Skip Andrew
A retired lawyer and national business owner, Skip has always believed that the key to mobilizing and sensitizing people to care about the world's challenges is to help them understand the impact of policies on children. He's still wrestling with the inner child inside himself and occasionally trips over himself in the process. He lives in Ashland, OR
Suzanne Arms is an internationally acclaimed author, photojournalist, visionary, and activist, and has been an acknowledged leader of the international birthing movement for over 25 years. Her 1975 book Immaculate Deception: A New Look at Women and Childbirth fueled a national movement and was named a New York Times "Best Book of the Year."
In 1995 she has received the prestigious Lamaze International Lifetime Achievement Award for her outstanding contributions to the world of birth. She founded does her work through Birthing the Future, based near Durango, Colorado
Together with John Travis and Meryn Callander, she co-founded aTLC and first envisioned the aTLC summit.
Jan Ballard
My passion in life is the re-weaving of the social fabric through enduring relationships of mutual trust, productivity and joy. I have chosen a service mission creating environments in which everyone gives their gifts, and people join together in great works. See www.commons.org.
My focus is building a support system for highly effective business people, and applying transparency and accountability to the issues of our time--making accounting data useful for creating great business results, working with accountants, business owners and management teams. Fundamental business and financial literacy is the leverage for business and civil leaders who aspire to do great work. See www.financialdashboard.com.
My other current passion building 'webs of trust' by applying place-based economics to my community in Sebastopol, CA, and in the greater Bay Area. I have been learning from a heroic woman, Catherine Austin Fitts, who has been in service to every citizen in her efforts to bring transparency, accountability and the best use of our tax dollars to fulfill the public trust we have placed in our government. See www.solari.com.
Paul Brenner, MD, PhD
A former chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Scripps Memorial Hospital, Dr. Brenner is one of the founders of the holistic medicine movement and was the moderator of the PBS Series "Healing Through Communication." Dr. Brenner's book, A Shared Creation, Saybrook Publishers, (1988), was selected by the eminent psychologist, Dr. Rollo May for the Mind Age Series. His new book, Seeing Your Life Through New Eyes, Beyond Words Publications, was released in October 2000.
Dr. Brenner is an instructor in the Social Behavioral Studies at theUniversity of California, San Diego School of Medicine. He also holds a doctorate in Counseling Psychology and is the creator of The Family Triangle Process. This visual, psychological process identifies unconscious patterns that are transmitted from generation to generation. It is ideally suited for prenatal counseling.
Raymond Castellino, DC The birth of my son 30+ years ago, captivated and changed me. His hospital birth experience propelled me to look for holistic approaches to health, which led to my becoming a polarity therapist, and then a chiropractor. I soon found that craniosacral, polarity, and chiropractic techniques would often allow babies to put themselves in positions and movement patterns that appeared to have been imprinted during birth, i.e., they could tell me stories about their formative experiences.
As the co-founder of BEBA (Building and Enhancing Bonding and Attachment): a non-profit research center for family healing in Santa Barbara, I am devoted to supporting families to resolve early physical and emotional traumatic imprints. I also direct the Castellino Prenatal and Birth Therapy Training, for health care professionals and am a faculty member of Santa Barbara Graduate Institute.I have dedicated my professional life to helping prenates, birthing babies, infants, and children start their lives as joyfully and health-fully as possible.
Susan M. Campbell, PhD, is a best-selling author and internationally-respected expert on change and conflict management. An individual and couples counselor and a consultant to leaders of small businesses and Fortune 500 companies for 32 years, she has also been a frequent guest lecturer at the Harvard, UCLA, and Stanford business schools and has appeared on CNN's NewsNight and Good Morning America.
She is author of six books (e.g., Beyond the Power Struggle, The Couple's Journey, From Chaos to Confidence: Survival Strategies for the New Workplace, and Getting Real) as well as a number of commercially-produced audio and video tape programs on communication, conflict resolution, interpersonal relationships, and organizational change. She also offers coaching and classes in the methods of Getting Real.
