Our presenters are curated for their quality, depth, integrity, and alignment with our educational purpose. Since 1982, a distinguished faculty of authors, educators, activists, artists, performers, and practitioners have shared their work at our Cortes Island campus and in Vancouver.
Hollyhock Presenters
Aaron Johnson
Aaron Johnson is a multifaceted social activist, public speaker, and touch specialist dedicated to identifying and interrupting the barriers between people. As a co-founder of both Holistic Resistance and Grief to Action, he is committed to holding space for the stories of Black people around issues like homophobia, transphobia, internalized…
Abneet Kaur Sandhar
Abneet Kaur Sandhar is a Feminine Embodiment Coach, ceremonialist + movement facilitator. She is a magic maker and devotee of the Goddess. She is also a certified Holistic Nutritionist + Natural foods Alchemist/ Chef. Most recently becoming a woman’s temple facilitator in Boulder, CO in May 2019, she has completed…
Adrian Sinclair
Adrian Sinclair is a collaborative, curious and committed person with a dash of good humor. He lives on the unceded and ancestral territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil Waututh people aka “Vancouver,” BC with his wife and lifetime muse, Brandy Colton. His favourite thing in the world is to…
Afro Van Connect
Afro Van Connect Society is a Non-Profit Organization dedicated to empowering people of African Descent through conversation, collaboration, creation & performance. We accomplish this by creating platforms and gatherings of vibrant, creative minds committed to developing authentic solutions, to increase the visibility of unserved communities. We offer a creative capitol…
Aisha Sasha John
Aisha Sasha John is interested in choreographing performances that are occasions for real and multitudinous actions of love. John recently premiered her first ensemble work, DIANA ROSS DREAM (Danse-cité) which was developed during her 2019-2022 Dancemakers choreographic residency. Her full-length solo work debuted as the aisha of oz at the…
Akasha, PhD
Akasha Bermuda, PhD, MA, is credentialed through the International Coaching Federation as a professional certified coach (PCC). His active research interests are in the areas of coaching across differences, pilgrimage as developmental journeys, and meaning-making and complexity development in university students in the Caribbean. Akasha stands for the development of leaders…
Akaya Windwood
Akaya Windwood facilitates transformation. She advises, trains, and consults on how change happens individually, organizationally, and societally. She is on faculty of the Just Economy Institute, is Lead Advisor at Third Act, and is founder of the New Universal Wisdom and Leadership Institute, which centers human wisdom in the wisdom…
Alexandra Jai
Alexandra Jai hails from Santiago, Chile and is a hand drumming and yoga teacher, rhythm and movement facilitator and performer with over 30 years of experience. Initiated in her teens into the healing power of the drum by Nigerian master drummer Olatunji Babatunde, Alexandra plunged heart-first into the study of…
Aliko
Born and raised in Seattle Washington to a French Jewish mother and Caribbean father. Aliko is a first generation American, trans, Blaxk presenting, Jewish entrepreneur and producer. Aliko is the Founder and director of U Productions and Expansion Festival. Through his branding, website, photography, videography, and event production business, he…
Alina Frank & Dr. Craig Weiner
Alina Frank and Dr. Craig Weiner, DC, are internationally respected EFT trainers, lecturers, and authors. They are the producers of the film project, The Science of Tapping (scienceoftapping.org). Together they train and mentor coaches and health care professionals around the world. They are also the happily married couple who run successful online…
Alycia Fridkin
Alycia Fridkin is an equity and anti-racism health policy activist who has been working in public health and harm reduction settings for over two decades. Her drug policy work has included overdose crisis response, decriminalization, access to safe supply, and engaging people with lived experience in decision-making. She also supports…
Alyssa Murdoch
Alyssa Murdoch demonstrates a profound love and connection with the outdoors and the environment that surrounds her, a sentiment that has helped shape her path in life. Having studied forestry and ecology at BCIT, she blends her academic knowledge with a hands-on commitment to the natural world. In her professional…
AM Kanngieser
AM Kanngieser is an award-winning geographer, sound artist and Marie Curie Research Fellow in Geography at Royal Holloway University of London. They work through listening and attunement to approach the relations between people, place and ecologies, combining oral testimony, poetry, and voice with hyper-detailed soundscapes and fieldrecordings to create immersive…
Amir Niroumand, Ph.D.
Dr. Amir Niroumand is recognized as a social entrepreneur with a primary interest in utilizing food as a tool for changing cultural values and norms. In 2016, he founded Abundance Community Farm in Agassiz, BC, as a social experiment in creating a community culture that thrives in harmony with nature.…
Amos Clifford
Amos Clifford is the founder of the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy Guides and Programs. A serial social entrepreneur, Amos is a leading voice for Shinrin-Yoku inspired Forest Therapy in the United States. The Association’s work has been featured in Oprah Magazine, NPR Morning Edition, USA Today, the Washington Post,…
Amrita Ahuja
The creator of the Groundwork™ productivity framework, Amrita Ahuja has introduced ease and flow across industriessince 2010. From her firsthand experience launching startups to coaching founders of enterprise, technology, health and wellness companies, musicians, social justice workers, and creative agencies, Amrita has helped thousands expand the way they think about life,…
Amy Bartlett
Amy Bartlett is a psychedelic researcher and community organizer currently working on her PhD at the University of Ottawa, Canada. Her research explores the role that psychedelic integration plays in individual and communal healing, and her passions include trauma-informed care, community building, diversity and inclusion in the psychedelic space, ethics and…
Amy Thiessen
Each voice carries a unique gift—a resonance which we offer through word, expression, and communication. With over 17 years of experience as a musician, yoga teacher, coach and facilitator Amy Thiessen uses a holistic approach to awaken voice and communication through the integration of somatic awareness, discernment, devotion, and vocal…
Andrea Grabovac, MD, FRCPC
Dr. Andrea Grabovac, MD, FRCPC, is a Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of British Columbia, and Co-Director of the North American Chapter of the Mindfulness integrated Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (MiCBT) Institute. She has practiced inpatient psychiatry for 20 years at Vancouver Hospital, and her outpatient…
Andrea Nann
Andrea Nann is a contemporary dance artist, arts educator, founding artistic director of Dreamwalker Dance Company, and founder/co-creator of Conscious Bodies Methodology, an embodied community practice. Andrea dances to reach across distance and to experience herself and others in celebration of possibility, plurality, imagination, originality, and belonging. A graduate of…
Ann Randolph
Ann Randolph is considered one of the most gifted and innovative writer/performers in the US. Her Ovation Award-winning solo show, Squeeze Box, was produced Off Broadway by Mel Brooks. Ann received “Best Solo Performer 2015” by the LA Times for her current show, LOVELAND which played for two years straight…
Anne Pitman
Anne Pitman (M.Sc., E-RYT-500, C-IAYT, Pain Care Yoga certified) has her masters in Kinesiology and is the Director of the Ottawa School of Embodied Yoga Therapy with over 40 years of experience in teaching somatic movement, training embodied yoga teachers and pioneering yoga therapy in Canada. She is a practicing certified Yoga…
Annie Klein
Annie Klein is a retired casting director in film and television. She has a private healing practice, is a spiritual director and artist and is the Administrator of the Yerusha Sage-ing® Program. Creating and facilitating Sage-ing® workshops and retreats is her passion. Home
Ariana Fotinakis
Ariana Fotinakis (she/her) is a woman of mixed Anishinaabe and Greek descent. As a trauma-informed somatic coach and breathwork facilitator, Ariana brings a grounded, gentle, and compassionate approach to supporting her clients in their healing journeys. She uses breathwork, somatic healing, drumming, & earth-based teachings to help her clients rekindle…
Autumn Skye
“I believe that artwork has the potential to be maps, and these maps can help guide humanity forward into new and positive ways of seeing and being. I offer my artwork as a mirror, both an intimate personal reflection and a grand archetypical revelation. Within these visions, may each viewer…
Awakeneers
Awakeneers’ music centres around honest vocals sweetened with multi-part harmonies and supported by rich acoustic instrumentation. The nomadic band of nine multi-instrumentalist songwriters — most of whom are siblings — segues seamlessly from a foot-stomping fiddle tune to a hip-hop guide to mindfulness.
Banafsheh Sayyad
Persian master dance artist and transformational teacher, Banafsheh communicates the universal message of Sufi mysticism and Divine Feminine wisdom in a passionate yet serenely meditative way. Her dance is an interplay between trance and directed movement, precise yet abandoned and unrestrained. Her explosive yet fluid movement is sensual and ritualistic, uniting the…
Barbara Mainguy
Barbara Mainguy studied psychology and philosophy at the University of Toronto and received her Master’s degree in Creative Arts Psychotherapy at Concordia University in Montreal. Prior to that, she had worked as an artist and an artist in residence in the mental health system for a number of years. She…
Bari Tessler
Bari Tessler, M.A. is a Financial Therapist and a pioneer in the Financial Therapy field. She has a Masters degree in Somatic Psychology from Naropa University, 1998. She then ran a bookkeeping business for therapists and artists. In 2001, she merged all her training and created a somatic-based Financial Therapy…
Becca Schwenk
Becca Schwenk is an innovator who thrives when applying her creativity to justice-centred work. As Bakau’s former COO and first employee, she has been a key player in constructing its foundations and driving its evolution. As the Facilitation Certificate Program’s creator and Director, Becca is currently kvelling (verb, present participle:…
Betsy Warland
Betsy Warland has published 14 books of poetry, creative nonfiction, and lyric prose including her best-selling 2010 book of essays on writing, Breathing the Page—Reading the Act of Writing. In 2023, a second edition of Breathing the Page will include nine new essays and be published by Cormorant Books, Toronto. In 2022,…
Bettina Rothe
Bettina Rothe is passionate about igniting one’s connection to the intelligence of the body. She is an embodied leadership coach, 5Rhythms® movement facilitator, trained psychologist and pioneer in the field of somatic intelligence. Bettina supports clients in the development of an authentic leadership presence that is powerful, compassionate and self-aware.…
Bill Ophoff
Bill Ophoff has a background in geography and biology, is a naturalist world traveler, and has been Hollyhock’s resident naturalist for 25 years. Hollyhock guests often rave about our naturalist excursions, and more often than not, they are talking about Bill and his quirky sense of humour. Bill landed on Cortes…
Bill Weaver
Bill founded the Media that Matters conferences in 1999. He’s a media strategist / philosopher and a Peabody-Award-winning, 50-year veteran of television and radio in the US and Canada. He has produced, directed, shot, and edited 10 television documentaries and numerous interstitials for Canadian television, and continues to create short…
Brady Marks
Brady Marks is a digital media artist working primarily in audiovisual practices, new media and kinetic art. She obtained an undergraduate degree in Computer Science from the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and a Masters in Interactive Arts from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. Her accolades include: Tree Studies (2006)…
Breanne Kemp
Breanne Kemp has a background in Environmental Sciences and a passion for the natural world. Former lifeguard, swimming instructor and competitive swimmer, Breanne grew up in and around the water. Ontario cottage country is where she felt most at home, and after working as an Executive Assistant for much of…
Britt Wray, Ph.D.
