Wisdom University Faculty

PRESIDENT
VICE PRESIDENT OF ACADEMIC AFFAIRS

James Garrison - Website - State of the World Forum
B.A. University of Santa Clara, 1973
M.T.S Harvard Divinity School, 1975
Ph.D. Cambridge University, 1982
Jim Garrison became President and Chairman of Wisdom University on February 2, 2005. Garrison founded and serves as President of the Gorbachev Foundation/USA and the State of the World Forum, San Francisco based non-profit institutions created to establish a global network of leaders dedicated to creating a more sustainable global civilization. With President Gorbachev as its Convening Chairman, the Forum convenes leaders from around the world and a spectrum of disciplines to its annual and regional conferences and catalyzed the creation of several independent organizations. Garrison published his first book in 1980, The Plutonium Culture (SCM). This was followed by The Darkness of God: Theology After Hiroshima (SCM/1982); The Russian Threat: Myths and Realities (Gateway Books/ 1983); The New Diplomats (Resurgence Press/1984); Civilization and the Transformation of Power (Paraview Press/2000); and America As Empire: Global Leader or Rogue Power? (Barrett Koehler/2004). Garrison is also active in Mosaic Networks, a business development company of which he is a Founding Partner.

DIRECTOR OF ACADEMIC PROGRAMS

Carol Vaccariello - Website
D.Min., Ecumenical Theological Seminary, 1992
M.Div., Equivalency, Ashland Theological Seminary, 1991
M.B.A., Baldwin Wallace College,
M.S.E., Saint John College of Ohio, 1985
LPC Licensed Professional Counselor for State of Michigan, 1996
B.A. Music Education, Notre Dame College, 1975
Carol Vaccariello is the formerly the Co-Director of the Doctor of Ministry Program. She is an ordained minister in the Christian Church, Disciples of Christ and has served as Senior Minister and Bridge Builder in Ohio, Michigan and Texas Congregations. Carol’s emphasis is bridging among western, eastern and indigenous spiritual expressions. She is a practicing facilitator of the Labyrinth, a teacher of the Medicine Wheel, and a builder of Sacred Drums. Carol is teacher, lecturer, leader of ritual, healer and spiritual guide.
Teaches: Immersion in Creation Spirituality

CHAIRS

The Chairs of Wisdom University are individuals of distinction who are widely recognized as contemporary wisdom teachers and who teach at the University as well as conduct research and other programs.

Angeles Arrien (Cultural Anthropology)
http://www.angelesarrien.com

Angeles Arrien is an anthropologist, educator, award-winning author, and consultant. She received her master's degree from the University of California – Berkeley, and her doctorate from the California Institute for Integral Studies. She lectures nationally and internationally; conducting workshops that bridge cultural anthropology, psychology, and mediation skills.

She is the founder and president of the Angeles Arrien Foundation for Cross-Cultural Education and Research. Dr. Arrien’s research and teaching have focused on values and beliefs shared by humanity cross-culturally, and on the integration and application of multi-cultural wisdoms in contemporary settings. She teaches universal components of leadership skills, communication, health care, and education. Her work reveals how indigenous wisdoms are relevant in our families, professional lives, and our relationship with the Earth.

She is the author of The Four-Fold Way™: Walking the Paths of the Warrior, Teacher, Healer and Visionary, published by HarperCollins, San Francisco and Signs of Life: The Five Universal Shapes and How to Use Them, winner of the 1993 Benjamin Franklin Award. In addition, she has written numerous articles and teaching modules on a variety of topics and has received three honorary doctorates.

Lauren Artress (Labyrinthian Mysteries)
http://www.veriditas.net/

The Reverend Dr. Lauren Artress serves as a Canon at Grace Cathedral. In 1996 she created Veriditas, a non-profit dedicated to introduce people the healing, meditative powers of the labyrinth. The labyrinth is a twelfth century mystical tool symbolic of the Path of Life that is re-introducing the walking meditation back into the Christian tradition. She travels world-wide offering workshops and lectures on the labyrinth and on Hildegard of Bingen. She offers a yearly program in Chartres, France called Walking a Sacred Path that nurtures spiritual maturity. In addition to her ordination as an Episcopal priest she is a spiritual director and licensed MFT psychotherapist in the State of California.

Lauren holds a Bachelor's Degree in Special Education from Ohio State University and a Master's of Education from Princeton Theological Seminary. She received her analytic training in Object Relations and Systems Theory at The Blanton-Peale Graduate Institute at The Institute of Religion and Health in New York City. Her Doctor of Ministry degree was granted in 1986 from Andover Newton Theological School in Boston Massachusetts in Pastoral Psychology. She is the author of Walking a Sacred Path: Rediscovering the Labyrinth as a Spiritual Tool.

Matthew Fox (Creation Spirituality)
http://www.matthewfox.org/sys-tmpl/door/

Matthew Fox is author of 28 books including Original Blessing, The Reinvention of Work, Creativity: Where the Divine and the Human Meet, One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing from Global Faiths, A Spirituality Named Compassion and his most recent A New Reformation. He was a member of the Dominican Order for 34 years. He holds a doctorate (received summa cum laude) in the History and Theology of Spirituality from the Institut Catholique de Paris.

Fox’s effort to reawaken the West to its own mystical tradition has included revivifying awareness of Hildegard of Bingen, Meister Eckhart and the mysticism of Thomas Aquinas. This effort, combined with seeking to establish a pedagogy that was friendly to learning spirituality, led him to establish an in 1977 an Institute in Culture and Creation Spirituality that operated for seven years at Mundelein College in Chicago and, beginning in 1983, at Holy Names College in Oakland. During the years at Holy Names College, Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI but then as chief Inquisitor and head of the Congregation of Doctrine and Faith (called the Office of the Holy Inquisition until 1965), tried to shut the program down.

The principle objections from Ratzinger to Fox’s work were that he was a “feminist theologian;” that he called God “Mother;” that he preferred “original blessing” to “original sin;” that he called God “child;” that he associated too closely with Native Americans; that he did not condemn homosexuals; that he had replaced the naming of the spiritual journey as Purgation, Illumination and Union with the four paths of Creation Spirituality: The Via Positiva (joy, delight and awe); the Via Negativa (darkness, silence, suffering, letting go and letting be); the Via Creativa (creativity); and the Via Transformativa (justice, compassion, interdependence).

