Affiliated Trainers

Alphabetical by Last Name

Doug Adrianson

A leader of numerous Council training programs over the past two decades, Doug Adrianson has facilitated circles in corporate, nonprofit, school, prison, and wilderness settings; has guided rites-of-passage programs for hundreds of teenagers and adults; and served 11 years on the Ojai Foundation Board of Directors. A lifelong writer and editor who loves the power of language, Doug holds a journalism degree from Northwestern University and brings to his Council work the experience of 25 years in daily newspaper editing, mainly at the Miami Herald and Los Angeles Times. His ongoing education also has included a vision fast and other programs at the School of Lost Borders, an initiation weekend with the ManKind Project, and a vision fast with Animas Valley Institute. Doug is an avid musician, hiker, adventure diner, and tree house builder. He lives in Carpinteria, California.

Camille Ameen

Since 1991, Camille has had the privilege of working with kindergartners through graduate students, youth with special needs, the deaf/hard of hearing, students at high risk of dropping out, young women in transitional housing, inmates in the prison system, and Christian, Muslim and Jewish educators coming together in Council circles. She co-facilitates Council Trainings 1 & 2 and has mentored numerous teachers, Council interns, and staff in social justice organizations. Camille co-founded Inside Out Community Arts (1996), a nationally award-winning non-profit that nurtures self-worth, and fosters understanding between diverse middle and high school youth through theatre. Now merged with PS ARTS, she continues to train artists in the curriculum/methodology. Camille is a core instructor for the UCLArts & Healing Social Emotional Arts Certificate Program. Combining her love of theater and Council, she’s developed a curriculum for social emotional learning with theatre, art, and writing. A graduate of Mount Holyoke College in Theatre, she’s had a long career as a professional actress in New York and Los Angeles including Broadway, television, and film.

Lori Austein

Lori Austein is a Council trainer and facilitator, hypnotherapist and coach, and Waldorf teacher. Past experiences as a lawyer and program coordinator for the Cowichan Intercultural Society have informed her appreciation for justice and diversity. She is about to celebrate twenty years of making Council a part of her personal and professional life. Lori has facilitated programs for youth, educators, non-profits and in the field of mental health. She lives on Vancouver Island, British Columbia where she lives Council with her husband and delights in being a step-mother to an adult step-daughter and a mother to an adult son. She mentors a group of Council facilitators as we continue to grow the practice of Council in Canada. She likes to spiral in to serve the trainer community now and again, serving currently on the Trainers Mentoring Circle. She continues studies in Jung and hypnotherapy at The Wellness Institute and she and her husband recently spent some time training in Flesh & Spirit with Jack Zimmerman. “I have a deep love for human beings and a great trust in the power of authentic expression to bring forth inner peace, deep and satisfying relationships, and more peaceful communities. I bring compassion to the tender places, my own and others, encouraging health and growth."

Jodi Magaram Bell

Jodi Magaram Bell was first introduced to Council by a fellow parent and Council facilitator at her daughter’s elementary school who spied Jodi teaching yoga to the kindergarteners. Observing that Jodi led her yoga class in a circle and had the children creating poses that built upon, and grew out of, the previous child’s poses, the parent suggested that Jodi learn about Council. After facilitating Councils at Open Charter Magnet School for several years, Jodi became a certified Council trainer and helped establish Council programs at several other public schools in Los Angeles. She has also brought the practice to children in a battered women’s shelter, and has worked as a trainer in both Center for Council’s Social Justice and Inmate Council programs. In 2018, Jodi published a book entitled What’s Your Story: Questions that Spark Connection and Understanding as a resource for Council practitioners to consult for prompts when crafting a Council, and for the lay person who wants to try the practice with friends or family. Jodi's education includes an A.B. in Political Science from Brown University (magna cum laude) and a law degree with distinction from Stanford Law School. A Los Angeles native, Jodi enjoys speed walking in the hills, backpacking in the Sierras, getting creative in the kitchen, spending time with her husband and four children, and practicing yoga.

