Director at Weaving Earth. He was born and raised in Washington, D.C. (Nacotchtank territory) and currently resides as a white settler on unceded/occupied Southern Pomo territory. His lineage is northern european—scottish, irish, british, german, and french. He is dedicated to a future in which human beings live beyond separation and domination and is continually examining with humility what that asks of him today.

In addition to his role on the Executive Team, Sam has worked on the Teaching Team for the WE Immersion and as a guide for youth and teen programs. He is a certified Wilderness First Responder and a devoted student of birdsong, animal tracks, and fire-making. He also maintains a deep personal commitment to racial justice, which has evolved over the years into a responsibility to understanding how interlocking systems of oppression shape his reality and societal advantages, and what to do about it. Additional passions include martial arts (Aikido), music-making (guitar), writing, and figuring out how things work.

Justine Epstein

EXECUTIVE BOARD
Bio

Justine (she/her) is a lover of birds and all things wild, a student of water and love, a community activist, council carrier, and rites of passage guide-in-training. She lives a commitment to personal and collective healing from inherited historical systems of colonization, white supremacy, cis-heteropatriarchy, and global capitalism through integrated, holistic community practices, prayer and storytelling in ways that honor our diverse and complex histories and identities, and a focus on relationship with and protection of the natural world.

Justine was born and raised as a white settler on the ancestral territories of the Nacotchtank/Piscataway nations (so-called Washington, D.C. area) and the Blue Ridge Mountains of the Monacan Nation. She currently lives as a settler on unceded Southern Pomo territory. Her ancestors come from Europe—Ireland and the British Isles as well as Lithuania and Russia, from Ashkenazi Jewish heritage.

Justine has worked and studied community organizing, praxes of anti-racism and decolonization, deep nature connection, wilderness-based rites of passage and council. In addition to being a third-year student in the WE Immersion, she serves on the Core Teams of Walking Water and Education for Racial Equity has trained with the School of Lost Borders and Tamera Healing Biotope 1 and is a member of Beyond Boundaries. She carries and offers practices and skills that strengthen our capacities to show up with open hearts and courageous bodes during these uncertain times on planet earth.

Kate Bunney

ORGANIZATIONAL SERVICE TEAM
Bio

In 2012 Kate founded Walking Water—a pilgrimage with the waters—as a way to inspire us to be in community, in relation with the waters and the places we live and ultimately to experience the huge potential we all have to create change. Walking Water already has a strong global following and is seen as a model in social action. Kate is a member of the Beyond Boundaries team, a Council carrier and community consultant and has recently joined the Weaving Earth team in California.

Kate was born and raised in the UK. Surrounded by water on all sides, she learned to swim and sail as soon as she could. From an early age she witnessed many disparities in our human world and began searching for the places where change was happening, for the better. She has worked in safe houses for women and children experiencing domestic violence, adults with learning difficulties, schools, a child abuse study unit, with young offenders, young girls working on the streets and as a consultant for the UK police force, National Unions and NGO’s. She has a degree with honors in Psychology and a Masters in Women’s Studies with focus on epistemology leading her to carry the question of what do we do with what we know.

For 15 years, Kate lived in one of the most progressive communities in the world and held a focus on educational programs and consultancy for communities in conflict areas, fundraising, global networking, organizing and public relations. One of her main roles was organizing and walking Pilgrimage, through Israel and Palestine, Colombia and Europe, as a way of empowering social action and re-discovering our potential as agents of change.

Will Scott

WE IMMERSION TEACHING TEAM
Bio

Will (he/him) is a member of the Teaching Team for the WE Immersion, and one of Weaving Earth’s co-founders. His lineage comes primarily out of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Great Britain, Italy, Germany and France, and he currently lives as a white settler on Southern Pomo territory. His passion resides at the intersections of ecological health, human development, social justice, and community resilience.

