SparkTalks
SparkTalks will open your heart, broaden your perspective, and enliven your spirit.
Dynamic, short presentations by Naropa University alumnx, SparkTalks showcase stories, research, and artistic work on themes such as transformation, community, and mindfulness. Typically held during the Alumnx Reunion Weekend, these talks share the wisdom, research, poetry, and experiences of Naropa alumnx and highlight the intersection of personal growth and social change. Recent themes include “Both/And” (2025) and “Roots & Branches” (2024).
Watch 2025 Alumnx SparkTalks: "Both/And"
Dear Belly
Naropa alumnx Lucia Cordeiro Drever (MA Clinical Mental Health Counseling: Contemplative Psychotherapy and Buddhist Psychology, 2020) presents Dear Belly for SparkTalks 2025.
The Intersection of Personal & Collective Transformation
Naropa alumnx Yasha S. Wagner (BA Religious Studies, 2018) presents Both Inner and Outer Change: The Intersection of Personal and Collective Transformation for SparkTalks 2025.
SparkTalks 2024: "Roots & Branches"
"New Tricks for an Old Dog-ma: Mental Health and Creative Hacks to Build Intuition and Compassion"
Denise Barnes (MA Dance Therapy ’89) is the author of Stress to Strength: A Therapist’s Guide to Empower Clients. The evidence-based model of stress management was vetted in randomized controlled trials during her twenty years counseling cancer patients in Denver. This elegant toolbox limits detours on the path to meaning while increasing intuition and self-compassion. Alongside her day job, Denise’s music and performance work aimed to heal and lighten discord. Her 2006 one woman show, The Unlikely Enlightenment featured three comedy characters and original music. She’s delighted to bring this combo of serious and crazy wisdom to honor Naropa’s roots.
"Mistranslations in the Kingdom of Wonder: Something Like Patience"
Tree Bernstein (MFA Writing & Poetics ’91) lived on a sugar beet farm in the Columbia Basin when she was a child. She earned an MFA in Writing & Poetics from Naropa University, and taught college English literature and writing at the Brooks Institute of Photography in California for over a decade. Bernstein was poet teacher with California Poets in the Schools and poetry coach for Poetry Out Loud in the early aughts. She joined the Peace Corps as a senior citizen to teach English and Art in Cambodia from 2015–17 and now lives in Longmont, Colorado, where she leads writing workshops in the community.
"Mindfulness in a Time of Apocalypse"
Sami Chhapra (MA Contemplative Psychotherapy, ’10) is a psychotherapist in private practice at Mindfulness Counseling in Lakewood, Ohio, and a doctoral candidate in East-West Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies. His dissertation explores the concept of Divine Love as the foundational reality of existence, emphasizing its collective implications and using a dialectical framework to understand the contours of humanity’s collective journey and ultimate destiny. Simultaneously, his therapeutic practice serves as both an extension of this exploration and a practical application of its insights at the individual level. Guided by his personal and professional experiences, and attuned to the broader collective consciousness, Sami is inclined to deepen his engagement with the collective aspects of his work. He has a bachelor’s degree in Religion from Oberlin College and a master’s degree in Contemplative Psychotherapy from Naropa (2010).
"Relationship As A Path: A Spoken Word Poem"
Jayson Gaddis (MA Transpersonal Counseling Psychology, ‘05) is an artist, best-selling author, podcaster, speaker, coach, CEO, founder, human behavior specialist, and relationship expert. He is the creator of Interpersonal Intelligence® and Present Centered Relationship Coaching® and has trained hundreds of coaches in 14 countries. His book Getting to Zero: How to work Through Conflict In Your High Stakes Relationships is a Wall Street Journal best seller, Editors Choice for Best non-fiction, and Best Leadership and Business book in 2021 on Amazon. He’s been married to his amazing wife since 2007 and has two beautiful kids. They live in Boulder, Colorado.
Ellen Boeder, LPC (MA Transpersonal Counseling Psychology, ‘03) has been a licensed psychotherapist since graduating from Naropa’s TCP program in 2003. She is now a certified practitioner of PACT (Psychobiological Approach to Couple Therapy). Ellen also teaches and consults on attachment relationships, incorporating a range of interests from yoga and meditation to evolutionary sociobiology, and shares her learnings through writing on her Substack and teaching for the Relationship School, which was founded by her husband, Jayson. Ellen enjoys sharing her ongoing integration of her experience as a clinician with her lived relational experience as a woman, daughter, sister, wife, and mother.
