My primary work is what I do through the organization I co-founded, Partners for Climate Action (PCA) in 2019 (climateactionhv.org). I help run operations, focus on certain projects and weigh in on projects my colleagues run (environmental education, ecological restoration and catalyzing regional collaboration ("bioregionalism")). The projects I primarily work on are the conceiving and running of cohorts that support municipal volunteers to lead their towns on climate action. I am currently co-directing a new type of cohort that supports nonprofits (municipalities, libraries, faith-based organizations, schools, research labs, homeless housing, an arboretum etc.) to decarbonize their buildings. We offer grants to these cohorts, which, for those who need it, pay for the time they spend on leading climate action or pay for a service that leads to decreased carbon emissions. Secondarily, I volunteer for my own town's "Climate Smart Communities Task Force". This informs the work I do at PCA. It provides experiential learning that helps me relate to and understand the challenges I help others face. It also deepens my community bonds, which in many ways is the basis for my work. The strengthening of community bonds is something my organization consciously works to create, as well. Another long term project I have been quietly involved in is the rehabilitation of a foundation that became corrupted. It was seemed like a hopeless case, is still a work in progress but is on a profoundly better trajectory now. I don't speak publicly about this work or mention it to the majority of my close friends and colleagues for various personal and strategic reasons. But I share this, confidentially, because it regularly presents challenges, has contributed to my development (strategic thinking, political savvy, diplomacy and emotional intelligence) and it will be on my mind as I go through this course. My involvement in this situation has helped me build skills that I use in my climate and ecological work. I am also directly working to regenerate the land I live on (removing invasive species, planting pollinator habitat, working with neighboring farmers to empower them to farm more regeneratively on my land). And I am working to move my money to places that not only do not harm but actively create social and ecological healing. I encourage others to do the same with their money as well.

I see my role as one who identifies gaps and barriers to climate action and works to address them with various forms of capital-- financial, social, human, intellectual. In other words I work to empower people in the ways that are needed. I see my role as a nurturing one. I enjoy translating what might be confusing or providing the resources people need in the face of a challenge. That might be as simple as getting a small question answered or reassuring them that I understand what they face, how they feel or that they are not alone. I also think of myself as helping to leverage people's efforts and my own. I strive to create efficiencies or work in a way that will tap into the greatest potential. I am an educator, connector, facilitator, mentor, colleague and collaborator.

To have greater impact and to become more skillful. But at the same time, to strike a greater work/life balance. I am struck with the wisdom of the Regenesis approach and see how it would have allowed for the possibility of success, particularly in regards to the comprehensive plan process in my town. Upon reflection, this process succumbed to classic pitfalls explained in your readings. So, I am eager to understand how to apply the Regenesis principles to the various projects I am involved in. It seems like it would help with both my aim to have a greater impact/become more skillful, and to strike a greater balance. But balance for me may also just be about taking on less.

To come more and more from my essence. Meaning, to be more present and to trust that I can respond to situations more effectively if I am present rather than coming from my head or a place of rushing and time poverty. In other words, I believe that left brain thinking should serve the supremacy of right brain thinking, I'm just trained to do the opposite.

To give myself the gift of creating the conditions of focus and flow. (Getting enough sleep, not taking on too much.) I believe I am leaning into my edge, but I try to do too much and long to go deeper with one thing.

Relationships. I have learned who to trust and cultivated my relationships with mentors and colleagues. They are a source of joy and support-- gifts that keep giving. I feel grateful for the co-creativity and empowerment my close professional relationships generate. We share values, stand on each other's shoulders and have fun in the process. I have committed to a place, to people and to work that grows in scope, depth and meaning. This allows me to invest and reinvest dividends.

