Faculty & Staff

Core Faculty

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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.

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 twenty-five 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 online course, Meditation for Social Change Leaders, in the Ecopsychology concentration of the MA Transpersonal Psychology Program. Sherry is a longtime meditation practitioner and a student of the university’s founder, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. Her master’s thesis was titled "Tonglen as a Tool for Transformative Environmental Engagement." In addition to her contemplative scholarship, she served as Naropa University’s dean of students for twelve 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.

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 passionate about serving life and renewing our connection and deep reverence for the Earth. 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. Anne 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 studied extensively in European earth-based traditions. She currently consults and teaches in the European tradition of the Master Builders in the Boulder area and via her websites www.bouldermasterbuilders.com and www.latitudewithattitude.com. Her book Stories from the Origin, a series of stories from her life in Australian aboriginal communities, is available at www.amazon.com. 
Anne Parker's CV

Adjunct Faculty

Paul Aldretti
BA Anthropology, Colorado State University
Fulbright Fellow, United States-India Educational Foundation, Sustainable Development

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.

Rachel teaches for social justice and the equitable sustainability of people and planet. She has spent her career facilitating youth work around systems change—linking internal self-actualization to social system creation—and directing both student activist and teacher training programs through schools and non-profits. A veteran public high school teacher, Rachel has taught multiple courses of her own creation—Sustainable Economics, Indigenous Studies, Social Activism, Philosophy—in addition to standard English and History curricula. For three years, she has created and chaperoned Indigenous Studies trips to the Southwest U.S. focusing on internal transformation through experience of Indigenous Worldview. When not teaching, Rachel gardens, writes, and practices Ninjutsu. She lives with her partner, Ian Sanderson, three chickens, and a dog on a postage-stamp urban homestead in Northwest Denver.

Jane Bunin
BS, Genetics, Cornell University
MA, Biochemistry, Brandeis University
PhD, Plant Ecology and Ecosystem Management, University of Colorado

Jane teaches in the Environmental Studies and Transpersonal Counseling Psychology departments. She was an ecological consultant for more than 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.

Richard Dart
BS, University of South Alabama, Geology
MA, Naropa University, Environmental Leadership

Richard Dart has taught nature awareness and survival skills at Naropa University since 1994. He has been a student of the outdoors most of his life and has learned from outdoor educators such as James Halfpenny, Tom Brown, Jr., and Native American elders. In 1992, Richard established Featherlight Skills, offering classes, lectures, and demonstrations in primitive and modern wilderness living skills. In addition, since 1973 Richard has served as a geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and is the author of numerous publications and maps for the USGS. He has been an invited speaker at sustainability conferences at the University of Colorado and Naropa University. Richard’s philosophy emphasizes rediscovery of our natural place in the natural world, and he offers a hands-on approach deeply rooted in an attitude of humility, gratitude, and respect. Richard is also certified as a Wilderness First Responder.

Thomas Doerr

BArch, University of Texas at Austin
MArch, University of California at Berkeley
Licensed architect in Colorado

Thomas Doerr is an award winning, internationally experienced architect specializing in green building design including passive solar, net-zero energy and off-the-grid homes. Thomas has designed successful projects as large as schools and as small as light fixtures. After studying in Austin, Rome and Berkeley, and working at firms in Austin, Boston, San Francisco, Germany and Denver, Thomas started his firm, Doerr Architecture. Thomas has also taught architectural design at The University of Colorado in Boulder. Thomas is a certified Green Points Architect and is past chair of the Colorado chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Committee on the Environment. He regularly gives presentations about passive solar design to professionals and laypersons and he is completing a book titled “Passive Solar Simplified.” See Thomas’ designs at http://BuildSustainably.com.

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.

Jason Gerhardt
BA, Prescott College, Environmental Studies & Sustainable Design

Jason Gerhardt has been practicing and teaching permaculture design in diverse bioregions from the deserts of Arizona to the fresh water lakes of New York since 2005. As an emerging voice of permaculture in the US, he is known for detailed knowledge of plant ecologies, urban food production, rainwater harvesting, and seed biodiversity preservation. His practical application of permaculture includes jointly facilitating the development of a bioregional seed endeavor (Abbo-Regional Seeds), selection based plant breeding, and developing sustainable food producing landscapes on small and large scales. Jason has been featured in many publications and currently teaches a permaculture design certificate program for Naropa University. He also co-instructs a PDC for Prescott College in Arizona, offers workshops through Transition Colorado, and co-instructs a local 8-month PDC with High Altitude Permaculture Institute on the Front Range of Colorado. Jason practices permaculture design professionally as Real Earth Design: Permaculture Landscapes and Education.

Nancy Jane
BA, French and Education, Lake Erie College
BS, Natural Resources Conservation, University of Massachusetts
MA, Transpersonal Psychology / Ecopsychology, Naropa University

Nancy Jane is an educator, wilderness guide and council facilitator. On staff at the School of Lost Borders in CA, a training center for wilderness rites of passage guides, she leads youth, adult, and elder wilderness solos and has pioneered bringing this work to school settings. She has trained in the way of council with the Center for Council Training, Ojai, CA. For many years a naturalist and forester, Nancy is also an author (Bicycle Touring in the Pioneer Valley), an editor, an instructor of English as a second language, and formerly the director of admissions for a Waldorf school. Nancy has a special interest in working with people in deep ways, by connecting them to nature and furthering personal growth.

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.

Staff

Daniel Staniforth

BA English (Point Loma University)

MA Literature (Miami University)

Honour Certificates in Violoncello, Piano, & Music Theory (Royal Academy of Music)

Administrative Director (Contemplative Education & Environmental Studies)

Originally from England, Daniel Staniforth is a writer, composer, and teacher now residing in Lafayette, CO. After three years as the Event Manager to Naropa University’s prestigious Summer Writing Program, Daniel now serves as the Administrative Director for the Environmental Studies and Contemplative Education departments. In addition to his position there, he is in his fourth year as a part-time English faculty member of the Metropolitan State College of Denver. Daniel earned a Master’s degree in Literature from Miami University (of Ohio) and writes poetry, fiction and theoretical work. His full book of poetry, Weaver in the Sluices, was published in December, 2010. Other publications have featured in journals such as Rogue Poetry Review, The Houston Literary Review, Bombay Gin, Monkey Puzzle, Trickhouse, Not Enough Night, and InStereo Press. His short story collection, Diddle, is forthcoming from Skylight Press. As a multi-instrumentalist and composer, he writes, records, and produces alternative, classical, and experimental music (including “sonic poet-scapes”). He has written music for film and theatre, including an upcoming UK production of Under Milkwood by Dylan Thomas.

For more information, visit Flowforth Productions