Dr. Britt Wray is a Human and Planetary Health Postdoctoral Fellow at the Stanford Center for Innovation in Global Health, Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment and London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Her research focuses on the mental health impacts of climate change. She is the creator of the…
Brynn Saito
Brynn Saito is a poet, organizer, and Assistant Professor of Creative Writing and English at California State University, Fresno. She is the author of two books of poetry, Power Made Us Swoon (2016) and The Palace of Contemplating Departure (2013), winner of the Benjamin Saltman Award from Red Hen Press…
Cara Pike
Cara Pike is the founder and Executive Director of Climate Access, a nonprofit focused on building political and public support for climate solutions through its learning network for nonprofit and government leaders, pilot projects that test new engagement approaches, and communication research and strategy consulting services. Cara’s work includes creation of the…
Caroline Adderson
Caroline Adderson is the author of five novels, two collections of short stories, as well as many books for young readers. Her work has received numerous award nominations including the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, two Commonwealth Writers’ Prizes, the Governor General’s Literary Award, the Rogers’ Trust Fiction Prize, and the…
Carolyn J Green, BHSc, PhD
Carolyn J. Green, BHSc (Physio), PhD is a Grof® Breathwork facilitator and pharmaceutical drug safety and policy researcher living on Vancouver Island. She completed the Grof’s 2-year training in holotropic breathwork in 1999. For over 20 years she has been leading workshops in non-ordinary states of consciousness and offering apprentice…
Carolyn Schmidt
Carolyn Schmidt is in a long term relationship with human movement. As a Stretch Therapist, Breathwork Facilitator and Embodiment Coach, Carolyn brings a lifetime of experience, passion and curiosity to each session and class she leads. After years of dealing with frustrating injuries from a career in dance, Carolyn found…
Catherine Strickland
Catherine Strickland (she/her) is a white settler living on the unceded territory of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish),and Səlí” lwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations in North Vancouver, British Columbia. Catherine spent 20 years as a professional climate change policy and program manager, analyst and researcher before suffering a debilitating brain injury in…
Celeste Young
Celeste Young is a Theravadin Buddhist mindfulness and Dharma teacher. She has been practicing meditation and sitting retreats since 2002. She was one of the first teachers to be empowered at InsightLA, a nonprofit Buddhist and secular mindfulness organization based in Los Angeles. Since 2011, Celeste has worked with thousands…
Charles Chang
Charles Chang is known as a serial entrepreneur – currently leading Lyra Growth Partners, a growth equity firm he founded in 2015. Prior to Lyra, Charles was founder and President of Vega, which he started from scratch from his basement in 2004. Financed by his life savings, a second mortgage…
Charles Steinberg, M.D.
Charles Steinberg, MD, is a published photographer who teaches in Colorado and BC. He has published several beautiful books including Hollyhock Moments and From Point and Shoot to Brilliant Photography. He is a Hollyhock co-founder whose photos are often found in the Hollyhock catalogue. charlessteinbergphotography.com Read my blog on Hollyhock Talks
Charlie Gates
Charlie Gates loves to listen. A queer sound maker, Deep Listener, and somatic facilitator, Charlie holds embodied offerings that combine somatic movement, mythopoetics, queer + acoustic ecology, Deep Listening® practices, imagination work, and soundscape creation. Charlie has been leading immersive sound experiences since 2012, and has been leading trainings in…
Cheney Creamer
Cheney Creamer (B.A., V.F.T.C.) is an internationally recognized Horticultural Therapy Specialist, HeartMath® Certified Coach, and Organizational Wellness Consultant. She has over 20 years’ experience guiding individuals to cultivate meaningful relationships with nature with the purpose of building resilience to stress and strengthening their capacity for change. Cheney is the Founder…
Chepximiya Siyam' Hereditary Chief Janice George, Squamish Nation
Chief George is grateful to have had many spiritual, cultural and scholarly mentors. She continues to focus on integrating culture into all facets of her work and life. She carries teachings from many including her grandmother Kwitlut t, Lena Jacobs who was directly connected to pre contact times through her…
Cheryl Rose
Cheryl Rose is a mother and grandmother, as well as an experienced leadership educator, a systems coach and an accredited death doula and end of life educator. She was one of the principal directors for the national Social Innovation Generation (SiG) partnership. She was the Associate Director of the Waterloo…
Chloë Goodchild
Chloë Goodchild is an international singer, innovative educator and acclaimed recording artist. She is the founder of The Naked Voice (1990) and its UK Charitable Foundation (2004), and author of “The Naked Voice, Transform Your Life through the Power of Sound” (North Atlantic Books) dedicated to the transforming practice of self-awareness and conscious…
Chloe Gow-Jarrett
Co-Founder and CEO, 3fold partners. For the past 15 years, Chloe’s work has been to reliably produce powerful, values-driven leaders. Her expertise is in the design and deployment of people-based development programming that supports organizations to consistently scale their culture and leadership capacity as they grow. Chloe’s focus is on…
Chris Erickson, PhD
Dr. Chris Erickson has been practicing Tibetan based Tantra since 2014. He holds a PhD in Political Science and Masters degree in Philosophy, and is a Certified Authentic Tantra® Coach and the Senior Educational Administrator for the Institute of Authentic Tantra Education. Dr. Erickson is an accomplished Vajrayana Tantra practitioner, and…
Christina Malecka
As a Seattle-based psychotherapist, Christina has had a front-row seat to the emotional impact smartphones and social media have had on her clients, notably increased loneliness, anxiety, and alienation. Where weak social ties are plentiful, stronger ties grow harder to create and maintain. In 2017, inspired by the work of…
Christine Bergeron
Christine Bergeron, President and CEO, Vancity As President and Chief Executive Officer of Vancity, Canada’s largest community credit union, Christine believes that banking plays a vital role in developing a healthy society – building the well-being of people and, at the same time, ensuring the long-term sustainability of the communities…
Christy Thomson
Christy Thomson is a Forest Therapy Guide Mentor and Immersions Coordinator for the Association of Nature & Forest Therapy Guides. She is also the music program director for her local YMCA, a violinist, vocalist, and teacher. Christy’s work in forest therapy gives energy to all other facets of her life and aids…
Cian Dalton
Cian Dalton is a breathwork facilitator, stretch therapist, former professional boxer and the first certified Wim Hof instructor in BC. He owns and operates The Stretch Space, a stretch therapy and breathwork studio in Vancouver with his wife Carolyn. He has had a variety of diverse careers and worked as…
Cicely Belle Blain
Cicely Belle Blain is a Black/mixed, queer non-binary femme from London, UK now living on the lands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh people. Their ancestry is a mix of Gambian (Wolof), Jamaican and English. Cicely Belle spent their formative years between London, the Netherlands and a small Catholic village…
Clayton Thomas-Müller
Clayton Thomas-Müller, of the Mathais Colomb Cree Nation in Northern Manitoba, is an activist, writer, public speaker, facilitator and activist for indigenous self-determination and environmental justice. Working as co-director of the Indigenous Tar Sands Campaign of the Polaris Institute, as North American native energy organizer and tar sands campaign organizer…
Collective Rebozo
Collective Rebozo was created in 2021 by Angie Yañez and Andréa de Keijzer, Mexican birth doulas and ritualists, who currently live in Tiohtià:ke/Montréal. We offer treatments, trainings, retreats and ceremonies coming from traditional Mexican medicine to name, honor, thank and celebrate the transitional moments of life.
Cosmo Sheldrake
Cosmo Sheldrake is a UK-based multi-instrumentalist, producer, composer, live improviser, and field recordist. His music ranges widely from celebratory anthems to soulful elegies to riotous party numbers, to sparse electronic production, to haunting polyphonic songs that have grown out of field recordings of birds, whales, fish, frogs, and fungi, and…
Dan Hines
Dan Hines (he/him) finds himself at a crossroads: between activism and soul. His calling is to invite and help guide leaders to live a more undivided life. He is grateful for those who nurture their personal and professional integrity and find the courage to act. There is a way of…
Dan Siegel, M.D.
Dan Siegel is the executive director of the Mindsight Institute and founding co-director of the Mindful Awareness Research Center at UCLA, where he was also co-principal investigator of the Center for Culture, Brain and Development and clinical professor at the School of Medicine. An award-winning educator, Dan is the author…
Dana Trueman
Dana is a core member of the Hollyhock garden team and has been a gardener with Hollyhock for 20 years. He is passionate about culinary herbs and is a chartered herbalist. He loves to share his deep passion and green thumb, along with his kind and light-hearted humour, at weekly…
Daniel Cortez
Obsessed with fitness, human performance, and athletics for as long as he can remember, Daniel Cortez began to experience health problems during college. He pursued teaching and coaching at the high school level after college for several years but found his health unraveling. Daniel’s chronic health battle lasted 15 years and led…
Daniel Maté
Daniel Maté is an award-winning musical theatre dramatist, songwriter, and educator based in Brooklyn, NY. He holds an M.F.A. in Musical Theatre Writing from Tisch/NYU. In 2017/18 he served as lead instructor for Vancouver’s first ever Musical Theatre Writers’ Workshop and was a writer in residence at Touchstone Theatre. As guest…
Danielle LaPorte
Danielle LaPorte is a member of Oprah’s SuperSoul 100 a group who, in Oprah Winfrey’s words, “is uniquely connecting the world together with a spiritual energy that matters.” The former director of a future studies think tank in Washington, DC, where she managed a team creating global scenarios. She now…
Darine Monroy
Darine Monroy has been a student of Michele McDonald and Steven Smith since 2011. She has taught for Mindful Schools and has completed the Hakomi Comprehensive Training. Darine was born and raised in Mexico, and meditation retreats have been among the most meaningful experiences of her life.
