Myra Jackson has held a diverse array of careers in engineering, holographic organizational development and academia. While those experiences might seem divergent from her deep mystical roots, she found that her early training in electrical theory, physics and music informed her inner and outer life. Today, that training provides useful metaphorical language in discussing the physics of now that points to our intrinsic bond with Nature.

Today, Myra carries the title of Diplomat of the Biosphere with a primary focus on transforming our societal relationship with Nature through public policy approaches that recognize Nature's intrinsic rights to exist whole along with all Her lifeforms. In listening to the Earth, Myra strives to fully realize the aspirational premise of the luminous thread she carries within the web of life (Intra-Being).

Pat McCabe(Weyakpa Najin Win, Woman Stands Shining) is a Diné (Navajo) mother, grandmother, activist, artist, writer, ceremonial leader, and international speaker. She is a voice for global peace, and her paintings are created as tools for individual, earth and global healing. She draws upon the Indigenous sciences of Thriving Life to reframe questions about sustainability and balance, and she is devoted to supporting the next generations, Women’s Nation and Men’s Nation, in being functional members of the “Hoop of Life” and upholding the honor of being human.

Basil Brave Heart is an Oglala Lakota Elder who lives in Pine Ridge, South Dakota.  He is a Catholic boarding school survivor, retired school administrator, addiction counselor, and Korean War combat veteran who served as a paratrooper in the 1950s.  As a young child in the 1930s, Basil’s Grandma Lucy told him about the 1890 Wounded Knee massacre, in which hundreds of Lakota women, children, and grandparents were killed.  She counseled him to forgive the soldiers who perpetrated the massacre.  A dream of his grandma later guided Basil to change the name of a peak in the Black Hills.  In 2016, it was renamed “Black Elk Peak” at the federal level.  Basil studies how quantum physics corroborates the wisdom woven throughout the Lakota language and other Indigenous languages.  Over the last decade, he has been facilitating truth, healing, and forgiveness across historical divides.

Ilarion (Larry) ‘Kuuyux’ Merculieff has decades of experience serving his people, the Unangan (Aleuts) of the Pribilof Islands, and other indigenous peoples in a number of capacities—locally, statewide, nationally, and internationally. Close to Ilarion’s heart are issues related to cultural and community wellness, traditional ways of living, Elder wisdom, climate change and the environment. Raised traditionally, Merculieff is a lifelong advocate for applying Elder wisdom to today’s challenges. He founded and currently heads the Global Center for Indigenous Leadership and Lifeways. His present work revolves much around the council of Elders he co-founded, called the Wisdom Weavers of the World, to bring the messages of Elders from throughout the world to global attention. 

Yeye Luisah Teish is internationally known as a writer, storyteller, teacher, and spiritual guidance counselor.  She is the author of several books on African and African American Spiritual Culture and Myth.  They include the women’s spirituality classic Jambalaya: The Natural Woman’s Book of Personal Charms and Practical Rituals.  Yeye Teish is an initiated elder (Iyanifa) in the Ifa/Orisha tradition of the West African Diaspora, and she holds a chieftaincy title (Yeye’woro) from the Fatunmise Compound in Ile Ife, Nigeria.

She is the founding mother of Ile Orunmila Oshun (The House of Destiny and Love), a member of the Global Council for Ancestor Veneration, and a member of the Mother Earth Delegation of United Indigenous Nations. She is also a devotee of Damballah Hwedo, the Haitian Rainbow Serpent, under the guidance of Moma Lola.  She serves as the spiritual culture consultant to Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth and the Jubilee Justice for Reparations Committee.  Read more about Yeye Teish on her website.

Leny Mendoza Strobel is Kapampangan from the Central Luzon Region in the Philippines. She is currently a settler on Wappo, Mishewal OnantaTis, Southern Pomo, and Coast Miwok lands. She is a founding Elder at the Center for Babaylan Studies and is the author and editor of books and other publications on the process of decolonization and indigenization. She is a Professor Emerita of American Multicultural Studies at Sonoma State University in Northern California. Currently, she is tending small cohorts of folks who are reckoning with the history of native genocide in California and the impact on local indigenous communities where she dwells. These cohorts are committed to working on personal and collective acts of healing and repair of relationships between indigenous peoples and settlers. She also tends to a few chickens and a garden with Cal. To connect with Leny's work, please visit her website.

Louise Dunlap is 12th generation of European descent on Turtle Island and 6th generation Californian. She was born and lives now on unceded land of the Lisjan Ohlone people where she pays an annual shuumi tax. After studying botany and medieval English literature and teaching writing in urban and environmental planning, she worked with writers in social justice groups, authored Undoing the Silence (about this work), and began journeys into the hidden history of white supremacy that would lead to a second book. In the 90s and early 2000s, she joined pilgrimages focused on the unhealed history of places her settler and enslaving ancestors had lived, including the life-changing Interfaith Pilgrimage of the Middle Passage. Her new book, Inherited Silence: Listening to the Land, Healing the Colonizer Mind, tells the story of her California ancestors, the land they bought in a time of genocide and the mindset they brought with them from early settlement. Looking for ways to heal their legacy, Louise finds guidance in the spiritual teachings of many traditions and has been ordained into the Order of Interbeing by Vietnamese Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. To learn more about Louise’s work, visit her website.