Hall of Appreciation

Maureen Wild

Maureen Wild

Maureen Wild was one of the founding members of the Centre for Earth and Spirit. Maureen has been involved in Earth-centered ministries since 1993: Genesis Farm, Centre for Earth and Spirit, Pax Gaia Educational and Retreat Initiatives. Maureen is  currently the Sisters of Earth website manager, fiscal manager, and consultant for conference planning. Maureen lives lightly in her energy efficient home on Gabriola Island and assists the Sisters of Charity on their Water Project Committee.

Relevant Links:

Our Unique Story
Sisters of Earth

John T. Shields

John T. Shields

The late John T. Shields focused our work on cosmic spirituality, serving as a long term CES board member and Chair. He inspired curiosity and thoughtfulness, and evoked a sense of possibility and grace. His imagination was limitless as was his generosity of spirit. He blazed a trail in death as he did in life, becoming one of the first to participate in the process for medical assistance in dying. His legacy in the final chapter of his life was the Centre for Earth and Spirit. It is here that he planted his heart and soul with the hope that all he planted would continue to flourish long after his passing.

Relevant Links:

Our Unique Story
Living Well, Dying Well
In Memoriam

Robin J. Hood

Robin J. Hood

Robin is a cultural geographer, educator, filmmaker and activist/scholar. She worked for several years in Latin America supporting Mayan efforts to strengthen indigenous education and peace. During the past 30 years she has focused on supporting endangered peoples and landscapes, and creating strategies for educational renewal. Robin completed a post doctorate position at the University of Victoria on cultural keystone species research using digital storytelling. She was the co founder of the Global Village Store, Youth Speaks, the Gaia Project, Gumboot Productions and she was on the Rainforest Solutions team that crafted the globally significant, Great Bear Rainforest agreement. Her book, For the Love of Nature: Solutions for Biodiversity, co-authoured with Briony Penn was published in 2010. Robin served on the Board of the Centre for Earth & Spirit for more than 7 years. She is currently involved in the Living Well Dying Well program as well as co-leads the Nest Well Project.

Relevant Links:

Our Team
Our Unique Story
Nesting Well
Community Conversations

Bill Israel

Bill Israel

Former co-chair Bill Israel brings his 40 years of personal and professional experience in the field of Intensive Journaling, along with deep wisdom, insight, and humour. An experienced, professional facilitation consultant, he now works “hands-on” with young and older adults, utilizing a trauma-informed, client centered, non-judgmental writing process for regaining wholeness and self reliance including emotional balance, spiritual centering and physical resilience. Bill works in small groups on-line and with socially distanced “in person” gatherings. Clients include front line care givers, prisoners, parolees, those recovering from addictions, as well as homeless and jobless individuals.

Relevant Links:

Our Unique Story
Intensive Journaling

Kim Holl

Kim Holl

Former Co-Chair of the Centre for Earth and Spirit, Kim is a storyteller, social entrepreneur and compassionate communicator, who spent a decade and a half in the USA working with a diverse group of NGOs leading social change initiatives. The recipe for her program success was the implementation of Speaking Circles and inviting the disenfranchised to become part of the conversation. In 2018, Kim launched Life Through the Lens for people and organizations with a story to tell. She is also the Program Manager and Digital Media Producer for The Procurement School. As facilitator, filmmaker
, past Co-Chair and board member, and our first organizational administrator, Kim currently co-leads the Nest Well project.

Relevant Links:

Our Unique Story
Community Conversations
Nesting Well
No Ordinary Story

 

Grant Taylor

Grant Taylor

Grant was our treasured Treasurer for several years. Grant has a deep interest in writing, journaling. He was was interested in exploring how we could change and adapt our old world consciousness and ways of thinking into a new, higher awareness and mindfulness that is more relevant and more vital to the ‘New Story’ that is evolving.