Dave Smith
For nearly 30 years, Dave Smith has held a practice rooted in the Insight Meditation (Vipassana) tradition. He was empowered to teach through the Against the Stream Buddhist Meditation Society, is a certified teacher for Cultivating Emotional Balance (CEB) which is combines contemporary emotion based scientific research with contemplative practices…
David Abram
David Abram, PhD is a cultural ecologist and geophilosopher who teaches widely on several continents. He is the multiple award-winning author of The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-than-Human World, and Becoming Animal: An Earthly Cosmology. Hailed as “revolutionary” by the Los Angeles Times, as “daring”…
David J. Helfand
David J. Helfand has served on the Columbia University faculty for forty-six years, nearly half that time as Chair of the Department of Astronomy. He has mentored 22 PhD students in projects ranging from supernova remnants and neutron stars to the cosmic X-ray background and in various areas of radio…
David McEown
Canadian artist David McEown has used the medium of watercolour for the past 30 years to explore and express many of this earth’s wilderness areas. His paintings from Antarctica to the North Pole are represented in collections worldwide. David is a graduate of the Ontario College of Art and Design…
David Procyshyn
David Procyshyn is the founder of DoYogaWithMe.com, an online yoga video streaming service, offering most of its content for free. For over a decade, DoYogaWithMe has been making high-quality, online yoga instruction accessible to everyone. David’s style of teaching varies, from very gentle hatha flow to a challenging intermediate class,…
David Shkolny
David Shkolny was born on the fringes of the Canadian Shield in Pinawa, Manitoba and grew up in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta. He has an Associate Diploma in Fine Arts from Red Deer College and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (1992).…
David Sumerlin
David Sumerlin has worked for Fungi Perfecti since 1984. He has been making mushroom extracts for the last 20 years and has been involved of all aspects of mushroom cultivation. David teaches many different mushroom workshops which include basic outdoor mushroom cultivation, mushroom tissue propagation as well as various mushroom…
David Whyte
David Whyte, poet, author, and speaker, grew up with a strong, imaginative influence from his Irish mother among the hills and valleys of his father’s Yorkshire. The author of nine books of poetry and four books of prose, David holds a degree in marine zoology and has traveled extensively, including…
David Yates
David Yates has a B.A. (2001) from The Evergreen State College, with equal time spent studying writing, theatre, music, and dance. He has worked in elementary schools as a support educator for special needs programs, as an anti-violence facilitator for high school students, and is now an instructor for performance-based…
Dawn Mauricio
Dawn Mauricio (she/her), a Filipina-Canadian, has been practicing and studying Insight Meditation since 2005. She has graduated from the first teacher development group of True North Insight, and Spirit Rock’s Mindfulness Yoga and Meditation Training, Dedicated Practitioners’ Program, and 4-year Retreat Teacher Training. Dawn teaches with a playful, dynamic, and…
Dawn Pemberton
Vibrant, genuine and soulful, Dawn Pemberton has deep musical roots that take her powerful voice from gospel and soul to jazz, funk and world music. She has become a staple of the Vancouver music scene and can often be found tearin’ it up as a vocalist, pianist, teacher, adjudicator, choir…
Day Schildkret
Day Schildkret is an award-winning queer author, artist, ritualist, teacher and is internationally known for Morning Altars, which BuzzFeed calls, “a celebration of nature and life.” With nearly 100k followers on social media, Day has worked for close to two decades with thousands of individuals, communities and organizations to help…
Deepa Narayan
Deepa came to Hollyhock in 2003 and got involved with islanders trying to save land from being clearcut and now lives part time on the island. She likes to problem solve across sectors with poor communities and policy makers across the globe, previously as Senior Advisor in the World Bank. Author…
Desirée Dawson
Desirée Dawson is a JUNO Award nominated recording artist, songwriter, producer, yoga teacher and sound healing facilitator. Desirée is passionate about music’s role in collective healing by encouraging listeners to find a connection within themselves and the people and land around them. She moves in and out of genres seamlessly…
Devi Ward Erickson
Devi Ward Erickson is an internationally recognized Tantra Expert, Sex Coach, Certified Sexologist, Certified Tantric Healer, Certified Reiki Practitioner, Certified Meditation Instructor, and practitioner of Tibetan Tantric Buddhism. She is an author and the Host of the hit Podcast “Sex is Medicine with Devi Ward”. Devi has been teaching meditation…
Devon Christie, MD, CCFP, RTC
Certified Functional Medicine Practitioner, Certified MBSR Teacher, Certified Relational Somatic Therapist. Dr. Devon Christie is a family doctor with specialization in both Functional Medicine, and Interventional Pain Management. She is also a certified Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) teacher and yoga instructor, and certified Relational Somatic Therapist. Devon was trained as…
Devyani Saltzman
Devyani Saltzman is a Canadian writer, curator and arts leader with a deep practice in relevant, multidisciplinary, programming at the intersection between art, ideas and social change. She was most recently the Director of Public Programming at the AGO, working across all disciplines, where she was brought into the museum…
Diane Haug, MA, LPCC
Diane Haug, MA, LPCC, is a licensed therapist living in rural northern New Mexico. Her background includes a decade of working with adults and children dealing with life-threatening and terminal illness. Having completed the Grofs’ first three-year training, Diane has been involved with transpersonal psychology and Holotropic Breathwork since 1986. As…
Diane Long
Diane Long has been developing and refining yoga for most of her life. She was born in North Carolina and moved to Italy in the early 1970s. While living in Florence, Vanda Scaravelli invited her to work with her. Diane was a devoted student for the next two and a half…
don Jose Ruiz
In 2010, don Jose Ruiz released his first book, “The Fifth Agreement,” in partnership with his father, don Miguel Ruiz. Following its publication, don Jose began traveling around the US, Mexico, and South America. Don Jose inspires people in many different ways, including book signings, lectures, seminars, and hosting journeys to…
don Miguel Ruiz Jr.
When he was only 14 years old, don Miguel Ruiz Jr. apprenticed to his father don Miguel Sr. and his grandmother, Madre Sarita, to learn how to they manifested their intent to heal people, both physically and spiritually. When he reached his mid-20’s, after 10 years of apprenticeship, his Father…
Donna Martin
Donna Martin, is a certified Hakomi therapist and international trainer who worked closely with Ron Kurtz (the creator of the Hakomi Method) for twenty years. She was named in his will as one of seven “legacy holders” of his work and is a senior person in the international training association…
Donna Martin & Shelley Winton
Donna Martin, MA, has been a regular presenter at Hollyhock for 35 years. She has practised and taught psychotherapy, yoga, and meditation for more than 50 years. Psoma is her original healing approach based on the Hakomi method, somatics, yoga and mindfulness. She is the author of several books, including…
Duncan Pike
Duncan Pike is an activist, campaigner, and social movement trainer with a passion for supporting people who are organizing for a more just, fair, and equitable society. Duncan has trained hundreds of new activists and union members on organizing and campaign strategy and tactics,. As a campaigner with Canadian Journalists…
Elissa Berrol
Elissa Berrol, Certified Dare to Lead™ Facilitator, is passionate about helping organizations increase their internal capacity to successfully navigate external complexity. She masterfully facilitates teams and coaches leaders to examine default habits, surface and manage polarities that create stalemate, and create conditions for seeing and shifting unhelpful dynamics. An insightful,…
Elke Finley
Elke Finley comes to horses through her practice of intuitive healing and shamanic energy work. She has worked with women and children in crisis and supported adults with severe disabilities. Her signature Walk & Talk in Nature sessions grew out of a decade living in the mountains with her sons…
Emilee Gilpin
Emilee is a facilitator, educator, journalist and multimedia reporter. She is the lead journalist and storyteller for the National Observer’s series First Nations Forward. Emilee is committed to sharing stories of success and sovereignty and also investigating responses to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s calls to action. She has been awarded the Susan Carson Bursary Award, a Fulbright…
Emma FitzGerald
Emma FitzGerald was born to Irish parents in Lesotho, a small mountainous country in Southern African, and did most of her growing up in Vancouver, BC. She trained as an artist at the University of British Columbia, and received her Masters in Architecture at Dalhousie University in Halifax. She has…
Erika Dyck
Erika Dyck is a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in the History of Health & Social Justice. Her interdisciplinary research brings social sciences and humanities perspectives to scientific and medical subjects. Her work has been published in medical, legal, economic, literary, philosophical, anthropological and historical venues. Learn more about her…
Erin Burrell, MD, FRCPC
Erin Burrell, MD, FRCPC (she/her) is a psychiatrist and a Clinical Instructor at UBC. She is an innovator who is passionate about systemic change, and in this journey she has realized that system transformation starts on the inside. Her inquiring has taken her deeply into several psychotherapies, particularly mindfulness and…
Erin Cooper
Erin Cooper is a Managing Director for NOBL, a global change agency, training organizations to embrace new attitudes and adopt new behaviours. Erin pairs her experience in organizational design with a background in project management and coaching, helping leaders and their teams navigate shifting market demands and emerging technologies. nobl.io
Erin Robinsong
Erin Robinsong is a poet and interdisciplinary artist working with ecological imagination. Her debut collection of poetry, Rag Cosmology, won the 2017 A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry, and she is the author of Liquidity (House House Press, 2020) and Wet Dream (Brick Books, 2022). Collaborative performance works with Andréa de Keijzer and Hanna Sybille Müller…
Faith Cohen, Ph.D.
Dr. Faith Cohen is a psychologist and executive coach. With training in neuropsychology and 30 years in the clinical field, Faith has mastered the unique capacity to enable leaders to execute their visions by elegantly combining cutting edge science and courageous compassion. She is dedicated to using her skills to develop…
Farah Nazarali
Farah Nazarali B.A., M.A. has been teaching yoga for over 20 years and understands the power of rest, relaxation, leisure and pleasure in cultivating optimal health and well-being and generating a solid foundation for engagement and activism in the world.She brings a wealth of knowledge and experience from her studies…
Fiji McAlpine
Fiji McAlpine is one of the founding yoga teachers featured on the website doyogawithme.com, an internationally-renowned site offering quality yoga instruction, for free, to users around the world. Her online popularity has grown significantly over the years, giving her global reach in the online platform, and has allowed her to…
Fleur Choy
Fleur Choy is the Founder of Vibrant Soul, a platform to support empaths, intuitive and highly sensitive people. She is a Usui Reiki Master Teacher. She also practices sound healing where she uses crystal singing bowls with chimes and her nurturing voice to guide people into guided meditative journeys. Fleur’s…
Gabor Maté, M.D.
Dr. Gabor Maté (pronounced GAH-bor MAH-tay) is a retired physician who, after 20 years of family practice and palliative care experience, worked for over a decade in Vancouver’s Downtown East Side with patients challenged by drug addiction and mental illness. The bestselling author of four books published in thirty languages,…
Gabrielle Peters
Gabrielle Peters is a disabled writer and policy analyst and a commissioner on the Vancouver City Planning Commission. She is co-founder of Dignity Denied and the Disability Filibuster and has been a leading voice in applying a disability lens to local, provincial and national policy issues. Gabrielle’s work often focuses…
Georgia Marvin
Georgia Marvin is a Senior Trainer with the International Hakomi Network. She studied with Ron Kurtz, the founder of Hakomi, for ten years until his death in 2011. Ron Kurtz named Georgia in his will as one of seven “legacy holders” of his work. Georgia leads the Vancouver Hakomi Education Network, which…
Gordy Onayemi Ryan
Gordy Ryan played with Babtunde Olatunji for 30 years and built the Olatunji Hall in 1999; members of the Drums of Passion consider it as being our ‘Spirit Well’ where we honor Baba and the traditions passed to us by our elders in the Culture. Gordy has played on movie…
Grant Sabatier
Grant Sabatier retired at 30 and then wrote a best-selling book, Financial Freedom, about the strategies and mindsets that took him, in 5 years, from a few dollars in his wallet to a million dollars. He is a master of building wealth through paying attention to the ubiquitous opportunities for making enough money to…
Greg Coyes
Greg Coyes has worked in the Indigenous media community over the last three decades as an award- winning documentary film-maker, and as an educator and writer. He has produced and directed with the National Film Board, and consulted and written for the Smithsonian at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington,…
Hanna Sybille Müller
Hanna Sybille Müller is a choreographer, dramaturg and dance artist living in Tiohtiá:ke/Mooniyang/Montréal. Her most recent projects include Moving through the Archive (2022) in collaboration with Galerie UQO and Polymorphic Microbe Bodies (2021) in collaboration with Erin Robinsong at Tangente, Montreal. Hanna studied dance at the Rotterdamse Dansacademie (RDA) and…
Heather Midori Yamada
Heather Midori Yamada is a visual artist and teacher who specializes in contemplative approaches to art making. Heather is inspired by holistic creative practices such as meditation, hatha yoga and Japanese arts such ikebana, flower arrangement and calligraphic brush work. Her studies in printmaking led her to discover the ‘world…
Hiromi Goto
Hiromi Goto has been a trail-blazing author in Canada for over twenty years. Recognized both at home and abroad, many of her award-winning books have been translated into French, Italian, Japanese, Hebrew, Korean, and German. Her literary fiction traces the lives of Japanese Canadian women— through migration, across generations. Her…
Holistic Centers Network
The Holistic Centers Network (HCN) provides creative networking opportunities that strengthen communication, connection and collaboration, among holistic centers around the world, and hosts the annual Centers Gathering. HCN and Centers Gathering are the primary initiatives of the Breitenbush Eco Fund, a 501(c)(3) non-profit social benefit organization based in Oregon, USA. The…
Holly Mackay
Holly Mackay (yes that is her real name!) is Hollyhock’s Garden Manager and has more than three decades of farming and gardening experience. She was the co-owner, creator, and manager of an Organic CSA farm in Ontario, providing veggies, fruit, culinary herbs, and cut flowers for 120 households and 1…
Hollyhock Leadership Institute
Hollyhock’s renowned events help to resolve the leadership deficits of the modern world. These cross-sectoral and multi-generational gatherings work to support and catalyze progressive leaders through strengthening skills, expanding capacity, and building peer-to-peer networks and knowledge. Tackling the largest issues of our time and promoting social and environmental justice requires…
IndigenEYEZ
IndigenEYEZ is about transforming communities; to inspire an intergenerational legacy of well-being among First Nations people in BC and beyond. IndigenEYEZ facilitators blend land-based learning with the arts and best practices in community-building. Their approach – the Creative Empowerment Model – is being used around the world. It has been refined…
Insiya Rasiwala-Finn
Yoga, Ayurveda and Wellness specialist Insiya Rasiwala-Finn grew up in Bombay, India with Yoga and Ayurveda shaping her life. She is passionate about sharing the transformative impact of these wisdom practices with inspiration, freshness, poetry and joy; embodying her life as a mama, yogini and community connector in our modern world. Insiya…
Iva Cheung
Iva Cheung is a Certified Professional Editor, health communication researcher, and plain language trainer, and she works with underrepresented groups to co-create accessible health information. She teaches the Plain Language in Health Literacy course for SFU Continuing Studies’ Plain Language Certificate program.