Leon Berg

Leon Berg is a founding member of the Ojai Foundation. He is a Senior Trainer for Center for Council and a Founding Advisory Board member. Leon has been facilitating Council groups in the U.S. and abroad for over twenty years. In 2001, he went to Israel to seed the practice of Council among Israeli Jews and Arabs, co-founding the Israeli non-profit organization Ma’agal Hakshava (Listening Circles). Leon has returned to Israel many times since then to conduct Council trainings and lead a variety of coexistence programs. In 2008 Leon and his partner, Glori Zeltzer, a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, began to teach their council-based relationship workshops, Art of Intimate Conversation, to couples seeking to enrich and/or heal their relationships. They now teach the practices to couples in the US and abroad. Check out Leon's TEDx talk on the Power of Listening.

Andrea Brown

Andrea Brown, M.A., began her circle practice with elder Dolores LaChappelle in the San Juan Mountains in the early 1980s. Since then, Andrea has worked in the private sector, academia, and nonprofits on culture and the environment and was a National Science Foundation and James Irvine Foundation fellow. She has done research and taught courses on Environmental Problem Solving and Environmental Justice at the Urban Environmental Policy Institute of Occidental College. Certified as a Council Trainer, she has trained, mentored, and facilitated Council in English and Spanish for women, nonprofits, parents, and in private and public schools, both locally and internationally. Currently, she teaches at New Roads School and consults on various Council programs and trainings.

Kate Bunney

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

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

In 2012 Kate co-founded Walking Water – a pilgrimage with the waters – as a way to inspire us to be in community, be in relation with the waters and the places we live and ultimately to experience the huge potential we all have to create change. Walking Water already has a strong global following and is seen as a model in social action.

​Kate is a member of the Beyond Boundaries team, a Council trainer and community consultant and is part of the Weaving Earth team in California.​

Yamin Chehin

Yamin Chehin is a Council trainer and facilitator, a doctor in Oriental Medicine, and has a bachelor’s degree in communications. She has explored a variety of philosophical and spiritual traditions that range from the descriptions shared by the Shamans of Ancient Mexico to Taoist and Buddhist teachings. These practices inform her work of partnering up with clients and groups to understand and meet with the healing potential implicit in the story enacted by the body. Yamin has facilitated Council circles in English and Spanish (her native language), for youth at risk, women, teen-age girls, and nonprofits. She lives and practices Council at home with her family and co-leads monthly couple’s circles with her husband and life partner, Alan Mobley.

​Jeannie Daly-Gunter

Jeannie Daly-Gunter, M.A., P.C.C., has been a facilitator of personal and professional growth programs, a coach and a ceremonialist for twenty-five years. She has worked nationally and internationally as a workshop facilitator, rites-of-passage guide, organizational consultant, and trainer. She is a certified Shadow Work® facilitator, a certified Council Trainer and facilitator through The Ojai Foundation, a certified professional coach, and a Voice Dialogue coach. She has been a rites-of-passage guide since 1999 and is a vision fast guide trained through the School of Lost Borders. She is Co-Founder of the Center for Soul Actualization and Transformative Loving with her husband Mark. She is also the President and Founding Director of Transformative Training, an organization that provides executive coaching and training for conscious businesses in leadership development, communication skills, conflict management, Council, and team development. In her free time Jeannie loves to spend time in nature, hike, travel, salsa dance and drive with the top down! Carpe diem!

Kirstin Edelglass

As a wilderness guide, experiential educator, and group counselor, Kirstin has been facilitating Council circles for over twenty-five years. She has taught Council facilitation in courses at Marlboro College, Colby College, and Lesley University, as well as in staff training workshops for a variety of organizations. Council practice is also central to a program she founded called the Earth Leadership Cohort – a training for young adults, inspired by the work of Joanna Macy. Kirstin is a founding member (with Bonnie Mennell and Paul LeVasseur) of the New England Council Collective which offers Council 1 and Council 2 trainings and supports a growing network of Council carriers in the Northeast. She lives on a homestead in Marlboro, Vermont with her husband and twin daughters and a steady stream of WWOOF volunteers.

Chris Elder

Chris Elder is passionate about authentic communication as a path to deeper relationships, greater social understanding, and a more peaceful world. She has been facilitating Council circles since 1995 in various settings, including schools, corporations, prisons, and nonprofit organizations. Currently she facilitates circles for a global high-tech company, and is also active in our Inmate Council Program and Social Justice Council Project initiatives. 

In these ventures and during three decades working in public and private schools, Chris has often specialized in using Council to support diversity and inclusion within organizations. She was a founding member of New Roads School in Santa Monica, where for 18 years she served as a teacher and middle school director. New Roads School is dedicated to diversity and social justice, and Council has been a cornerstone of the school from its inception. In her time there, Chris facilitated weekly classroom Councils with students as well as Councils with parents, faculty, and staff.

