Emergent Studies Institute

Home » Posts tagged 'Saybrook University'

Tag Archives: Saybrook University

Follow me on Twitter

Meet the Faculty at Emergent Studies Institute

December 17, 2014 11:05 pm / Leave a comment

Meet Our Faculty

(List in alphabetical order by LAST name)

Dr. Luisah Teish, PhDluisah_teish_jpeg_336x9999_q85

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:

Videos:

Suzy Adra, M.A.Suzy Adra Headshot

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:

Chimine Arfuso, M.A.photo_C_Arfuso Headshot

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:

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.Amber R Balk_Photo 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:

Jessica Bowman, M.A. 

ESI President
Jessica Bowman Picture

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:

Dr. Martha Brumbaugh, PhD 

Academic Dean and Faculty

Martha Brumbaugh is an educator, writing coach, artist, and ceremonialist.  She received her doctorate in Transformative Martha HeadshotStudies 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:

Lisa Evert-Raeyne, MATP 

Founder, Haven & ESIgood-lisa-pic-from-video-series

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.

Dr. Meghan Fraley, PhD

Meghan.Fraley

I work as a clinical psychologist, researcher, and community organizer committed to inner healing and social change. I have experience working in the non-profit sector, health psychology research and creative problem solving. I am a certified yoga and enneagram teacher. My educational background focuses on psychology, politics, and social science. I hold a PhD in clinical psychology from the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, an MA in social sciences from the University of Chicago and a BA in psychology and political science from Oberlin College. My dissertation research examined the characteristics of transpersonal psychotherapists.

I have studied and explored spirituality and religion as related to health throughout my life in both the professional and personal realms. Starting in college, I began my exploration with Buddhist studies and traveled to India in 2003 where I studied Tibetan Buddhism in Gangtok, Sikkim. Since, I have explored various spiritual paths including that of yoga, mindfulness and creativity. I received my yoga teacher training in 2009 at Mount Madonna Center, and completed the Yoga in Action leadership training with “Off the Mat and Into the World.”  I teach classes that integrate psychology, spirituality, and social justice including Being the Change: Conscious Activism in a World in Crisis, Introduction to Psychology, and Enneagram Studies. I believe that experiential learning that deepens one’s connection to her or his own personal spirituality may facilitate a greater sense of well-being and joy in life for oneself and the world.

For more information, please visit:

Videos:

Dr. Lisa Herman, MFT, PhD, M.Sc., REAT Lisa Herman Close Up Face

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.

Lisa is a Registered Expressive Arts Therapist (REAT) and a licensed MFT and supervisor. She has worked as an expressive arts therapist with couples, families, individuals and groups for over forty years. Employed as a therapist and supervisor in Canada, the U.S. and Israel in community mental health agencies, prisons and hospitals, she also built and maintained a private practice in each of these countries. She is presently in practice in Monterey, CA. Lisa specializes in trauma-related issues with adults as well as children. She trains professionals and presents her work internationally.

A published novelist, poet and academician as well as a performance artist, Lisa is interested in arts-based research and the effect of images of evil events on the non-participant.

For more information, please visit:
Lisa Herman, MFT, PhD., Official Website

Videos:

 Sahar Joya, B.A. Sahar Joya Headshot

Since Sahar was a little girl, she loved being in conversation with elders, thinking about herstory and history, learning about politics, trying to understand the interconnections of various subject matters, asking the basic and primal questions of philosophy. It is no wonder that she ends up in the academe as one of the main spaces for her work. She has a deep passion for knowledge and wisdom, as well as love, beauty and justice. A mix of multiple forms of spiritual paths and traditions informs her spiritual studies, and the interdisciplinary fields of International Development Studies, History, Non Profit Management and Education, also inform her academic background. She has had extensive experience working with youths and educators, through facilitating Equity and Diversity leadership education programming, and currently operates her own Creative Leadership educational organization, SustainED360 Global Education. As she has grown, her focus has shifted on more adult education and particularly sitting in wisdom circles with women, while still engaging in programs with youth and men as well. Her nieces and nephews and children in general are inspiration for her Muse, because they remind her of the importance of having long-term visions that are informed by their future in mind.