Since studying eco-psychology, social change, and wilderness experiences in college, Will has committed himself to a focus of healing the division between humans and the more-than-human world. This focus includes actively expanding his understanding of how the concept of wilderness itself reflects a human- and euro-centric frame of reference with roots in the colonization process. He has grown and learned over the years through deep relationships with a variety of teachers and organizations, each exploring how we can re-member and revitalize our relationships to self, others, and earth as a response to the crises we face. This journey led him to Prescott College where he pursued a master’s degree that explored the importance of, and possibilities for nature-based, relationally-focused education in these complex times.

tayla shanaye

WE IMMERSION TEACHING TEAM
Bio

tayla ealom (she/her) is a woman of color, a mother, a healer, a researcher, and a living body. She holds a Masters in Psychological Studies with a concentration in somatic psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies, where she is currently pursuing her PhD in Women’s Spirituality. Her current research focuses on the liberating childbirth process from hyper-mechanization in order to return the human race to the Earth. Empowering mothers and birth-givers is one way her activism shows up on behalf of the Living Earth.  She lives in the occupied Anishinaabek lands of the so-called Upper Peninsula of Michigan with her sun, partner, and elder 4-legged. She is committed to a loving relationship with the Living Earth, so that the land, waters, and seasons can do their good work of shaping her body and humbling her mind.

So Sinopolous-Lloyd

WE IMMERSION TEACHING TEAM
Bio

Sophia (“So”) Sinopoulos-Lloyd is a white queer Greek-American who grew up in the northern hardwood forests of Alnobak territory (central Vermont). So works variously as an outdoor educator, wilderness EMT, and writer. So worked as a seasonal shepherd throughout college and considers their life path to be deeply inspired by the combined resilience and tenderness of the cloven-hooved.

They founded Queer Nature with their spouse Pinar in 2015 where the two develop nature-based programming for LGBTQ2+ people with a focus on nature-connection, survival skills, and transformative experience through the lenses of decolonization and social and environmental justice. The soul of So’s work in and around nature is animated by studies of identity, place, notions of the sacred, and interspecies relationship within contexts of colonization, globalization, migration, and climate change. So holds an MA in Religious Studies from Claremont Graduate University and has studied place-based skills at Roots School and Wilderness Awareness School. Some of their favorite nature-connection practices are wildlife tracking and stealth-craft. @borealfaun @queernature

Redbird Willie

WE IMMERSION TEACHING TEAM
Bio

(Pomo/Wailaki/Wintu). After graduating from UC Berkeley with a degree in Native Studies, Redbird Willie has worked in various fields of education, while at the same time continuing to enrich his personal education – an education fueled by his desire to uncover and rekindle the cultural earth based knowledge of California Indians. Edward is an artist, native ecologist, graphic designer, basketweaver, regalia maker, permaculturist and budding herbalist. He has 4 grown children.

Pınar Sinopolous-Lloyd

WE IMMERSION TEACHING TEAM
Bio

Pınar (they/them) is an indigenous futurist, mentor, consultant and ecophilosopher; co-founder of Queer Nature, an “organism” stewarding earth-based queer community through ancestral skills, interspecies solidarity and rites of passage. Enchanted by the liminal, Pınar is an neurodivergent enby with Huanca, Turkish and Chinese lineages.

As a QTIBIPOC outdoor catalyst, their inspiration is envisioning decolonially-informed queer ancestral-futurism through interspecies accountability and the remediation of human exceptionalism in the Chthulucene. Their relationship with queerness, hybridity, neurodivergence, indigeneity and belonging guided their work in developing Queer Ecopsychology with a somatic and depth approach through a decolonial lens. As a survival skills mentor, one of their core missions is to uplift and amplify the brilliant “survival skills” that BIPOC, LGBTQ2SIA+ and other intersectional systemically targeted populations already have in their resilient bodies and stories of survivance. They are a member of Diversify Outdoors coalition. Follow their work on IG via @queerquechua + @queernature

Lauren Dalberth Hage

WE IMMERSION TEACHING TEAM EXECUTIVE BOARD ORGANIZATIONAL SERVICE TEAM
Bio

“My Hebrew name is Leba, named after my grandmother, which means heart. I feel that I am alive at this time dedicated to all matters of the heart. My blood ancestors are from Russia, Sicily and Scotland and I was born a white settler on Lenni-Lenape territory in what is now called New Jersey. I fell in love with the wild places there—the magnificence of the oak trees; the earthworms emerging after the rains; the deer moving through the leaves; the salty ocean air on my face and the bird calls that signaled the setting sun. These wild moments and my family’s love of life guided me as a child to love and care for the earth and the people.”