Previously, Chris was a bilingual teacher and BTSA mentor in the Los Angeles and Hawthorne Unified School Districts. A life-long learner who has attended 14 colleges over the years, Chris earned her bachelor’s degree in communications (magna cum laude) from the University of California at San Diego and a master’s degree in spiritual psychology from the University of Santa Monica.​

Aura Hammer

Aura Hammer is a teacher of sustainability, an activist with Women Wage Peace, and is working to extend the ways of Council to a wider spectrum in order to encompass a vision of possibility. Born in New York in 1957, Aura moved to Israel with her parents and siblings in 1973. She studied architecture at the Technion in Haifa and worked as an architect for many years until she discovered her passion for working for peace. She began by co-founding a local grassroots co-existence group in Galilee, studying facilitation and organization, and facilitating women’s groups, summer camps, dialog groups, and twin-kindergartens. Through her studies and work with Arab and Jewish women she met Ronit Rinat, and discovered Council in 2004. After studying Council, she became involved in Amutat Maagal Hakshava, both as a facilitator and as a member of the Leadership Council. She is a long-time Council Trainer who is committed to living Council and bringing Council to everyone in her life.

Nina Lau-Branson

Nina Lau-Branson is a coach, consultant, and group facilitator. Along with being a certified Council facilitator and trainer, her credentials include an MBA in finance and a CPA earned while working with Price Waterhouse Coopers in their entrepreneurial services group. Nina’s work is rooted in years of experience in organizational leadership, in for-profit and non-profit organizations, including work on boards and in senior management. For-profit businesses have been primarily technology firms. Non-profit organizations include those working in fair trade, youth entrepreneurship, education, and faith formation. She has completed training in spiritual companioning (a practice of deep listening and discernment) and is certified by the Lombard Mennonite Peace Center in mediation and conflict transformation. These varied sets of experiences and skills are brought to bear in her work with leaders, organizations, and communities.

​Paul LeVasseur

As an educator for over forty years, and a community activist for twenty, Paul LeVasseur continually explores ways to incorporate dialogic practices, including Way of Council, to enhance deep understanding across differences and foster vibrant, sustainable communities and relationships. He regularly uses Way of Council in a broad range of personal and professional contexts: the workplace, academic classes, meetings with local activists, in his relationship with his life partner, Bonnie Mennell, and any context that calls for deep listening and authentic speaking. Paul teaches graduate level classes in Council at SIT Graduate Institute in Vermont and offers Council trainings in the New England/New York area. He is a certified trainer in The Way of Council, and co-founder of The New England Council Collective.

Kate Lipkis

Kate Lipkis has been working in communication dynamics for more than 40 years. She is a former advertising copywriter, home-birth midwife’s assistant, and environmental activist. She helped establish Council programs in five public schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District, and works as a trainer and mentor in Center for Council’s Social Justice and Inmate Council programs. Kate has been a member of the Council of Advisors for The Ojai Foundation and currently sits on its Trainers Mentoring Circle. She is mentor to a budding Council community in her native Australia. Her website lists many Council-based programs centered in her home in Venice and around Los Angeles.

David Listenberger

David Listenberger came to Council through his work in music. Hired as a singing teacher at Crossroads School in 1999, David quickly found a home practicing and witnessing the power of Council with students, parents, teachers, alum – all members of a school community. David has a B.A. in English from Chapman University, and an M.S. in Education from the University of Southern California. He is currently Chair of the Life Skills program at Crossroads School and has facilitated Councils for all manners of groups for over 13 years, including men's circles, women's circles, circles of prison inmates, religious and Rites of Passage circles. David is a firm believer in the power of ceremony and ritual in everyday life; and is specifically interested in the intersection of art, performance and Council, utilizing the Council circle to enable greater levels of openness and radical honesty in all who choose the path.

John McCluskey

John W. McCluskey, teacher, council carrier, activist, trainer, principal of Centennial Middle School, in Boulder, Colorado, co-founded the Colorado Center for Council Practice in 1996. He has been working to change the way we think about education and schools since 1989. Council practice has played a critical role in his efforts since 1991. He is a long-time faculty member with the PassageWorks Institute. John has held Council in diverse settings for youth, educators, men, couples, civic groups, and has been instrumental in bringing Council as a practice into many public and independent schools in Colorado and beyond. John is living in Council with his wife and three children in Longmont, Colorado.

Bonnie Mennell

Bonnie Mennell's work in and for the world is informed by her many years of language teaching, teacher training, teacher supervision and program management in diverse educational contexts around the world, her studies of and uses of Psychosynthesis in education, Vipassana meditation, Dialogue practice, Council practice, her work as a visual artist and the stewardship with her partner, Paul LeVasseur, of a beautiful 10 acres of hilltop land in Putney, Vermont. A weekly Council Walk has been a central and life-giving part of their 33-year relationship. Her consulting work in education, group dynamics and team/community building has allowed her to offer Way of Council as both explicit and implicit parts of the teacher training, curriculum development and team building work she does in educational settings (both private and public), non-profit organizations and community groups around the US and overseas. She is an adjunct professor at SIT Graduate Institute in Brattleboro, Vermont.

Alan Mobley

Alan Mobley is Associate Professor of Public Affairs and Criminal Justice at San Diego State University. He teaches courses in law and society, community-based service learning, and restorative justice. His research explores the security dimensions of global interdependence and social sustainability, particularly as they affect the size and scope of corrections populations. He has a deep commitment to experiential education, participatory action research, and peer-driven communicative strategies. Alan is a founding member of All Of Us Or None, an organization working to restore full civil rights to the formerly incarcerated. He is also a practitioner-in-residence at the Sweetwater Zen Center, in National City, California and Carrier of Council at the Ojai Foundation.

Taylor Morgan

Taylor Morgan spent several years as a morning radio host before studying various healing arts. Experiencing Council for the first time was a revelation: after all those years of striving to find the "right" thing to say to engage or entertain, she discovered how powerful listening can be.

Taylor is a certified Council trainer, writer, massage practitioner, and ceremony officiant. Her business provides wellness and massage programs in corporate settings, and she has used and taught Council in schools and prisons and to facilitate ceremony for weddings, memorials and other events of significance.

Nora Novak

Nora was introduced to Council in 2015 when she was mentoring young adults transitioning out of foster care. Ever since, she has been on a vigorous path to deepening her understanding and utilization of the practice. Her career in corporate settings and the entertainment industry allows her to communicate and connect with a range of people; as a certified Facilitator and Junior Trainer, she’s had the honor of working with (among others) teachers, lawyers, chaplaincy students, and various creative types.

Being a refugee from Vietnam, Nora is familiar with adversity and a desire to belong. She is energized by creativity and loves to use art and imagination in her Council circles. She also finds much gratification in facilitating dyadic Councils.

Kristy Pace

Kristy Pace, M.A. is a life long lover of circles of sharing. She has been cultivating community through theatre, artivism, and volunteerism for over 20 years. Her deep respect and desire to connect to the earth and all of its beings led her to hear the call of the circle and the Center for Council's Trainer Leadership Initiative.

As a Certified Council Trainer and Facilitator she holds space for families, friends, colleagues, students and communities to listen and speak from their hearts, building bridges of connection, communication and empathy. With a Masters in Communications and Performing Arts from Emerson College, she continually extends this invitation to share personal stories and practice deep listening into her work as an educator, coach and Playback Theatre Practitioner.

Judith Piazza

Judith Piazza served The Ojai Foundation as Program Director from 2010 through 2016, and has been facilitator for youth and adult programs for 15 years. Her exploration into the mysteries and spirit of Council has deepened exponentially over time. She has experience weaving Council into Rites of Passage retreats, nature-based Council retreats, gender-based gatherings, music and drum workshops, women's groups, University retreats, staff retreats, conflict resolution, corporate groups, ongoing staff circles, and more. Her deep respect and joy in Council as practice has been grounded by her recognition that listening is an act of love, and that opening a space for sacred communication provides opportunities not often experienced in today’s world.

In addition, Judith has been recognized nationally and internationally in the field of music therapy and education for over 40 years, and has worked with youth and adults of all ages to nurture harmony, health, joy, and vitality in clinical and non-clinical settings. With a BA in music therapy, her journey into the healing arts deepened as she explored and experienced indigenous wisdom traditions through pilgrimage, travel, ceremony, and study. Her love of nature, harmony, indigenous wisdom, sound, rhythm, and life finds expression in her work with people of all ages.