For more information, please visit:

Adrian Mack, M.A. 

Adrian Mack is originally from Virginia, but currently resides in Durham, North Carolina. Adrian is the Director of Business Development for
Social Impact with 3C Institute. He spends any free time he has as the president and co-founder of a scholarship fund, and serves in leadership roles and on boards and committees for organizations including The Hill Center, Pi Lambda Phi Fraternity, Eno River Media Production, the University of Virginia, and the crowdsourcing app, Pyne. He also is a fitness enthusiast. Writing is one of Adrian’s passions, and he is currently working on a screenplay with his close college friend, Tony Peccatiello, who is the co-founder of Pyne. In 2013, Adrian published his first book entitled, God Bless America: The Discourse Between the American Dream & Christianity. He is currently working on a second publication about the politics of identity with fellow CIIS peer, Keisha Thorpe, based on research with Dr. Alfonso Montuori. Mack received a Bachelor of Arts in History from the University of Virginia in 2011, a Master of Arts in Christian Studies from Duke University in 2012, a Master of Arts in Christian Ministry from Liberty University in 2014, and is a 2nd year PhD student in Transformative Studies at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS).

For more information, please visit:

Jennifer Ortiz, M.A. 

Jennifer Headshot

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:

 

Drucilla Pettibone, J.D., M.A. dru head shot

Drucilla is an ethnographer, teacher, and artist who works in various media and methods of inquiry.  With Master’s degrees in Gender Studies from Georgia State University and Cultural Studies from Emory University, Drucilla is currently pursuing doctoral research in eco-spirituality and posthumanism in the Transformative Studies department of the California Institute of Integral Studies.

A graduate of University of Notre Dame and Notre Dame Law School, Drucilla has been a member of the State Bar of Georgia and practiced law on and off since 1993. She has worked in many areas of animal welfare, as an activist, researcher, consultant, rescue volunteer, nonprofit director, and artist.

Her fiber art has been featured in gallery exhibitions in New York and Los Angeles. She was the recipient of the Ella Fountain Pratt Emerging Artists Grant from the Durham Arts Council for 2011-12. She also teaches hand spindling for Craftsy.com.

Drucilla also enjoys homesteading, alternative healing arts, and flow arts.  She is a Celtic Reiki Master, a ULC Minister, and a certified hooping instructor.  She lives on a small farm in North Carolina with her husband and critter family.

For more information, please visit:

Dr. Brent Potter, LMHC, CMHS, MMHS, PhD

Brent Potter, PhD is a licensed psychotherapist, child mental brent infront of Buddhahealth specialist, and ethnic minority mental health specialist (WA). Potter earned his master’s degree in existential-phenomenological psychology from Duquesne University. He holds a doctorate in clinical psychology with an emphasis in depth psychology from the Pacifica Graduate Institute. He has more than 20 years of experience providing clinical services in a range of settings including inpatient, hospital, outpatient, and private practice. He is a reviewer for New York Journal of Books. He has published numerous articles and his first book, Elements of Self-Destruction (Karnac Books), was published roughly one year ago. He has three books scheduled for publication including, Borderline Personality Disorder: New Perspectives on a Stigmatizing and Overused Diagnosis (Praeger, 2014) and Elements of Reparation: Truth, Faith and Transformation in the Works of Heidegger, Bion, & Beyond (Karnac Books). Dr. Potter is the Director at The Society for Laingian Studies.

For more information, please visit:

Videos:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UBflaHKNtU]

Keisha Thorpe, MFAKeisha Thorpe Pic

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:

Trace Whitley, MATP

Founder, Haven Int. & ESIPic of Trace

Trace Whitley was raised by a family of educators who have  inspired her lifelong passion for education.  She grew up in the small suburban town of Duncanville, just south of Dallas, lived in and around the San Bernadino Mountains in California, and  has traveled all over the Southwest and the East Coast — Asheville, Salem, Sedona, Santa Cruz and New Orleans.  Although from a Celtic background, she currently lives in Austin, Texas–  “Keep Austin Weird” they say! This town is weird in an amazing way… filled with a mixture of artists of all kinds, environmentally conscious people this truly a stunning city with like-minded people, it is a fantastic place for Haven International and ESI to have it’s headquarters!