Jacob Crane
Jacob Crane is a citizen of the Tsuut’ina Nation, Alberta, Canada. He is the Community Engagement Coordinator for Indigenous Climate Action, an Indigenous women-led organization dedicated to creating a world with sovereign and thriving Indigenous Peoples and cultures leading climate justice for all. He first joined the climate justice movement…
Jacqueline Mathieu
Jacqueline Mathieu works for her nation (Klahoose) in the preservation and revitalization of her nations’ culture and language. Using sound to narrate place in story. klahoose.org
Janelle Hanchett
Janelle Hanchett is an author, editor, writing teacher, and mother of four. Writing after her kids went to bed, between graduate school classes, and on lunch breaks from her “real” job, Janelle founded her irreverent, unapologetic blog “Renegade Mothering” in 2011. Eventually her website grew to draw hundreds of thousands…
Janet Moore
Janet Moore is an interdisciplinary leader and mentor who cares deeply about how we co-create projects and systems that allow us to thrive together on this incredible planet. Janet has spent her career finding ways to address complex sustainability challenges by designing educational programs and leading teams to imagine what’s…
Jasmine Hillier
Jasmine Hillier (she/her) has played on the ocean for much of her life. During her time away from the ocean, she discovered the practice of yoga and the profound physical, mental, and energetic transformations that come along with it. Learning to observe energetic subtleties through her yoga practice allowed her…
Jasmine Syedullah, PhD
Jasmine Syedullah, PhD, is an abolitionist, academic, and coauthor of Radical Dharma: Talking Race, Love, and Liberation, she holds a PhD in politics with an emphasis in feminist studies and history of consciousness from University of California Santa Cruz, and a bachelor of arts in religious studies with a focus…
Jeff Warren
Jeff Warren is a meditation instructor and writer, known for his dynamic and accessible style of teaching. He is the co-author of The New York Times best-selling Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics, Founder of the nonprofit Consciousness Explorers Club, and co-host of the Mind Bod Adventure Pod. Jeff’s Do Nothing Project…
Jenni Schine
Jenni Schine is a sound artist, community-engaged researcher and instructor of Anthropology of Sound at the University of Victoria. She specializes in soundscape composition, creative practices and feminist teaching models. She is also the Pacific Community Lead at Tides Canada, a national charity where she supports conservation and social justice initiatives in BC.…
Jennifer Moore
I sense no difference between art and existence. In this way I am an artist, as I believe we all are. In pursuit of inner vision and my own feeling tone of love, I work daily to allow creation and possibility to flow through me. I find sway and fluidity…
Jennifer Moss
Jennifer Moss has spent nearly 20 years as a storyteller in various media. Starting in theatre, she moved into the print journalism, radio, podcasting, and digital interactive fields. Her writing revolves primarily around arts, social issues, and character-driven stories. Jen has worked extensively in radio production for both CBC and Roundhouse…
Jennifer Van de Pol
Jennifer Van de Pol is an interdisciplinary artist, certified Iyengar Yoga teacher, and community arts organizer based in Victoria, BC, Canada, the traditional lands of the lək̓ʷəŋən people. Jennifer holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts and is fascinated with the many ways her Yoga and meditation practices are interwoven with…
Jeremy Herndl
Jeremy Herndl was born in Surrey, BC and has lived across Canada and abroad. He earned his BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art in Design in 1996 and his MAA in Painting at Emily Carr University in 2011. In recent years, Jeremy has received funding from the Canada…
Jesse Maceo Vega-Frey
Jesse Maceo Vega-Frey’s teaching aims to inspire the skills, determination, and faith necessary to realize the deepest human freedom. He is a student of Michele McDonald and his approach is rooted in the tradition of Mahasi Sayadaw of Burma. As a teacher of Vipassana (insight) meditation within the broader context…
Jhaimy Alvarez Acosta
Jhaimy Alvarez-Acosta is a Traditional Curandero (Healer) from Cusco, Peru who has been trained and initiated in the Wisdom Teachings of the Andes and specifically in the lineage of Apu Wachumita and the Mesa Teachings from both the Northern and South-Eastern regions of Peru. Jhaimy began his initiation onto this…
Jill Purce
Jill Purce is a British voice teacher, Family Constellations therapist, and author who has produced groundbreaking work in the fields of music, art, and spirituality. In the 1970s Purce developed a new way of working with the voice, introducing the teaching of group overtone chanting, producing a single note whilst amplifying…
Jim Gouin
Jim Gouin is a mycologist from Olympia Washington where he lives and works for Fungi Perfecti. Passionate about all things fungi, he loves to spend time in the verdant forests for the Pacific Northwest collecting and identify all kinds of mushrooms. With a background in forestry and agriculture he brings…
Joel Grow, PhD
Joel Grow, PhD, is a Seattle-based clinical psychologist and mindfulness facilitator and trainer. His work includes individual psychotherapy, group classes such as Mindful Self-Compassion and Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention, and training. He offers evidence-supported treatment that incorporates self-compassion, mindfulness, and acceptance-based approaches. His approach aims at helping people lead a full…
Joel Solomon
Joel was Hollyhock’s Board Chair for 25 years. He activates money and business into pragmatic models for long term balance of ecology and society. Renewal Funds, RSF Social Finance, Vancity, MakeWay are important financial change agents where Joel plays key roles. Joel is also a key figure in Hollyhock’s Social Venture Institute conferences.
Jolaine Boucher
Jolaine Boucher is an outdoor enthusiast, yogi and wanderer. She grew up hiking, kayaking and exploring the East coast of Canada but found her home on Cortes Island in the Spring of 2016. She is passionate about the healing practices of time spent immersed in nature and in ourselves. She…
Jonas Fineman
Jonas Fineman brings over two decades of ocean experience to the decks of the schooner Misty Isles. From isolated surfing locales, to high seas fisheries and trans-ocean sail crossings, the nautical life and how it shapes human thought and existence has kept Jonas loyal to a life offshore. As a…
Jose Nunez
Jose Nunez has more than a decade of Democratic political experience, from school board to Presidential campaigns, with an expertise in developing innovative organizing programs utilizing digital strategies and technology. He currently consults campaigns and organizations on building strategic organizing programs, utilizing innovative digital strategies. Previously, he served as National…
Joshua Townshend-Zellner
Joshua Townshend-Zellner has been involved in the theatre and film industry for over 25 years as a writer, actor and director. He is currently working on a slate of projects including: “Notes on your Notes” – a podcast about the creative process, a book about writing and performing and a video series about…
Juana Berinstein
Juana Berinstein is an enthusiastic nonprofit leader with a wealth of experience in systems change, policy advocacy, strategic planning, and fostering stakeholder engagement. In 2021-22, she was part of a unique cohort that completed the Positive Deviants Fellowship at Wolf Willow Institute. Her role as the Director of Policy and…
Judith Ansara & Robert Gass
Judith Ansara, MSW, and Robert Gass, EdD, are well-known teachers who integrate rich backgrounds in spiritual practice, psychology, organizational change, social action and the arts. For four decades, they have brought their work to centers such as Hollyhock, Omega and Esalen, and organizations ranging from the Sierra Club to General…
Judyth Weaver, PhD
Judyth O. Weaver, PhD is a multifaceted teacher and counsellor, incorporating extensive training in diverse areas. She holds a Ph.D. in Reichian Psychology and is the creator and founding chair of the Santa Barbara Graduate Institute Ph.D. Program in Somatic Psychology. She taught at the California Institute of Integral Studies (San…
Julia Aplin
Julia Aplin has been studying and practicing movement for over 40 years. She has an intense curiosity about the human body in motion and draws on a variety of tools and techniques in her current practice. Julia danced full time for 15 years with Dancemakers, under the Artistic Direction of…
Julian Griggs
Julian Griggs is one of the Founding Principals of the Dovetail Consulting Group based in Vancouver, BC and has more than 25 years’ experience as a facilitator, trainer and management consultant. Julian has worked with conservation groups, First Nations, the philanthropic sector, all levels of government, industry and communities in…
Julie Kramer
Julie Kramer was introduced to core shamanism in 2000 while attending a workshop at Hollyhock, which enabled her to begin cultivating direct relationships with compassionate helping spirits using the practice of shamanic journeying. While continuing to receive training as a shamanic practitioner and facilitator, Julie began leading workshops in 2003…
K. Tempest Bradford
Speculative fiction writer, media critic, reviewer, and podcaster. Tempest’s fiction has appeared in award-winning magazines (Strange Horizons and Electric Velocipede) and best-selling anthologies (Diverse Energies, Federations, In the Shadow of the Towers); her essays and criticism have appeared on io9, NPR, Tor.com, Chicks Dig Time Lords, Chicks Unravel Time, and The Usual Path to Publication. She volunteers…
Kai Harvey
Kai Harvey has a deep love and appreciation for the sea and the natural world. Growing up on Cortes, she spent most of her time in the forest and on the water. While in university, Kai became a certified guide through SKGABC and worked for the tourism local company as…
Kairn Mahon Carrington
Kairn Mahon Carrington is the founder of Climate Hope, an organization dedicated to building our personal resilience to fully engage with the climate crisis, so that we can collectively step back from the abyss and begin to build our world anew. Kairn has been breaking ground at the intersecting paths of…
Kate Milne
Kate Milne is a Healthy Aging Specialist, a Health Promoter, and a community-based researcher. With a focus on promoting well-being in midlife and older women, she has established herself as a trusted authority in the field of female healthy aging. Kate’s career is dedicated to empowering women to embrace the…
Kathi Camilleri
Kathi Camilleri, (Métis-Cree) is a cultural safety practitioner and workshop facilitator. She created and facilitates the Building Bridges through Understanding the Village © workshop to increase cultural competency for organizations across Canada. She has almost 25 years of leadership experience in facilitating, counselling, developing, directing and coordinating Aboriginal community-based programs.…
Kathy Page
Kathy Page is the author of eight novels, including The Story of My Face, nominated for the (Orange) Women’s Prize; The Find, a ReLit finalist; Alphabet, a Governor General’s Award finalist; and Dear Evelyn, winner of the 2018 Rogers Writers’ Trust Award for Fiction and the City of Victoria Butler…
Katyanna Ryan
Katyanna Ryan – I discovered the practice of yoga as a teenager and never looked back. It has been an anchor for me in the teachings of wholism and nonduality. I am forever humbled by what I discover on the mat. I became interested in teaching and apprenticed my first…
Keahi Ewa
Keahi Ewa is the Director of Operations at Sunrise Ranch, a highly regarded holistically managed farm, conference and retreat center, in Loveland, Colorado, USA. Globally she is a Trustee of Emissaries of Divine Light International, a board member of Emissaries of Divine Light South Africa and an advisor to the…
Keith Cantú
Dr. Keith Edward Cantú is a postdoctoral fellow in Asian Religious Traditions at the Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard Divinity School, where he is active as part of the Transcendence and Transformation Initiative. As a budding historian of religions, his interdisciplinary research especially focuses on South Asian…
Kevin Kunzler
Kevin Kunzler has been a herbal medicine maker since 1999. Kevin extracts over 400 plants, and grows many of them himself on an acre of farmland on Saltspring Island. His herbal medicines line, Sandhill Botanicals, supplies many clinics in Canada and the USA. With a passion for self-sufficient pharmacy, Kevin provides…
Khari Wendell McClelland
Khari Wendell McClelland is an award-winning musician and sought-after facilitator who uses the arts and experiential activities for transformational learning. Originally from Detroit, Khari made his way to Canada over a decade ago and is currently based in Vancouver, BC. Khari’s passion for community service is clear, both in his…
Kim Haxton
Kim Haxton (Potowatomi) is from the Wasauksing First Nation in Ontario. She has worked across Turtle Island and abroad in various capacities but always with a focus on local leadership. Her deep understanding of the need for genuine restoration has far-reaching implications as leaders seek vision and all people seek…
Kimberly Lee, J.D.
