Staff
Mentoring Program Director
emnorth@gmail.com
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 Angelo Lazenka from 2001 through 2005. Currently, she directs the Mentoring Program, leads fasts and trainings and works with advanced trainees.
Art Website: http//www.earthtonesart.com
Board of Directors and President
angelo@lostborders.org
Angelo Lazenka,: A vision fast guide and trainer since 1986, Angelo joined the Staff of the School in 1993 and co-directed the School with Emerald North from 2001 through 2005. Angelo 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.
Council trainer, wilderness rite of passage guide and trainer, she is a co-author of The Box and The Way of Council. Gigi helped create and oversee the Ojai Foundation, an educational retreat sanctuary for youth and adults. She has worked extensively in the areas of citizen diplomacy, community development, permaculture and interspecies communication projects, such as directing the first release of dolphins back to the wild. (gigicoyle@earthlink.net)
Prominent leader in the men’s heart and soul movement worldwide. Co-founder of the Men’s Council Project offering soul-based men’s leadership training. Works with the Institute for Social and Emotional Learning (youth empowerment programs). Trained at Lost Borders, apprenticed to a variety of dedicated spiritual elders, he has guided youth through rites of passage into adulthood for 14 years. With Mary McHenry, he creates blessing ways and community rituals for youth. Jeffrey lives in Eldora, CO with Mary and their son Luke. “To be able to support and acknowledge the young peoples’ call, their hopes for a full and heart-felt life in a difficult world brings to me, through their courage, a piercing beauty and eternal gratitude.”
jdavis@naropa.edu
John has been leading wilderness rites of passage retreats since 1984. He is on the faculty of the School of Lost Borders where he leads vision fasts and trains rites of passage guides. An ordained teacher of the Diamond Approach since 1983, he is the author of The Diamond Approach: An Introduction to the Teachings of A. H. Almaas (Shambhala). John is also a professor at Naropa University where he initiated and teaches wilderness and ecopsychology studies. He is the father of three.
larry@inlandwhale.com
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. "I love helping people discover new ways of experiencing their relationship to the natural world . I love listening to the stories and seeing hearts open to new possibilities. I love the people who dare to go alone into themselves and return with great gifts for us all."
A seasoned wilderness guide and Wilderness First Responder, Chris has worked with a number of schools and programs including SUWS Adolecent Programs and Catherine Freer Wilderness Therapy Expeditions. He trained and apprenticed at the School of Lost Borders and is co-founder of Pacific Quest, a transition program for adolescents incorporating wilderness rites of passage and sustainable living on the island of Hawaii. His passion for relating with and empowering individuals is matched only by his love of nature.
A student of how things move. Her long relationship with rhythm and patterns is evident in her work as a dancer, vocalist and naturalist. Mary taught at Naropa Institute for many years; and her work brings expressive arts and wild nature together. Trained at Lost Borders, she has given herself to the future of young people and is, above all, a self-made woman, mother and vision fast guide. “I stand in the continuum gathering threads of light from the past and casting them into the future like lifelines. I am called to be awake, aware, present, and to see young people with the eyes of a grandmother. What a blessing.”
Director Vision Fasts and Training Program and Director Education and Outreach
betsy@psycheandnature.com
Betsy has a PhD in Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute. Her doctoral dissertation on landscape archetypes weaves together insights from Jungian depth psychology, nature literature, and wilderness experiences. As Director of Education and Outreach, Betsy is responsible for representing the school at conferences and colleges, supporting students who are pursuing wilderness-based research projects, and editing the quarterly newsletter. She is also Associate Professor of Counseling at California State University, Los Angeles, and is a licensed marriage and family therapist. Trained at the School of Lost Borders, Betsy brings forth authenticity, spontaneity, and humor into her work as a wilderness guide.
