Suzanne Benally
BA, English, University of Colorado
MA, Education, University of Colorado
Suzanne Benally has extensive experience in higher education policy, assessment and diversity. Formerly she directed an Institute on Ethnic Diversity at the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education. Ms. Benally has worked with the American Indian Science and Engineering Society, as an interim executive director and director of education programs to address the concerns and needs of American Indian education K–12 and post-secondary. Her special interests and research have focused on the relationship between land and place as expressed through written and oral literature. In addition to her many activities, Ms. Benally has a consulting practice that has included work with Foundations including the Ford Foundation, Packard Foundation and James Irvine Foundation. She is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Western States Arts Federation. Ms. Benally is Navajo and Santa Clara Tewa.
Jeanine M. Canty PhD, California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), Transformative Learning and Change
MA, Prescott College, Cultural Ecopsychology
BA, Colgate University, International Relations
Education, awareness and transformation are revered processes for Jeanine. Her work addresses the ecological crisis through critical thinking, unraveling of worldviews, connecting with all of life and changing our practices to be aligned with ecologically healthy modes of being. Her areas of passion include ecopsychology, consciousness, transformative learning, environmental and social justice and cultural studies. She is interested in the process individuals go through to reach heightened awareness of environmental and social justice. Jeanine is involved with multiple social justice and consciousness–based organizations. Much of her understanding has come through her experience as an African American woman living in privileged communities.
Anne Z. Parker
BS, Conservation of Natural Resources, University of California, Berkeley
MA, Inner Asian Studies, Indiana University
MA, Geography, University of Oregon
PhD, Geography, University of Oregon
Anne Parker is the chair of the Environmental Studies Department at Naropa University. She has lived, traveled and studied extensively throughout the Himalayas and Central Australia. Before coming to Naropa, she taught geography and international studies at the University of Oregon, was the program director at Interface in Boston, and directed the national Buddhist organization, the Dzogchen Foundation. She has received Fulbright and NSF grants for her work on traditional agriculture in Bhutan, Nepal and India. Anne led wilderness expeditions for many years with the Sierra Club and Marble Mountain Expeditions, and she leads pilgrimages in Tibet, Bhutan and the Himalayan region. Anne has studied and practiced for more than thirty years in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. In addition, she has devoted the last six years to extensive study in European earth-based traditions of wicca, druidry and the art of geomancy. She currently consults and teaches in the European tradition of the Master Builders in the Boulder area and via her website www.latitudewithattitude.com. Her new book Stories from the Origin, a series of stories from her life in Australian aboriginal communities, is available at www.amazon.com. She teaches innovative classes in physical and cultural geography in Naropa University’s BA in Environmental Studies. In the MA in Environmental Leadership she teaches leadership skills, the new science, applied leadership and a wilderness solo course. She is passionate about serving life and renewing our connection and deep reverence for the Earth.
Sherry Ellms
BA, University of California, Los Angeles, Psychology
MA, Naropa University, Environmental Leadership
Sherry Ellms teaches a variety of contemplative practices including meditation and facilitates earth based experiences and their application to leadership, earth stewardship, and personal sustainability. She leads wilderness solos and other nature based programs that facilitate a deep connection with the power and insight of the natural world. For the past 25 years, she has been conducting retreats and teaching meditation in secular settings such as Outward Bound, as well as in spiritual settings throughout out the country. She teaches an on line course, “Meditation for Social Change Leaders” in the Ecopsychology concentration of the Masters in Transpersonal Psychology Program. Sherry is a long time meditation practitioner and student of the University’s founder, Choygam Trungpa. Her master’s thesis was “Tonglen as a Tool for Transformative Environmental Engagement.” In addition to her contemplative scholarship, she served as Naropa University’s Dean of Students for 12 years. She has studied with Joanna Macy and trained at the School of Lost Borders. She is committed to investigating the interdependence of landscape and the psyche and facilitating activities that transform human consciousness.
Jane Bunin, PhD
Jane teaches in the Environmental Studies and Transpersonal Counseling Psychology departments. She was an ecological consultant for over twenty years before coming to Naropa, where she now teaches classes in ecology and environmental science. Jane taught ethno-botany at the Rocky Mountain Center for Botanical Studies. Her interests also include ecological restoration, parallels of themes in ecology and contemplative practice, and the complementarity of modern ecology with traditional, natural element based cultures, especially Ayurveda and Andean traditions.
Paul Aldretti
For almost 20 years Paul Aldretti has designed, implemented, and managed energy efficiency and renewable energy programs within strategic projects related to global climate change and sustainable development. He has worked with local communities, national agencies, small businesses and global corporations throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. In 2005 he received a Fulbright Fellowship to work with NGOs in India in creating partnerships to support renewable energy projects for sustainable rural development. He has served as the Director of Climate Programs at Business for Social Responsibility, as Executive Director of the Colorado Environmental Partnership and on boards of directors for the Colorado Alliance for Environmental Education and the Carbon Neutral Network.
Gene Dilworth
BA, Field Ecology, Prescott College
MA, Environment & Community, Antioch University – Seattle
Gene Dilworth is an educator and wilderness guide with more than twenty years experience in environmental education and community-based conservation, and currently serves as Administrative Director of the Environmental Studies Department at Naropa University. He has a BA in Field Ecology and a MA in Environment and Community, and has been an adjunct faculty member at Naropa University since 2001. He teaches courses in ecology and ecopsychology in the MA Transpersonal Psychology program. Gene is a long-time student of the Diamond Approach and earth-based spiritual traditions, and is committed to exploring and deepening the human relationship with nature.
Doug Dupler BS, Ohio State University
MA, Ohio State University
Doug Dupler is the editor of Conserving the Environment and the author of Energy: Shortage, Glut, or Enough?. He has published numerous articles on environmental issues, holistic medicine, science topics and literature. He has worked as a wilderness surveyor and management consultant. At several universities and colleges, he has taught environmental studies, literature and writing, economics and math. His interests include the history of the environmental movement, the economics of sustainability, integral ecology, ecocriticism and writing as activism.
Marco Lam
BA, University of California, Santa Barbara
MS, Southwest Acupuncture College
Marco Lam has been practicing and teaching permaculture and sustainable living skills for more than a decade in diverse climates from the Andes to the Hawaiian islands. Originally trained by the founder of Permaculture, Bill Mollison, Marco’s teaching style moves away from the lecture format and emphasizes getting people’s hands in the Earth. Marco is a practicing acupuncturist and herbalist who grows many of the herbs used in his practice. He is the co-author of The Herbal Therapeutics Manual, a guide to using local plants in the energetic tradition of Chinese herbalism. Living with his family on a 200 acre organic herb farm, as a founding board member of the Boulder Biodiesel Cooperative and as the CEO of Divine Farmer Herbals, Marco puts into practice the principles of permaculture on a daily basis.
Other Adjunct Faculty include:
Sheila Murphy, Bryan Bowan, and Alec Tsoucatos
Jeanine M. Canty
Anne Z. Parker
Sherry Ellms