Lauren (she/her) is co-founder and director of the Weaving Earth Center for Relational Education (WE) and a member of the Teaching Team for the WE Immersion. As a guide and consultant, Lauren is dedicated to supporting leaders to think, feel, act and design from a foundation rooted in interrelationship. Lauren works with communities to support the honoring and witnessing of life transitions, and is especially dedicated to the reclamation of a healthy relationship to menstruation.

Lauren currently lives as a white settler on Southern Pomo territory. She is very present to the fact that some of the original colonizers of this place are Russian and Italian, two lineages which run through her body. She gives deep thanks and respect to the original peoples of this place, and is here with the commitment and prayer to be in right relationship with the people, the land and the waters of this place. And while this commitment isn’t enough to address the historic and present-day harm done on this continent and globally by supremacy culture, she nevertheless believes it is her response-ability to walk humbly with this commitment and prayer while continuing to learn, change and do better along the way.

Jeanette Acosta

WE IMMERSION TEACHING TEAM EXECUTIVE BOARD
Bio

Jeanette is an indigenous Permaculture specialist and a certified permaculture teacher and designer who specializes in maritime culture, herbalism, ethnobotany and biodynamics. Her experience dealing with indigenous peoples, international business people, world diplomats, heads of states, renowned artists/celebrities, and politicians gives her a very unique perspective on various cultures and customs.

Dave Hage

WE IMMERSION TEACHING TEAM
Bio

Dave (he/him) is a co-founder of the Weaving Earth Center for Relational Education and a member of the Teaching Team for the WE Immersion. He carries a deep love of the particular landscape he grew up in and still calls home — in Southern Pomo Territory — and is passionate about serving others in creating/deepening their own relationship to place.

Dave is a Wilderness First Responder and has been guiding nature connection experiences for youth and adults since 2006. He brings his love of the natural world and his care for humanity into this work, with a particular fire for drawing out creative expression. He is grateful for the privilege to be in a process of co-liberation alongside participants and guides, and he remains a humble student to this collective effort.

Gigi Coyle

WE IMMERSION TEACHING TEAM
Bio

Gigi began with a series of three-day retreats at a convent school when she was twelve, fascinated and curious what Jesus was doing fasting in that desert for 40 days. In her early twenties, the seeds of that experience led her to travel—alone in the wilderness, and in other cultures—seeking pathways to spirit, integral healing, and the partnership possible between all beings. She still travels that road.

For thirty years she has worked with individuals and groups in different communities and cultures, helping to build bridges “between the worlds.” She has organized and co-led journeys to the rainforest, to the oceans, to the desert; journeys dedicated to witnessing and learning through the great suffering and abundant grace found on this planet. Interspecies Communication, The School of Lost Borders and The Ojai Foundation have been her primary focus and attention. Today, she offers council and the desert fast as two of the simplest, oldest, tried-and-true forms for initiation, healing, confirmation and celebration of work, life, and vision. She is co-author of The Way of Council and The Box: Remembering The Gift. Gigi created and is now leading an intergenerational pilgrimage team, Beyond Boundaries and responds to a variety of service projects supporting regenerative communities around the world.

brontë velez

EXECUTIVE BOARD
Bio

brontë velez (they/them) brontë’s work and rest is guided by the call that “black wellness is the antithesis to state violence” (Mark Anthony Johnson). as a black-latinx transdisciplinary artist, curator, trickster, educator, jibarx and wakeworker, their eco-social art praxis lives at the intersections of black feminist placemaking, abolitionist theologies, environmental regeneration, death doulaship, and the necessity of comedy. they embody this commitment of attending to black health/imagination, commemorative justice (Free Egunfemi) and hospicing the shit that hurts black folks and the land through serving as creative director for Lead to Life design collective (leadtolife.org) and ecological educator for ancestral arts skills and nature-connection school Weaving Earth (weavingearth.org). 

they are currently co-conjuring a mockumentary with esperanza spalding in collaboration with the San Francisco Symphony and practicing pastoral care as a co-steward of a land refuge in Kashia Pomo territory in northern California. mostly, brontë is up to the sweet tender rhythm of quotidian black queer-lifemaking, ever-committed to humor & liberation, ever-marked by grief at the distance made between us and all of life.

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