Paul Wapner is Professor of Global Environmental Politics at American University. His research focuses on environmental ethics, climate suffering, activism, and contemplative environmentalism. He has published six books and numerous articles. His latest book, Is Wildness Over? (Polity 2020), was chosen by Progressive Magazine as one of its top favorite books of 2020. Paul co-teaches summer workshops on the relationship between spirituality and environmental engagement for Earth-Love-Go (www.earthlovego.org). He also serves on the board of RE-volv, an organization that finances and installs solar energy panels on the roofs of nonprofits.
Dr. Ralina L. Joseph is a scholar, teacher, and facilitator of race and communication. She is Presidential Term Professor of Communication, Director of the Center for Communication, Difference, and Equity, and Associate Dean of Equity and Justice in Graduate Programs at the University of Washington, Seattle. She received her B.A. in American Civilization at Brown University, and M.A. and Ph.D in Ethnic Studies at the University of California, San Diego. Ralina is the author of numerous articles and the three books, Generation Mixed Goes to School (with Allison Briscoe-Smith, 2021), Postracial Resistance: Black Women, Media, and the Uses of Strategic Ambiguity (2018), and Transcending Blackness: From the New Millennium Mulatta to the Exceptional Multiracial (2013). Ralina is currently writing her fourth book, titled Interrupting Privilege.
Megan Kennedy is a Ph.D. student in the College of Education at the University of Washington and the Director of the UW Resilience Lab. As a leader and facilitator, Kennedy aims to build healthy and compassionate learning communities where students, staff, and instructors are thriving. She is developing and evaluating a systems-based approach to well-being that combines applied research, education, and collaborative programming across three University of Washington campuses. This includes supporting and partnering with faculty and academic departments, student health care, student life, and campus-and community-based organizations seeking to deepen their mindful capacity and resilience. Kennedy earned her master’s degree in Applied Behavioral Science from Bastyr University and is a licensed therapist with over a decade of experience in public and private practice.
Nirmal Govindaraju led and conducted professional research on nanomaterials and wide bandgap semiconductors for 13 years in the US before moving to India in 2017 to work on science and math education for low-income children and adults.
Along the way, he has experienced, first-hand, the critical importance of social-emotional well-being for children to learn and thrive. He believes that humans are built to learn “naturally” when provided safe and supporting environments. Also, he has often found that tapping innate intelligence of individuals and communities leads to sustainable change and development. He also has a passion for science and math and is working on demonstrating that students, especially those often branded as “slow” or “poor” learners, are adept at constructing and applying science and math conceptual understanding when given structured and scaffolded learning environments with scope for exploration.
He holds a PhD in materials science and engineering from North Carolina State University, USA.
Yuria Celidwen, PhD, is of Indigenous Nahua and Maya descent from the highlands of Chiapas, Mexico. Her research examines the experience of self-transcendence in Indigenous contemplative traditions wide-reaching, and how its embodiment enhances prosocial behavior towards what she suggests is an “ethics of belonging” (ethics, compassion, kindness, reverence, and a sense of awe, love, and sacredness). This work is grounded in an Earth-based identity to encourage relational well-being, purpose, and actions toward planetary flourishing. Her interdisciplinary approach intersects Indigenous studies, cultural psychology, and contemplative science to bridge Indigenous and Western methodologies for epistemological equity. She emphasizes the reclamation, revitalization, and transmission of Indigenous wisdom and the advancement of the rights of Indigenous Peoples and the rights of Mother Earth. She is a senior fellow at the Other & Belonging Institute of the University of California, Berkeley, where she works toward bridging and belonging, reclaiming spaces for Indigenous wisdom into Western Academia and society. In her professional career at the United Nations her work supports the international humanitarian efforts for the implementation of the Agenda 2030 and its Sustainable Development Goals, with a concentration on the advancement of the rights of Indigenous Peoples and the rights of Nature. She co-chairs the Indigenous Religious Traditions Unit and is a member of the Contemplative Studies Unit steering committee of the American Academy of Religion.
Romuald Adili Amani is an independent researcher, based in Goma, in the eastern North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, who has worked for many local and international organizations such as Pole Institute (Intercultural Institute in the Great Lakes region), International Alert, Concern Worldwide, and Vivo International. Adili has studied philosophy and public health, worked as a counselor for women and girl survivors of rape, and volunteers with helping a group of street children. Apart from his research and community work, Adili founded a tour and travel company called Ubuntu Voyages, which directly resulted from participating in Mind & Life events that supported the African philosophy of Ubuntu. The mission of Ubuntu Voyages is to offer opportunities for people from different cultures and backgrounds to meet and connect, to strengthen and spread the philosophy of Ubuntu through tourism; and to go beyond psychological and geographical barriers between people for common interest of happiness in living and working together for a sustainable development; and finally to promote African values, among them solidarity and hospitality. With living in a region that has experienced cycles of violence for decades, Adili has, for many years already, had to cultivate his own resilience and capacity for compassion through the use of mindfulness techniques, even though it isn’t readily available in the DRC. Currently he is working within his community to implement programs that foster mindfulness and contemplatives practices as inner resources to cope with trauma, and to promote a culture of peace in his community, country and the Great Lakes Region in general.
Indie Folk band Høly River is founded by multi-instrumentalists Laney Sullivan and Jameson Price. Fusing together the pulse of drone pop, worldly instrumentation, this experimental music would best be described as a landscape, as a biome all its own. This musical phenomenon has come to be known as, Earth folk, a type of music inspired thematically by the natural environment: flora, fauna, soil, stars, and the human experience. From harmonium engulfed melodies to mouth-harp stomp grass, Høly River taps into an embodied and innate celebration of internal and external worlds, attempting to bring them closer together with each beat. On record or in-person, a listener is entranced in the soaring vocal ballads bathed in the moonlight of dance beats and folk-inspired roots. The music of Høly River carries the message of humanity’s need for reconnection with itself and the earth. Mystically political and wholeheartedly grassroots this DIY band finds themselves playing on large festival stages as well as backyard fire pits of intentional communities around the world.
Find out more about our work: www.holyrivermusic.com
Where to download our music: https://holyriver.bandcamp.com/album/courage
Community Garden we founded in Richmond, Virginia: https://www.instagram.com/fonticellofoodforest/?hl=en
Our home in Richmond, Virginia: https://www.instagram.com/earthfolkrva/?hl=en