Ratzinger silenced Fox for one year in 1988 and forced him to step down as director of. Three years later he expelled Fox from the Order and had Fox’s program terminated at Holy Names College. Rather than disband his teachings and faculty, Fox started his own University called University of Creation Spirituality in 1996 in Oakland, California. Its name has now changed to Wisdom University and Fox is president emeritus and a teaching professor there.

Alex Grey (Sacred Art)
http://www.alexgrey.com
http://www.cosm.org

Alex Grey is best known for his paintings which “X-ray” the multiple dimensions of reality, interweaving the physical and biological anatomy with psychic and spiritual subtle energies. Grey’s visual meditation on the nature of life and consciousness, the subject of his art, is contained in the monograph entitled Sacred Mirrors: The Visionary Art of Alex Grey, published in five languages. His second book, The Mission of Art reflects on art as a spiritual practice. Grey’s art has been exhibited worldwide including a mid-career retrospective at The Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, the Sao Paolo Bienniale, The Grande Palaise, Paris, and solo exhibition in Tokyo to accompany the Japanese translation of his book Sacred Mirrors. Grey previously taught for ten years at New York University as well as teaching at Rhode Island School of Design and Philadelphia College of Art. Grey’s art work has been used as album art for such multi-platiinum bands as Nirvana, Beastie Boys, Tool (Grammy award winner), and String Cheese Incident where the album art recently won a Jammy Award.

With his wife, artist Allyson Grey, Alex co-founded the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors, a cultural and non-denominational spiritual center, now in its temporary location in New York City. The future Chapel of Sacred Mirrors will provide a permanent public exhibition of Alex Grey's most outstanding and widely appreciated works of transformative art, fostering a vision of the fully awakened human potential. The Sacred Mirrors speak to our highest aspirations as a species: universal compassion, respect for all life, a deep appreciation of all cultures and wisdom traditions, awakened consciousness and a full flowering of our human potential. www.cosm.org

Andrew Harvey (Sacred Activism)
http://www.andrewharvey.net/andrewharvey/

Andrew Harvey was born in South India where he lived until the age of nine, a period he credits with shaping his vision of the inner unity of all religions. He left India to attend private school in England, and entered Oxford University in 1970 to study history on a scholarship. At the age of 21, he became the youngest person ever to be awarded the Fellow of All Souls College, England's highest academic honor.

In 1977, Andrew became disillusioned with life at Oxford and returned to India to begin his spiritual search. He has since lived in London, Paris, New York, and San Francisco, and has continued to study a variety of religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, and Christianity. Harvey has written and edited over 30 books. Honors he has received include the Benjamin Franklin Award and the Mind Body Spirit Award (both for Mary's Vineyard: Daily Readings, Meditations, and Revelations), and the Christmas Humphries Award for A Journey In Ladakh.

Among Andrew's other well-known titles are: The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, edited with Patrick Gaffney and Sogyal Rinpoche; Dialogues with a Modern Mystic; The Way of Passion: A Celebration of Rumi; Hidden Journey; The Essential Gay Mystics; and Son of Man.

It is to Andrew that we owe the term "Sacred Activism" which he coined to express the interconnection between spiritual practice and social activism. The University is convening Sacred Activism conferences around the United States, in which Andrew is deeply involved. He has also produced a film by that name. Andrew has also been seminal in the envisioning and development of the New Chartres School.

Walter Link, (Wisdom Civilization)
http://www.theglobalacademy.org

Degree in Sciences Commerciales et Industrielles, University of Geneva, Switzerland. M.A. in Human Development and presently PhD candidate in Human and Organizational Development, Fielding Graduate University.

Walter chairs The Global Academy, which focuses on advancing the emergent Wisdom Civilization and leadership approaches, which empower it. He coaches leadership practitioners, advises organizations and facilitates multi-stakeholder processes. He co-chairs the Global Leadership Network. He serves on Europe and Central Asia Council of Human Rights Watch, the boards of Omega Institute and the Institute for Noetic Sciences, and formerly of Naropa University and the Greyston Foundation, which is empowering the homeless and socially excluded.

He was partner of B.Grimm, a 130-year-old South-East Asian and European Industrial Group, and is a pioneer in the worldwide movement for Corporate Social and Environmental Responsibility (CSR). Co-founder & former chair of the Social Venture Network Europe, and co-founder & former director of Empresa, with 20 CSR organizations throughout the Americas. At Presidio World College, San Francisco, he co-created and taught in the US’s first fully accredited MBA in Sustainable Management.

He co-founded W.E., a network facilitating consciousness events through Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union and co-developed Vision of the Hearth, a psycho-spiritual work school with students throughout Western and Eastern Europe. His teachers included Shivanda yoga teachers and Krishnamurti, Sufi master Phir Valayat Inyat Khan and Zen master Thich Nat Hanh, Theravada Buddhist teachers from the lineage of Ajahn Cha and Ram Dass, His Holiness the Dalai Lama and other Tibetan teachers, and in particular Nem Karoli Baba and A.H. Almaas, founder of the Diamond Approach, an original teaching integrating depth psychology, ancient western philosophy and eastern spiritual approaches.

After 20 years of psycho-spiritual practice and teaching, diverse social and business entrepreneurship and civil society activism around the world, Walter understood that in the midst of the many crises, a Wisdom Civilization is emerging, reinventing all sectors of society, and integrating so called ‘inner’ and ‘outer’ work to facilitate a more conscious and humane, socially and environmentally sustainable world.

Caroline Myss (Energy Medicine)
http://www.myss.com

Caroline Myss began her professional career as a journalist in 1974. She received her M.A. in Theology in 1979 and her Ph.D. in Energy Medicine in 1996. Caroline began her career as a medical intuitive in1984 when she met C. Norman Shealy, M.D., Ph.D., a Harvard trained neurosurgeon, who had an interest in the science of medical intuition. They began a colleagueship that continues to this day. During their early years together, Norm helped Caroline to develop her skills by having her conduct health readings on his patients. During Norm's interview with a patient in his office in Springfield, MO., he would phone Caroline for her assessment of the patient's health. The only information Caroline requires is the name and age of a patient and his/her permission. From that data, Caroline is able to profile the physical/psychological/emotional/and family history of the patient.