Presently, Judith lives in Green Mountain Falls, Colorado, where she continues to bring Council into community, organizations, and into her personal and professional life. She has trained 15 others in the practice of Council in Colorado, and is currently working to introduce Threshold Retreats and Wheel of Life gatherings with a core of Council and ceremony to Colorado groups. Find out more on her website.

Lise Ransdell

Lise Ransdell, M.A., is a certified Council trainer with Center for Council and Council in Schools. She began in Council circles 18 years ago at Palms Middle School. A group facilitator, trainer, presenter and coach, Lise comes from a professional foundation of over 20 years experience in intercultural dialogue and human relations. Lise has been an invited presenter at many conferences, exploring the complexities of race and culture in a changing world. She holds a Master's Degree in Intercultural Relations from Antioch University and the Intercultural Communication Institute.

Jane Raphael

Jane is a thirty-year veteran Los Angeles Unified School District teacher with National Board Certification and a Council trainer specializing in primary grades. Jane began using Council 13 years ago to build an inclusive community in her classroom and deepen children’s connection to the academic curriculum. She uses Council as a vehicle for developing students’ social, emotional, physical and academic potential. She has been a pioneer in fostering full school implementation of a culture of Council by including circles for school staff, for parents and families, and with community members. She has used Council for school governance, student leadership, and as a part of a restorative approach to school discipline. Jane has developed curriculum for our youngest learners, as well as for parents and teachers.

Jaime Reichner

Jaime Reichner, M.A. is a teaching artist, facilitator, and arts integration specialist. In 2007, she sat in her first Council circle as part of the artist faculty for Inside Out Community Arts and has since participated and facilitated circles for youth, educators, and non-profit organizations. Jaime was honored to participate in the first cohort of Center for Council’s Trainer Leadership Initiative. She has a Master’s degree in Applied Theatre Arts (USC) and continues to explore the connection between Council, Theatre for Social Justice, and Liberation Arts.

Marc Rosner

Marc Rosner, JD, is a Council trainer, a restorative justice/restorative practices trainer and facilitator, and the founder and director of Circle Ways – an organization dedicated to bringing Council and restorative practices to schools. He is also a lawyer and mediator in private practice, providing conflict resolution services to families, businesses, organizations, schools, and communities. ​

Adam Rumack

Adam is the director of Mysore Oakland Yoga School, founder of The Open Circle consultancy, and former Executive Director of The Ojai Foundation. He has been practicing council since 1996 as a student of Crossroads High School and has since incorporated Council into all he does.

Anita Samaha

Ani has been leading council circles with corporate teams, the LGBTQ community, and youth groups for 13 years. In 2017 she became a council trainer and has lead trainings for the public, in schools, and with inmates in prison. She is an avid outdoor enthusiast who, in addition to bringing the transformative tool of council to many, loves facilitating outdoor educational experiences. In 1999 she began working with the Santa Barbara Middle School, helping lead their mountain biking and backpacking adventures. In 2004 she moved to New Zealand and continued to follow her passion of working with youth using one of the best teachers there is: mother nature. There she ran an outdoor program for 2 years, taking students on multi-day backpacking, surfing, and hiking adventures. Returning in 2006 to Santa Barbara, she began facilitating ropes courses/team building through the Wilderness Outdoor Leadership Foundation, the Ojai Foundation, Celebrate Life, and Camp Whittier. Facilitating council circles to help people connect to themselves and one another has been some of her most rewarding work. 

Ann Phillips Seide

Ann Phillips Seide is a practicing internal medicine physician and Medical Director of Palliative Care at Los Robles Hospital in Thousand Oaks, California. She has co-led Council training workshops in Auschwitz, Rwanda, Santa Fe, Ojai, Chicago  Los Angeles, Honolulu, Salinas Valley State Prison, and Greyston Foundation, in Yonkers, NY. Ann has facilitated Council circles at Zen Peacemaker Bearing Witness Retreats in Poland and Bosnia, as well as in her own family and with groups of nurses, military veterans and prison inmates. Ann obtained her MD from Loyola University Chicago, then went into the US Navy for residency in internal medicine at Portsmouth Naval Hospital. She subsequently served as an internist in Charleston, SC, where she was an initial innovator in the field of Hospitalist medicine; she was honorably discharged as Lieutenant Commander just prior to 9/11. A life-long learner and lover of "important talk," as her father called it, in recent years Ann has pursued her interest in palliative and end-of-life care by seeking out further training at Upaya in its chaplaincy program, Being with Dying program, and GRACE trainings. In her medical practice she is committed to finding ways in which Council practice can address the syndromes of burn-out and isolation felt so deeply throughout the healthcare system. Ann is a Fellow of The University of Arizona Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine, a member of Zen Center of Los Angeles, and a steward of the Zen Peacemaker Order. She is the mother of three budding young adults, who also finds time to enjoy the practice of yoga and the garden she created with her husband Jared.