An avid adventurer and proponent of "living your life out loud," she has made and lost a million dollars twice and spent two years sailing her 47-foot sailboat halfway around the world.
Barbara Findeisen has been a practicing psychotherapist since the early seventies. Concern and compassion for her clients' pain motivated her to search deeply for root causes of their dysfunction. Much to her surprise, the search took her to patterns that began in the womb, during birth, and in infancy. Pre- and perinatal traumas create imprints which color later development on all levels: psychological, social, and physical. Current research supports what she has been observing during thousands of therapy hours with her clients. The body/mind connection, which is too often ignored in traditional psychology, must not be neglected, since problems are reflected on both levels. The best therapeutic approach deals with both. Nowhere is this more evident than in early physical development, where, unfortunately, the psychological is generally denied.
Barbara has pioneered therapeutic methods of uncovering and healing these primitive imprints. She brings with her exciting information, the latest research, and moving personal experiences that weave together the inclusive view of therapy of the body, the mind, and the spirit.
She is founder and president of the Star Foundation and president of the Association for Pre- and Perinatal Psychology and Health. One of the leading therapists in the area of pre- and perinatal psychology, Barbara produced "Journey to be Born," a documentary video that explores pre-and perinatal psychology, based on her groundbreaking research and clinical work.
Isabelle Fox, PhD
- Degrees from Radcliffe College and University of California Los Angeles.
- Clinical Psychotherapist specializing in child development for over 30 years.
- Western Psychological Center, Encino, California--Associate.
- Senior Mental Health Consultant for Operation Head Start (1965-75).
- Publications: Being There, From Diapers to Diplomas (1991)-(Childrearing from Infancy to College) Goodbye Diapers, Goodbye Bottle, Goodbye Blanket (1961).
- Husband, 3 children, 7 grandchildren.
- Stay-at-home parent for 10 years.
Marti Glenn, PhD, is founding president of Santa Barbara Graduate Institute, which offers the first graduate degrees in Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and the first doctoral degrees in Somatic Psychology. Marti is a professor of counseling psychology as well as a pioneering psychotherapist. For over 25 years she has developed innovative methods and programs for the treatment of early trauma focusing on the relationship as healing agent. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Association for Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health, Chair of their past two International Congresses and Co-chair of the 2003 Congress.
Barbara Harper, RN, founder and director of Global Maternal/Child Health Association, has been researching and documenting waterbirth and gentle birth since 1983. The Oregonian newspaper referred to her as "the Billy Graham of waterbirth." She authored Gentle Birth Choices, the book, in 1994, and the video in 1993. She produced "Birth Into Being: The Russian Waterbirth Experience" video in 2000, after many trips to Russia during the previous 15 years.
Her passion has been to use Waterbirth International as a platform from which to teach, empower and nurture pregnant women and their families, as well as practitioners who want to change their approach to childbirth. Barbara has dedicated her life to helping heal the way we welcome babies into the world. The mother of three, two born at home in water, she makes her home in a suburb of Portland, where she is active in her church and community.
Sharron Smith Humenick, PhD, MPH, RN
aTLC is close to my heart because as a public health nurse, a school nurse, and educator in childbirth and nursing I am particularly interested in promoting wellness among childbearing women and young children.
I am Chairperson of the Maternal Child Nursing Dept. at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Nursing as well as emeritus professor from the U. of Wyoming. My teaching at VCU is primarily about research methods where my students have provided most of the evidence links in the aTLC Blueprint.
