The Y on Earth Community’s Global Advisory Board is comprised of leaders from diverse disciplines, regions, and backgrounds who are allied with our community mobilization work, and who help the Y on Earth Community through advising, networking, strategic development, resource cultivation, and spiritual intention.
Global Advisory Board - Active Directors & Committee Members
Brad Lidge
Global Advisor - Read Bio
Brad Lidge & Lindsay Lidge are investors, philanthropists, and engaged in a variety of local, national, and international organizations. Lindsay Lidge is a certified nutritionist, and the Founder of Reverie Fields, a boutique organic cut-flower enterprise. Brad (“Lights Out”) Lidge threw the winning pitch for the Philadelphia Phillies in the 2008 MLB World Series. Prior to being drafted into Major League Baseball, Brad studied Religious Studies at Notre Dame University. After retiring from baseball, Brad returned to college, finishing his undergraduate degree at Regis University, Denver, and then received a Master’s Degree in Archeology and Ancient History from the University of Leicester in England. The Lidges serve on several Boards of Directors, and Brad is a Director of the Y on Earth Community.
Hannah Odell
Global Advisor - Read Bio
Hannah Odell is a fundraising strategist, partnerships engineer, and impact storyteller previously featured in Bloomberg and Yahoo! Finance. She is Director of Strategic Giving at TED, where she is
responsible for building a holistic fundraising strategy, integrating digital giving and membership, and building a major donor council. Previously she was Development Director for the Global Warming
Mitigation Project, Managing Director at Hudson Ferris, and Co-Founder of Greater Space powered by Hudson Ferris. Her client portfolio include City University of New York, Climate Xchange, Green Schools
Alliance, Mathematical Association of America, Social Entrepreneurs Ireland, The Partnership to End Homelessness, The Partnership to End Homelessness, and Women’s March Global. She is a Board Member of Foundation Cristosal, an Environment and Clean Energy Advisor to Northeastern University’s
Impact Investment Fund, and serves on the Y on Earth Community’s Development Committee. Hannah holds a Bachelor of Arts degree (Magna Cum Laude) in International Affairs from Northeastern
University.
John Rogers
Global Advisor - Read Bio
John Rogers is a national security and systems risk expert focused on convening creatives, subject matter experts, and thought leaders to address complex problems. He founded RL Leaders, bringing Hollywood creatives and Pentagon officials together, is the author of The Renaissance Campaign, and serves on many Boards of Directors and Advisors. He was Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense at the Pentagon.
Eduardo Esparza
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Eduardo Esparza is the Founder and CEO of regenerative finance firms Blue Dot Project and Blue Dot Capitals. A Director of the ReCommon Board, Fund Launch Black Card member, alumnus of Columbia’s Venture Capital Private Equity Program, Harvard’s FinTech Program, Georgia Institute of Technology (M. Science), and a Fulbright Scholar, he speaks and moderates at the Family Office Summit at the WEF in Davos.
Artem Nikulkov
Global Advisor - Read Bio
Artem Nikulkov is Founder and CEO of Earth Coast Productions, a multimedia, video production, and audio visual management company focused on strategic digital story-telling to catalyze change in global sustainability, ecological stewardship, and community engagement. On the Board of Directors of the Y on Earth Community, Artem leads the organization’s technology, digital, and media strategy and campaigns, and is instrumental in creating Y on Earth’s digital platform. He is a native of the former Soviet Republic, Kyrgyzstan (Central Asia), and moved to the United States at the age of 12 quickly adapting to and adopting the grit and ethos of the American Dream. Artem resides in Colorado where you’re just as likely to find him storytelling around a remote wilderness campfire as in a digital recording studio or consulting with clients.
Bernard Amadei
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Dr. Bernard Amadei is a Distinguished Professor and Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He received his Ph.D. in 1982 from the University of
California at Berkeley. Dr. Amadei is the Founding Director of the Mortenson Center in Engineering for Developing Communities. He is also the Founding President of Engineers Without Borders - USA and the co-founder of the Engineers Without Borders-International network. Among other distinctions, Dr. Amadei is an elected member of the US National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Construction. He is also an elected Senior
Ashoka Fellow. Dr. Amadei holds seven honorary doctoral degrees (UMass Lowell; Carroll
College; Clarkson; Drexel; Worcester Polytechnic Institute; the Technion in Israel; and SUNY-ESF). In 2013 and 2014, Dr. Amadei served as a Science Envoy to Pakistan and Nepal for the US Department of State. Dr. Amadei holds a commercial pilot license (multi-engine land, instrument).