Through this research, Caroline developed the field of Energy Anatomy, a science that partners specific emotional/ psychological/ physical/spiritual stress patterns with the specific diseases that they create or influence. This research proved so accurate that it became the subject matter of a book co-written by Caroline and Norm: The Creation of Health. Eventually this ground-breaking research became standard classroom material for students studying the principles of holistic health, psychological stress patterns, and the alternative methods of healing.

In 1996, Caroline compiled her years of research in medical intuition with her work in the field of human consciousness, releasing the book, Anatomy of the Spirit. This book became a New York Times bestseller and has been published in 18 languages. Her next book, Why People Don’t Heal and How They Can also became a New York Times bestseller as did her fifth book, Sacred Contracts.

In 2003, Caroline, opened CMED (Caroline Myss Education), her own educational institute. CMED offers two programs per year, each three sessions long. The first is on Sacred Contracts and the second is on Mysticism, Intuition, and Healing. The Institute draws students from nineteen nations as well as across the United States. In 2004, Caroline released her sixth book, Invisible Acts of Power, which also became a New York Times bestseller.

Gabrielle Roth (Sacred Dance)
http://www.ravenrecording.com/gabrielle.html

For the past thirty-five years, Roth has taken thousands of people on a shamans journey through the rhythms of their bodies and into the rhythms of their souls. Her books, workshops, and music recordings provide a context in which the spirit and flesh come together as one and dance like lovers upon a stage. Through the 5Rhythms™, her self-styled form of ecstatic trance dance, Roth uses movement to reignite shamanic ecstasy in a culture and people that have become trapped in a kind of physical and emotional inertia. Roth guides her students on an adventure into the often unexplored, sometimes daunting, region of their own psyches, and brings them back into alignment with the rhythm of their own souls.

Gabrielle Roth is the author of Maps to Ecstasy, Sweat Your Prayers, and her latest book, Connections. She is the artistic director of her dance/theater/music company, The Mirrors; and through her recording company Raven Recording (cofounded with her husband, Robert Ansell) she has produced more than twenty music compilations, considered to be on the cutting edge of shamanic trance dance music.

Rupert Sheldrake (Evolutionary Science)
http://www.sheldrake.org

Rupert Sheldrake is a biologist and author of more than 75 scientific papers and ten books. A former Research Fellow of the Royal Society, he studied natural sciences at Cambridge University, where he was a Scholar of Clare College, took a double first class honours degree and was awarded the University Botany Prize. He then studied philosophy at Harvard University, where he was a Frank Knox Fellow, before returning to Cambridge, where he took a Ph.D. in biochemistry. He was a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge University, where he carried out research on the development of plants and the ageing of cells. At Clare College he was also Director of Studies in biochemistry and cell biology.

From 1968 to 1969, based in the Botany Department of the University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, he studied rain forest plants. From 1974 to 1985 he worked at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in Hyderabad, India, where he was Principal Plant Physiologist. While in India, he also lived for a year and a half at the ashram of Fr Bede Griffiths in Tamil Nadu, where he wrote his first book, A New Science of Life. In September 2005, he was appointed to the Perrott-Warwick Scholarship administered by Trinity College, Cambridge.

Rupert’s books include: A New Science of Life: The Hypothesis of Formative Causation (1981); The Presence of the Past: Morphic Resonance and the Habits of Nature (1988); The Rebirth of Nature: The Greening of Science and God (1992); Seven Experiments that Could Change the World: A Do-It-Yourself Guide to Revolutionary Science (1994) (Winner of the Book of the Year Award from the British Institute for Social Inventions); Dogs that Know When Their Owners are Coming Home, and Other Unexplained Powers of Animals (1999) (Winner of the Book of the Year Award from the British Scientific and Medical Network); The Sense of Being Stared At, And Other Aspects of the Extended Mind (2003); Trialogues at the Edge of the West With Ralph Abraham and Terence McKenna (1992); and Natural Grace: Dialogues on Science and Spirituality (1996) and The Physics of Angels: Exploring the Realm Where Science and Spirit Meet (1996) with Matthew Fox.

CORE FACULTY

The Core Faculty of Wisdom University are individuals who have taught at least once each year for the past three years and who continue to teach regularly. They also participate in the development of the university by serving on faculty committees and as student advisors.

Charles Burack - Website
B.A. Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1977
M.A. Human Development, University of Chicago, 1984
M.A. English, Northwestern University, 1988
Ph.D. English, University of California, Berkeley, 1997
Dr. Charles Burack a widely published writer/poet and award-winning scholar, he has written three books and is on the Editorial Board of Tikkun magazine. He also teaches at UC Berkeley, St. Mary’s College, California Institute of Integral Studies, and John F. Kennedy University. Chuck is a spiritual director and career counselor who directed the Chaplaincy Institute’s Interfaith Spiritual Direction Program in 2002. A former rabbinical student, he is a graduate of the Spiritual Directors Institute (Mercy Center). Teaches Kaballah, Cosmology and Psychology; Leadership Skills for the Reinvention of Work; Leadership and the Contemporary science: Discovering Order in a Crazed World; Exploring Sacred Experiences Through Literature; Jewish Mystical Poetry and Prayer, Creation Spirituality in Modern Literature, and Creation Spirituality and the Kabbalah, Creative Power: Writing and Living From Soul.

Pamela (Apela) Colorado
B.A., University of Wisconsin
M.S., University of Wisconsin
Ph.D., Brandeis University
Apela Colorado is a member of the Oneida tribe and is a traditional cultural practitioner. She established the Spirit Camp cultural revitalization project at the University of Alaska. She began the Native Social Work Concentration at the University of Calgary. With Assistance from the Canadian International Development Agency, Apela founded the Worldwide Indigenous Science Network. She created the first Doctoral Program in Traditional Knowledge at the California Institute of Integral Studies.

