Team and Contributors
Jul Bystrova is co-founder of the Inner Resilience Network and Director of the Era of Care project, which works with communities in crises. She has a 25 year history of community activism and a thriving private practice in trauma-informed mind-body healing work. She has served as an Interfaith Minister, an academic in Interdisciplinary research and a boots-on-the-ground activist. She is deeply passionate about cultural healing, interpersonal, psycho-spiritual topics and justice issues. She also serves on the Transition US Collaborative Design Council and the Transition Network's Inner Transition Circle. In 2018, She received the TUS Social Justice award for her support in raising awareness and diversity in the Transition community. She can be reached at julbystrova@gmail.com 
Shanti Tula is a desi Midwestern pixie, cross-pollinator, and jack of many trades. Given that she is a cynical idealist and pessimistic optimist, you will generally find that Shanti’s feet are rooted down into the ground while her head is floating up in the clouds and stars of the sky. She embraces every opportunity to do all the things, learn all the things, and be all the things, because to her, this world is a place of untold marvels, whether she looks right under her nose or travels across the globe. Perpetually fascinated by the human condition, Shanti is always game to explore the infinite universes of the diverse individuals, systems, and societies she encounters on her life journey, including yours, whenever she has the fortune to meet you. Whether she is working in healthcare, education, business, or technology, the thing that gets Shanti out of bed every morning is her delight in creatively solving problems through multidisciplinary collaboration and her passion for helping people to unleash their full potential. These days, Shanti is particularly jazzed about applying tools from the fields of mindfulness, embodiment, conflict management, design thinking, psychology, nonviolent communication, and authentic relating to her growing practice with group facilitation/coaching aimed toward personal + professional development and community organization.
Scott Brown is a visionary peacemaker, transpersonal psychologist, and life and relationship coach who guides individuals and groups into the deepest levels of personal and collective healing and resilience. His integrated approach brings together psychology, spirituality, nature-based healing, and transformational activism. He is a leading advocate for bringing the principles and practices of restorative justice to bear on the full range of social issues and is the author of Active Peace: A Mindful Path to a Nonviolent World. |
Galen Meyers
Galen is a co-founder and facilitator for CAIPP.org where he helps equip groups, communities, and organizations to capture the social and business benefits of Cooperation Science, Ethical Design, and Humane Technology. He is a passionate, perpetual student of Life and the wholistic sciences, with an undergraduate background in math, physics, and biology. Galen is certified as a yoga and meditation instructor, a group facilitator, and a permaculture designer. He is proudly serving on the Collaborative Design Council for Transition US. 
Diana Kubilos
Diana is a passionate ‘Transitioner’, having co-founded a chapter in her former home of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and now working on community resilience-related initiatives in her hometown of Ventura, CA. Diana is especially interested in the intersection between community resilience, and the building of systems of social justice, and community dialogue and collaboration. Diana holds a Masters of Public Health, and worked for many years in social work and health education. She retrained several years ago in mediation and Nonviolent Communication, and is focused in the areas of compassionate parenting and conflict transformation. Diana is Latina (Mexican-American) and bilingual. In addition to her current residence and work in California, she has also lived and worked in Mexico, Brazil, and Malaysia. 
Rob Wipond co-founded Inner Compass Initiative and contributed research, writing and editing for the websites of both Inner Compass Initiative and The Withdrawal Project. Since 1998 he has been a freelance investigative journalist and has garnered a number of journalism and magazine-writing awards for his work. The second feature news story he ever published involved interviewing people about what it was like to be treated against your will in a psychiatric hospital, and while fact-checking the article he discovered that many of the patients and ex-patients he'd interviewed had been both more forthright and often more knowledgeable than the mental health professionals about the effects and risks of many common psychiatric treatments. In some ways, one could say he's been writing about that phenomenon ever since. In recent years, he has also volunteered extensively in community engagement for social change, including co-founding a community investment fund, a housing land trust, and the Building Resilient Neighbourhoods project. Exploring yoga, Holotropic Breathwork and other ways of inducing non-ordinary states of consciousness has been an interest throughout his life, and he credits those experiences, good friendships, and early opportunities to work and play in poetry, theater and music with helping him bypass the mental health system. More information and writings are available at robwipond.com.