Trace has been an artist most of her life. She earned an Interdisciplinary Bachelors in Cultural Communication from the University of Texas in Arlington and a Masters in Transpersonal Psychology (MATP) with a specialization in Creativity and Spirituality from the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology (now known as Sofia University) and currently goes to school at Our Lady of the Lake University for Non-Profit Management.

Trace absorbs creativity from her surroundings, imagination and personal experiences. She believes that art can be expressed in many mediums and especially enjoys working with videography as well as a variety of other mediums, including ceramics, acrylic painting and mixed media.

She currently serves as Haven’s Chief Operations Officer and draws on her technical experience in video production, website design, graphic design and social media to serve as ESI’s Technology Coordinator.

For more information, please visit:

Brita Wynn M.A. 

Brita Headhot

Is an Anthropologist, Hedge Witch, Empath, Diviner Herbalist, Canner and Cheese Maker and Sustainable farmer, Brita has taught classes in all areas of magical practice, divination, and magical and medicinal herbalism for the last 25 years all over California and internationally. She has studied with many well known herbalists such as Rosemary Gladstar, Candice Canton Packard, Cascade Anderson Geller, Lois Johnson MD, Shatoya de la Tour, and Ryan Drum, and has learned from and led ritual with Oberon and Morning Glory Zell at Annwfn, assisted with an initiation led by Janet Farrar and Gavin Bone and co-created the Bear River Witch Camp with Wayne Coleman and her Amber Oak Moon coven, which was held for 5 years every Beltane. She is very knowledgeable in magical practices world wide and has been an empath and diviner for most of her life. She is the co-creater and Medicinal herbal teacher of the Gaia Concious Herbal Apprentice Program at MorningSun herb Farm and has taught Magical Apprenticeships at her own farm for over 10 years. She currently also teaches at Soul Food Farm, Morning Sun Herb Farm, Lightweavers Healing Academe in Citrus Heights, Sacramento City College, Sierra College, And The Queen’s Ranch. Brita has two children, 31 and 15 who are both in the arts. Brita is an avid gardener and grows almost all of her families’ food as well as herbs and flowers.

For more information, please visit:

 

 

 Dr. Regina Hess, PhD regina-portrait-Feb2014-for web

Regina was born and brought up in South Germany. Since her teens she has travelled the world studying diverse cultures and spiritual traditions, with a focus on traditional healing and shamanic practices. She has worked in India, Nepal, the U.S., the UK, and Africa, and currently lives in Cologne, Germany. Regina feels herself to be a citizen of the world.

Her professional background includes being a clinical psychologist (University of Heidelberg, Germany), a body psychotherapist and creative therapist, and transpersonal psychotherapist with an emphasis on work around individual and collective/transgenerational trauma. Regina is also an independent researcher. Abroad, she was awarded a joint Ph.D. in transpersonal psychology (Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, CA, U.S.) and in embodied phenomenology(Center for Qualitative Research, Bournemouth University, UK). Her professional positions and honorary involvements are diverse. She maintains a private practice for inclusive psychology in Cologne and a global practice online, serves as faculty at international transpersonal educational institutes, and works on independent research projects.

Regina is on the Board of Directors of the European Transpersonal Association (EUROTAS), co-founded the EUROTAS Division of Transpersonal Research and Disaster/Trauma Task Force. She is EUROTAS Supervisor for Transpersonal Psychotherapy. Further activities include the bridging of research with art, music, and film, co-founding the Arts & Sciences Researcher Forum, Cambridge University, UK, and serving as head of peer reviewers for the Integral Transpersonal Journal (ITJ). Regina is an international author and speaker.

For more information, please visit:

Dr. Regina Hess,  Official Website

Dr. Regina Hess, Facebook

Dr. Regina Hess, Academia.edu 

EUROTAS, European Transpesonal Association

International Institute for Consciousness Exploration and Psychotherapy, Official Webpage 

Arts and Sciences Researcher Forum, Facebook

Videos: