Dr. Luisah Teish, PhD

I grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana, and spent many hours along the banks of the Mississippi River. As you know this area is rich in folklore, music and mystery. As a child, I was surrounded by a community of elders who maintained centuries old stories and traditions. This influence awakened a creativity that led to me gathering materials (both oral and written). I’ve been a professional storyteller, writer, and community activist for more than forty years now. I am dedicated to the preservation of the Spiritual Cultures of Primal Life Peoples at the School of Ancient Mysteries/Sacred Arts Center: S.A.M.AS.A.C. Where we offer classes, workshops, and seminars online and in real time that help students to explore the mysteries of the Spirit and to develop skill in the Sacred Arts.

For more information, please visit:

• Luisah Teish, PhD, Official Website
• Luisah Teish, PhD, Facebook
• Luisah Teish, PhD, Twitter
• Luisah Teish, PhD, LinkedIn
• S.A.M.AS.A.C., Official Page
• On Holy Ground: Commitment and Devotion to Sacred Land, By Dr. Luisah Teish & Leilani Birely
• Jambalaya: The Natural Woman’s Book of Personal Charms and Practical Rituals, By Dr. Luisah Teish
• Soul Between the Lines: Freeing Your Creative Spirit Through Writing, By Luisah Teish & Dorthy Randall Gray
• Carnival of the Spirit: Seasonal Celebrations and Rites of Passage, By Dr. Luisah Teish
• Jump Up: Good Times Throughout the Seasons with Celebrations from Around the World [Kindle Edition], By Dr. Luisah Teish
• Metamorphosis through Story Magic, By Dr. Luisah Teish, Shift Network (Downloadable Course)
• Interview with Dr. Luisah Teish, BlogTalk, By Ms. Blue, The Remix (Podcast)

Videos:

Suzy Adra, M.A.

Suzy is a Ph.D. Candidate at the California Institute of Integral Studies.  Her research interests include: Creativity, Mysticism, Semiotics, Alchemy, and Esoteric wisdom.  She is currently working on her dissertation entitled Presence and Epiphany in the Creative Process.  She has been studying, and teaching yoga for 12 years. She is an artist and art curator, and has been a life long seeker and student of mysticism.  Suzy has a background in the archaeology of the Near East.  Her Masters thesis was an attempt at contextualizing typography of pottery shards, found in a cave in North Lebanon, dating to the medieval period.  Some of her other passions include music, cooking, and a nomadic life. When she is not travelling, she can be found in Michigan taking care of her two teenagers, and their two cats.

For more information, please visit:

• suzy.adra.esi@gmail.com, Email
• Suzy Adra, Official Website
• Suzy Adra, Blog
• Suzy Adra Articles, Academia
• Artkeytypes, Facebook Page

Chimine Arfuso, M.A.

Chimine has been an activist for ending violence against women for nearly two decades. She has led the Annual Victim Rights Rally and March with current District Attorney Tony Rackauckus and has been acknowledged by several organizations for her contributions to the community, most recently earning her the Valor Award from Community Services Programs (CSP). She started the non-profit, Create Social Change at the age of 26 and brought two amazing programs to the bay area working towards changing the paradigm of a rape culture: Turning Negative into Positive and We Step Into the Light. In 2013 she became the mother of beautiful boy/girl twins, who inspired her research to another level. Currently, she is conducting her doctoral studies at California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) on the cutting edge benefits and social impact of breastfeeding. Specifically, she is researching breastfeeding as a means of healing trauma for mothers and how breastfeeding can challenge the cycle of violence against women.  In between researching for her doctorate and wrangling the twins she also enjoys growing her own food, acro yoga, rock climbing and dancing.

For more information, please visit:

• Chimine Arfuso, Official Website
• Chimine Arfuso, Facebook
• Chimine Arfuso, Twitter

Dr. Amber Balk, PhD

Enrollment Counselor and Faculty

I was born to the lush forests of the Tennessee River Valley, the homeland region of my Native American motherline ancestors. My fatherline
contributes English-Irish-German ancestry, and I honor all ancestral bloodlines as indigenous peoples of Mother Earth.

I hold a Ph.D. in Transpersonal Psychology and a MA in Women’s Spirituality from the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology. This unique combination imparted a sense of rootedness in the world as an agent of social change and a questioner of consensus consciousness. I have a BS in Psychology from the University of Central Oklahoma, which provided a background in conventional psychology and research. This served as a solid foundation from which to expand in innovative ways. I additionally minored in Creative Writing.

