Our Founder

Young people are my anchor point of inspiration and active hope for a better future. Many have shared with me their visions of a more purposeful and sustainable life. I created the Great Turning Team to form a group of visionaries, aligned with their true potential, working together towards achieving a collective vision for human communities on Earth. The Great Turning Team offers a program where we can take an active role in restoring ourselves so that we may revitalize our local communities.

Most of my professional life has been within academia as a faculty member at the University of Vermont where I received my PhD in Biology in 2008. Since then, I’ve worked with over 4,000 students as a teacher, mentor, and adviser. I have won teaching and advising awards and for leading institutional reform for sustainability education. I most recently founded and direct a contemplative teaching and learning community for university faculty. Yet, my most rewarding experiences have been working closely with young people who want to lean into fully exploring their potential and then take their unique gifts into the world to make positive changes.

The contemplative path has been most influential to me over my past 20 years of practice. I have witnessed, first-hand, their transformational potential. Now, for the first time, I am offering my services to the greater community. I invite anyone interested in using contemplative practices intentionally to explore the inner landscape while building resiliency to do the “outer” work necessary to rebuild our local communities to join us!