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CONTRIBUTORS
Ikela is a mindfulness-based substance use counselor at non-profit addiction treatment center in Carson City, NV where he works primarily with individuals in overcoming addiction to heroin and methamphetamine. He holds a BA in Psychology from Sierra Nevada College and will soon be beginning a MA in Transpersonal and Mindfulness Based Clinic Mental Health Counseling. He was a speaker at the 2019 UCLA Psychology Undergraduate Research Conference and the 2019 NURS Undergraduate Research Conference. He is the founder of the Sierra Nevada College Meditation Sangha and practitioner of mindfulness meditation within the Dhamra Zephyr Meditation Insight Community. Ikela has a deep passion for the multi-faced practices of mindfulness and compassion based meditation, as well as the utilization of holistic and spiritual practices as means to make meaningful change within his community.
Kaat Vander Straeten is a long-time community organizer with a Transition focus and a certified permaculture designer in MetroWest Boston, where she founded several organizations for local resilience. Her passion for helping families take care of their deceased is nourished by her love of empowering personal choice-with-responsibility, her service to a regenerative and grief-literate culture, and a concern for social justice. Kaat was trained by Peg Lorenz in after-death body care and has helped several families take care of their loved ones at home.
Kaat works with Peaceful Passage at Home, a group of home funeral guides and advocates based in eastern and central Massachusetts.
Kaat works with Peaceful Passage at Home, a group of home funeral guides and advocates based in eastern and central Massachusetts.
Richard Edelman is a weaver of transformative arts, a multidisciplinary synthesizer, and a scholar of psychotherapy and spiritual consciousness, a husband, father, and grandfather, a scholar, social activist, meditation teacher, guide, and visionary. He works with culture creators, including creative artists, entrepreneurs, helping professionals, and activists, as well as individuals, families, groups, and communities. His work focuses on liberating, healing, and celebrating biospheric consciousness. Richard’s recent activism has been on helping individuals and communities liberate and heal themselves from spiritual abuse. As a climate activist, he works towards low cost community-based climate trauma and resilience services with a mutual aid focus informed by evolutionary consciousness. He is writing a book introducing his concept of Toxic Enculturation and how we can liberate and heal ourselves from it. www.livingartswisdom.com
Ayako Nagano
Ayako serves on the Board of Transition Berkeley, and on the steering committees for the Green Leadership Trust, a coalition of green non-profit board members of color promoting equity and inclusion within the environmental movement. Ayako serves on the Social Justice Working Group for Transition US, and was recently appointed to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s National Environmental Justice Advisory Council.
Ayako serves on the Board of Transition Berkeley, and on the steering committees for the Green Leadership Trust, a coalition of green non-profit board members of color promoting equity and inclusion within the environmental movement. Ayako serves on the Social Justice Working Group for Transition US, and was recently appointed to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s National Environmental Justice Advisory Council.
CONTRIBUTORS to discussions and resources
Pat McCabe
(Weyakpa Najin Win, Woman Stands Shining) is a Diné (Navajo) mother, grandmother, activist, artist, writer, ceremonial leader, and international speaker. She is a voice for global peace, creates art for individual, earth and global healing. She draws upon the Indigenous sciences of Thriving Life to reframe questions about sustainability and balance, and she is devoted to supporting the next generations, Women’s Nation and Men’s Nation, in being functional members of the “Hoop of Life” and upholding the honor of being human.
(Weyakpa Najin Win, Woman Stands Shining) is a Diné (Navajo) mother, grandmother, activist, artist, writer, ceremonial leader, and international speaker. She is a voice for global peace, creates art for individual, earth and global healing. She draws upon the Indigenous sciences of Thriving Life to reframe questions about sustainability and balance, and she is devoted to supporting the next generations, Women’s Nation and Men’s Nation, in being functional members of the “Hoop of Life” and upholding the honor of being human.