Kimberly Lee, JD, is a writer, editor, and creativity coach with a passion for nurturing the imaginative spirit and helping others reveal their own inner wisdom. She is a SoulCollage® facilitator and has served as a member of its leadership team. Kimberly holds certifications from Amherst Writers & Artists, The…
Kimberly Mascaro, PhD
Kimberly R. Mascaro, PhD, LMFT is a California licensed holistic psychotherapist, centering the spiritual, ecological, and the somatic. She is also a two-time nonfiction author, visual artist, meditation facilitator, and university faculty with over 20 years of professional experience in the field of mental-behavioral health. Dr. Kim is passionate about…
Kimo Hussey
Kimo Hussey is a recorded, published and highly trained musician and is among those talented few who are equally adept at instruction. This master player travels all over the world sharing his love for the ukulele with outstanding performances and sought after classes. Born and raised in his native land of Hawaii, he enjoys…
Kirsten K. Shockey
Kirsten K. Shockey is the author of award-winning Homebrewed Vinegar, coauthor, with her husband, Christopher Shockey, of award-winning The Big Book of Cidermaking; award-winning Miso, Tempeh, Natto & Other Tasty Ferments; Fiery Ferments; and the best-selling Fermented Vegetables. The Shockeys got their start in fermenting foods over twenty years ago…
Kris Archie
Kris Archie, a Secwepemc and Seme7 woman from the Ts’qescen First Nation, is passionate about heart-based community work and facilitating positive change. In her own words: “My lived experiences as a mixed blood woman, mother and community member informs my desire for inclusion, accessibility, and justice”. Kris was the project manager for the…
Kyo Maclear
Kyo Maclear is an essayist, novelist, editor and children’s author. Her books have been translated into eighteen languages, published in over twenty-five countries, optioned for theatre and television, and garnered nominations from the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction, the Governor General’s Literary Awards, the TD Canadian Children’s Literature…
Lama Tsultrim Allione
Lama Tsultrim Allione is the bestselling author of Women of Wisdom, Feeding Your Demons and Wisdom Rising Journey into the Mandala of the Empowered Feminine. She was the first American to become a Tibetan Buddhist nun in 1970 in India and Nepal. She later disrobed and became a widely known…
Laura June Albert
Laura June Albert, MA, is an educator, researcher, cultural organizer, and artist, based in Vancouver, unceded Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil- Waututh), and xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam) territories. Her research investigates the experiential body as a liberatory landscape for anticolonial and anticapitalist self-determination and liveness. She has worked in the arts as a…
Laura King
As a leadership coach, facilitator and mediator Laura King centers human relationships, mindfulness, and communication in her work. She knows that at the heart of growing communities and organizations is growing each unique person. She has 25 years of experience exploring both the art and science of adult development while…
LaUra Schmidt
LaUra (she/her) is a truth-seeker, community-builder, cultural critic, and grief worker. She is also the granddaughter of a holocaust survivor. Inspiration finds her in natural landscapes and honest, open-hearted dialogue. LaUra graduated with a BS in Environmental Studies, Biology, and Religious Studies. Her MS is in Environmental Humanities. LaUra has been studying…
Laurel Dault
Laurel is Hollyhock’s Director of Social Innovation Programs. Laurel’s passion for lifelong learning has led her to cross the ocean and the continent, from the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, to THNK School of Creative Leadership in Amsterdam, to Female Funders (training women to become angel investors) in Vancouver,…
Lauren Walker
Lauren Walker is the author of The Energy to Heal (Llewellyn, 2022). She previously published Energy Medicine Yoga: Amplify the Healing Power of Your Yoga Practice (Sounds True, 2014) and The Energy Medicine Yoga Prescription (Sounds True, 2017). All three books won the Nautilus Silver award for best Mind/Body publication.…
Lawrence Cheng, MD, CCFP(EM), MPH
Dr. Lawrence Cheng MD, CCFP(EM), MPH, Certified Functional Medicine Practitioner is one of the founders and directors of Connect Health Centre for Integrative Medicine in Vancouver, BC, Canada. He continues to practice Emergency Medicine at St. Paul’s Hospital and is part of the Research + Development Team at Providence Health whose…
Leah Abramson
Leah Abramson is a singer, songwriter, and composer whose work explores vocal harmonies, soundscapes, and the intersection of humanity and the environment. Leah has released four albums of original music and has contributed to dozens of others as a songwriter and vocalist. After years spent touring and recording internationally as…
Lee Klinger Lesser
Lee Klinger Lesser studied Sensory Awareness with Charlotte Selver for 33 years. She has been leading workshops since 1976, both in English and Spanish, teaching throughout the United States, Mexico, Spain and Canada For most of her life, Lee has been engaged in a process of social change along parallel paths:…
Leonie Smith
Leonie Smith is a first generation Canadian of Jamaican heritage working at the intersection of nonviolence (which is about recognising and welcoming the full humanity of all people) and anti-racism, anti-oppression (ARAO). She is the principal at her consultancies, The Thoughtful Workplace and Necessary Trouble Collective. In her work she…
Lewis Mehl-Madrona, MD
Lewis Mehl-Madrona, MD graduated from Stanford University School of Medicine and trained in family medicine, psychiatry, and clinical psychology. He completed his residencies in family medicine and in psychiatry at the University of Vermont College of Medicine. He has been on the faculties of several medical schools, most recently as…
Lisa Gibbons
Lisa Gibbons is a Canadian artist, working in mixed media, employing a variety of techniques, including acrylic, oil, watercolour, drawings, collage, found objects, bee’s wax, gold leaf, and other elements to create multi-layered textures in rich colours. Her work borrows images from the lush, wild landscape and juxtaposes symbols that…
Lloyd James Attig, Muskoday First Nation, Plains Cree
Lloyd Attig is a Plains Cree, originally from the Muskoday First Nation near Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. He has lived on unceded Coast Salish territory for 34 years. He is married to Michelle Nahanee, Squamish, and loves to spend time with his two daughters, Jaime and Paisley. He enjoys healthy cooking…
Lopöns Pieter Oosthuizen and Charlotte Rotterdam
Pieter Oosthuizen and Charlotte Rotterdam draw their inspiration from the teachings of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition which they have studied and practiced for the last three decades. Senior teachers (Lopöns) at Tara Mandala Buddhist Retreat Center, founded by Lama Tsultrim Allione, they share this rich lineage of wisdom with clarity,…
Loretta (Lo) Laurin
Loretta (Lo) Laurin (they/she) facilitates meaningful and moving experiences. They have taught a variety of embodiment modalities for over 15 years along the West Coast, including yoga, pilates, fitness, and partner dance. Lo’s unique fusion classes, workshops, and retreats strike a balance between grounded depth and light-hearted play. Lo is…
Lynne Twist
Lynne Twist is the founder of the Soul of Money Institute and author of the best-selling, award-winning book “The Soul of Money: Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Life.” Over the past 40 years Lynne has worked with over 100,000 people in 50 countries in the arenas of fundraising with…
Madeleine Shaw
Madeleine Shaw is a serial feminist entrepreneur based on unceded traditional Coast Salish territory. She started her first venture – a sustainable, locally-made garment line that included the then-radical concept of washable menstrual pads and period underwear – in 1993 at the age of 25. In addition to being the…
Malina Dawn
Malina is a queer nehiyaw-ahpihtawikosisān iskwew (Cree Métis woman) who weaves together, the worlds of indigenous wisdom and yogic knowledge. Raised on the prairies and well travelled through her young adult years, she found her own healing path through Yoga and the Red Road. Through reclaiming her culture and applying the…
MAPS Canada
As Canada’s first psychedelic non-profit charitable organization, MAPS Canada is in a unique position as a neutral convener to bring together a variety of stakeholders in the psychedelic space to discuss the future of this emerging space. Working with partners in government, business, and the community, MAPS Canada is committed…
Mara Branscombe
Mara Branscombe is a mother, writer, yogi, artist, teacher, mindfulness leader, ceremonialist and spiritual coach. She is passionate about weaving the art of mindfulness, self-care, creativity, mind–body practices, and earth-based rituals into her life and work, and she has been leading community ceremony since 2000. Mara runs international retreats, corporate leadership…
Marc Lesser
Marc Lesser is a speaker, facilitator, workshop leader, and executive coach. He is the CEO of ZBA Associates, an executive development and leadership consulting company. Marc has led mindfulness and emotional intelligence programs at many of the world’s leading businesses and organizations including Google, SAP, Genentech, and Kaiser Permanente, and…
Margie Gillis
Internationally acclaimed dance Artist Margie Gillis is one of the most influential Canadian choreographers/dancers of the 20th and 21st centuries Her company, the Margie Gillis Dance Foundation, was founded in 1981. Margie has created more than one hundred and fifty creations, solos, duets, and group works, which have been performed…
Maria Jose Palacio
Maria Jose Palacio, a fifth-generation Colombian coffee farmer who was born and raised in a famous coffee region in Colombia. After several years working in the design field in New York City, Maria decided to change careers and return to coffee in 2016 after seeing her friends and family in…
Marie-Soleil Boisvert
Marie-Soleil is a Certified Paddle Canada SUP & SUP Yoga Instructor. She is also a certified Cranio Sacral Therapist, Massage Therapist, and Yoga Teacher (RYT 200hr, Yandara Institute & 200hr Embodied Flow). Her yoga practice focuses on embodiment, flow and quietude to bring a sense of deep connection and awareness.…
Marjorie Wonham, Ph.D.
Dr. Marjorie Wonham teaches and conducts research as a faculty member in Marine Biology at Friday Harbor Laboratories, University of Washington. She has taught inquiry-based marine biology and biology-poetry courses from California to Vancouver Island, to scientific and interdisciplinary audiences. Her main areas of inquiry are marine biology, marine ecopoetics,…
Mark Lau, PhD
Mark A. Lau, PhD, R Psych, who worked with Zindel Segal for 11 years, has over 25 years experience as an internationally respected MBCT teacher, trainer and researcher. Mark is an MBCT mentor with the UCSD Mindfulness-Based Professional Training Institute, and is one of a handful of MBCT trainers who provide the…
Mark Matousek
Mark Matousek is an award-winning author, teacher, and speaker whose work focuses on transformative writing for personal, professional, and spiritual development. He is the Founder of The Seekers Forum, an online community for self-inquiry, and the author of seven books, including the international bestseller Sex Death Enlightenment: A True Story, Writing to…
Mark Sherman, M.D.