I was a resident artist in photography for a year in Maine when I was 24. That experience informs how I look, what I see and the ways I seek and receive insight. Discovering art-making enriched my solitude, making it a place I wanted to go. Photography helped me get in touch with my unconscious, tap into my awareness, and play with what felt like responsiveness from the universe. I earned a Masters in Clinical Mental Health Counseling and became a therapist and art therapist for children (in the NYC public school system) and for adults (in a private practice). I worked in East Africa assisting traditional healers to secure intellectual property rights for their remedies. At that time, through a Netherlands-based organization called Compas, I became aware of a practice called endogenous development. Description: "endogenous development is development based on local values, knowledge, institutions and resources. [It is a] process of change that places major importance in working with local communities and starting from people’s own worldviews, resources, strategies, and initiatives as the basis for development. [It] highlights the problems that many rural people experience when engaging with Western-based approaches that adopt a narrow materialistic and essentially economic vision of development." This created an important shift in ethical awareness for me and began my understanding of the value of localism. I worked in documentary film and radio, where I explored topics ranging from LGBTQ rights (I produced a film called God Loves Uganda), to economic innovation in service to people and planet (I created, wrote and produced oxideradio.org). I have spent time at silent meditation retreats and regularly attend retreats to engage with "The Diamond Approach", founded by A.H. Almaas. Language used in that tradition echoes Regenesis language. Thinkers that have been important in my life: Martin Heidegger (I took a two year class on Being and Time), Lewis Hyde (his book, The Gift), Jack Kornfield, Robert Thurman, Sharon Salzburg, The Dalai Lama, Bill Moyers, Maya Angelou, Gabor Mate, Helena Norberg-Hodge, Charles Eisenstein, David Graeber, Paul Hawkin, Rebecca Solnit, Carol Gilligan, James Baldwin, Nikole Hannah-Jones, Martin Luther King Jr., Howard Zinn, Wendell Berry, Ezra Klein and most recently, Tiokasin Ghosthorse.

I believe that things that seem "magical" or mysterious might one day be explained. I have had premonitory dreams and psychic and synchronistic experiences since I was little. In my 30s, I visited departments at Duke and Princeton which were studying "consciousness", trying to understand the nature of psychic phenomenon in relation to quantum physics. On the one hand, I am very curious and want to know how things work but also enjoy the romance of mystery, accept that my experiences point to more than can be explained and don't necessarily need them to be explained. I enjoy wonder. I was not raised religiously, so I don't really story my understanding of "God" or cosmology, but Buddhist philosophy makes the most sense as a theory of how things work. (Especially given its confident encouragement of inquiry and lack of dogma). Experientially, and from what I've read about the experiences of others, I am fairly convinced that karma is in operation and that reincarnation happens. Following from that, I place great value on personal and collective responsibility. I see dichotomy and paradox in most things-- like we are completely innocent, yet totally responsible. So, I try to stretch my capacity for holding duality and noticing emergence. My sense of justice stems from my hunch on karma. There is injustice, and I'm sure I contribute to it in ways, but I believe our efforts to evolve and our growth are "recorded" in the fabric of our energy or souls, or in the fabric of everything that is. Meaning, I believe we evolve and also are shown the error of our ways through feedback loops. That the universe offers us this--that it is responsive. I believe we have free will to pursue our own high and low roads. Astrology has influenced this cosmology for me. Given my belief in free will, I could lose balance by worrying over getting things right. Something that Jack Kornfield said guides me to loosen my grip-- that outcomes are not given to us in this life. We only need to plant seeds..."It is not given to us to know how our life will affect the world. What is given to us is to tend the intentions of our heart and to plant beautiful seeds with our deeds. If the actions are wise, they will eventually contribute to the well being of all." This helps me let go of trying to control or do things "right" or perfectly and lets me focus on doing my best. So, I think humans have tremendous creative and spiritual power that we often forget or misuse. I think our role is to remember and to use it wisely. I also think we forget that we are a part of and belong to the universe and to Gaia. I feel a deep connection to nature, especially a place where I was raised and am intimate with. I relate to that land the way I would a person. I feel nurtured by it, nurture it back and feel profound love for it. I believe that humans need to wake up to the potential of their relationship to the land and heal our relationship to it. A local elder activist, Manna Jo Greene, told me she believes that if the environmental movement had been more successful and we hadn't engaged in so much war, "We could have had heaven on earth." Despite her use of the past tense, she hasn't yet given up. (To the contrary.) Our bodies can heal and I have seen that the earth can too. (And the earth is an extension of our bodies-- we are inseparable from it.) So, I believe our role is to remember what we are a part of and to use our free will to plant the seeds of heaven on earth.