Sarah Arao
Global Advisor - Read Bio
Sarah Arao's bio will be available soon.
John Perkins
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John Perkins is the author of the NY Times best-selling Confessions of an Economic Hit Man (now in its 3 rd Edition), Touching the Jaguar, The Secret History of the American Empire, and Hoodwinked. He has lived four professional lives: as chief economist of a major global consulting firm where his actual job was that of an Economic Hit Man (EHM – clandestinely trained by agents of the so-called “Washington Consensus”), as CEO of an alternative energy company, as an expert on indigenous cultures, and as a writer, teacher, and speaker who promotes ecology and sustainability. He co-founded the non-profits Dream Change and Pachamama Alliance and applied his consulting fees to championing indigenous rights and environmental movements, working especially closely with Amazonian nations. Confessions of an Economic Hit Man has become an international bestseller in 38 languages and has sold over 2 million copies. He has been featured on ABC, NBC, CNN, CNBC, NPR, A&E, the History Channel, and in Time, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Der
Spiegel, and on the Y on Earth Community Podcast.
Brigitte Mars
Global Advisor - Read Bio
Brigitte Mars is an herbalist and nutritional consultant of Natural Health with almost fifty years of experience. She teaches Herbal Medicine at Naropa University and The School of Health Mastery in Iceland, and has taught at Omega Institute, Esalen, Kripalu, Sivananda Yoga Ashram, Arise, Envision and Unify Festivals, and The Mayo Clinic. She is a professional member of the American Herbalist Guild, and is the author of 17+ books and DVDs, including The Natural First Aid Handbook, The Home Reference to Holistic Health and Healing, The Country Almanac of Home Remedies, The Desktop Guide to Herbal Medicine, Beauty by Nature, and Addiction-Free Naturally.
Hunter Chesnutt-Perry
Global Advisor - Read Bio
Indigo Hunter Chesnutt-Perry is an artist, athlete, personal fitness trainer, entrepreneur, and student of architecture and environmental design at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He was born and raised in Boulder, Colorado, moved to St. Louis, Missouri for high school, and returned to Boulder for his next chapter - the mountains called to him.
Caressa Ayres
Global Advisor - Read Bio
Caressa Ayres, Founder of SoundLight Foundation & I Flow Studio, is an international Holistic Jin Shin Jyutsu® Energy Medicine Practitioner, Sound Healer, Spiritual Intuitive, and Conscious Alignment Facilitator. Her healing practices and Sound Healing Journeys reawaken Cosmic Intelligence within, inspire collective creative capabilities aligned in heart-based coherence and
consciousness, and remind humanity of the power of Love, in order to assist in the
transformation of personal and planetary evolution. Her growing passion for music laid the
foundation for a career as a Pro Tools Recording Engineer and later, a sound editor for film and
TV in Hollywood. Additionally, fitness, health, and wellness hold a prominent role in her life,
specifically including herbal medicine, Bioenergetics, Resonance (Frequency) Medicine, Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP), nutrition, fitness training, Shamanism (Sweet Medicine Path); and her favorite and most advanced healing modalities: Sound Healing and Jin Shin Jyutsu®.
Dr. Anita Sanchez
Global Advisor - Read Bio
Dr. Anita Sanchez is a board member of both the Pachamama Alliance and Bioneers. Azteca and Mexican-American, Anita inspires people to discover and trust their gifts so that they become life-giving connections to people and to the earth. She has trained thousands of leaders in global corporations and non-profits. Using indigenous wisdom and modern science, Anita guides leaders in creating caring and inclusive workplaces and communities. TedX presenter of Humanity’s Hope, Anita is an author of four books including the #1 international best-selling Success University for Women in Business, and The Four Sacred Gifts, published by Simon & Schuster.
Jack Dawson
Global Advisor - Read Bio
Jack Dawson practiced law for many years representing international environmental and technology based organizations operating in the United States, and is admitted to practice before the US Supreme Court. He served as Science and Technology advisor to the Governor of Colorado, and has mediated large scale public and private sector environmental disputes. He has taught negotiated conflict resolution in graduate level programs at Harvard and Regis Universities. He has been extensively engaged in applied research on the energetic nature of water and its potential uses in health, agriculture, and nuclear energy. He is an organic gardener, a Biodynamic practitioner, a long time beekeeper, an avid mountaineer, and certified in permaculture design.