Lawrence L. Edwards - Website
A.B. Chemistry, Occidental College, 1963.
Ph.D., Chemical Physics, Harvard University, 1969.
Post-Doctoral Fellow, Harvard University, 1970
Larry Edwards, is a chemical-physicist and author of many scientific articles as well as a contributor to Arab Resources: The Transformation of a Society. He is a cosmologist and co-founder of the Epic of Evolution Society. Currently Larry teaches at the University of Creation Spirituality, California Institute of Integral studies, University of San Francisco, and Genesis Farm. He is also developing The Earth Story Project, a multi-media presentation of the Universe Story. Teaches The Universe Story.

Matthew Fox
License in Philosophy, Aquinas Institute of Philosophy, 1964
M.A., Philosophy, Aquinas Institute of Theology, 1967
Ph.D., (summa cum laude) Institute Catholique de Paris, 1970
Post Doctoral Studies, Political Theology, University of Münster, 1970
Matthew Fox is the author of 25 books on creation spirituality, the mystics, culture and science and spirituality. Founder of the University of Creation Spirituality. A lover of learning who wants to see education revitalized and a non-violent revolution (i.e. renaissance) occur in human culture by reinventing education, work and ritual. A leader in the (Techno) Cosmic Mass movement to revitalize forms of worship in the West. Teaches Introduction to Creation Spiritualitly; Overview in Creation Spiritualilty, Reinvention of Work.; Deep Ecumenism; Deep Ecumenism: Eckhart Meets the Buddha; Meister Eckhart: His Mysticsm and Ours; The Spirituality of Aquinas; Medieval Mystics.

Hana Matt
B.A. Psychology, California State University
Graduate Studies, Graduate Theological Union.
Hana recently returned form a four-year trip to Jerusalem where she was working on a college-level text in World Religions. She has more than eight years of teaching experience at the University of Creation Spirituality and the Graduate Theological Union Berkeley in World Religions. She has taught courses in spiritual direction. Hana did one year of research and coursework in Christianity, Judaism and Islam at Hebrew University, Jerusalem, 1990-91. She has studied Bible and Intensive Modern Hebrew, Hebrew University, Jerusalem 1982-84. She has also done M.A. coursework in Christianity, Judaism and Hebrew, Graduate Theological Union, 1981-82. Two years of text study of Buddhism in Sri Lanka, 1979-81. Two years of text study of Hinduism in India, 1977-79. Two years of study of Islam, The Center for Islamic Studies, Hawaii, 1974-76. Teaches: Deep Ecumenism.

Ana Perez-Chisti
B.A. Music, Mills College, 1984.
M.A. Creation Spirituality and Psychology, Holy names College 1991
PH.D. Religion and Philosophy, California Institute of Integral Studies, 1998.
Ana Perez-Chisti is a National Representative for the Sufi Movement Internatisonal USA. She is a teacher and senior Interfaith Minister for several other Sufi orders as well. Ana is a member of the Taungpulu Kaba-Aye Buddhist Monastery in Boulder Creek, CA and teaches Vipassana mediation as taught in the Theravadan tradition. She is a trained yogini and martial artist in the areas of Kendo and Karate. Her professional involvement has taken her to India, Somalia South Africa, Nepal and Western Europe serving in Emergency Relief Agencies, Hospice Care Program and Prison Library Projects. Ana teaches seminars around the world on the subjects of the Unity of Spiritual Ideals, The Mystics, Sufism, Vipassana and Engaged Buddhism. Teaches Core Readings: Liberation and the Cosmic Christ, The Spirituality of Hildegard and Rumi, Islam, The Light of Islam.

Jeremy Taylor - Website
B.A., Psychology and English Literature, State University of New York at Buffalo, 1968
M.A., American Studies, State University of New York at Buffalo, 1972
D.Min. University of Creation Spirituality, 2001.
Dr. Jeremy Taylor, a Unitarian Universalist minister, has worked with dreams for over twenty-five years; he blends the values of spirituality with an active social conscience and a Jungian perspective. Past president of the Association for the Study of Dreams, he has written three books integrating dream symbolism, mythology, and archetypal energy. Teaches Archetypes: Wounded Healer and Willing Sacrificee, Empowering Your Passion for Social Change, Dreamwork and Ethics: Dreams and Liberation, Counsels of the Night: Dreams as Messengers; Dreams: Cross Cultural Contexts and Personal Visions Exploring the Personal and Collective Unconscious with an Open Heart. Universal Themes in Myths and Dreams, Dreamwork and Social Change, Dreams and Spirituality, Dream Work: Discovering the Deep Myths Underlying Personal Development; and Dreams: Exploring the Archetypes of Wounded Healer & Willing Sacrifice

PART-TIME FACULTY

The part time faculty are individuals who teach at the university consistently but not necessarily every year.

Sondra Barrett - Website
B.S., Chemistry and English, University of Illinois, Champaign, IL1962 Ph.D. Biochemistry, University of Illinois Medical School, Chicago, IL 1968
Sondra Barrett, a scientist whose work embraces the sacred, was on the faculty of University of California Medical School where she engaged in cancer research and helped develop psychosocial programs for children with life-threatening illnesses. A pioneer in body-mind medicine and psychoneuroimmunology she has taught the ‘new medicine’ to health professionals and support groups throughout the United States including at Esalen, CIIS, Sutter Hospitals and New College. Her work incorporating spiritual dimensions of science evolved from studying movement and expressive arts with Anna Halprin, shamanic apprenticeship with Tomas Pinkson, qigong and biodynamic gardening. Her microscopic forays into cells and nature open a window into the mystical and spiritual qualities of our biology down to our molecules. She is a lover of the grape, consults to wineries and produces The Art and Soul of Wine. Teaches Mystialc Molecules: Marriage of Science and Spirituality, Cellular Mysteries, and The Power of 3: Spiritual Architecture and Re-Creation.

Anita Barrows
B.A., San Francisco State University, 1969
M.A., Boston University, 1970
M.A., University of California, Berkeley, 1982
Ph.D., The Wright Institute, 1988
Anita Barrows is a poet, translator, psychologist, a lay homeopathic practitioner, and an activist. Her published volumes include three books of her own poems, two of which have won national awards, and, in collaboration with Joanna Macy, two volumes of translations of the poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke. Barrows helped pioneer the ecopsychology movement in the l990's and continues to be a major voice in that field. She has taught at the University of California at Berkeley and at New College, San Francisco. She has a private clinical practice in Berkeley and is a Professor at The Wright Institute. Teaches Mystical Poets, Ecopsychology.

