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Staff and Guide Bios
Staff
Betsy Perluss, PhD
Betsy Perluss, Ph.D. has been involved with the School of Lost Borders for over ten years as both a wilderness guide and director of programs. She holds a doctorate in Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute where she currently teaches courses on ecopsychology and rites of passage. A gifted guide and teacher, Betsy brings much heart, intensity, and humor to her wilderness work. She is also a licensed psychotherapist and Associate Professor of Counseling at California State University, Los Angeles.
Dr. Scott Eberle
Dr. Scott Eberle is a physician specializing in end-of-life care, medical director of Hospice of Petaluma in Petaluma, California, an experienced teacher and author, and a wilderness guide. He first learned the science of medicine at U.C. San Francisco medical school, then learned the art of medicine from countless people living and dying with AIDS. He survived this difficult time by regularly seeking sanctuary, either in monasteries or in the natural world, completing more than a hundred retreats during a fifteen-year period.
Emerald North
Visionary, painter, sculptor, gardener and poet, Emerald North, brings years of vital and vibrant experience to the School of Lost Borders. She teaches from the depth of a full and rich life with humor, vision and love. Emerald has been with Lost Borders since 1993 and co-directed the School with Joseph Lazenka from 2001 through 2005. Art Website: http//www.earthtonesart.com
John Davis, PhD
John has been leading wilderness rites of passage retreats since 1984. As a School of Lost Borders staff member, he leads vision fasts and other wilderness-based retreats and trains rites of passage guides. As a professor at Naropa University for many years, he directed the MA programs in ecopsychology and transpersonal psychology. He currently teaches transpersonal psychology, ecopsychology, and wilderness therapy there. A teacher of the Diamond Approach since 1983, he is the author of Read more »
Joseph Lazenka
A vision fast guide and trainer since 1986, Joseph joined the Staff of the School in 1993 and co-directed the School with Emerald North from 2001 through 2005. Joseph brings a passionate, dramatic voice to the nurturing of individual character and calling, and a mythic empathy for people, their dreams, and the healing power of nature.
Larry Hobbs
From a field biologist studying whales and dolphins, to a psychotherapist working with individual and family systems, to a teacher and naturalist leading wildlife trips worldwide, Larry came to Lost Borders to train and to guide vision fasts. Although still conducting river dolphin research in Southeast Asia, teaching and leading natural history trips around the world, Larry's passions lay in guiding vision fasters and in sharing his knowledge of the way we understand the ecosystems that support us all.
Meredith Little
Meredith and her husband, Steven Foster, co-founded Rites of Passage Inc. in 1976 and The School of Lost Borders in 1981 – pioneering the methods and dynamics of modern pan-cultural passage rites in the wilderness, and “field eco-therapy”. The essence of their work is captured in articles, chapters, an award-winning documentary film, and books that include: The Book of the Vision Quest, The Roaring of the Sacred River, The Four Shields: The Initiatory Seasons of Human Nature,
Nancy Jane
Nancy is an educator, wilderness guide, and council facilitator. She began her study of wilderness rites of passage in 1981 and has been following this calling ever since. Nancy leads youth and adult vision fasts and has pioneered wilderness rites of passage in school settings. Her intention is to listen deeply in support of others’ connection to nature and spirit; to hold the deepest, widest container of safety and acceptance for others; and to empower them in the full expression of who they are.
Ruth Wharton
An experienced wilderness guide, mentor, and therapist. Ruth has worked extensively with people of all ages in wilderness, residential, and therapeutic settings. She been a guide at the School of Lost Borders over 8 years and is deeply committed to re-introducing rites of passage into the world. This woman passionately weaves the mirror of nature through the world around her.
Silvia Talavera
Silvia has been on the staff of The School of Lost Borders since 1992 as guide and teacher. She is a hospice nurse supporting end of life transitions and end of life care at the bedside and as a community educator. She is a woman of versatility, passion, depth and humor. Silvia brings to her work a nurturing insight and deep compassion inspiring people to expand beyond familiar borders towards self empowerment.