Dr. Mark Sherman is a family physician and meditation teacher. He has formal training and certification in yoga, mindfulness based stress reduction, hypnosis and cognitive behavioural therapy and has been teaching meditation for over 15 years. livingthismoment.ca
Mark Vonesch
Mark Vonesch is a global leader in community film production. He is the Co-Founder of Reel Youth, a charitable project that has made 2,000+ films with participants across Canada and around the world. He is a sought after consultant in the field of media production and leads inter-generational programs that…
Martha Peterson
Martha Peterson is a Certified Clinical Somatic Educator and leader in the field of Somatic Education. She is the author of the book Move Without Pain, and founder and CEO of Essential Somatics®. Martha heads a growing faculty of Clinical Somatic Educators who present Essential Somatics trainings, retreats, and seminars…
Martin Thomson-Jones, PhD
Martin Thomson-Jones, PhD, is a Certified Teacher of Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC). He first encountered loving-kindness meditation, one of the core elements of MSC, through Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) in 2010, and found his way to Kristin Neff’s and Christopher Germer’s work from there. He took MSC from Chris and Kristin as…
Mary Prefontaine
Mary Prefontaine, CPCC + RYT250, holds accreditations from the International Coaches Federation, The University of British Columbia, and Yoga Alliance. Guided by her purpose to elevate human consciousness, Mary works extensively in the area of human potential with individuals and organizations. Her coaching and consulting practice revolves around the deeper…
Matthew Fox, PhD
Matthew Fox, PhD, is a spiritual theologian, an Episcopal priest and an activist for gender justice and eco-justice. He has written 37 books that have been translated into other languages over 70 times. Among them are Original Blessing, The Coming of the Cosmic Christ, A Spirituality Named Compassion, The Reinvention…
Matthew J. Trafford
Matthew J. Trafford is the author of The Divinity Gene, a collection of genre-bending short stories that garnered critical acclaim in Canada and the US. His work has been recognized with the Far Horizons Award from the Malahat Review, twice been shortlisted for the CBC Literary Prize, and won an…
Meenadchi
Meenadchi (pronouns: Meenadchi/they) is a facilitator and somatic practitioner whose work centers the softness of our shadows as we deepen into our light. Meenadchi’s movement work began first as a performer and dancer, shifting into the mental health and trauma sector through suicide prevention, rape crisis advocacy, and daily functioning/skill-building…
Meera Bawa
Meera Bawa is a certified Changes & Transitions Strategist, trained by Phillip Moffitt founder of Dharma Wisdom. In her role as a Strategist, Meera leads workshops and meets with individuals one-to-one to uncover pathways to a more consistent experience of wellbeing. Meditation, worksheets, poetry and space to explore the availability…
Megan Prager
Megan Prager, MA, is Co-Founder of Mindful Labs and Compassion Programs Director at UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness. Megan is a Certified Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Instructor (MBSR), a Certified Mindful Self-Compassion Instructor (MSC), a Certified Compassion Cultivation Instructor (CCT), a Compassion for Couples Instructor (CFC), and an Adjunct Faculty member…
Melanie Koenderman
Melanie Koenderman works with educational institutions and foundations in Canada and abroad. She was the founding Dean of Students for Quest University Canada in Squamish, British Columbia, and for Schwarzman Scholars at Tsinghua University in Beijing. She is a consultant and coach, facilitator, and yoga and meditation teacher, and brings…
Melina Laboucan-Massimo
Melina Laboucan-Massimo is Lubicon Cree First Nation from Northern Alberta, Canada. She has worked on social, environmental and climate justice issues for the past 15 years. Currently a Fellow at the David Suzuki Foundation, Melina’s research is focused on Climate Change, Indigenous Knowledge and Renewable Energy. Melina holds a master’s degree in…
Merlin Sheldrake
Merlin Sheldrake, PhD, is a biologist and author of Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds, and Shape Our Futures, a New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller, and winner of the Royal Society Book Prize and the Wainwright Prize. He is the presenter of Fungi: Web…
Michael & Ayi Wong Mayzel
With the blend of their unique backgrounds, Michael and Ayi bring a special alchemy to the creation of sound, sharing Sound Journeys and teaching in Europe and North American, as well as Shanti Sounds Costa Rica. Their work has supported thousands of individuals, as well as professionals, larger groups and…
Michael Bell
Michael Bell is the president, chief executive officer and co-founder of InPartnership Consulting Inc., an organizational development and strategic change firm specializing in global cultural competence and leadership development. He designs state-of-the-art training, leadership development programs and organizational change initiatives for foundations and progressive non-profits. He is an international consultant…
Michael D. Datura
Michael D. Datura is a humanities teacher on the unceded territories of the Salish peoples, a doctoral candidate, and occasionally a poet. He is a member of the The Centre for Imagination in Research, Culture and Education and regularly instructs graduate level teachers about an Imaginative Education approach to learning.…
Michael Millman
Michael Millman is co-founder and Chief Beat Keeper of Rhythm Bliss Mindful Hand Drumming & Movement, a global online rhythm meditation program and community with over a thousand members worldwide. A reformed corporate lawyer turned award-winning creative director, songwriter and videographer, Michael is a passionate musician, community builder and storyteller…
Michael Moore
Michael Moore is a naturalist, a Coast Guard trained ship’s Navigation Officer, and a kayak instructor/guide with 25+ years experience around Cortes Island. Mike holds a Bachelor of Technology in Nautical Sciences from the Canadian Coast Guard officer training in Sydney, Nova Scotia. His work as a navigation officer aboard…
Michele McDonald
Michele McDonald has taught Insight meditation for fourty years and teaches extensively throughout America, in Canada, Burma, and various locations around the world. As a guiding teacher for Vipassana Hawai’i she has been a quiet pioneer. She is the first woman to have taught a formal retreat in Burma, side-by-side…
Michelle LeBaron
Michelle LeBaron is an internationally-recognized conflict engagement specialist whose work is animated by creativity, culture and interdisciplinarity. A tenured professor of law, she has done seminal work in many types of conflict engagement including intercultural, international, family, organizational and commercial. Michelle’s current research focuses on dialogic approaches to political and…
Michelle Lepak
Michelle Lepak, LCSW, a psychotherapist and meditator for 30 years, developed the Presence Psychotherapy trauma treatment model and ORBITS for Everyone process. She published the Presence Psychotherapy treatment model in the APA Journal of Integrative Psychotherapy and the International Journal of Trauma Care. Michelle served as clinical associate faculty at…
Michelle Phillips
With over 15 years of leadership in the healthcare and wellness industry in the Pacific Northwest, Michelle Phillips strives to put the “we” back in wellness. Acknowledging that we can’t heal alone; we heal best together and in community. They have held post on almost every rung in the healthcare…
Miik Wells
My name is Miik (“mike”) Wells, and I’m a Black/Indigenous Man, Father, Brother, Son, Partner and Friend. My work is in tending to Self and Social Ecosystems by curating and conducting InnerActive learning and processing experiences. I’ve cultivated my way of facilitating social learning through multiple and varying roles with…
Mike Perry
A lawyer and social worker by profession, Mike Perry is a past senior executive in health care and currently serves as Lead – Laws & Constitution with the Métis Nation of Ontario. Mike is an alumnus of the Public Leadership Program – including public narrative and organizing – at Harvard…
Mike Rowlands
Mike Rowlands is President & CEO at Junxion, a board member at Hollyhock and Social Venture Network, and an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at RADIUS. He brings over 20 years of consulting experience, including client work with businesses, non-profits, and social enterprises on four continents. His approach blends values-driven leadership with pragmatic tools from…
Mirabai Starr
Mirabai Starr is the author of the long-anticipated memoir, Caravan of No Despair: A Memoir of Loss & Transformation. In her critically acclaimed new translations of the mystics and reflections on the unifying teachings at the heart of all spiritual paths, Mirabai uses fresh, lyrical language to help make timeless…
Monnica Williams
Dr. Monnica T. Williams is a board-certified licensed clinical psychologist and Professor at the University of Ottawa, in the School of Psychology, where she is the Canada Research Chair in Mental Health Disparities. She is also the Clinical Director of the Behavioral Wellness Clinics in Connecticut and Ottawa, where she…
Nadia Chaney
Since 2002, Nadia Chaney has facilitated well over 2000 international events, workshops, and trainings. She completed an MA in educational philosophy, and post grad diplomas in dialogue and negotiation and expressive art therapy. Her current research and writing focus is on time and temporality in group processes. Fortunate to study…
Nadine Nakagawa
She is a community organizer, listener, activist, and city councillor. She loves doing work that elevates underrepresented voices and that makes deep system change. She is often found doing this work from her seat on city council in New Westminster. She also loves sparkly eyeshadow and wearing flowers in her…
Namchi Bazar
As a movement specialist with over 20 years as a professional dancer, Yamuna® Body Rolling Practitioner, Pilates Instructor, and Essential Somatics® Movement Educator, Namchi Bazar empowers people to self heal. As a mother of three, she understands the need for effective self-care techniques that feel great, restore balance and can…
Neil Hanon, MD, FRCPC
Neil Hanon, MD, FRCPC, is a psychiatrist in Kelowna, British Columbia and is Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of British Columbia (UBC). Dr. Hanon does inpatient work at Kelowna General Hospital, and outpatient work at Outreach Urban Health, an Interior Health-operated primary care clinic…
Nettie Wild
One of Canada’s most respected documentary filmmakers, Nettie Wild is now exploring new narrative directions. She has a passion for catalyzing effective change by tapping into the poetic, the sensual, the dimensional, and the unexpected. Her recent film Koneline: Our Land Beautiful explored a more spacious visual approach that reflected the culture,…
Nick Demeris
Nick Demeris is a two time TEDx participant (speaker and host), actor, singer, and facilitator of community building through music, turning audiences into orchestras all around the globe. In his fourth year as a singer, creator, and teaching artist at Carnegie Hall in New York City, Nick works with master…
Nicole Heidbreder
Nicole Heidbreder became an INELDA trainer in 2017. She brings extensive experience as a hospice and labor and delivery nurse to her teaching. She also serves as a faculty educator for Johns Hopkins School of Nursing and a DONA International Birth Doula Trainer. In 2016 she was inducted into the…
Nicolette Richer
Nicolette Richer is a Regenerative Medicine Health Educator, entrepreneur, author, Doctoral student and speaker. She is a savvy wellness facilitator and a renowned environmental and sustainability expert, with an insatiable desire to learn and educate. Nicolette transforms people with chronic disease into conquerors of their condition through metabolic nutrition & detoxification. Nicolette…
Nisi Shawl
Nisi Shawl is the author of Everfair and dozens of short stories, many of which can be found in the Otherwise Award winning and World Fantasy Award nominated collection Filter House. Nisi is the co-editor of Stories for Chip and Strange Matings: Octavia E. Butler, Feminism, Science Fiction, and African American Voices. They…
NOBL
NOBL (pronounced no-bell) was founded in 2014 to help leaders make change. Today they are a global change agency with locations in NYC, LA, San Francisco, London and Vancouver. They train organizations to embrace new attitudes and adopt new behaviours. They help their partners grow to their full potential; being…
Nora Bateson
Nora Bateson is an award-winning filmmaker, writer and educator, as well as President of the International Bateson Institute, based in Sweden. Her work asks the question, “How we can improve our perception of the complexity we live within, so we may improve our interaction with the world?” An international lecturer, researcher…
Olivia Chow
Olivia Chow leads the Institute for Change Leaders’ educational initiatives and has helped trained thousands of activists in political organizing. Olivia has two certificates from the Harvard Kennedy School’s Executive Education Programs and 9 years of teaching experience. Olivia Chow has also been one of Canada’s most effective and well…
Orane Cheung
Orane Cheung is a creative communications professional with a diverse background in event production, marketing, and operations. Born and raised in Canada, she has Chinese heritage and parents from Hong Kong. Orane is a curious and multifaceted individual who is constantly seeking out new experiences and personal growth opportunities. She has…
Oriane Lee Johnston
Oriane Lee Johnston brings natural horsemanship, spiritual guidance and her years as former program director for Hollyhock to her work as educator and mentor. Horse journeys have taken her riding in the sacred mountains of Ecuador and volunteering with horses in Africa. whitehorsesanctuary.com orianelee.com Read my blog on Hollyhock Talks P.C.…
Otis Jasper
Otis is Sto:lo from Soowahlie and Cheam Nations, married into and currently living in Tkemlups te Secwepemc. The founder of Sacred Circle, the Director of Business Development and Partner Relations with All Nations, an Indigenous Cannabis Company, and a well-respected cultural leader with his family and community, Otis’ vision is…
Pamela Chaloult
Pamela Chaloult’s career has been defined by a deep commitment to support and develop exceptional leaders. She has a superpower of helping her clients up-level their game by providing inner capacity strategies and tools and by curating brave spaces that allow for thriving conditions to emerge. Pamela is the CEO of Practical…
Pamela Hope
Pamela Hope is 40 years old and was born with disfiguring congenital disabilities causing shortened neck and webbing, hard of hearing, unsymmetrical face and shoulders. She acquired partial paralysis and C-PTSD later. I don’t tell ppl what my disability is called because I don’t appreciate the misinformation about it online.…
Paul Stamets, D.Sc (Hon.)