David Baum
B.A., Hampshire College
Ph.D. Temple University
D.Min. University of Creation Spirituality
David Baum, author and consultant specializes in accelerated change. His work has included conflict mediation in Belfast, Northern Ireland, consulting for President Clinton's Summit for America's Future and post-conflict recovery in Bosnia. Additionally, for 25 years he has been leading workshops in cross-cultural leadership on a remote island in Northern Ontario. Baum has a doctorate in organizational psychology from Temple University and a second doctorate in ministry from UCS. Previously, he worked his way through graduate school as a clown with Ringling Brothers and Barnum Bailey circus. Thus, David is one of the few people to teach at two of the top ten business schools in the world (Wharton and the Richard Ivey School) with a background in fire eating, juggling, and magic. Teaches The Reinvention of Work: Business as an Adventure in Human Development.

Dorsey O. Blake
A.B., Sociology, Brown University, 1968
M.A., Urban Black Studies, Pacific School of Religion and the Center for Urban-Black Studies, 1971
M.Div., Pacific School of Religion, 1971
D.Min. , United Theological Seminary, 1996
Rev. Dorsey Blake is the Pastor of the Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples, San Francisco. He was the first full-time Black male professor at the University of Alabama from 1972-77. He has extensive field ministry experience and work with Interfaith groups on justice and peace issues. Dorsey is founding co-director of the Doctor of Ministry program at the University of Creation Spirituality. Teaches Gandhi and King: Search for Non-Violence and Social Justice and Contemporary Mystic: Howard Thurman; Urban Spirituality; Afrocentric Spirituality.

Daniel Buford
Certificate of License to Preach, University of Cincinnati, Evening College, 1974
Ordination by Pastor’s Council, Temple Bible College, 1977
Adult Education Credential, Communication/Arts and Crafts, State of California
Rev. Daniel Buford is an ordained minister and professional sculptor. He has done graduate studies in African-American History and Linguistics at Xavier University, Union For Experimenting Colleges and Universities Graduate Program, Cincinnati, Ohio. He has been on the faculty at San Bruno Jail, Milpitas School District, Xavier University and a visiting lecturer at the University of Cincinnati and New College in San Francisco. His work has been exhibited widely and he has taught incarcerated men and women for several years designing a curriculum in basic drawing and clay and wood sculpture. Daniel has also conducted numerous workshops on racism. He is dedicated to justice, peace and the empowerment of the disinherited. Teaches Sculpture as Meditation.

Diane Berke - Website
M.A. Sociology, University of Pennsylvania, 1974
M.S. Psychology, Yale University, 1976
Ph.D. Therapeutic Counseling, Open International University for Complementary Medicines, 2002
Rev. Diane Berke, Ph.D., is the Co-Founder and Spiritual Director of One Spirit Learning Alliance and One Spirit Interfaith Seminary. A psychotherapist and spiritual counselor in private practice for almost 30 years, Diane is a Diplomate of the American Psychotherapy Association and a workshop leader on spiritual development throughout the United States and England. Ordained as an Interfaith minister in 1988, she is a recognized pioneer and leader in Interfaith ministry education. Diane is the author of two books on the spiritual path, Love Always Answers and The Gentle Smile, as well as four spiritual reference manuals: Developing and Deepening Your Spiritual Practice: An Interspiritual Perspective; Interfaith Minister's Training and Reference Manual; Understanding Ourselves and Others: Basic Psychological Concepts for Ministers; and Forgiveness as a Path of Awakening. She is currently completing work on All Things Are Lessons: Essential Teachings of A Course in Miracles." Teaches: Love in an Age of terror: The Inner Work of Sacred Activism; Deepening Spiritual Practice: An Interspiritual Perspective.

C.Y. Kaleo Ching - Website
B.F.A., University of Hawaii, 1977.
M.A., University of New Mexico, 1981
Lithography Printer Certificate, Tamarind Institute, 1982
Kaleo Ching is a professional studio artist, Certified Accupressurist, T’ai Chi practitioner (25 years), author, and teacher integrating artistic creativity and spirituality. Kaleo teaches the healing process of Chi Gung, T’ai Chi and Creativity at various universities in the Bay Area and national and international conferences. He has exhibited his art extensively nationally. His private bodywork practice integrates Lomilomi massage, acupressure and guided imagery for a deeper process. He and his wife Elise, coauthored their book Tao of Creativity. Teaches: Tai Chi and the Creative Process, Animal Totems; Faces of the Soul: Mask Making’ and Chi Gung and Mask Making.

Kokomon Clottey
Eminence in Field:
Interpreter of the Ga-Adagbe tribe’s wisdom and rituals, storyteller, record producer, author and teacher.
Kokomon Clottey was born to the Ga-Adagbe trie in Accra, the capital of Ghana in West Africa. The Ga society is rich with ancient codes of conduct, deep spiritual beliefs, and awesome rituals of power. Kokomon is an interpreter of this Indigenous African tribe’s wisdom and rituals Co-author with his wife Aeeshah Ababio-Clottey of Beyond Fear: Twelve Spiritual Keys to Racial Healing. Teaches Mindful Drumming: Ancient Wisdom for Unleashing the Human Spirit.

Deidre Combs
B.A., University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1985.
M.A., George Washington University, 1989
D.Min., University of Creation Spirituality, 2003.
Deidre Combs began studying alternative approaches to conflict over fifteen years ago as a corporate facilitator. Trained in advance transformative mediation and cross-cultural conflict skills, Deidre mediates in private practice and for the US Forest Service and Postal Service. She has taught the Elements of Conflict philosophy across the U.S. in education, corporate and non-profit organizations and to the general public. Deidre is currently completing a book on conflict skills found across indigenous and religious cultures and in the Contemporary science. Teaches The Elements of Conflict: Finding Joy and Transformation in Life’s Challenges and Changes and Everyday Warriors: Learning From Our Opponents and Those Who Drive Us Crazy.