Kevin Townley
Global Advisor - Read Bio
Kevin Townley entered the Carmelite Seminary in his early teens to study for the Catholic priesthood. After leaving the seminary he began a lifelong study, and has been a student and teacher of the Western Mysteries and Ageless Wisdom for nearly 40 years. Kevin worked several years in a full time laboratory dedicated to the practical study of spagery and alchemy, and co-founded the Philosophers of Nature, a Hermetic school. He is the author of The Cube of Space and Meditations on the Cube of Space. As Resident Scholar of the Highland City Club in Boulder, CO, Kevin has a standing monthly lecture on Western Mysticism, which has been running for more than a decade.
Martin Sugg
Global Advisor - Read Bio
Martin Sugg is a Colorado native with extensive writing, editing, and photography experience. He owned and operated Eclipse Photographics, a fine art photography dealer specializing in rare photographic prints and books by the world’s foremost 19th and early 20th century masters. He is a realtor with Wright Kingdom, and specializing in rural and agricultural properties. Marty is a member of the Grand Lodge of Colorado in the A.F. & A.M. Freemasonic Fraternity, where he has helped curate annual Education Symposia featuring speakers from the United States, Canada, and Europe on wide-ranging topics, including sacred geometry, Kabbalah, mysticism and Gnostic Christianity.
Marité Ball
Global Advisor - Read Bio
Marite Ball is a French-American pioneer with Fortune 500 experience and a passion for accelerating purpose-driven solutions. She has launched new products in Europe, the United States, India, Latin-America and China. In 2016, she decided to dedicate her career to addressing the Environmental crisis and founded Blue & Green Planet, Ltd (B&GP). As president of B&GP she has helped commercialize and scale-up eco-beneficial technologies in the Blue (water) and Green space (solar Water Pumping & Purification, Solar-Thermal, Waste-to-Energy, chemical-free Building Heating & Cooling). She belongs to the “Business for Good” global movement, advocates for the Circular Economy and champions the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). B&GP’s Sustainability Desk (SustainabilityDesk.com) develops and provides customized, tangible Climate Action Plans for companies of every size.
Samir Singh
Global Advisor - Read Bio
Samir Singh is an attorney and technology entrepreneur. He founded ContentScan, Inc. which applied
machine learning to create ComDisDome® the leading scholarly research tool for academic and research
libraries in the field of Communication Sciences and Disorders. Samir also created Scholar Universe®
(now part of ExLibris® Pivot®) a searchable database of scholar profiles. Samir was Managing Attorney at
Triton Bridge, PC, a technology transaction law firm and he was most recently General Counsel to Accel
Robotics Corporation, a SoftBank-backed maker of AI-powered automated retail stores. Samir serves on
the Board of Directors for Cultivating Connections Montana and as a Trustee for Francis W. Parker
School in San Diego, California.
Alena Maslova
Global Advisor - Read Bio
Alena Maslova is a philologist and entrepreneur based in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. She is the founder of Dobrosphera ("Kind Media") a sustainability-oriented media production and marketing company that collaborates with companies, NGOs and nonprofits throughout the world working toward the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Alena is also an artist and poet, and provides translation services in English, Russian, Spanish, and Sanskrit.
Aaron Perry
Global Advisor - Read Bio
Aaron William Perry is a social and environmental entrepreneur, executive director, philosopher, executive consultant, father, and author of several books, including the bestsellers, Y on Earth: Get Smarter, Feel Better, Heal the Planet and Viriditas: The Great Healing Is Within Our Power. He has founded, advised, and served several companies in the role of CEO, CFO, Board Director, Executive Director, and Executive Advisor. He is the host of the Y on Earth Community Podcast and serves the Y on Earth Community’s growing network of Ambassadors, mission-driven companies, community leaders, and change-makers.
Global Advisory Board - Emeritus
Jonathan Granoff
Global Advisor - Read Bio
Jonathan Granoff is an international lawyer, advocate, scholar, and award winning screenwriter who serves as President of the Global Security Institute, Representative to the United Nations for the Permanent Secretariat of the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates, and Ambassador for Peace, Security and Nuclear Disarmament of The Parliament of the World’s Religions. He serves on numerous advisory and governing boards such as the International Law Section of the American Bar Association, Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Fellowship, Universal Sufi Council, World Wisdom Council, Tikkun, International Association of Sufism, Middle Powers Initiative, Parliamentarians for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament working to bring the values of love, compassion, and justice into action. Mr. Granoff is the award-winning screenwriter of The Constitution: The Document that Created a Nation. He is a Fellow in the World Academy of Arts and Science and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014.