Relevant Links:

Our Unique Story

Michael Tacon

Michael Tacon

Michael was one of our foundational board members. He is a retired psychotherapist who lives in the Harbourside Co-Housing community Sooke with his wife Beverley. He was the Program Director for the Well Foundation, active in the Sooke Transition Initiative, and was a facilitator with the Pachamama Alliance. 

Relevant Links:

Our Unique Story

Val Murray

Val Murray

Past board member Val feels a kinship to all beings. Since retiring in 1996, she has honed a dedication to the Way of Council as a life practice and to developing intergenerational programs that have reciprocal mentorship at their heart. She believes that the personal narrative speaks to universal truths about the human experience. Daily, she listens for teachings of the Earth to deepen her awareness, as Bill Plotkin says, “of being indigenous to Earth and thoroughly rooted in the land.”

Relevant Links:

Our Unique Story

 

Bev England

Bev England

Past board member Bev is a retired Administrator and Program Coordinator of the Faculty of Continuing Education, The University of Calgary.  Prior to working at The University of Calgary, Bev was employed by School District #18 Golden, BC. Since moving to Sooke she was involved with the Well Foundation, The Sooke Food CHI, Sooke Garden Club and was the Secretary for the Centre for Earth and Spirit Society.

Relevant Links:

Our Unique Story

Randy Pearce

Randy Pearce

Past board member Randy has been pursuing the outdoor lifestyle for most of his life, inspired by his deep interest in and connection with nature. An early interest in mountains and mountain culture informed his deep desire to understand Buddhist practices. 

Relevant Links:

Our Unique Story

Heather Fox

Heather Fox

Heather has been a valuable advisor to the Living Well, Dying Well program. Heather has worked more than 40 years in front line Social Work and Health Care, including counselling on the Palliative Response Team at Victoria Hospice. She has a Private practice in counselling and Therapeutic Touch, specializing in grief and loss, end of life issues, major illness, life transitions and care for the caregiver. She created the ‘Heartometer’, a playful yet profound tool for teaching the importance of caring for our own hearts when immersed in other’s pain. 

Relevant Links:

Living Well, Dying Well

 

Frances Westover

Frances Westover

Frances has offered a kind and thoughtful perspective to the development of the Living Well, Dying Well program. Prior to retirement, Frances was a Registered Clinical Counsellor specializing in body-focused psychotherapy. She used several types of bodywork combined with talk therapy to deal with developmental issues as well as trauma. 

Relevant Links:

Living Well, Dying Well

 

James Pratt

James Pratt

With his insightful feedback and attention to detail, James has been a valuable advisor to the Living Well, Dying Well program and a younger witness in our intergenerational Turning To One Another program. James runs a Victoria, BC-based consulting company. He facilitates creative processes to help organizations articulate and achieve their intentions.

Relevant Links:

Living Well, Dying Well
Turning to One Another
LinkedIn

Julie Froekjaer-Jensen

Julie Froekjaer-Jensen

Julie contributed to the development and leading of our Touch the Earth Tours. With a background in community economic development, program and project management, Julie  focuses her efforts on building local capacity for social innovation and entrepreneurial activities. Julie is currently the Interim Campus Principal of the Powell River campus of Vancouver Island University.

Relevant Links:

Our Unique Story
Touch the Earth Tours
LinkedIn

 

Sherrill Miller

Sherrill Miller

Sherrill has added to the CES community through her interpretive and insightful work on images in our Coming to Our Senses events. For more than 20 years Sherrill and her husband, photographer Courtney Milne, travelled the world to sacred places on all seven continents. Integrating a diverse background in nursing, counselling, and palliative care, Sherrill works with Courtney’s mystical photographic images in profoundly moving ways. 

Relevant Links:

Coming to Our Senses

Helene Demers

Helene Demers

Helene contributed to the development of the Living Well, Dying Well program and Coming to Our Senses events. She was a professor in the Department of Anthropology at Vancouver Island University where she co-taught a course on death and dying. Helene has published on music thanatology (the study of death and dying). 

Relevant Links:

Coming to Our Senses