Jared Seide

Jared Seide is the Executive Director of Center for Council. He has designed, piloted and coordinated Council-based programs in prisons, assisted living facilities, youth groups and a variety of non-profit, faith-based organizations, social service and law enforcement agencies, including the "Co-Mentoring Project,” for emancipated foster youth, the "Organizational Wellness Project,” for the staff of scores of community-based organizations, the “Inmate Council Program” active in more than twenty prisons throughout California and winner of the American Correctional Association’s Innovations in Corrections award, the "Trainer Leadership Initiative," supporting emerging Council leaders serving impacted communities, and the Council-based "Peace Officer Wellness, Empathy & Resilience” (POWER) Training Program for law enforcement and correctional officers. “Compassion, Attunement & Resilience Education” (CARE) for Healthcare Professionals is a program he developed with Dr. Ann Philips Seide that focuses on burnout and dysregulation amongst physicians, nurses and other first responders and utilizes innovations mindfulness science and compassionate communication techniques like Council to support a culture of professional wellness in healthcare.  
 
Jared has coordinated, mentored and facilitated Council programs at over a dozen schools in Southern California and has led trainings and retreats focusing on reconciliation and community-building around the world.  Jared directed the "Center for Council Practice" initiative of The Ojai Foundation, the antecedent of Center for Council.  He co-led the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Conference on integrating Council and SRM in California and Rwandan prisons and was a Resident Fellow at the Bellagio Center. He has been a presenter at conferences and seminars, speaking on the integration of Council into varied arenas, including South by Southwest, California Rehabilitation Oversight Board, Association of Change Management Professionals, Bellagio Fellows Gathering, Monterey County Community Restorative Justice Commission and the Restorative Justice in Motion Conference, at Eastern Methodist University. Jared’s educational background includes a BA with high honors from Brown University. Prior to his work with Center for Council, Jared led careers in the entertainment industry and the corporate world. He is a member of the Zen Center of Los Angeles, a graduate of the Upaya Institute Chaplaincy Program and has been a Spirit Holder for Zen Peacemaker Bearing Witness Retreats around the world

Sheila Siegel, Ph.D.

Dr. Sheila Siegel has been a Council Trainer for the past three years. While she was at Harvard Westlake School as the school psychologist, she used Council with Peer Support trainees and students in her Choices and Challenges class. After retiring, she began working as a volunteer with Free the Slaves, traveling to India, Haiti, Nepal, and Ghana teaching lay staff about trauma-informed mental health care for freed slaves, as well as offering Council Training 1. She worked to help those involved in the daily struggle to liberate others develop counseling, body calming, and self-care techniques that would make their lives and the lives of those they rescue much easier. Currently she works as the clinical supervisor at Safe Place for Youth (SPY), a drop-in center for homeless youth located in Venice, California. She is involved in bringing the practice of Council to her work.

Sharon Shay Sloan

Sharon Shay Sloan (she/her) is a second-generation community steward committed to nurturing communities and communities of practice. In 2007, she went through her first community-supported rite of passage, met The Ojai Foundation, and began working in international conservation. Since that time, she has engaged in the practice and
evolution of the field of rites of passage, including with Beyond Boundaries, Wilderness Reflections, Global Passageways, and Youth Passageways. In 2012, she became a council trainer and the founding director of the Indigenous & Community Lands & Seas program for The WILD Foundation, working to build a bridge between the mainstream conservation movement and Indigenous Peoples. Through this work, and other opportunities over 20 years, Shay has had the honor of learning from and working with Indigenous Peoples from more than a hundred nations. Shay’s early work focused on youth development, and for 18 years, she worked to expand youth presence and leadership at Bioneers. She is co-editor of the book Protecting Wild Nature on Native Lands and co-author of the report “Cross-Cultural Protocols in Rites of Passage: Guiding Principles, Themes and Inquiry.” She currently serves as Co-Director of The Ojai Foundation. When not working, Shay can be found in the ceramics studio, working in the garden, and enjoying her son, Kian.