Adriana Diaz
B.A. in Art California State University, Hayward, 1968
California State Elementary Teaching Credential 1969
California State University, Hayward
Graduate study in Analytical Psychology,k 1972-73
C.G. Jung Institute, Zurich, Switerland
M.A., Culture and Spirituality, Holy Names College, 1984
Adriana Díaz is an exhibiting artist, published writer, accomplished dancer and a Creative Life Coach. She is the author of Freeing the Creative Spirit, Drawing on the Power of Art to Tap the Magic and Wisdom Within (HarperSan Francisco, 1992). She has a Master’s Degree in Culture and Creation Spirituality, has taught at UCS &before that ICCS since 1984. She has taught Creative Meditation in three languages around the world. Teaches Painting as Creative Meditation; Creative Dialogs: Painting the Arenas of the Self; Painting to Free the Creative Spirit; “Yes, and…,” The Creative Improvisation of Life into Art; and Arts and Contemplative Prayer.

Neil Douglas-Klotz
M.A. Somatic Psychology
Ph.D., Religious Studies and Psychology
Neil Douglas-Klotz holds a Ph.D. in religious studies and psychology and an M.A. in somatic psychology. He is an independent scholar with a background in hermeneutics, Middle Eastern languages, and sacred movement. He is the author of the books Prayers of the Cosmos, Desert Wisdom and The Hidden Gospel. He serves as co-chair of the Mysticism Group of the American Academy of Religion. He currently lives in Edinburgh, Scotland and co-directs the Edinburgh Institute for Advanced Learning.
Teaches Hidden Gospel: Decoding the Spiritual Message of the Aramaic Jesus; The Aramaic Lord’s Prayer: Body Prayer, Chant and Dance; Genesis Now! Creation Mysticism and Mystical Practice in Early Judaism, Christianity and Islam; Original Healing: The Aramaic Beatitude in Body Prayer, Chant and Dance; and Sufi Meditation and Movement.

Russill Paul D’Silva - Website
Eminence in field:
College of Technology and Engineering, Madras, India, 1984.
Kalai Kaveri Institute of the Arts, Piruchy, India
For the past decade, Russill Paul has taught in graduate spirituality programs and also presented his work at prominent educational institutions widely across North America and internationally. He is recognized nationwide as a forerunner in understanding and applying sonic mysticism from the Indian tradition of yoga. A student of the Benedictine sage, the late Dom Bede Griffiths, Russill lived as a monk under his direction at a monastery in South India, studying Sanskrit, Indian Classical music and Indian spirituality in the vibrant temple cities of Tamilnadu. A prolific recording artist, he has produced several acclaimed albums of yoga music and chant including The Yoga of Sound, a 3-CD audio program. He is also the author of The Yoga of Sound: The Healing Power of Chant and Mantra. Teaches: Journeying with the Chakras; The Yoga of Sound, Hinduism and Music as Healing: Yoga, Meditation and Ritual and Arts of Contemplative Prayer..

Mara Freeman
B.A. Bristol University, 1972.
M.A. Lodon University, 1974
Chapman University, 1992.
Mara Freeman British author and storyteller, is a keeper of the ancient Celtic Spirit. Her life is dedicated to reweaving the ancestral traditions of the British Isles and Ireland for today’s world. She is the Honorary Chief Bard in the international Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, and an Archdruidess in the Druid Clan of Dana. She has led workshops internationally for 15 years and is also a psychotherapist and seer who carries on the Celtic tradition of anamcara, or soul-guidance work at The Chalice Center, Carmel, California. She is author of Kindling the Celtic Spirit: Ancient Traditions to Illumine your Life through the Seasons, (Harper SanFrancisco, January, 2001). Teaches Celtic Spirituality and A Celtic Experience.

Duncan Grady
Dr. Min., University of Creation Spiritualilty, 2004.
Eminence in field:
Studied and experienced Native teaching and ceremony for many years.
Approved by elders
Duncan Grady has studied and experienced Native teaching and ceremony for many years. He was raised in the Siksika/Sac Blackfeet tradition. He plays the native flute and does storytelling. He uses various ceremonies/ rituals taught by his people to bring spiritual concepts into direct experience. Duncan is a Shambhala/Tibetan Buddhist practitioner and incorporates elements of the Tibetan Bon tradition into his life and teachings. He has taught in North America and Europe. He currently teaches at a college in British Columbia, Canada and works as a psychotherapist and hospice trainer using western and non-western approaches to health, well-being, dying and death.
Teaches Native American Mysticism

Jacqueline B. Hairston
B.A., Music, Howard University, 1954.
M.A., Music, Columbia University, 1959.
Jackie Hairston is an accomplished painst/composer and illustrator of the sacred/secular connection in music. Jackie is former head of the music department at Merritt College, Oakland, California. Jackie is an internationally known composer and arranger of Gospel, jazz and Broadway show tunes. She received a Certificate of Honor from the San Francisco Board of Supervisors for her of Supervisors for her work with youth. Teaches: Spiritual World of Gospel Music; Healing the Soul With and Through Music and African American Sacred Music..

Jennifer Hereth
B.FA., Art Institute of Chicago
M.FA., Art Institute of Chicago
Jennifer Hereth has taught painting at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago for 17 years. She is currently head of the Painting Department at the College of DuPage and Visiting Lecturer at Dominican University in Chicago. Jennifer has had several museum exhibitions in this hemisphere.. She received a three-year Kellogg Foundation Grant for studies between North ad South America during which time she did several public art projects in Brazil. In 1999 she was named one of “100 Women in Chicago Making a Difference”. In 2000 Jennifer won the outstanding volunteer award from the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless for a program where her painting students illustrated the poems of homeless poets and gifted 200 paintings to the poets in this shelter project. Teaches Tapates: Central American Earth Mosaics and Altaring Your Life with the Black Madonna.

Deborah Koff-Chapin
BFA, Cooper Union, 1974
Eminence inf field:
Founder of The Center for Touch Drawing, spanning therapeutic, educational and spiritual practices.
Deborah Koff-Chapin is an artist, vocalist, author, teacher and publisher. She is the developer of a process called Touch Drawing. She has taught this process at such places as the California Institute of Integral Studies, Antioch University, the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, the Institute for Culture and Creation Spirituality, and the annual conferences of the American Association for Transpersonal Psychology, American Expressive Therapy Association and the Association for Humanistic Psychology. She is the creator and publisher of SOULCARDS and Drawing Out Your Soul: The Touch Drawing Handbook (1996), and has also produced multi-media educational tools. Deborah is founder of The Center for Touch Drawing, a networking point for the dissemination of Touch Drawing into various fields of endeavor. Teaches: A Drawing Out of Our Soul: An Experience of Touch Drawing.