I sit on the Governing Board of Lamaze International and the International Board of Lactation Consultant Examiners as well as edit the Journal of Perinatal Education. Books include: Childbirth Education: Practice, Theory and Research; Analysis of Current Assessment Strategies in the Health Care of Young Children and Childbearing Families; and Adolescent Pregnancy: Nursing Perspectives on Prevention
David Isaacs is President of Clearing Communications, an organizational and communications strategy company working with corporate leaders in the US and abroad. David was a co-convener of the MIT Organizational Learning Center's Strategic Dialogue on Large Scale Systems Change in collaboration with an Intel executive, and has worked with a wide range of clients including Chevron, Cargill, Hewlett Packard, Scandinavian Airlines Systems (SAS), Silicon Graphics (SGI), and Lego (Denmark). He has served as guest faculty for innovative learning programs with the University of Texas Business School (Executive MBA), the California Institute of Integral Studies (Leadership Coaching), and the Kaos Pilots University (Denmark/USA). He co-authored with partner Juanita Brown, the World Café Resource Guide and Café To Go
Mary Jackson has been a homebirth midwife for over 28 years providing prenatal care, homebirth, postpartum care, waterbirth, prenatal and birth trauma counseling. Co-founder of the Santa Birth Resource Center in l982, Board Member of the National Midwifery Institute, Board Member of the Ojai Birth Resource and Family Center, she is currently and with great excitement interning with Ray Castellino at BEBA Clinic and also in the Castellino's Prenatal and Birth Training.
Mother of two who were born at home, her focus is on attending births in a way that creates less of a need for healing and to assist babies and parents to integrate the prenatal and birth experience in order to strengthen their relationships.
Inbal Kashtan, MA, is the Parenting Project coordinator for the Center for Nonviolent Communication and the co-director of the (San Francisco) Bay Area Center for Nonviolent Communication. CNVC's goal is to contribute to people's ability to create a world where everyone's needs are met peacefully. Inbal's work with the Parenting Project aims to support parents in nurturing the quality of connection and trust with their children that enables all family members to meet their needs.
Inbal facilitates public workshops and retreats as well as trainings in organizations, co-leads an NVC leadership development program and diversity program, and creates curricula for learning NVC. Several of her articles on NVC and parenting have appeared in publications around the country, including in Mothering (January/February 2002). Inbal's greatest teacher for the past four years has been her son, who is mentoring her on what it means to live nonviolently.
Susan Kelly is an independent graphic artist specializing in visual thinking and interactive group graphics as well as process design and materials development.
For the past 18 years, Susan has created stimulating environments that bring out the creativity in individuals and groups. The reflective tools she uses heighten learning and collaboration while they simultaneously provide frameworks for handling complex information. In the process, documentation is created that serves as a thread of information, conversation and decision-making.
She has worked nationally and internationally with a wide spectrum of groups from Fortune 500 companies to governments and non-profit organizations in a broad scope of fields.
Susan has her own company, Occasions by Design, which is based in San Francisco, CA.
Tina Kimmel, MSW, MPH has been a research scientist for California's State Health Department, and is now a lecturer in Sociology at California State University Hayward. She has studied, worked, presented, and published on topics of primal therapy, birth, attachment, circumcision, breastfeeding, vaccination, adoption, and co-sleeping. She has two homebirthed children and a homebirthed grandson. Tina is currently working on her PhD at the University of California Berkeley's School of Social Welfare, with an emphasis on prevention in public policy.
Pam Leo is an independent scholar in human development, parent educator, certified childbirth educator, doula, and grandparent.
After my first child was born in 1972, it became my passion to understand human behavior. I began to study child development, psychology, sociology, and anthropology. I wanted to learn why we are each born a tiny innocent being and some grow up to be Mother Teresa and others Ted Bundy. While raising two daughters, I supported us as a family child care provider for children ages 2-10, 50 hours a week, for 22 years. During that time I homeschooled my daughters and continued my own independent study of human development.
Since 1989 I have taught to the general public, and in the prison system, a series of classes: "Meeting the Needs of Children."
Wendy Anne McCarty, PhD, is co-creator and Founding Chair of the Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology Program at Santa Barbara Graduate Institute. She has worked with families for 25 years as an obstetrical nurse, childbirth educator, prenatal and birth consultant and coach. She has been involved in consciousness studies for over two decades. Her work with families and professionals comes from a rich synergy of traditional and innovative foundations that integrate mind-body-spirit.
She conducts seminars, provides private and group consultations and coaching for prenatal and perinatal issues, and supports families during the prenatal and perinatal period.