Alexis Slutzky

Alexis Slutzky, MFT, is a mentor, educator, guide and facilitator whose work focuses on cultural restoration through Council, dream work, nature connection, grief tending, community ritual and rites of passage. Alexis has been practicing Council since her introduction to the Ojai Foundation in 1999, where she serves as an advisor. She has shared the practice of Council in a variety of ​settings, including public and private schools, youth groups, women’s circles, permaculture trainings, veteran retreats, nonprofits locally and internationally, and Center for Council's Social Justice Council Project. Alexis holds an MA from Pacifica Graduate Institute, is licensed as a Marriage and Family Therapist, and serves as adjunct faculty at Antioch University. She is based in Santa Barbara, and offers groups, trainings and one-on-one mentoring out of her private practice, Wild Belonging, and in affiliation with other organizations.

Sofia Rose Smith

Sofia Rose Smith is a writer, facilitator, teacher and Council trainer. She is rooted in a lineage of teachings that center healing as a form of justice. Sofia is committed to transforming the conditions of oppression and injustice that do harm as much as she is committed to practices of healing and transformation at the individual level.
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Council found Sofia while she was a service provider at an internationally renowned LGBT organization, working with queer and trans youth of color. Council became a practice that was supportive for Sofia as a service provider, and impactful for her clients and staff. Close to a decade later, Sofia has become a steward of this practice, and is excited to be among the group of trainers bringing this to communities on the frontlines.

Sofia is also proud to co-host retreats for women of color as well as a transformative program called the Queer + Feminist Visionary Immersion. For more on her current projects, visit sofiarosesmith.com.

Lillian Soderman

Lillian discovered Council in April of 2011 at the memorial service of a friend, which was being lead by John McCluskey, a veteran Council trainer. The two immediately connected and decided to reconnect at a Council Training 1 in the summer. After this training, she was hooked. She left her career as an alcohol and drug counselor in Portland, Oregon and moved to Los Angeles where she could be closer to the Council action. A few years later, she was certified as a trainer. She was a part of the pilot prison program, which brought the practice to a Northern California prison. She also joined the youth program and continues to facilitate high school rites of passage trips for Los Angeles students. She now resides in the mountains of Colorado, but frequently visits Southern California to continue the work. When she's not practicing Council or being a data nerd consultant, Lillian is a musician and plays shows frequently around Colorado. 

Irasha Talifero

Irasha has been connected to The Ojai Foundation since its beginning in 1975. She has made her home in Ojai and has been a naturalist ever since, working with projects such as M.E.S.A., Naturalists at Large, Camp Whittier, Forest Hills, Taft Garden, and Wolf. She has worked as a substitute teacher for the Oak Grove School since the early 80s. Through her work as an educator and a naturalist, she has designed many programs over the years, all starting and ending with Council. Her most powerful experiences are with “at risk youth” and “newly released prisoners.” She looks forward to deepening her practice with others already on this path.

Bonnie Tamblyn

Bonnie Tamblyn is a Certified Council Facilitator and Trainer with Center for Council and Circle Ways. She served for three years in an advisory body called the Nine for the The Ojai Foundation Board. She has written Council curriculum for the Council in Schools Program. Bonnie first interned as a Council facilitator in 1993 at Crossroads School for Arts and Sciences and then taught there for seventeen years in the Human Development Department. She facilitated Council at Palms Middle School, where she met Joe Provisor, and brought the program to Santa Monica Alternative School (SMASH) and Archer School for Girls. She has conducted yearly Council Intensives for GiRLFeST Hawaii, whose mission is to prevent violence against women and girls through education and art. Bonnie is the Council Mentor for the Katherine Michiels School in San Francisco, and currently serves on the Trainers Mentoring Circle, a certifying body for Trainers and Facilitators of the Ojai Foundation’s Way of Council Path.

A singer-songwriter as well, Bonnie’s passion is building community and giving voice to the human story, whether told in a Council Circle, or shared on stage with a guitar in her arms. “While I was an Artist in Residence at SMASH in the 80’s, I discovered Council through my colleagues at Crossroads. As a music and art teacher, I found Council to be wonderful process to develop authentic expression, and find meaning through our shared realities and stories. Whether through Council or music, I love bringing people together to celebrate life and tell our Stories. I embrace the harmony and discord alike on the journey we take together. I am delighted to share my curriculum with new teachers and Council facilitators. The Ojai Foundation has been my heart-place for personal growth as well. I am honored to be included in this circle of extraordinary individuals.”