Paul Stamets, D.Sc (Hon.), is the founder of Fungi Perfecti and Host Defense Organic Mushrooms, and has been a dedicated mycologist of 40+ years. He has written six books and pioneered countless techniques in the field of edible and functional food mushroom cultivation. Two of his books, Growing Gourmet & Medicinal Mushrooms and The…
Peter Sterios
Peter Sterios has been part of the global yoga community for over four decades as a teacher, author, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He is the founder of MANDUKA™ and creator of LEVITYoGA™. Peter’s first DVD “Gravity & Grace” made Yoga Journal’s “Top 15 yoga videos of all time”, and his first…
Phillip Moore
Phillip Moore was inspired by Richard Buckminster Fuller to create a new model for educating young children. After attending Bucky’s World Game in the summer of 1970, he joined a team of idealists in Oxford, Michigan who together built and sustained a new paradigm school, Upland Hills Farm School, that…
Pico Iyer
Pico Iyer is the best-selling author of a dozen books, including The Open Road (covering his first 34 years of talks with the XIVth Dalai Lama), Imagining Canada (the initial Hart House Lecture in Toronto) and The Art of Stillness (the second book to be published by TED). His three talks…
Power of Hope
Established in 1996, Power of Hope has an over 20 year history of creating and delivering successful and impactful empowerment curriculum that has enriched the lives of thousands. powerofhope.ca
Q
Q is a white queercrip artist, educator, and death doula primarily living and working on the unceded, stolen, never surrendered land of the Pilalt and Ts’elxwéyeqw tribes of the Stó:lō Nation. Its workshops and writing are grown from joy and spite found in queer Mad, disabled, and sick community, without…
Rabbit Richards
Rabbit Richards was born on occupied Lenape territory in Brooklyn, NY. Their people have never rooted for more than one generation anywhere for as long as their history can trace. Their father’s family claims Kyiv and Minsk; their mother’s family remembers St Thomas and St Croix, islands of the Carib,…
Rachelle Lamb
Rachelle Lamb is a recognized speaker, writer, Nonviolent Communication℠ trainer (2003) and relationship coach. She became a committed student of Marshall Rosenberg when she met him in 1999 and has since devoted her work to supporting clients learn and speak “a language of life”. She brings an earthy, practical yet innovative…
RamDev Dale Borglum
Dale Borglum, also known as RamDev, founded the conscious dying movement in the West in collaboration with Ram Dass and Stephen Levine. He founded and directed the Hanuman Foundation Dying Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the first residential facility in the United States to support conscious dying, and has…
Rebecca Nash
Rebecca Nash is a contemporary jazz pianist and a bright light amongst the jazz musicians of her generation in the UK. Active as a performer, composer and educator, Rebecca leads her own band, ATLAS, as well as collaborating with various other artists including the awards winning singer-songwriter Sara Colman, Beats…
Restore Human
The Restore Human team is a diverse assembly of dedicated professionals united in their mission to optimise physical and mental well-being. From backgrounds in competitive sports, military training, kinesiology, outdoor adventures, and academia, they bring together a wealth of knowledge and experience. Their combined expertise spans many decades exploring everything…
Rev. angel Kyodo williams Roshi
Called “the most intriguing African-American Buddhist” by Library Journal, Rev. angel Kyodo williams Roshi was made for these times. She has been bridging the worlds of transformation and justice since her critically acclaimed book, Being Black: Zen and the Art of Living With Fearlessness and Grace was hailed as “an…
Rex Weyler
Rex Weyler is a writer and ecologist and a co-founder of Hollyhock. His books include Blood of the Land, a history of indigenous American nations, nominated for a Pulitzer Prize; Greenpeace: The Inside Story, a finalist for the BC Book Award and the Shaughnessy-Cohen Award for Political Writing; and The…
Rhiannon
Rhiannon is a vocal artist with a vision of music as a vehicle for innovation, healing, transformation, and social change. From her stellar collaborations with the all-women’s jazz ensemble Alive! to a cappella ensemble SoVoSo’ to Bobby McFerrin and Voicestra, Rhiannon has paved a unique path as an independent artist.…
Rhys-Thorvald Hansen
Rhys-Thorvald Hansen (they/them/theirs) is an artist and facilitator who works within the intersections of land justice, food sovereignty, and the nourishment of social movements. They practice their work with the belief that change is a constant that must be embraced with love in order to reach our fullest potentials as…
Richard Rudd
Founder of the Gene Keys, Richard experienced a state of spiritual illumination in his twenties, in which he was shown a great tapestry of interrelated truths. Since that time, he has continued to bring these various streams of wisdom into the world in the form of programmes, retreats, teachings, writings,…
Robert Gass
Robert Gass, EdD, is co-founder of the Rockwood Leadership Institute and an acclaimed coach and mentor of leaders — from non-profits such as the Sierra Club, Amnesty International, MoveOn.org and Greenpeace International, to Corporate CEO’s and socially conscious entrepreneurs, to spiritual teachers and the Obama White House. stproject.org, sacredunion.com Read my blog on…
Robert Schwartz
Robert Schwartz is a hypnotist and the author of the groundbreaking books Your Soul’s Plan and Your Soul’s Gift. His mission is to make empowering, healing information about pre-birth planning in general – and the planning of life challenges in particular – available to as many people as possible. yoursoulsplan.com Read my blog on Hollyhock…
Robin Kort
In a lifetime of living, harvesting and cooking between the Coast Mountains and the Pacific Ocean near Vancouver, BC, Chef Robin Kort has gathered an abundance of delicious local plants, wild mushrooms and fresh seafood into culinary repertoire. Her cooking has been influenced by her mother, grandmother and many chef…
Robyn Hines
Robyn Hines (she/her) has a love of yoga that began over 25 years ago during a period of tragic personal loss. She tiptoed in, but quickly dove deeply, gaining breadth and depth of practice. On her mat, she found solid grounding in life and flourished in her healing. There she…
Roula Said
Roula Said is a singer, dancer, musician, actor and poet of Palestinian heritage based in Toronto, Canada. Roula has been studying, teaching and performing Arab music and dance for over 25 years. From within her tradition as practiced here in the west (where she has also explored many other styles…
Rupert Sheldrake
Rupert Sheldrake, PhD, is a biologist and author of more than a hundred technical papers and nine books, including Ways To Go Beyond, And Why They Work. He was a fellow of Clare College, Cambridge University, where he was Director of Studies in Cell Biology, and was also a Research…
Russ Hudson
Russ Hudson is one of the top teachers and developers of the Enneagram system in the world today. He is the author of the audiobook The Enneagram: Nine Gateways to Presence, and the co-author, with Don Richard Riso, of several books including The Wisdom of the Enneagram and Personality Types.…
S. Portico Bowman
S. Portico Bowman is an author, artist and Professor of Art (Emerita) at Pittsburg State University. She is currently working on the book Would You Give Up Arms for Wings, a story inspired by the visionary life and writings of Paulus Berensohn. That writing project has inspired this class, received…
Samantha Parton
Samantha Parton is a Vancouver native, best known as a founding member of acclaimed Canadian folk group The Be Good Tanyas. A singer-songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist, Parton formed the group in the late 1990s with Jolie Holland, Trish Klein, and Frazey Ford. Her songs have appeared in shows such as…
Sandy Wiggins
Sandy Wiggins is certified as a Breathwork Practitioner and Psycho-Spiritual Facilitator by the Global Professional Breathwork Alliance and the Inspiration Consciousness School and Community, where he serves as a teacher and mentor. He is also a member of the International Breathwork Foundation. He is trained in Integrative Breathwork, Grof …
Sarah Delroy
Sarah Delroy is a third-generation settler from the Ukraine, England, Ireland and Scandinavia who grew up on unceded Algonquin territory and has been living on Cortes, the traditional territories of the Klahoose, Tla’amin, and Homalco Nations, since 2023. She has facilitated education programs and workshops on nature connection and fine…
Sarah Dickinson
Sarah Dickinson is a Managing Director for NOBL, a global change agency, training organizations to embrace new attitudes and adopt new behaviours. She brings 20 years of experience in designing new ways for teams to create and collaborate to push beyond boundaries, cross the streams of their discipline and achieve collective change. nobl.io
Sarah Fuller
Sarah Fuller is a settler-Canadian artist of Icelandic and British descent who works across the mediums of photography, video and installation. She has been an artist in residence at the Ós Residency in Blönduós, Iceland, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Laughing Waters in Nillumbick Shire, Australia, the Klondike Institute…
Sarah Jama
Sarah Jama is the Executive Director at the Disability Justice Network of Ontario (DJNO). She is a community organizer from Hamilton, ON with Cerebral Palsy who does work around combating anti black racism, policing, and housing insecurity. Through DJNO, she works to tackle systemic ableism by building up capacity in…
SFU Continuing Studies
Since 1971, SFU Continuing Studies has been providing experiential and authentic learning experiences. A diversity of programming for professionals includes the long-running Dialogue and Civic Engagement Certificate program. Taught by experienced practitioners, this part-time online program allows professionals in any sector to build skills in designing and implementing meaningful and equitable engagement strategies. Learn more about…
Shaena Lambert
Shaena Lambert is an award-winning fiction writer, author of four books, most recently Petra (Random House Canada, 2020). Her other works are Oh, My Darling, Radiance and The Falling Woman. She has mentored writers and taught writing for over 15 years at some of Canada’s finest writing schools, including The Humber School for Writers and The Writers’…
Shannon Litzenberger
Shannon Litzenberger (she/her, Tkaronto) is an award-winning contemporary dancer, choreographer, director and embodiment facilitator. Inspired by the borderless landscapes of her prairie homeland, she creates sensory-rich multi-disciplinary performance experiences that animate our relationship to land, community and the forgotten wisdom of the body. An imaginative creator, she often develops unique…
Sharon Blackie, PhD
Dr. Sharon Blackie is an award-winning writer and internationally recognized teacher whose work sits at the interface of psychology, mythology and ecology. Her highly acclaimed books, courses, lectures and workshops are focused on the development of the mythic imagination, on the reclaiming of indigenous Western spiritual traditions, and on the…
Shauna Kaendo, Registered Art Therapist | BFA, RCAT
Shauna Kaendo‘s art and clinical work is rooted in creative process, and supporting folks in building creative care practices… that we repeat. Learning (and practicing) how to play in our art-making, how to think less about what we’re making, and FEEL more. Learning to practice creative curiosity …a curiosity that…
Sheila Wahsquonaikezhik
Sheila Wahsquonaikezhik is 2-Spirited First Nation Anishnawbek who resides in Northern Ontario. She is the founder of Indige-Spheres to Empowerment (a non-profit organization dedicated to the health and well-being of Indigenous peoples domestically and globally). Sheila’s expertise lies in program development for First Nations communities/organizations and has been called upon as…
Skwetsimeltxw Willard ‘Buddy’ Joseph, Squamish Nation
“My name is Willard (Buddy) Joseph – Skwetsimeltxw is my ancestral name, handed down through my late father. I’ve grown up on Squamish Nation Lands and have learned our Squamish ways from my Elders, my three great grandmothers. They were born in mid to late 1800’s and never went to…
Sonora Jha
SONORA JHA, PhD, is the author of the novel The Laughter, forthcoming from Harper Via in February 2023. Her memoir How to Raise a Feminist Son was published in the U.S., India, and Brazil in 2021 and her debut novel Foreign by Random House India in 2013. After a career as a journalist covering crime, politics, and…
Sophie Grégoire Trudeau
Sophie Grégoire Trudeau is a celebrated mental health advocate and champion of gender equality, female empowerment, youth self-esteem, and health and wellness. She has been recognized with multiple UN awards for her humanitarian work and was also named the first National Volunteer for the Canadian Mental Health Association in 2022.…
Spring Cheng, PhD.