Robert Kramer
Ph.D. George Washington University, Management. Robert Kramer is Assistant Professor of Public Administration at American University and serves as a coach on emotional intelligence to executives in Fortune 500 companies, non-profit organizations and the Federal government. Before joining the faculty at AU, he worked for twenty-five years as a research analyst and an organization development (OD) practitioner. During the Clinton Administration, he became a founding member of the U.S. government’s Cultural Change Consortium, a part of former Vice-President Gore’s National Partnership for Reinventing Government (NPR). In 1999 he was a Fulbright professor in Budapest, Hungary, teaching courses in Leadership and OD and consulting to the Hungarian government. His publications include but are not limited to: “Carl Rogers Meets Otto Rank: The Discovery of Relationship” and “A Psychology of Difference: The American Lectures of Otto Rank.” Teaches: Beyond Psychology: Otto Rank and Creation Spirituality and Reinvention of Work.

Genevieve Lim
Graduate of Michele Clark Fellowship Program in Journalism, Columbia University, 1974
B.A., English, San Francisco Statue University
M.A., English, San Francisco State University,
Genny Lim is a poet, playwright, performer and educator. She has been featured on television documentaries, including The United States of Poetry, San Francisco, Chainatorwn and Pins and Noodles on PBS. Her play, Paper Angels, featured on American Playhouse, received the James Wong Howe and Village Awards in 1985. She teaches Ritual Theatre, Performance Poetry; and Buddhism in the Humanities Program at New College of California. Lim was a former commissioner of the San Francisco Art Commission and serves on the mayor’s new Poet Laureate Committee. Teaches Creative Writing as Mediation.

Michael Mansfield
B.A., Philosophy and Letters St. Louis University, 1982.
M.Div., Graduate Theological Union, 1988.
Post-graduate Diploma in Theatre Arts, 1993
Arts Educational Schools, London
D.Min. University of Creation Spirituality, 2001.
Michael Mansfield has been teaching dance, ritual, theater, spirituality, and justice-making for 23 years. His interest is in the intersection of education, worship, and performance. He has taught at graduate theological schools in the Bay Area for the last 17 years. He continues to teach dance and theater to grade schools, high schools, and colleges, as well as working as an administrator at the University of California at Berkeley in the Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies Department. He preaches, teaches, and speaks nationally on the importance of bringing forward the wisdom of our bodies through the arts, faith, and justice. He has been on the faculty at UCS since 1994. He has a kinesthetic bias. Teaches: Dancing the Sacred Texts; Body Prayers for the Soul of the Community; Loving Otherness: Differing Sexual Mysticism and Activism; How They Love One Another: Creation-Centered Sexuality; and Dancing with Sexuality.

Mari Marks Fleming
B.F.A., George Washington University
M.A. Art Therapy, George Washington University
Postgraduate training in object relations and family systems. Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital
Mari has over 25 years experience teaching, supervising, developing, and providing services in art therapy treatment programs in residential, medical and psychiatric facilities. She has published and presented extensively and is an exhibiting artist incorporating themes of nature, healing/regeneration, loss and eating disorders. She is a practicing Buddhist and is a member of the SGI, Nichiren Daishonen Buddhism.

Katherine McIver
Katherine McIver
BA, University of Michigan, 1966
M.A., Institute of Culture and Creation Spirituality, Holy Names College, 1993
M.A., Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, 2000
Ph.D., Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, 2001

Kat is a ceramic artist, registered expressive arts therapist/educator, and spiritual counselor. Grounded in her personal transformation through art and her doctoral research, the process she's developed of giving the body space to speak allows the wisdom of the soul to be heard. Kat invites you to join in the deep insightful process of discovering the joy and power that comes with the embodiment of life force energy through art, movement, and meditation.
Kat is currently a Faculty Mentor for the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology's Global Program, and Adjunct Faculty at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, in the residential program, as well as at Wisdom University and Naropa. She has also taught at The Interfaith Seminary, Hesychia School for Spiritual Direction and Prescott College in Arizona. She now lives in Sausalito, and offers workshops, private sessions and open studio on her houseboat. She has exhibited her clay sculptures in New Zealand, Minnesota, and California, (Palo Alto, Santa Cruz, Sausalito and Napa).

Rolf Osterberg
J.D. University of Stockholm
Rolf Osterberg is an executive and senior management consultant, an author and lecturer, and has worked developing innovative management philosophy and practices. He is the former CEO of Svensk Filmindustri, Scandinavia’s largest film company and former president of the Swedish Newspapers Association, and has served on the Board of 20. He is the author or co-author of several books including Search for Meaning in the Work Place, and Corporate Renaissance. Teaches Reinvention of Work: Business as an Adventure in Human Development.

John Jerry-Anthony Parente
B.A. Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, New York
M.A. St. John’s University, Queens, New York, 1974.
D.Min. University of Creation Spirituality, Oakland, CA, 2001.
John Parente holds degrees in art, theology and spirituality. John has long been involved in the relationship between art and spirituality, curating national exhibits on this topic. He has been a college professor for fifteen years in both the Religious Studies and Fine Arts Depts., coordinated a creative Campus Ministry Program and been a professional artist-painter for 23 years. John's art is in the permanent collections of religious and educational institutions as well as museums and numerous private collections around the world. John has a long term relationship with creation spirituality, devoting a significant portion of his Master's thesis to it, being Matt Fox's Graduate Assistant for the original year of the institute in the 1970's, creating and teaching college curriculum in this area in the 1980' & 90's, graduating from and serving as Co-Director of the D.Min. program in the 2000's, and continuing on the faculty of UCS and Naropa University, Oakland..Teaches: Art as Personal Exploration and Mystic Empowerment, World Mysticsm and The Contemplative Life.