Bayo Akomolafe
An academic, poet and philosopher, Bayo has dedicated his life to mediating between the spiritual and the scientific. Raised as a Christian in the hyper-religious Nigerian capital of Lagos, he studied Psychology and then while researching for his PhD spent 7 years lecturing at Nigeria's Covenant University. In 2016, he co-founded The Emergence Network, an alliance of people, initiatives and communities using art, research and ritual to reframe some of the world's interlocking social and environmental problems. First and foremost, though, he is a father. In his book ‘These wilds beyond our fences: Letters to my daughter on humanity’s search for home', addressed to his daughter Alethea, Bayo explores some of life’s most pressing questions related to race, culture and belonging through the lens of fatherhood. By exploring the world at its ‘Aleathean edges', he reminds the reader how wondrous, philosophically and spiritually significant everyday occurrences can be — both when you are a small human discovering the world for the first time, and when you are the adult who helps to guide them on their way.
An academic, poet and philosopher, Bayo has dedicated his life to mediating between the spiritual and the scientific. Raised as a Christian in the hyper-religious Nigerian capital of Lagos, he studied Psychology and then while researching for his PhD spent 7 years lecturing at Nigeria's Covenant University. In 2016, he co-founded The Emergence Network, an alliance of people, initiatives and communities using art, research and ritual to reframe some of the world's interlocking social and environmental problems. First and foremost, though, he is a father. In his book ‘These wilds beyond our fences: Letters to my daughter on humanity’s search for home', addressed to his daughter Alethea, Bayo explores some of life’s most pressing questions related to race, culture and belonging through the lens of fatherhood. By exploring the world at its ‘Aleathean edges', he reminds the reader how wondrous, philosophically and spiritually significant everyday occurrences can be — both when you are a small human discovering the world for the first time, and when you are the adult who helps to guide them on their way.
Aleisa Myles
Aleisa has been a dedicated member of Transition Town Media (TTM) since 2010. Aleisa is a clinical psychologist in Philadelphia, PA. She practices psychoanalytic psychotherapy with survivors of childhood and adult trauma, and addresses themes of spirituality, sexuality, and social justice and equity. Aleisa holds a Psy.D. from the Institute for Graduate Clinical Psychology at Widener University, where she now serves as Adjunct Assistant Professor. She presents seminars and workshops on diversity, racism, and psychoanalysis. Aleisa has a lifelong dedication to understanding and bringing transformative change to the typically unrecognized oppression of children and young people, known as childism.
Aleisa has been a dedicated member of Transition Town Media (TTM) since 2010. Aleisa is a clinical psychologist in Philadelphia, PA. She practices psychoanalytic psychotherapy with survivors of childhood and adult trauma, and addresses themes of spirituality, sexuality, and social justice and equity. Aleisa holds a Psy.D. from the Institute for Graduate Clinical Psychology at Widener University, where she now serves as Adjunct Assistant Professor. She presents seminars and workshops on diversity, racism, and psychoanalysis. Aleisa has a lifelong dedication to understanding and bringing transformative change to the typically unrecognized oppression of children and young people, known as childism.
Tobin McKee
Tobin is a Middleway Method Somatic Educator, and co-founder of Middleway Network, fostering the creation of new, free wellness training and educational resources for all people, giving special attention to underserved populations. Tobin also serves as a Core Team Member at Cooperation Humboldt, dedicated to building a Solidarity Economy on the North Coast.
Tobin is a Middleway Method Somatic Educator, and co-founder of Middleway Network, fostering the creation of new, free wellness training and educational resources for all people, giving special attention to underserved populations. Tobin also serves as a Core Team Member at Cooperation Humboldt, dedicated to building a Solidarity Economy on the North Coast.