Dr. Spring Cheng is the co-Founder of Resonance Path Institute. She is an author, teacher, leadership coach and social innovator. Her work blazes a path through the uncharted territory between her native cultural roots in China and her adopted cultural home of North America. With her experience in both western…
Spring Hawes
Spring Hawes is a tetraplegic. She has been an entrepreneur, an elected official, and is currently an appointed board director for Interior Health. She was a candidate in the previous provincial election. She is co-founder of Dignity Denied, a board member for a large peer group of wheelchair users, and…
Sravana Borkataky-Varma
Sravana Borkataky-Varma is an expert in South Asian religions, with a focus on Hindu traditions. Her research delves into Indian religions, exploring esoteric rituals, gender themes, and bodily concepts, particularly within the Hindu Śākta Tantra traditions (commonly known as Goddess Tantra). She characterizes her research approach as AND, which integrates…
Stephanie Nosco
Stephanie Nosco is a psychotherapist, somatic educator, and dedicated practitioner and student of Qigong, yoga, Chinese medicine, Buddhism, and depth psychology. Residing on the beautiful Vancouver Island, she draws inspiration from her dreams, nature, and the wisdom of the five elements to explore the complexities of the human experience. Her…
Steven K.H. Aung, CM, MD, OMD, PhD
Dr. Steven K.H. Aung is a family, geriatric, and integrative medicine physician, and a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) practitioner, calligraphy artist and teacher. He seeks to blend Eastern, Western, and natural medicines in his medical clinic in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. At the University of Alberta, Dr. Aung is a Clinical Professor…
Steven Smith
Steven V. Smith co-founded Vipassana Hawai’i in 1984 and in 1995 founded the MettaDana Project for educational and medical projects in Burma. Also in 1995 Steven helped establish the Kyaswa Valley Retreat Center in Burma, headed by Sayadaw U Lakkhana. This partnership created Vipassana Hawai’i’s Fusion Dhamma approach combining traditional and…
Susan Abookire, BSEE, MD, MPH, FACP
Susan Abookire, BSEE, MD, MPH, FACP, an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School, is a senior executive with 20 years’ experience leading healthcare organizations. She has served as chief medical officer, system chief quality officer, and Chair of quality and patient safety. Dr. Abookire began her career as an electrical…
Susan Musgrave
Grief is the willingness to be claimed by a story bigger than ourselves. Susan Musgrave’s most recent book of poetry, Exculpatory Lilies, is her response to the death of her partner, Stephen Reid, in 2018, and their daughter, Sophie, in September 2021, of an accidental overdose of Fentanyl and Benzos.…
Susanna Barkataki
Susanna Barkataki, (she/her) is an Indian yoga practitioner and founder of Ignite Institute for Yogic Leadership and Social Change. Known for her work in decolonizing and embracing the roots of yoga, she runs 200/300 Embody Yoga’s Roots Yoga Teacher Training programs that are changing the face of yoga today. Author…
Suzanne Hawkes
Suzanne Hawkes is an equity-centered management consultant, leadership trainer, and facilitator. She has supported business, non-profit, political, Indigenous and public sector clients across the US and Canada for over 20 years. Her vision: a diverse, cross-sectoral network of powerful, collaborative, service-oriented leaders working across difference to achieve transformational change. …
Ta7talíya Michelle Nahanee, Squamish Nation
Ta7talíya Michelle Nahanee, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, is a decolonial facilitator & strategist catalyzing social change to transform colonial narratives & impacts. She works within the intersection of class, culture and creativity focusing on social change through communications and deep engagement. Michelle’s collaborations have influenced opinions, changed behaviours and mobilized community action. She…
Teresa Isabel Dias
Teresa Isabel Dias is a pharmacist with 30 years experience in healthcare, a Menopause Practitioner (NCMP) certified by the North American Menopause Society, and a woman’s health advocate. Specializing in midlife hormonal changes, Teresa Isabel offers education and support on managing physical, emotional, and mental challenges for women at work…
Terri Bibby
Terri Bibby has been offering classes, workshops and retreats in her studio, in the woods, on Salt Spring Island since 2007. Topics include the SAORI philosophy, weaving, warping and clothing design. Her own weaving is inspired by the ever-changing colours and textures of nature that surround her. Since first coming…
Thomas Atum O'Kane, PhD
Thomas Atum O’Kane, PhD, is the founder and director of the Spiritual Guidance Wisdom School. Atum teaches the Spiritual Guidance Wisdom School core training programs with an inter-faith approach in five countries, along with multiple other courses. His vision of each individual soul having the ability to listen and respond to their…
Tiffany Moses
Tiffany Moses is a Dene artist and facilitator with a decade of experience working with communities through music and film production programs. She draws on her cultural teachings as a foundation for bringing people together in creative process and uses her technical expertise and keen understanding of collaborative creation to…
Tosh Harvey
Tosh Harvey (he/him) grew up on Cortes and has always loved exploring the ocean. Tosh is a naturalist, and brings his depth of knowledge to all of the adventures that he leads. He is particularly passionate about botany and the local edible plants of BC. Tosh has worked as a…
Tracey Erin Smith
Tracey Erin Smith is an internationally recognized transformational leader and creator. She is the founder and driver of SOULO Theatre, originating in Toronto, with workshops in New York City, Tel Aviv, San Francisco, Vancouver and the UK. A proud Canadian, Tracey is an award-winning teacher, solo performer, theatre director and…
Tracey Friesen
Tracey Friesen has over 30 years’ experience in Canada’s cultural sector. In the decade before joining the Canadian Media Producers Association’s BC Branch in 2020, she worked at the David Suzuki Foundation, Roundhouse Radio and Mindset Foundation, plus authored ‘Story Money Impact: Funding Media for Social Change’, which led to…
Trudi Goels
Not a big fan of marketing speak or corporate jargon, Trudi will tell you how it is, how it can be, and will roll up her sleeves to work along side you. From outstanding event production, to workshop delivery, capacity building, and public speaking – Trudi delivers scintillating ideas, sizzling…
Trudi Smith, Registered Clinical Counsellor | MC, MA, PhD
Trudi Smith brings over 25 years of experience with experimental arts-based collaborations focusing on flourishing within human and more than human communities. Trudi works as a clinical counsellor, artist and cultural anthropologist and teaches ecological arts as an Adjunct Associate Professor in the School of Environmental Studies at the University…
Tzeporah Berman
Tzeporah Berman BA, MES, LLD (honoris causa) has been designing environmental campaigns and working on environmental policy in Canada and beyond for over thirty years. She is currently the International Program Director at Stand.earth and the Chair of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative. She is the Co-founder of the Global…
Vanessa Lesperance
Vanessa Lesperance (she/her) is a mixed heritage Metis woman originally from Treaty 1 territory (Winnipeg). She holds a graduate diploma in business from SFU and a masters in leadership from Royal Roads University, with a focus on decolonizing business through workplace spirituality. Vanessa’s passions revolve around reconciliation and decolonizing business.…
Vanessa Richards
Vanessa Richards, born in Vancouver, director of Creative Together, works as an artist and facilitator. Her practices encourage the personal and civic imagination towards positive social change and sustainability. Since the 1990’s she has been devising and delivering arts-based engagement, education and programming through collaboration with community programmes, universities, unions, cultural organizations, health care…
Vidyut Ghuwalewala
Vidyut is the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Social Currant, a Washington D.C.-based managed service and platform. Social Currant matches social impact organizations and nonprofits with the right influencers and content creators across various social media platforms. Social Currant matches social impact, cause driven organizations with mission aligned…
Vu Le
Vu Le is a writer, speaker, vegan, Pisces, and the former Executive Director of RVC, a nonprofit in Seattle that promotes social justice by developing leaders of colour, strengthening organizations led by communities of colour, and fostering collaboration between diverse communities. Vu’s passion to make the world better, combined with a low score on…
Wade Davis, PhD
Wade Davis, PhD, is an Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society. Named by the NGS as one of the Explorers for the Millennium, he has been described as “a rare combination of scientist, scholar, poet and passionate defender of all of life’s diversity.” An ethnographer, writer, photographer and filmmaker, Wade Davis…
Yarrow Willard
Yarrow Willard (Herbal Jedi) is a second generation Clinical/Master Herbalist, residing in the unceeded territory of the Comox First Nations on Vancouver Island. He is the co-founder of Harmonic Arts, and Director of the Wild Rose College of Herbal Medicine. As an educator, YouTuber and herbal ambassador, Yarrow delivers rich and original…
Yogacharini Maitreyi
Yogacharini Maitreyi is an international transformational trainer, young elder, wisdom keeper and practical mystic. She is the founder of Arkaya Awareness Centre and Arkaya Foundation. Arka means light, healing, inspiration and awesomeness in Sanskrit and Arkaya means unto the light. Her heart sings to see people’s lives blossom into consciousness.…
Ysaÿe Barnwell, PhD
Ysaÿe M. Barnwell, PhD, is a musician, arranger, singer, master teacher, member of Sweet Honey in the Rock, and one of America’s finest composers. She holds a Masters of Science degree in Speech Pathology and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Speech Pathology. Dr. Barnwell is also the recipient of many…
Yvette Murrell
World Trust Facilitator, Yvette Murrell, has a multifaceted background in business, education, nonprofits and the creative arts. Yvette is a Power Voice & Choice Coach. She is an authentic life-coach that supports professionals, community leaders, healers, and creatives in healing core relationships, enhancing influence within community and speaking up and…
Zahura Ahmed
Zahura Ahmed is a first-generation Bangladeshi Canadian living on Lekwungen Territory of the Esquimalt and Songhees Nations. She has worked in community and international development for the past decade, learning from changemakers across the globe who inspire her daily. Currently, Zahura holds space for others as a co-facilitator of Nature-Based…
Zhiish McKenzie
Dr. Zhiish McKenzie, M.D. (she/her) is a community member of the Teme-Augama Anishnabai, the Deep Water Peoples. Her path integrates clinical medicine with Indigenous ways of knowing and healing. She is also trained as a psychedelic therapist with the Roots To Thrive Program. She feels connected to the spiritual aspect…
Zoë Ryan
Zoë Ryan has journeyed deep into modern, shamanic and West African dance. It is her joy to bring the transformative nature of dance to people of all ages. She trained in dance education at the Rudolph Laban Centre in London and has an early background in Shakespearean Theatre. She apprenticed with…
Zoe Todd
Dr. Zoe Todd (she/they) is an Associate Professor of Indigenous Studies and Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Indigenous Governance and Freshwater Fish Futures at Simon Fraser University. They are Red River Métis and a practice-led artist-researcher from Alberta (with family connections to the historic St Paul des Métis Settlement)…