Robert Rice
B.F.A., Studio Art, Kent State University, 1958
M.A., Fine Arts, Kent State University, 1961
M.A., Expressive Arts Therapy, University of Louisville, 1979
Robert Rice has conducted workshops in movement for over 25 years throughout the United States and abroad. He has been on the faculties of the Institute in Culture and Creation Spirituality, and J.F.K. University in the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition to his focus in dance for spiritual direction, he is a visual artist and expressive arts therapist. Teaches Moving Toward Stillness.

Bruce Silverman - Website
B.A., History, Washington University, 1968.
M.A., Transpersonal Counseling Psychology, John F. Kennedy University, 1973
Bruce Silverman is a practitioner of Afro-Cuban/Haitian, and Brazilian drumming, North Indian Classical music/drumming and is a performer with Batucaje, a Brazilian Folkloric Ensemble, and co-founder and Director of the Performance Troupe, Sons and Daughters of Orpheus. Teaches Body Prayer, From Drum Time, to Dream Time, and Men’s Rites of Passage.

Linda Sommers
Alaya Training Certification
M.A., Counseling Psychology, Antioch University
Linda Sommers holds a Masters degree in Counseling Psychology form Antioch University. She also holds Alaya Training Certification. Linda has had 12 years of Buddhist study and practice and is fluent in the Tibetan language. Among her many accomplishments are six years of teaching Tibetan Buddhist mediation practice and doing dream and fairly tale interpretation at the Rudolph Steiner College. She has authored a book, The Princess Who Wept Pearls: A Parents’ Guidebook to the Feminine Prinicple in Fairly Tales. Teaches Introduction to the Tibetan Buddhist Tantric Path.

VISITING FACULTY & LECTURERS

The visiting faculty and lecturers of Wisdom University are individuals who teach occasionally.

Paula Artac
B.A. California State University, Northridge
M.A., College of Notre Dame
D.Min., University of Creation Spirituality
Paula Artac, D. Min. is a professional watercolor artist, business owner, art therapist, researcher and art instructor. Her paintings have won both local and national recognition. As an art therapist, she has developed her Colors of Life (R) art and wellness program. She has presented numerous experiential workshops and papers on a cosmological approach to creativity, spirituality and wellness at regional and national conferences. Paula facilitates spirituality-based art and wellness retreats as well as creative wellness groups in Arizona and California in addition to teaching watercolor painting. She has recently completed a one year assignment as “Artist In Residence 2002/03” for the First United Methodist Church of Palo Alto, providing original liturgical art for their worship sanctuary. Teaches Working Grace: The Profit of Creativity in Business and Working Grace: Coloring Outside the Lines.

Susan Bello
Ph.D., Psychology of Art and Expressive Therapy, The Union Institute
Ever since my spiritual studies in India (1970-1973), Susan Bello has been interested in discovering the latent potentials of the human mind and how to access them. During the past 34 years she has lived in several cultures (Brazil for 15 years, Indonesia and Bali for 3 years, Singapore for 3 years) and traveled throughout Europe, Japan and the United States searching for methods that developed human potential and higher dimensions of consciousness. In her doctoral work at The Union Institute in the Psychology of Art and Expressive Therapy, she integrated the most effective methods from this long study and research and created the Spontaneous Painting Method (sm). Since 1989 Susan has been teaching it to various populations, in large and small groups, at learning centers and universities around the world. Teaches Painting the Soul: The Spontaneous Painting Method.

Peter Kingsley
B.A., University of Lancaster
Master of Letters, King’s College Cambridge
Ph.D., University of London
Peter Kingsley is internationally recognized for his groundbreaking work on the origins of western spirituality, philosophy, and culture. He lectures very widely—speaking to Native American elders and physicists, professional scholars and followers of different spiritual traditions, healers and medical practitioners. He holds a B.A. from the University of Lancaster, a Master of Letters from King’s College Cambridge and a Ph.D. from the University of London. The recipient of many academic awards, he was a Fellow at the Warburg Institute in London and has been made an honorary Professor both at Simon Fraser University in Canada and at the University of New Mexico. With his wife, he emigrated from England to Canada in 1995, then from Canada to the United States in 2002. He is the author of three books; Reality, In the Dark Places of Wisdom, and Ancient Philosophy, Mystery and Magic; Empedocles and Pythagorean Tradition. Teaches: Primordial Wisdom.

Will Taegel
D.Min., Graduate Theological Union
Will Taegel has been a practicing psychotherapist for more than 30 years. He has published numerous professional articles and is the author of seven books, including his latest, Natural Mystics. He has been a mentor/teacher for doctoral students at Baylor College of Medicine, The University of Texas College of Medicine, The Fielding Institute and The California Institute of Integral Studies. He is the co-founder, with Judith Yost, of a nature-based integral-practice spiritual community. His Native American heritage has inspired his deep commitment to the Earth and to the spiritual gifts of Nature. Teaches Natural Mystics: The Eight Step Spiral Path and Practices of the Natural Mystic.(co-taught with Judith Yost)

Cynthia Winton-Henry
Eminenc in field: Developer of the Interplay practice and philosophy, co-director of the non-profit organization Body Wisdom, Inc., philosopher, speaker, teacher, and performer
Cynthia Winton-Henry co-founded InterPlay with Phil Porter through a 25 year collaboration. Co-author of What the Body Wants and Having It All: Body Mind Heart and Spirit Together Again At Last, she has taught at the Sophia Center, the Institute for Transpersonal Psychology and at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California. She helps lead the InterPlay Leadership Program and a movement active in over 40 cities around the world being used in diverse professions as a consistently reliable multicultural, interfaith, and intergenerational process with applications for communication, community building, and personal development. What the Body Wants.

Judith Yost
M.S.W., University of Houston
D.Min., University of Creation Spirituality
Judith Yost has been a psychotherapist and counselor for 26 years. She is a faculty Field Instructor for the Graduate School of Social Work at the University of Houston. With her spouse, Will Taegel, she founded a nature-based spiritual community called the Earth Tribe in the late 1970’s. Her work with this community is her greatest inspiration for the spiritual journey, and for her contribution to the evolution of the sacred web of life. Teaches Natural Mystics: The Eight Step Spiral Path and Practices of the Natural Mystic (co-taught with Will Taegel).

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