"The Yoga of Taps: Connections with Stillness and Movement"
Dennis Kerr (BA Traditional Eastern Arts, ‘16) holds a degree in yoga and taijiquan from Naropa University, and enjoyed the residencies experienced in the University of Nevada Reno MFA Interdisciplinary Arts program. He is a ballroom dance champion and an Army Music veteran. He has been described as a ‘very conscientious instructor’; resulting in joyful life changes. Off the “mat,” he enjoys walking and being in nature, partner/social dancing, snow sports, playing trumpet, and the spontaneity each day brings. Dennis offers group and private sessions. He seeks peaceful meditation retreats for self-rejuvenation, when possible.
"Go to the Bamboo: The Power of Story Gathering"
Tim Z. Hernandez (BA Writing & Literature, ‘07) is an award-winning author, research scholar, and performer. His books include fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, and he’s the recipient of the American Book Award for poetry, and the International Latino Book Award for historical fiction. His work has been featured in the New York Times, C-Span, and international media, and in 2018 he was recognized by the California State Senate for his work uncovering the story of the 1948 plane wreck at Los Gatos Canyon, which is chronicled in his books, All They Will Call You, and his newly released, They Call You Back. He is an alumni of Naropa University’s Jack Kerouac School, and he is currently an Associate Professor with the University of Texas El Paso’s Bilingual MFA Creative Writing program.
Rooted in Earth, Ancestors & Flow: Finding One’s Place in the Collective Movement"
Lodi Siefer (MA Contemplative Psychotherapy, ‘09) is the child of Ann and Stan, grandchild of Alice, Bill, Marion, Fred and Marty, of earth and wind and rain. Naropa-trained psychotherapist turned community organizer, Lodi is super excited about the intersection of social and earth justice, as well as waking up to the other-than-human family they didn’t know they had. Through the practice of laying belly down on the earth, they found belonging and deep ancestral healing. Now, Lodi co-leads the BoCo Climate Justice Hive, is a queer/gender queer partnered parent of a sensitive neurodiverse kiddo, and is learning to dance into recovery from compulsive doing.
"Weaving a Path of Healing with the Threads of the Divine Feminine"
Soltahr Tiv-Amanda (MA Transpersonal Counseling Psychology, ‘99) has traversed streams, rivers, and sailed oceans of deep awareness as part of creating wisdom in one’s elder years. The internal convergence of experiencing life as Mother, Grandmother, Priestess of the Divine Feminine, Shaman, Witch, Healer, Meditator, Spiritual Teacher, Therapist, Abolitionist, Truth Seeker/Teller, Activist, Animistic Observer/Preserver of Nature, Minister, Rebel, Nomad, Transgressor, New Saint, and Dangerous Old Woman, are not egoic titles but lenses of insight. These lenses, and many others have shown her what healing can look like when one is getting free and liberated, and not just for self, but in divine service to one’s ancestors, family, and community.
"The Recovery Play on The Edge: Making Theatre with People in Recovery"
David Priebe (MFA Theater: Contemporary Performance, ‘20) graduated from Naropa University in 2020 with an MFA in Theatre: Contemporary Performance and is seeking a PhD in Theatre at Texas Tech University. While at Naropa he developed an interest in applying theatre to social issues. He was introduced to Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed as an intriguing way to help communities work through social and systemic oppressions. He is joined by Sean Jones who created the theatre for people in recovery program at The Edge and his beloved wife, Amy Priebe, an actor and standardized patient at the TTU Health Sciences Center.
In 1956 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. presented the idea of The Beloved Community: a global vision of economic and social inclusivity emerging out of love for one another. Sixty-four years later, 2020 has brought personal, social, and institutional injustices to the forefront of our lives.
Today, as we stand on the precipice of change, we ask what can the beloved community look like in this present moment?
For the Spark Talks 2020, Naropa alumnx will share their experiences, stories, ideas, inquiries, research, poetry & artwork as they relate to the Beloved Community :: ReEnvisioned for 2020 and beyond.
Previous SparkTalks