Virginia 'Gigi' Coyle
Gigi Coyle Gigi began with a series of three-day retreats at a convent school when she was twelve. In her early twenties, the seeds of that experience led her to travel--alone in the wilderness, and in other cultures--seeking pathways to spirit, integral healing, and the partnership possible between all beings. She still travels that road.
Will Scott
Will is a teacher, naturalist, wilderness guide and life-long student of the human-nature relationship. Will began by leading backpacking trips and has since been a guide both domestically and internationally with college-level field courses, wilderness expeditions, and vision fasts. He co-founded The Wilderness Within in 2003 to encourage wilderness experiences that focus on individual growth and connection to place in an effort to engage some of the key questions of ecopsychology.
Win Phelps
Vision fast guide, trainer and council facilitator, he was a director in film and television for 25 years. Twice nominated for Emmys as best director in a dramatic series, he was executive producer of the Lost Borders youth-quest documentary film. Trained in ecotherapy at Lost Borders and the Animas Valley Institute, he is also a coach/mentor certified by the Hudson Institute of Santa Barbara. He is a 25-year student of the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and parent of two children in their twenties.
School Guide
Ron Pevny
Ron Pevny recognized his calling as a wilderness rite of passage guide in 1979 after training with Steven Foster and Meredith Little, and ever since has been dedicated to assisting people in creating lives of purpose and passion. He co-created Choosing Conscious Elderhood in 2002, and in 2010 founded the Center for Conscious Eldering as well as becoming a Certified Sage-ing Leader. His life coaching practice is focused on individuals who feel called to claim the role of elder
Email: ronp@frontier.net
Caiyloirch Marques
I am intrigued by the stories we live by. A guiding question for my own life is concerned with what personal and collective stories support us in living in a mutually enhancing manner on this earth. My work here at the school and in my wider life as an educator is in support of this inquiry.
Ray Hillis
Ray has led and assisted fasts with the School of Lost Borders for the past few years. He received his Ph.D. in Psychology from UCLA in 1968, recently retired from a lifelong career of teaching human development and counseling, and has had a psychotherapy practice (presently in Santa Fe, New Mexico) with a special interest in Jungian analytic dreamwork since the 1970s.
Guest Guide
Ann DeBaldo
Ann has spent years exploring the spiritual and healing traditions of cultures around the world. As a professor with a doctorate in medical science who now specializes in international public health and education, she has extensive experience leading and guiding educational journeys to Asia, South Asia, Central America, and South America. As a wilderness guide, she has years of training in the ways of the wilderness. Ann has been a student of the Diamond Approach since 2000 and a student in the Diamond Approach’s seminary teacher training program since 2006.
Cazeaux Nordstrum, M.A., L.M.F.T.
is a licensed psychotherapist, consultant and educator. Her Bay Area based practice focuses on adults in mid-life and older life, and the meaning of life in its second half. During the last 30 years she has taught cross-cultural and inter-generational programs on the topics of aging, grief/loss, caregiving, forgiveness, and depression/anxiety at the university level throughout the Bay Area, and in Japan. Her background in anthropology, transpersonal psychology, and indigenous cultures—along with her personal connection to nature—have
Cynthia Morrow,
Cynthia Morrow, MFT, is a seasoned psychotherapist, a wilderness rites of passage guide, and a biodynamic craniosacral practitioner. Her work is devoted to bringing the passionate, embodied soul of wild nature into our lives for deep healing, inner strength, and whole-heartedness. She has trained as a vision fast guide with The School of Lost Borders and offers rites of passage programs through EarthWays (www.earthways.info), a collective in Sebastopol, CA.
Kinde Nebeker
Kinde Nebeker is a designer, teacher, artist, climber, lover of world travel and passionate wilderness rites of passage guide. She holds an M.F.A. in Transpersonal Psychology with a concentration in Ecopsycholgy, and an MFA in graphic design. She has studied wilderness rites of passage work with the School of Lost Borders, Animas Valley, Naropa University and through her own vision quests. Kinde is a certified Wilderness First Responder and has completed the nine-month Mastery Program of New Feminine Power.