Michael Mendizza
Michael is a documentary filmmaker and founder of Touch the Future, a nonprofit learning design center. In collaboration with Joseph Chilton Pearce, Michael developed a performance and learning model that optimizes the adult child relationship. Athletes call this Optimum Learning Relationship "The Zone," researchers call it "Flow," and children call it "play." In Optimum Learning Relationships the adult-child dynamic is approached as a spontaneous, creative act. Formulas, rewards and punishments are replaced by creative intelligence and insight. Learning and development is shared, awakening new levels of sensitivity in both children and adults.
Touch the Future is developing projects that cultivate Optimum Learning Relationships between adults and children including: Nurturing the Early Child, Family & Caregiver, targeting communities serving children zero to five, United We Play focusing on amateur athletics and Science, Story & Creativity, a PBS project which, explores development of critical and creative skills and the future workforce.
Marilyn Fayre Milos, RN, is the founder and executive director of the National Organization of Circumcision Information Resources Centers (NOCIRC). She has organized seven international symposia on circumcision, sexual mutilations, and genital integrity, and is co-editor of the proceedings of the fourth, fifth, and sixth symposia, published as Sexual Mutilations: A Human Tragedy, edited by George C. Denniston and Marilyn Fayre Milos (1997); Male and Female Circumcision: Medical, Legal and Ethical Considerations in Pediatric Practice, edited by George C. Denniston, Frederick Mansfield Hodges, and Marilyn Fayre Milos (1999); and Understanding Circumcision: A Multi-Disciplinary Approach to a Multi-Dimensional Problem, edited by George C. Denniston, Frederick Mansfield Hodges, and Marilyn Fayre Milos (2001).
She has dedicated her life to securing the birthright of male, female, and intersex infants and children to keep their body intact.
Janet Morrow
Prior to retirement 7 years ago, I spent my entire adult life in the non-profit world as a volunteer, professional, and member of various boards of directors. I created and ran for 14 yrs, TRUST, Inc, a policy think-tank for reshaping urban systems. TRUST was given numerous awards for being one of the most influential catalyst organizations in the Chicago area, bringing together many agencies and non-profits for cross fertilization and cooperative problem-solving. It was also responsible for passing a number of bills in the Illinois state legislature, as well as a constitutional amendment.
My interest in aTLC stems from having four grandchildren plus a background in Pathwork Counselor training, a body-centered spiritual path that acknowledges the importance of dealing with childhood wounding. I am married, and divide my time between Big Fork, MT and Glenview, IL.
Kimeli Willson Naiyomah
Kimeli is a 26-year-old Masai Junior Elder from Kenya. Being the youngest of 4 boys born to a single mother without a father, land, or a family home, made Kimeli's early years quite difficult. From an early age, he had a hunger for learning and at age 5 ran away from his mother daily to a listen to lessons being taught under a tree by church missionaries. From an early age, Kimeli wanted to be a doctor, and well-wishers from his village paid for him to attend high school. A front page Washington Post article in May, l996 entitled, "It Takes a Village to Make a Doctor," led to scholarships at the University of Oregon and Stanford University where he will graduate in June with a pre-med degree. After becoming a doctor Kimeli plans to return to Kenya and build a hospital for his people. Kimeli has already bought land and built a home for his family, built a school under the tree where he first began his studies, and started a project to bring clean water to his village. After the September 11th attack, Kimeli was instrumental in the Masai's compassionate donation of 14 cows to the people of America. Kimeli has written 2 children's books; Random House plans to publish Kimeli's autobiography; and Hollywood is making a movie of this young man's amazing life.
Scott Noelle is the editor of the Liedloff Continuum Network website, a resource devoted to spreading the message of Jean Liedloff's acclaimed book, The Continuum Concept (published in more than a dozen languages and soon available in Chinese). A classic for over 25 years, several hundred thousand parents and natural nurturing advocates have been influenced and inspired by Liedloff's ideas, including Ashley Montagu, William Sears and the founders of aTLC.