Ray Tucker

Ray Tucker is a Certified Council Trainer for Center for Council and Council In Schools (CIS). In 1995, after an extended career in law enforcement, he successfully completed comprehensive training to become a practitioner of Council. Since that time, he has convened Council circles in a variety of diverse communities from public to private schools, special needs school for the deaf, law enforcement, foster youth in transition and many more. He co-authored the 6th grade curriculum currently used in the Council training manual for educators. Ray’s participation in the practice of Council has inspired him to share the process with anyone who will take time to listen.

Stefani Valadez

Stefani is a Certified Council Trainer in the Ojai Foundation Lineage. She has worked with the Way of Council for 10 years in public school classrooms in LAUSD Grades 6-11, 2 years as Seminal Team for Council Practices in classroom at Archer School for Girls grades 6-10. She’s led Council Retreats for Middle school students and for Crossroads Seniors Rites of passage at the Ojai Foundation. She is a Rock’n Roll Grandma of 3 who still performs as a singer-songwriter, guitarist and percussionist singing in 5 languages with a diverse repertoire. Her travels led her to a love of World Music. 

She was a panel participant and performer at the Parliament of World Religions held in Barcelona. Her World Music Ensemble performed for several years at the Los Angeles Sacred World Music Festival. Playing World Music sparked her interest in leading council Trainings for Interfaith Educational Communities such as reGeneration. She leads a monthly Women’s council in her home in Venice that is rich with women of various ages, hues and ethnicities. They have begun their 4th year together. 

She facilitates for Drop-in Council at Council Heart and volunteers at California Institute for Women performing and leading musical activities. Stefani also enjoys creating one of a kind jewelry pieces, herbal gardening, is a licensed Massage Therapist and a dedicated practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism and Taoist Qi Gung.

Julia Wasson

Julia Wasson is a National Board Certified third-grade teacher and mentor teacher in Los Angeles. A veteran Council trainer, she trains school faculties and organizations, and collaborates on a variety of Council-based lesson plans and activities. She has written about Council for Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development and the Huffington Post. Julia is particularly interested in how the Council storytelling culture promotes students' language arts development. Julia and her teaching partner share stories on their Huffington Post blog of the passionate and heartfelt people who contribute to Los Angeles.

Natalie White

Natalie Plachte White sat in her first Council circle with educators in 1990 and knew immediately that this practice would change the way she taught, communicated, and listened in both her professional and personal life. Now a certified Council Trainer, Natalie is an engaged member of Center for Council and Council In Schools, She has worked in the leadership and classrooms of Mar Vista Elementary, and Palms, Daniel Webster, Paul Revere and Marlton Schools, and coordinated the Pressman Academy Middle School Council Program for many years. She has also trained and mentored in some non-profits of the Social Justice Council Program and trained one group of inmates in the Inmate Council Program through the Center for Council. Natalie earned both her BA in English and a California Secondary Teaching Credential from UCLA, and was a Language Arts teacher for 24 years. She has her Masters degree in Clinical Psychology and is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with a private practice in West Los Angeles.

Jack Zimmerman

Jack Zimmerman holds a BA, MA and PhD from Yale University, Harvard University, and the University of Southern California, respectively. He is the co-author of Flesh and Spirit: The Mystery of Intimate Relationship (1998) and Jack and Jaquelyn: An Adventure in Evolutionary Intimacy (2014) with his life partner, Jaquelyn McCandless, and is the co-author of The Way of Council; Second Edition (2008) with Gigi Coyle. He published a book of poems – An Exuberance of Love – with South African artist Majak Bredell in 2017. Jack held several leadership roles at The Ojai Foundation over a period of 30 years, including President, and co-founded the Oakwood Secondary School in Los Angeles. Jack started Heartlight School in Los Angeles in 1979 where the use of Council in schools was initiated. The success of Council at Heartlight led to Council programs in other independent and public schools in California, and in other parts of the US, as well as abroad. Jack continues to mentor couples, singles, and small groups exploring the path of intimacy as a way of creating more conscious relational communities. His relationship with the Ojai Foundation continues in the role of elder.