Faculty

Zoë Avstreih, Co-Chair
Director, Dance Movement Therapy Program
LPC, NCC, ADTR
BA, State University of New York, Albany
MS, Hunter College

Zoë Avstreih is a Licensed Professional Counselor and a member of the Academy of Dance Therapists Registered.  She is also a Licensed Psychoanalyst and Licensed Creative Arts Therapist in New York State. She is the Founder/Director of the Center for the Study of Authentic Movement and Founder and former Director of the graduate Dance Movement Therapy Program at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. A pioneer in the development of Authentic Movement, she lectures and teaches internationally and has published widely. 

Juana Bordas

Juana Bordas is president of Mestiza Leadership International in Denver and vice president of the board of the Greenleaf Center on Servant Leadership. She is a founder of Mi Casa Women’s Center and founding president CEO of the National Hispana Leadership. Juana was initiated into the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame and honored as a Wise Woman by the National Center for Women’s Policy Studies. She recently served as advisor to Harvard’s Hispanic Journal on Public Policy and the Kellogg National Fellows Program.  A former Peace Corps volunteer, Juana received the Franklin Miller Award from the U.S. Peace Corps for her life long commitment to advance communities of color and the Leadership Legacy Award from Spellman’s College Center for Leadership and Civic Engagement.  

Deborah Bowman
BA, University of Kansas
PhD, The Union Institute

Dr. Deborah Bowman is a professor and founder of the Transpersonal Counseling Psychology and the Wilderness Therapy programs at Naropa University. Deborah is a licensed psychologist and certified Gestalt therapist who has worked with individuals and groups for more than twenty years. She is a trainer with the Boulder Psychotherapy Institute offering post graduate education and supervision. Deborah was president of Boulder Graduate School, has worked for Boulder County Hospice, Boulder County Social Services and instructed with the National Outdoor Leadership School. She is co-author of When Your Spouse Comes Out, soon to be published by Haworth Press. 

Nikki Carpenter
BA, University of Northern Colorado
MSS, Denver University
PCC

Nikki Carpenter is an ICF, professional certified coach, facilitator and teacher. Her company, Creating Ability, is committed to helping leaders excel, without sacrificing their personal fulfillment or their health. In addition to a masters degree in Applied Communication she has completed coach training with the Coaches Training Institute and Naropa’s Authentic Leadership Certificate Program and Coaching for Authentic Leadership program. Nikki has trained and coached leaders for more than ten years.

Mark Gerzon
B.A., Harvard

Mark Gerzon is the president of Mediators Foundation and the founder of the Global Leadership Network. He is currently serving as Distinguished Fellow at the East West Institute in New York City, he is designing global dialogues to address critical security issues. He facilitated the first two Bipartisan Congressional Retreats and has designed several other dialogues between Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. House and Senate as well as the State of the World Forum Conferences. He also organized one of the first dialogues between the World Economic Forum (Davos) and World Social Forum (Porto Alegre). His new book is titled Leading Through Conflict : How Successful Leaders Transform Differences Into Opportunities (Harvard Business School Press).

Amy Haddon
BA, Cornell College
MEd, Colorado State University
PHR, CFT

Amy is the owner of Five Points Coaching & Consulting, an integrated practice specializing in helping individuals maximize their health, achieve their dreams, and reinvent their careers.  Amy also works with small business, educational, and non-profit organizations to capitalize on their most important asset, their employees, by providing human resources consulting, leadership development, and organizational effectiveness coaching.  Amy is the former Director of Human Resources at Naropa University and continues to serve Naropa as an adjunct faculty member in the contemplative psychology department.  Prior to joining Naropa, Amy was a Regional Human Resources Manager & Training Specialist with the EDS Corporation.  She is also the former President of the Boulder Area Human Resources Association.  Passionate about human and organizational health, Amy is currently pursuing a dual doctorate in Traditional Naturopathy and Natural Health.

Arawana Hayashi

Arawana Hayashi is a dancer, choreographer and teacher, with roots in Asian and Western arts. Throughout her career she has been involved in interdisciplinary ensemble improvisation. Arawana was on the faculty of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts School and Naropa University. Her workshop in creative process, The Art of Making a True Move, has been presented in educational institutions, meditation centers and organizational settings in the United States and Canada. In this and other workshops, Arawana invites non-dancers to discover their natural creativity as she guides them through a gentle, non-judgmental process of paying attention to their own physicality and to their environment.

Robert Kenny
BA, Benedictine College
MEd, Seton Hall University
PhD, Boston University

Robert Kenny leads the Money and Values Program at Naropa University and is the Associate Director of the Center on Wealth and Philanthropy at Boston College. Bob holds a doctorate in Counseling Psychology from Boston University, a certificate of advanced studies from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education, a master's degree in Educational Psychology from Seton Hall University. He was the executive director of More Than Money for five years, a national non-profit committed to helping people align their money with their values as they live full and compassionate lives and make meaningful contributions to the greater good. Bob has consulted with financial advisors, philanthropic planners, wealth counselors, community foundations, non-profit leaders and small business founders/leaders as they develop awareness and wisdom in relationship to their money and use it in creative, effective ways to help build a better world. He has appeared in publications such as Worth and Philanthropy Roundtable. More Than Money has been building a safe, respectful peer community where people can learn from each other.