Scott is also developing an Internet-based project, called NurtureNet, will provide a variety of online services designed for visionary parents and natural nurturing advocates. Scheduled to launch in April, 2003, NurtureNet will actively support and promote the natural nurturing movement, as well as organizations like aTLC and its Affiliates.
He and his wife Beth have two daughters, both born at home, who will be ages six and two this spring (2003).
Michel Odent, MD, has been instrumental in influencing childbirth practices and health research.
As a practitioner, he developed the maternity unit at Pithiviers Hospital in France in the 1960s and '70s and introduced the concept of birthing pools and home-like birthing rooms. His approach has been featured in eminent medical journals such as Lancet, and in documentaries such as the BBC film Birth Reborn. After his hospital career he practiced home birth.
As a researcher he founded the Primal Health Research Center in London, whose research data bank clearly indicates that health is shaped during the primal period (from conception until the first birthday). It also suggests that the way we are born has long-term consequences in terms of sociability, aggressiveness or, otherwise speaking, capacity to love. His books The Scientification of Love and The Farmer and the Obstetrician raise urgent questions about the future of our civilizations.
Joseph Chilton Pearce is the author of many books including Crack In The Cosmic Egg, and the national best seller The Magical Child. For over thirty years he has written and lectured internationally on human development and the needs of children.
He was a faculty member on child development at the Jung Institute in Switzerland and the Governor of California invited him to address two special legislative planning sessions on the challenges facing children and families.
Recently completed are two books: The Biology of Transcendence: A Blueprint of the Human Spirit, which explores the biological foundation for what we think of as "spiritual" development, and, co-authored with Michael Mendizza, Magical Parent--Magical Child, the Optimum Learning Relationship.
Charlotte Peterson, PhD, has been a practicing psychologist and child therapist in Eugene, Oregon, for the past 27 years where she also served as Senior Clinical Supervisor of School Psychology at the University of Oregon. Charlotte's particular focus is on how parents can promote positive psychological development in their children and prevent emotional wounding. Her work has been described in various international publications.
For the past 30 years, Charlotte and her family have spent an average of 6 months every five years living in over 60 different countries. She has made comparative observations of mother-infant interactions, and parent-child relationships, with a particular interest in parenting practices that appear to result in more compassionate and peace-loving children, teens, and adults.
Charlotte was granted the l988 Mayor's Award for Outstanding Contributions in Leadership for her help in establishing a sister city relationship between Eugene, and Irkutsk, a city in the former Soviet Union.
Kent W. Peterson, MD, FACPM
I am the president of Occupational Health Strategies, which provides strategic planning consultation to large employers, healthcare companies, professional societies, and entrepreneurs, focusing on diverse aspects of employee and workplace health--corporate culture and organizational health, environments safe from physical and ergonomic hazards, health risk assessment, screening and clinical prevention, worker wellness, self-care, health and productivity management, disease management, and health information systems.
As a teacher, I am the director the Wellness Program at the Federal Executive Institute in Charlottesville, Clinical Associate Professor of Environmental Medicine at New York University, and past President of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. I have authored eight books and several hundred articles, chapters, and presentations on subjects far less important than transforming the lives of children.
I strongly believe that secure, well-bonded children can know themselves, their needs, and follow their own guidance whenever we (and cultural institutions, such as schools) allow them to blaze their own paths.
Chief Sonne Reyna is a descendant of the Yaqui-Coahuilteka Nations, Sun Dance Society Peace Chief, an Ambassador for the Natural World who shares ceremonies that re-bond global humanity with Nature, advisor to the San Juan Indian Council, Vietnam War veteran, artist-writer, owner: American Indian Gallery, cofounder: World Cultures Market and California Indian Market (San Juan Bautista, CA), and cofounder: Healing Our World Conference.
He is a graduate in Theology and Communication Arts, University of Texas, Arlington, Texas, and co-founder of Earth's Children Cultural Organization (ECCO), a global association that unifies cultural wisdom to facilitate human consciousness and personal growth. We are the generation of hope that heals our presence in this world for all the children! If not now, when? If not us, who?