Laura Montoya
Laura is a naturalist, a wilderness adventurer, has assistant taught college-level field courses, and holds a deep love & commitment to and for the vision fast ceremony as an annual practice in her life. She has followed a path of service and spiritual healing through the nature awareness connection for the past eight years.
Lucia Leck
Lucia Leck, one of Ron’s collaborators in the Center for Conscious Eldering, is a spiritual director and Certified Sage-ing Leader, who presents retreats on conscious aging and teaches university courses on The Voices of Aging. She has facilitated courses using the Courage and Light program inspired by the work of Parker Palmer and Jim Brandenburg focusing on aligning passion and purpose.
Margaret Thompson
Margaret lives in service to the wilderness that seeks expression in every aspect of being. As a coach, mentor, guide, companion, and student she supports persons emerging into full expression of the extraordinary capacities and possibilities of human being unfolding and fully integrated with Nature and Spirit. Her work is in creating and facilitating experiences to evoke the innate wisdom that resides within.
Pedro McMillan
An environmentalist since childhood, Pedro became an eco-entrepaneur 20 years ago and continues running a green business today. A veteran of many fasts since 1996 he has trained and assisted with several programs at the School over the last few years. Stepping into the role of guide he brings a wealth of experience and a poetic and passionate heart to this work.
Petra Lentz-Snow
A Wilderness Guide, Zen Buddhist Practitioner and mother of 3 children, Petra is dedicated to support meaningful Rites of Passage in the wilderness and in the urban jungle of our humaness. She has been a vision fast guide for over 15 years. Truly taking one's place in the world has been (and continues to be) a life long inquiry and practice for her and is at the heart of her work.
Praveen Mantena
A world traveler and cross-cultural nomad since childhood, Praveen came from an upbringing in Asia and the Middle East before calling America home. A life’s passion for guiding wilderness rites of passage was preceded by educationally wide-ranging stints in the military, academia, the corporate/finance world and narrative art photography before the ceremony came calling. He is committed to bridging the timeless wisdom of the greater natural world with the sensibilities and challenges of our contemporary times and finding one’s own courage, passion and guidance distilled from within it.
Tina Berger
Tina has made her living as a business leader and organizational learning consultant for nearly 25 years, with a developed specialization in creating technical and scientific training and e-learning programs. Having experienced significant breakthroughs and acceleration of her personal work in traditional talk therapy when combining it with a daily regimen of Kundalini Yoga in 1997, she developed a fascination with the idea of combining awareness methods that engage different aspects of the consciousness.
Trebbe Johnson
Trebbe has been leading vision quests, workshops, and ceremonies worldwide since 1994. She is the founder of Radical Joy for Hard Times, a non-profit organization devoted to finding and making beauty in wounded places, and the author of The World Is a Waiting Lover. A passionate explorer of outer as well as inner frontiers, Trebbe has camped alone in the Arctic, traveled in the Sahara Desert, and worked as a model, street-sweeper, and award-winning multimedia producer. She lives in rural northeastern Pennsylvania.
Board of Directors
Maddisen K. Krown
Maddisen has been engaged in vision quest and wilderness rites of passage trainings with the School of Lost Borders since 1998. She received her undergraduate degree in English Literature/Writing from UMass, Amherst, and holds a Master’s Degree in Spiritual Psychology from the University of Santa Monica. Between deep exhales and inhales of the wilderness, Maddisen serves as a life coach & counselor, and writes & performs stories for the stage and film.
Sara Harris
Sara Harris, MFT, has been a Psychotherapist in private practice in Sonoma County, California for over 25 years. In 1998 she began the first Northern California chapter of Bread for the Journey, a national non-profit dedicated to neighborhood philanthropy. She did Vision Quest guide training at the School of Lost Borders and also with Wilderness Rites, and is the co-founder of EarthWays (www.earthways.info), a collective in Sebastopol, Ca, dedicated to Rites of Passage and other earth-based programs. She has been an exuberant educator, guide and mentor in a variety of settings.