I am the developer of a research methodology– Integrative Holotropic Community Action Research. This is an emergent research approach that emphasizes mutual reciprocity, relational accountability, navigating micro/macro-cosm layers, and community outreach.

I specialize in applying transpersonal theory to settings conducive to individual and communal transformation. My interests include synchronicity, expanded states of consciousness, dreamwork, birth and death, Grofian theory, and radical feminism which seeks to raise awareness in all forms of oppression. I work as a transpersonal educator, researcher, creative consultant, writer, and activist. Dedicated to movement towards wholeness in all endeavors, I consider it a sacred honor and responsibility to serve in this capacity. At ESI, I act as both faculty and enrollment counselor. I look forward to connecting and companioning you as your journey with ESI unfolds.

For more information, please visit:

• a.balk.esi@gmail.com, Email
• Transpersonal Living, Official Website
• Transpersonal Living, Facebook Community Page
• Doing Death Differently Community Action Project, Facebook
• Psychomanteum Sessions for Bereavement & Guidance, Facebook

Jessica Bowman, M.A. 

ESI President

Jessica Bowman has worked in K – 12 public education for many years with both urban and rural programs.  Having the privilege to work with so many students of different nationality, heritage, religions, perspective and values has provided a tremendous worldview reinforcing the importance of tolerance and acceptance of others. Diversity truly is the spice of life.

As a member of the Cosmic Cowgirls, Jessica paints virtually and in person with an amazing art tribe of women across the globe using the amazing concept of Intentional Creativity within the Contemporary Symbolism movement.  She is very interested in the Sacred Feminine found in the archaeological record and world mythologies across time.  She finds the practice of making art to be a wonderful vehicle for personal transformation and is captivated by the idea that making art is an active form of prayer.  Jessica has facilitated workshops for women using concepts from art and spirituality for women suffering from various forms of grief.

In addition to single subject teaching credentials in English and Social Science along with administrative services credentials, Jessica has a bachelor’s degree in Cultural Anthropology and a master’s degree in Women’s Spirituality.  In addition, she has studied alternative healing methods such as medicinal herbalism and aromatherapy resulting in her own botanical business, The Spice of Life located in Dunsmuir, CA. She began a PhD program this fall researching the role that sacred experiences have on the creative process.

Jessica Bowman is currently uses her educational administrative abilities to serve as the President of Emergent Studies Institute a spiritually-based education program of Haven Int. and as a Board Member of ESI.

For more information, please visit:

• j.bowman.esi@gmail.com, Email
• Spice of Life – Magical Apothecary, Official Website
• Spice of Life – Magical Apothecary, Facebook
• Creativity and the Divine Feminine, Official Website
• Creativity and the Divine Feminine, Facebook

Dr. Martha Brumbaugh, PhD 

Academic Dean and Faculty

Martha Brumbaugh is an educator, writing coach, artist, and ceremonialist.  She received her doctorate in Transformative Studies from the California Institute of Integral Studies in 2006.  Her doctoral dissertation, Out of the Mists: An Organic Inquiry into Sacred Ways of Knowing and the Shaping of Reality, focused on the impact of cross-cultural Shamanic practices on white, middle-aged, middle-class women.  She has mentored women and men on academic and spiritual paths since 1988.

In addition to teaching and working as a writing coach, she writes a column for Culture Counter magazine at http://culturecountermag.com.  She has taught earth-based spiritual practices, shamanism, Tarot, and sacred arts and crafts individually and through workshops.  Martha’s current research interests include ways in which transformation is facilitated through the literature of fantasy and science fiction, Mary Magdalen, and developing cutting-edge research methods.

Martha lives on the California coast with two cats, two ravens, and her sister. She has two adult sons, and recently became a grandmother.  She loves cooking, reading, and film. She also loves to travel and experience other cultures, through history, architecture, and mythology.

She leads visionary quests throughout the western United States and facilitates workshops on the Tarot and Sacred Arts and Crafts.

For more information, please visit:

• m.brumbaugh.esi@gmail.com, Email
• Martha Brumbaugh , Personal Facebook Page
• Martha Brumbaugh, PhD, Facebook Public Posts
• The Edge of Lemuria, Facebook Page
• Edge of Lemuria, Blog
• Wolfmedicine, Twitter

Lisa Evert-Raeyne, MATP 

Founder, Haven & ESI

Lisa Evert was born in Saratoga, California to a family of artists, writers, and business professionals. She grew up in Santa Cruz, and in the San Francisco Bay Area and moved later to Nevada City and then to Austin Texas.  Her travels have taken her to places like Maui, Hawaii and Sedona, where she felt an amazing personal and spiritual connection to Nohaa (Mother/Grandmother Earth) and the community there.