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. (winphelps@earthlink.net)
A member of Lost Borders staff for 9 years, Silvia is a hospice nurse, massage therapist, Reike practitioner, and guide for wilderness rites of passage. She is a woman of versatility, depth, and humor. A mother and grandmother,she brings to her work a nurturing and sometimes outrageous insight, a shrewd understanding of human nature earned in the university of life, and the magic that encourages people to go beyond their borders. “When I sit in this ceremony I am blessed to be given the opportunity to witness through the collective eyes something greater than ourselves. The reflection of the natural world that mirrors the nature of self, from the darkest shadows to the divine. This ceremony is a prayer to all humanity.”
Director Vision Fasts and Training Program
ruthwharton@yahoo.com
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. Ruth has a B.A. in Therapeutic Use of the Wilderness Experience and Cultural Anthropology from Prescott College and M.A. in Transpersonal Counseling Psychology from Naropa University. She is also a wilderness first responder. Ruth currently has a private practice in Boulder, CO specializing in wilderness therapy and play therapy.
Director of The Practice of Living and Dying, Lost Borders International, and Lost Borders Press
lostbrdrs@cebridge.net
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 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, and Lost Borders: Coming of Age in the Wilderness. Since Steven’s death in 2003, she continues both nationally and internationally to guide and train others in this work, while also founding, with Dr. Scott Eberle, a new arm of Lost Borders entitled “The Practice of Living and Dying”. In this partnership with Scott she hopes to crack open the taboos surrounding death, and to help restore dying to its natural place in the cycles of living.
Director of The Practice of Living and Dying
seberle@sbcglobal.net
Scott is a physician specializing in end-of-life care, Scott serves as medical director for Hospice of Petaluma in his hometown of Petaluma, California. Having first learned the science of medicine at U.C. San Francisco medical school, he then learned the art of medicine from countless people living and dying with AIDS in the 1980s and 1990s. He survived this difficult time by regularly seeking sanctuary, either in monasteries or in the natural world, completing over 150 retreats during a 15-year period. He recently ended a 16-year career as an an AIDS specialist so he could focus his energies on hospice work and "The Practice of Living and Dying" work he does with Meredith. As he has written in his new book, The Final Crossing: "So now I am a physician who specializes in supporting life transitions. I am a hospice doctor who sits with the dying in their homes, and I am a rite-of-passage guide who sits with 'the dying' out in the desert."
nancyjane1@earthlink.net
Nancy Jane leads youth and adult vision fasts. She is a guide/instructor for the Psychology of Wilderness Experience course at Naropa University. On staff at the School of Lost Borders, Nancy has trained with Earth Rites and the Center for Council Training, Ojai, CA. For many years a naturalist and forester, as well as an author and editor, Nancy listens deeply in support of others’ connection to nature and spirit. As she steps into her elder years, she sees her work as supporting other elders in their search for meaning. You may contact Nancy at nancyjane1@earthlink.net or 720-494-1989.
Roger Milliken, Jr. is a father, conservationist, businessman and writer. He manages family forest land in Maine, and has brought industry and environmental interests together to address common concerns of biodiversity and sustainability. He is active inThe Nature Conservancy both nationally and locally, where he helped lead the effort to protect 500,000 acres of Maine's land, lakes and river corridors. A student of Theravada and Zen Buddhism, he fasted with Steven Foster and Meredith Little in the Inyo Mountains in 1992. Vision quest offered him the perfect complement to meditation practice, and he embraced the connection it offered to both the natural world and questions of personal destiny. He trained at the School of Lost Borders, and since 1994 he has co-led vision fasts with Gigi Coyle in California and medicine walk weekends on a Maine island with Nancy Anderson. He lives in Maine with his wife and daughte
ronp@frontier.net
Ron Pevny, M.A, recognized his calling as a wilderness rite of passage guide in 1979, and through his guiding, life coaching and consulting has been assisting people in creating lives of passion and service ever since. These days his work is focused on guiding rites of passage for people committed to conscious/spiritual elderhood, coaching individuals feeling called to claim the role of elder, and offering tours to learn about and from the Tarahumara Indians of Copper Canyon, Mexico. Ron brings to his work a gentle way of working with others that reflects his strong trust that compassion heals and opens hearts and minds. One of his passions is doing oral history work with elders in his community of Durango, Colorado.
susan@diamondheart.com
Susanna loves to support others in creating a life that reflects their deepest inner truth, makes their wild heart sing, and ripples outward in ever-widening circles of life-affirming impact. She combines the theoretical stuff she learned while getting a Ph.D. in Transformative Learning and Change with her training and experience as a life and leadership coach, a vision quest guide, and a council facilitator and trainer, and then weaves it all together with a profound love of nature.