Barbara Lawton
PhD

Barbara Lawton director of the University of Colorado Engineering Management Program, was the first person to hold the prestigious W. Edwards Deming Professorship in Management at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and has continued the evolution of quality management through integration of concepts and practices from systems thinking, chaos theory, organizational change and knowledge management. With more than 75 speaking engagements around the world, Barbara's gift is in communicating complex ideas in a simple, relevant and actionable manner.

Cynthia A. McEwen
MA, University of Bath, UK, in Responsibility and Business Practice

Cynthia A. McEwen is a principal at Avastone Consulting, where she shapes the firm’s practice area of Sustainability & Leadership. Cynthia speaks, consults, designs, and delivers engagements for a range of Avastone clients. Her professional experience includes five years with AT&T in marketing and management roles. In 2004, Cynthia completed a master’s degree from the University of Bath, UK, in Responsibility and Business Practice. She also has master’s and bachelor’s degrees in business administration.

Micki McMillan
BS, Colorado State University
MEd, Colorado State University
MCC

Micki McMillan is Vice President and Partner for Wisdom-Works, Inc., a coaching and consulting firm that develops the skills of 21st Century Leaders to manage complexity, think holistically, gain competitiveness through collaboration, and produce inspired, sustainable results. She is the Director of the Marpa Center’s Advanced Coaching Course. She has over 20 years experience as a consultant and coach. Micki’s coaching credentials include Master Coach Certification from the International Coach Federation, advanced coach training from Leading Learning Communities in Boulder, CO, and The Newfield Group in San Francisco, and executive development courses at The University of Idaho and The University of Colorado. Micki holds both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education from Colorado State University.

Daniel Montgomery
MBA, Colorado University
MA, Naropa University
CMC

Dan is President of Blue Opal Strategies LLC, a coaching and consulting firm focused on organizational performance and leadership. He has worked in internal consulting positions in two large health care organizations, been an executive with a technology firm, and held senior consulting positions with both Accenture and Ernst & Young Consulting.  Dan is a graduate of Newfield Networks’ Coaching for Professional and Personal Mastery program. With a 30 year background as a counselor, manager, internal and external consultant, Dan has worked in a variety of industries. He was a Senior Manager for Ernst & Young, where he created a multi-disciplinary (audit, tax, finance and business advisory) team focused on the emerging high tech market, in addition to serving clients in the electric utility, health care and telecommunications industries. He also worked as a manager for Andersen Consulting (now Accenture), where he provided change management services to support large IT implementations in the government sector. In addition to his coaching experience, Dan has worked in the areas of strategy development, business planning, market research, process improvement, and organization development, and has in-depth experience in management of information technology.  Current clients range from emerging technology companies, to not-for-profits, to Fortune 100 companies.

Julio Olalla
JD, University of Chile
MCC

Julio Olalla is the founder and president of The Newfield Network, an international education, coaching and consulting company that focuses on building trust and growing leaders inside organizations. Newfield has headquarters in the United States and South America. Julio is a master at generating learning environments that establish the trust, safety, respect and well-being that accelerate the potential for learning. He has trained more than 50,000 individuals and worked with more than 200 organizations to create better teams and stronger leaders. He and his team have worked with organizations in the United States, Canada, Argentina, Europe, Australia, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Spain and Venezuela.

John D. Schmidt
BA in Business Administration, MBA

John D. Schmidt is CEO of Avastone Consulting, a professional services firm that supports Fortune 500 companies in movement toward realization of organizational vitality, resilience, and sustainability. He is the impetus behind Avastone’s practical application of leading-edge leadership theory and the creative force behind Avastone’s innovative work in executive and organization development. John’s consulting career spans thirty years and includes work with a distinguished base of global organizations. Prior to forming Avastone, John spent eight years with BearingPoint (formerly KPMG). John has both master’s and bachelor’s degrees in business administration.

Susan Skjei
MS, American University
PhD candidate, Fielding Graduate University

Susan Skjei is president of SaneSystems, a management consulting firm specializing in organizational change, coaching and leadership development. Formerly a vice-president and chief learning officer in the high-tech industry, she designs and facilitates participative approaches to strategic planning and organizational transformation. A long-time practitioner of meditation inspired by Naropa’s founder, Trungpa Rinpoche, Susan also teaches meditation workshops for leaders in the United States, Canada, and Europe.

Mark Wilding
BS, State University of New York and Syracuse University
MA, Naropa University

Mark Wilding is executive director of PassageWorks, a nonprofit organization dedicated to transforming the culture of classrooms, schools and districts so that the inner life of students and teachers is safe, nurtured and welcomed. Mark formerly served as director of Naropa’s Marpa Center for Business and Economics, and has worked in various capacities at Naropa University since 1995, including director of advancement and human resources and systems officer. Mark has taught graduate courses at Naropa since 1997 and assisted with the launch of the MA in Environmental Leadership program in 1995. In 1985, he helped found a public computer software company and served in several roles until he left as president in 1993.