Lisa earned a BA in Psychology in Applied Behavioral Analysis at Kaplan University, where she was Valedictorian and Graduating Student Speaker.  She jokes about how Colin Powell opened for her in front of an audience of more than 5,000 students, faculty and alumni. She holds a Masters in Transpersonal Psychology (MATP) with a specialization in Creativity from the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology.  Lisa has a strong business ethic and the ability to move fluidly in an every changing global environment, which she credits her long business history and drive to always further her knowledge by seeking out innovating learning platforms. She completed the two- year Business Professionals Course with The Aji Network (formerly known as Hecht & Associates) learning directly from the founder Toby Hecht. She has over 25 years’ marketing sales and business experience as a Senior Sales Manager and Processing Manager in the mortgage banking and real estate industry.  She gives credit to her education and own innate ability for strategic planning that had her see the writing on the wall, and her business ethic moved her to inform the leaders within her company about its questionable mortgaging practices. She chose early retirement rather than knowingly participate in the collapse of the real estate and mortgage industry and the onset of the US depression of December 2007-June 2009.

Creativity has always been a driving force in Lisa’s life. Singing to Spirit and for her community since kindergarten, Lisa inspires others through her music, writing, and creative expression. Her grandfather instilled in her from a very early age the wonder of nature and the use of different perspectives to tackle life’s challenges.

Lisa draws on her extensive business experience, education and creativity to serve as Chief Executive Officer and President of Emergent Studies Institute. Lisa knows how incredibly powerful life can be when you connect with yourself transpersonally (body, mind & spirit) and face life head-on.

• haven.spiritual@gmail.com, Email
• Haven Int., Official Website
• Lisa Evert-Raeyne, Facebook
• Spirit Chronicles, Blog Site

Dr. Meghan Fraley, PhD

Dr. Lisa Herman, MFT, PhD, M.Sc., REAT 

Lisa Herman was the Director  of Creative Expression and Executive Core Faculty at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology (ITP)/Sofia University for the last 7 years where she taught in the Masters and PhD programs. She is core faculty at Meridian University in Petaluma, adjunct faculty at the International School for Interdisciplinary Studies (ISIS-Canada) in Toronto and adjunct and  dissertation advisor at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco where she received her PhD in Integral Studies with a concentration in Transformative Learning and Change. Her dissertation was on Engaging the Disturbing Images of Evil.

Jennifer Ortiz received her undergraduate degree from California State University in journalism, and has spent the last 25 years as a writer in a variety of media and settings. She has also worked as an editor, musician, and interpretive historian. A return to academia culminated with a Masters of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies from Marylhurst University, in which her thesis focused on the social philosophy of Jane Addams. Her approach to interdisciplinary inquiry is reflected in the following conference papers: Coffee and a Paper: The Value of Printed News to American Communities; Strange Fruit: Poetry, Marx, and the Anti-lynching Movement; and Beyond Hull House: Jane Addams and the Search for an Authentic Democracy. She is currently working on a PhD. Centered on Gerda Lerner’s assertion, “…without precedent, one cannot imagine alternatives to existing conditions,” her area of inquiry explores how a transdisciplinary approach to studying women as a culture would offer more complete understanding.

For more information, please visit:

Keisha Thorpe, MFA

Keisha Thorpe graduated from Goddard College with a MFA-W and is living, writing, and teaching college in northeast Pennsylvania. Keisha has held
principle roles in plays and stage readings. She’s been an editor, a guest lecturer, and spent 4 years as a radio show host in Philadelphia. Until recently, she was writing monthly articles for a popular online women’s magazine as well as social media copy. Keisha writes song lyrics, sings, and is featured on the sound track for Crest Fallen: A Webseries. She is a writer, director, and executive producer on short films and web series. She is a silent partner in the frequently nominated and award winning production company, Purple Shamrock Media with her close friend, Deirdre McCullagh, in hopes of creating work to showcase talent, diversity, and women in the film industry. The company has three film festival selections in 2015 alone. With several projects in production and many on the horizon, she is consistently working and excited about the future. When she sn’t doing any of the aforementioned, she focusing on what’s next and working as an Assistant Dean at a four year college in Pennsylvania. Keisha is now working on her PhD in Transformative Studies at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS).

For more information, please visit:

• Social Justice and the Creative Muse, Website
• Keisha Thorpe, MFA-W, LinkedIn

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