These days, she works primarily with “culturally creative” and integrally oriented women who care deeply about the future of our planet and who are burning with the desire to give their gifts, live their calling, and make a meaningful and lasting contribution to the world. Her primary areas of focus in her work are: cultivating authentic leadership; birthing and growing right livelihood; reconnecting with the soul of nature; and living a more balanced, personally sustainable, and joyful life.
“My professional life is focused around coaching, training, and facilitating others to realize their goals. I am fascinated by people and how we grow; I have a natural gift for empowering others and for eliciting their inherent talents, their authentic selves. I work most creatively and productively in the context of shared leadership and team collaboration. I believe deeply in the power of heartfelt and candid conversation to heal relationships and build community.”
willscott6@gmail.com
A wilderness guide and student of the human-nature relationship for the past 9 years. Will began by leading adventure backpacking trips and has since been a guide both domestically and internationally with college-level field courses and vision fasts. He co-founded The Wilderness Within in 2003 in an effort to encourage wilderness experiences that focus on individual growth and engage some of the key questions of ecopsychology. Will has trained and apprenticed at Lost Borders and is also a Wilderness First Responder. A student of permaculture and natural history, Will carries the question of what it means to live on the earth in a deep, meaningful, and regenerative way.
Board of Directors and CFO
sara@lostborders.org
Sara Harris, MFT has been a Psychotherapist in private practice in Sonoma County, California for 25 years. In 1998 she began the first Northern California chapter of Bread for the Journey, a national non-profit dedicated to nurturing 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 program in Sebastopol , Ca, dedicated to Rites of Passages and other earth-based programs. She is currently a Hospice volunteer through Memorial Hospice and Hospice of Petaluma. She has been an educator, guide and mentor in a variety of settings.
Board of Directors and Board Secretary
maddisen@lostborders.org
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.
raymondhillis@gmail.com .
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. He's a pianist, wilderness explorer, student of dreams, and ceremonial practitioner. He now spends much of his time on land he is restoring for groups like ours to use in the coming years. Website:http://www.wildernessdreaming.com;
caiyloirch@googlemail.com
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.
For the past eight years I have worked as an outdoor environmental educator. The fields of ecopsychology and Deep Ecology continue to be a significant influence in my work. Equally significant is an enduring appreciation of contemplative practice, and I have benefited from many months of silent retreat throughout my life. I feel it is the power of community that will bring us through these times if anything will, and the work here at the school reminds me of this.
For over ten years Jan has been a coach and guide for those seeking meaning and authentic connection in their business and personal worlds. After her Vision Quest in 2005 she was called to lead others into the wilderness of Earth and soul to experience deep, joyful connection with the natural world.
Since then, she has been leading workshops, retreats, and wilderness experiences for women in all stages of their lives while uncovering more of her own essence as a leader. As a leadership coach and wilderness guide, Jan offers generous listening and artful mirroring, enabling others to expand their sense of themselves and the world. She is curious, playful, and constantly amazed by the beauty and mystery of Earth. Her big, audacious goal is to bring together the natural world and the world of business in creative and powerful ways that create wholeness and healing at work.
trebbe@visionarrow.com
TREBBE JOHNSON is the author of The World Is a Waiting Lover: Desire and the Quest for the Beloved and the director of Vision Arrow, offering journeys worldwide that combine adventure travel, the mythic journey, and the quest for meaning. A lifelong adventurer in inner and outer worlds, she has camped alone in the Arctic; studied classical Indian dance; worked as a life drawing model, street sweeper, and award-winning multimedia producer; led contemplative journeys in a clearcut forest and an old bombing range; and explored myth, desire, and the natural world through her writing in several genres. She lives with her husband in rural northeastern Pennsylvania. www.visionarrow.com