Sahar Alsahlani
Global Advisor - Read Bio
Sahar Alsahlani is an interfaith peace activist with a background in broadcast media and entertainment, including projects with USA Broadcasting, Warner Bros. Entertainment, FOX, Paramount, the American Forces Network, and Discovery ID. A member of The Community of Living Traditions at the Stony Point Center in New York (an interfaith community dedicated to social justice, nonviolence, and radical hospitality), Sahar is on the Executive Council of Religions for Peace, on the Boards of the North American Interfaith Network and the Council on American Islamic Relations, and is a Fellow of Green Faith – through which she works with all faiths (“from A to Z – Agnostics to Zoroastrians”) to help cultivate greater love, understanding, compassion, stewardship and sustainability in our world.
Patricia Frazier
Global Advisor - Read Bio
Patricia Frazier, NP is has been a Biodynamic farmer for over 20 years. She and her family have a small biodynamic homestead, diversified farm, and family dairy in Western Colorado where all of the preparation herbs are grown and utilized in making the indigenous Biodynamic preparations for her farm organism and Western Colorado Regional Biodynamic Group. Permaculture design is another of her passions and its marriage with Biodynamics is included in her two-week residential permaculture certification in the summers. Pat is a passionate cultivator of the Biodynamic Agriculture movement, speaking nationally and regionally at major Biodynamic conferences and advising on three national organizations. She is the president of the board of directors of Josephine Porter Institute for Applied Biodynamics, Inc. the largest non-profit distributor of Biodynamic Preparations in North America.
Katie Garces
Global Advisor - Read Bio
Katie Garces is a Director of the Y on Earth Community and the Founder and owner of KatieGarces.com, through which she provides consulting, coaching, and content services for health, nutrition, and the cultivation of spiritually meaningful lifestyles. Katie received her BS in Nursing from Creighton University before studying at the University of Pennsylvania where she earned an MS and became an Acute Care Nurse Practitioner. Later, Katie attended the Nutritional Therapy Institute in Denver, Colorado and became a Certified Nutritional Practitioner with a focus in Holistic Nutrition. She has completed advanced training and mentorships in Eating Psychology, Spirituality and Personal Development. Katie founded the Denver-based “Beyond Book Club” and serves as a coach and mentor, empowering women from diverse demographics to cultivate health, well-being, and improved qualities of life through better self-care.
Safi Kaskas
Global Advisor - Read Bio
Safi Kaskas is co-founder of the East West University in Chicago, Illinois, where he served as President of the Board of Directors 1979-2005, and continues to serve as an ex officio. With expertise in the managerial sciences, Safi is the Founder and President of Strategic Edge Management Consultants. He is also an Abrahamic religions scholar and lecturer, with a focus on reconciliation between Evangelic Christians and American Muslims. Senior Researcher in Islam and Multifaith Reconciliation at George Mason University, Center for World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution, Safi translated and published The Qur’an with References to the Bible, the Italian translation of which was presented to Pope Francis in 2016.
Kehkashan Basu
Global Advisor - Read Bio
Kehkashan Basu is the Founder of Green Hope Foundation, a global network platform for youth – especially girls – focused on action-oriented environmental workshops and grass-roots projects that promote gender equality, climate justice, land restoration and biodiversity conservation. She is the recipient of the 2016 Children’s Peace Prize, and, at the age of 12, was elected for a 2 year term as Global Coordinate for Children & Youth for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). She is an Honorary Advisor to the Committee on Sustainable Development (New York), a member of KidsRights Youngsters, Global Advisory Council Member of Young Men 4 Gender Equality – USA, and is a member of the World Oceans Day Global Youth Advisory Council. She has received several international awards, including from the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), and the 2015 Non-Resident Indian of the Year Award.