He is working on a book: The Global Revolution--Women and Men in Balance with Nature.
Roberta Scaer (information coming)
Sobonfu Some. A renowned, respected teacher and mentor to thousands, Sobonfu Somé is one of the first and foremost voices of African spirituality to come to the West. Somé brings insights and healing gifts from her West African culture to this one. Today, Sobonfu travels the world conducting seminars and workshops that offer her perspective on birth and pregnancy, community, healing, intimacy, rituals, and the sacredness of everyday life.
She is the author of two remarkable books: Welcoming Spirit Home--Ancient Reachings to Celebrate Children and Community and The Spirit of Intimacy--Ancient Teachings in the Ways of Relationships. She is currently finishing her third book Falling Out of Grace. Sobonfu is involved in an ongoing project to provide water to the Dagara villages of West Africa.
Angwynn St. Just is a cultural historian, psychotherapist and somatic educator who specializes in systemic and contextual approaches to trauma. Currently, the director of the Arizona Center for Social Trauma, Anngwyn has traveled widely in Europe and Russia teaching innovative ways of approaching generational trauma with special focus on the issues of Men, Women, and War. Anngwyn has recently joined the faculty of the Bert Hellinger Institute in Zurich, Switzerland.
Stan Tatkin, PsyD, has been a practicing psychotherapist for over 18 years. Through a developmental object relations approach, he has maintained a special interest in the treatment of adolescents and adults with personality disorders. His interests have widened over the years to include the psychobiology of attachment. This led to a natural desire to promulgate the need for early intervention of personality disorders.
In addition to his private practice, he teaches and supervises first-year family medicine residents at Kaiser Permanente, Woodland Hills, and is a past-president of the Ventura County Chapter of California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists. He is an assistant professor at UCLA in the Family Medicine Department and is currently on faculty at Antioch University, Santa Barbara Graduate Institute, and California Lutheran University. He is currently engaged in infant brain development studies under Allan Schore, PhD, and is being mentored in infant mental health by Connie Lillas, PhD.
John W. Travis, MD, MPH, completed a residency in General Preventive Medicine at Johns Hopkins and subsequently founded the first wellness center in the US (Wellness Resource Center, Mill Valley, CA, 1975). He is the author of the Wellness Inventory, the Wellness Workbook, and three other books on wellness.
Since the homebirth (under water) of a curly redhead named Siena in 1993, he and his wife, Meryn Callander have focused on the wellness of infants and young children, creating TheWellspring Online and in 1999, co-founding, with 11 other people, the Alliance for Transforming the Lives of Children. They presently live in Meryn's home state of Victoria, Australia.
John Vasconcellos
State Senator John Vasconcellos represents California's Santa Clara County, the heart of Silicon Valley. He is considered a visionary politician who has helped lead California for thirty years. Currently he is serving his second term in the state Senate. John Vasconcellos promotes a form of politics where the government is committed to a society, which encourages the development of healthy, self-realizing, responsible human beings. He is considered the "conscience of the Legislature," "pragmatic Idealist" and "Johnny Appleseed of Self Esteem" as he believes in "politics for growing humans."
Currently, Senator Vasconcellos is the Chair of the Education Committee where he is committed to the development of policies "where every California child, especially those in most need, is provided an education that is designed explicitly for the purpose of developing the whole person." The Senator challenges his constituencies and colleagues to change education so that it will empower each child to become a lifelong learner.
Barbara Wishingrad has worked as a midwife, childbirth educator, massage therapist, herbalist, translator, and street artist. She is the founder and president of The Rebozo Way, an educational project that teaches about in-arms and attachment parenting in indigenous and modern-day cultures. Barbara left the US to live in southern Mexico in 1983, returning in 1999. She presently lives in Santa Barbara, CA with her two teenage sons, where she studies documentary filmmaking and works with developmentally disabled infants (birth-3) for California Early Start.