ABOUT THE PANELISTS

JAMES O'DEA
James O'Dea is a Fellow of the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) and was until recently its President (4/2003-9/2008).  IONS is a non-profit membership organization founded in 1973 by astronaut Edgar Mitchell which explores the frontiers of consciousness and global paradigm change. Prior, he spent ten years as the Director of the Washington Office of Amnesty International and five years as Executive Director of the Seva Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to international health & development issues in Latin America, Asia, and on American Indian reservations. 

James founded and co-led an international series of "Compassion and Social Healing" dialogues funded by The Fetzer Institute. The dialogues, spanning a five year period, brought together leaders and activists in a variety of fields related to human rights, peace, and social reconciliation initiatives.

James is a member of the World Wisdom Council.  This council is a coalescing of international leaders in diverse fields banding together to formulate a structure and support system that furthers the realization that we are one family of humankind.  He works with emerging young leaders and the development of their initiatives, is engaged in intergenerational dialogue, and is a member of the Advisory Board of Children of the Earth.

He lectures all over the world, and has essays published in numerous magazines and books including currently the Mystery of 2012 (Sounds True) Consciousness and Healing: An Integral Approach to Mind Body Medicine (Elsevier) and Earthrise: The Dawning of a New Civilization in the 21st Century ( Goi). He is currently writing a chapter for a book on Creative Atonement. www.jamesodea.com

GLORIA BURGESS PHD
Dr. Burgess’s life’s work focuses on legacy living and legacy leadership—engaging our hearts and souls to create positive, generative futures for ourselves, our families, our communities, our organizations, and our environment. In her work and by her presence, Gloria embodies the universal wisdom that the world was not given to us by our parents, it was lent to us by our children. Founder and Executive Director of The Lift Every Voice Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to developing leaders among marginalized youth, Gloria is also Founder and Principal of Jazz, Inc., her leadership and organizational renewal firm. During the past 30 years, she has worked with Fortune 500 corporations and diverse non-profits to co-create healthy, life-affirming organizations. Gloria is Lead Faculty at Saybrook’s Leadership Institute and is also an Affiliate Professor at the University of Washington. She teaches and consults on legacy leadership and living for diverse organizations and communities throughout the North America, Africa, Australia, and Europe. Her latest book, Dare to Wear Your Soul on the Outside, shows us how to live for such a time as this. (Jossey-Bass/Wiley, 2008) www.gloriaburgess.com.

DAVID SPANGLER
Since 1964 David Spangler has been an author and teacher of spirituality.  From 1970 to 1973 he was a co-director of the Findhorn Foundation Community in northern Scotland and the founder of its educational program.  He was also a co-founder in 1974 of the Lorian Association, a non-profit spiritual educational foundation, which remains to this day the organization for which he works.  He is a Fellow of the Lindisfarne Association.  David has developed and taught classes at a number of institutions, including the University of Wisconsin, Seattle University, Bastyr University, and the California Institute of Integral Studies.  His current work involves developing and teaching a spiritual practice called incarnational spirituality. Information about his work and the online courses which he teaches can be found at www.Lorian.org.

            His books include Emergence; The Call; Everyday Miracles; Parent as Mystic, Mystic as Parent; Blessing:  The Art and the Practice; The Story Tree; and Manifestation: Creating the Life You Love.

            David is happily married with four children ranging in age from twenty-five to thirteen.  He considers being a parent his primary spiritual practice.

NORMA TIMBANG
Norma Timbang facilitates groups to raise consciousness about the impact of external power on self specific to intersections of social identities, historical (intergenerational) trauma, and individual trauma. Norma has worked with small grassroots organizations here in the U.S. and gender specific organizations in Japan to develop specific community centered interventions and healing processes in response to divisiveness and violence, towards safe and healthy support networks, and for the advancement of peace and equity. She has extensive experience providing community program development and evaluation, cross-cultural services development, and participatory research methods for grassroots social change organizations and community-based human service providers. She is also one of the founding mothers and former executive director of Asian & Pacific Islander Women & Family Safety Center (Seattle) and former executive director of Asian Pacific AIDS Council (Seattle). She has served on the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum (board member); "Transforming Silence Into Action"; Asian Pacific Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Network's 2006 national gathering; and the National Queer Asian & Pacific Islander Alliance. She has provided consultation and briefings on committees and panels contributing to publications and policy on human trafficking and violence against women, such as the Congressional Caucus on Women's Issues in Washington D.C., the Ford Foundation's publication on Asian Women's Issues and Concerns, Violence Against Women Online Resources, and the Washington State Task Force on Human Trafficking.

PHIL LANE JR, MED, MPA
Phil is a co-founder and international coordinator of the Four Worlds family of organizations. He is a Native American (Dakota-Chickasaw) who is both a traditional pipe carrier and sweat lodge keeper and an internationally acclaimed leader in human and community development.

He has worked with Indigenous peoples (and many others) in North and South America, Micronesia, Southeast Asia and Hawaii. He is an award-winning film producer. In 1992, Phil received the prestigious Windstar Award, presented annually to an individual whose personal and professional life exemplifies commitment to a global perspective, operates with an awareness of the spiritual dimensions of human existence, and demonstrates concrete actions and benefits to human beings and the earth. In 2000, Phil was awarded the Swiss Foundation for Human Rights annual Human Rights Award in recognition for his outstanding work on behalf of Indigenous people’s rights. Phil is President of Four Directions International and serves as chairman of Four Directions Information Systems Corporation, an Aboriginal information technology initiative. He also serves as a board member of the WETV Development Corporation.

Phil holds Masters degrees in both public administration and education. He served on the faculty of The University of Lethbridge for fifteen years and led the genesis of Four Worlds as a research project during those years. www.fourworlds.ca

SARAH RUTH VAN GELDER
Sarah Ruth van Gelder is co-founder and executive editor of YES! Magazine. Since its launch in 1996, Sarah has directed the editorial content of the magazine, and written, and spoken on leading-edge innovations that show that a more just and sustainable world is not only possible, it is already in the works. She also blogs about current headline news from a "YES! we can" perspective, both on the YES! website and on Huffington Post.

Topics she has developed in print and on line include climate change, the local economy movement, nonviolence and active peacemaking, food, water, universal health care, corporate power, happiness, nuclear disarmament, and much more. In each case, she frames issues of YES! around solutions to our deepest problems and the leadership for a better world that can be found in diverse communities.

As part of her community involvement, Sarah founded Suquamish Olalla Neighbors, an organization that works in partnership with the Suquamish Tribe on enhancing the quality of life for all area residents (and battles anti-tribal activism). She is on the board of directors of the Suquamish Foundation, a tribally chartered foundation, and on the board of YES! Magazine.
 
Sarah has traveled widely in Latin America, India, China, Europe, and Central America. She was a founding member of Winslow Cohousing, the first member-developed co-housing community in the U.S., and previously was a television and radio producer, a community organizer, and founder of a cooperative of food co-ops that linked organic farmers to urban markets. She has daughter, age 23, and a son, age 19.