Reverend Kalani Souza
Global Advisor - Read Bio
Reverend Kalani Souza is the Founder and Director of the Olohana Foundation, which focuses on building community capacity, cohesiveness, resilience, and emergency preparedness around food, energy, water, and knowledge systems on the Big Island of Hawaii. He served as the Chairman of the Indigenous Knowledge & Education (IKE) Hui of the Pacific Risk Management Ohana (PRiMO), and has consulted to the President’s Ocean Policy Task Force. A storyteller, singer, songwriter, musician, poet, philosopher, priest, and peace-maker, Kalani is a Native Hawaiian whose workshops and lectures in social justice, conflict resolution, and environmental stewardship challenge and inspire audiences to achieve greater potential. He also curates an Indigenous Youth digital media program, empowering rising leaders throughout the world.
Zach Wolf
Global Advisor - Read Bio
Zach Wolf grew up in Salisbury, Connecticut, farming at Whippoorwill Farm and learning the ins and outs of pasture management. After a degree in Biology from Columbia University and research engagements at Aton Forest Ecological Research Station and The Earth Institute, he went on to manage the Field Operations and Direct the Growing Farmers Initiative at Stone Barns Center. He has facilitated the Farm Beginnings Program at Hawthorne Valley Farm, is a Research Fellow at The Nature Institute and most recently served as the Director of Farm Operations at Glynwood. Over the past eight years he has engaged as a farm consultant on over 10,000 acres of active farmland throughout the United States. He currently serves as a board member of Demeter USA.
Sarah Drew
Global Advisor - Read Bio
Sarah Drew is the visionary author of the eco-feminist novel GAIA CODEX. Her work catalyzes powerful blueprints for the future deeply rooted in the gnosis of the past. With a global social media following of over 150,000, Sarah is a mentor and teacher for women world-wide and has been a featured speaker at the graduate level and organizations such as Google and ABC Deepak Homebase. Sarah lives with her husband in Manhattan and on a lush forested farm in the Hudson Valley.
Maija West
Global Advisor - Read Bio
Maija West is the owner of the Law Office of Maija West, a boutique legal and corporate advising services firm, and is founder of Moxie Lab, a leadership company for emerging visionaries. She is also the founder of the Healing and Reconciliation Institute, a non-profit consulting firm specializing in healing and reconciliation processes in complex matters of social justice, often involving indigenous peoples and tribal nations. Maija has served on the boards of the Ventana Wildlife Society, the Wahine Project, and the Taos Community Foundation. She currently serves as the Chair of the Women’s Leadership Council for the Women’s Fund of the Community Foundation for Monterey County, and serves on the Board of the Community Foundation for Monterey County and the Monterey Rape Crisis Center.
Geraldine Patrick Encina
Global Advisor - Read Bio
Geraldine Patrick Encina is an Ethnoecologist and Cultural Astronomer, working at the Center for Earth Ethics at Union Theological Seminary (NYC) in the Original Caretakers Program, where she contributes to the development of curriculum in diverse subjects such as sacred sites, good living and indigenous ways of knowing. She is co-founder of Earth Timekeepers, where she is developing collaborative and intercultural methodologies to recover original calendars together with local people, teachers and researchers. Geraldine is author in many books, including Indigeneity and the Sacred: Indigenous Revival and the Conservation of Sacred Natural Sites in the Americas, Berhahn Books of New York. is an Ethnoecologist and Cultural Astronomer, working at the Center for Earth Ethics at Union Theological Seminary (NYC) in the Original Caretakers Program, where she contributes to the development of curriculum in diverse subjects such as sacred sites, good living and indigenous ways of knowing. She is co-founder of Earth Timekeepers, where she is developing collaborative and intercultural methodologies to recover original calendars together with local people, teachers and researchers. Geraldine is author in many books, including Indigeneity and the Sacred: Indigenous Revival and the Conservation of Sacred Natural Sites in the Americas, Berhahn Books of New York.
Xiye Bastida
Global Advisor - Read Bio
Xiye Bastida is 17 year old climate activist living in New York City. In 2018, she became the leader of her school’s Environmental Club, where she mobilized 600 students in the first Global Climate Strike. Since then she has taken a city-wide leadership role in organizing Climate Strikes and speaking out about Climate Justice issues. Bastida was born and raised in Mexico as part of the Otomi-Toltec indigenous peoples. She is one of the lead organizers of Fridays For Future, and sits on the Administration Committee of Peoples Climate Movement. Xiye recently launched a Youth Activism Training Program, and is a member of the Sunrise Movement, Extinction Rebellion, and was invited in 2018 to the 8th UN World Urban Forum to speak about Indigenous Cosmology. She received the “Spirit of the UN” award in 2018.