Community Studies Center

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.