
Penny Allport | Board Member
A lover of world wisdom traditions and participating in ceremonies honoring the life-death-life cycle from Mexico to Bali, Africa
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Jo-Ann Bance | Treasurer
It can be said that Life is a series of transitions and I am joining the Centre for Earth and Spirit as the Treasurer after retiring from full time work. I have a degree in business and a masters in human resource management, with 30 years of experience working in an administrative capacity in various organizations. After a 15 year exploration of yoga, I made the decision in 2013, to deepen my personal yoga practice and completed a 500 hour yoga teacher training – I have been teaching yoga ever since.
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Alice Louise Meyers | Vice-Chair
A biography of life’s canoe journey – Alice’s canoe journey of life began during lakeside explorations with her grandmother, and today, she follows in the footprints of her passionate, eco-minded parents. With a background in theoretical linguistics, Alice has canoed with First Nations communities engaged in celebratory language resurgence projects.
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Renate Ringer | Secretary & Facilitator
I am an earth walker, star gazer, indigenous rose inhaler, ocean swimmer, wild mushroom forager and a continuing student of nature’s wisdom and the cycle of life & death. My background includes working in the health field as well as being employed in various types of research projects for several decades. For many years I also managed urban agriculture programs and social enterprise endeavors in the non profit sector. Currently I am exploring various additional healing arts such as: music, dance, poetry, story telling, herbology, reiki, dreamwork, and spirituality.
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Sandra Thomson | Chair
I have always been passionate and committed to social change, seeking ways to work that are holistic, integrated, and seek to understand root causes. I have a background in holistic health and an interest in spiritual activism, reflective practices for practitioners and social change agents, and community-based mind / body / spirit wellness practices.
I have been working for several years on the coast supporting First Nations communities to assume their rights and responsibilities to determine what happens on their territories through Coastal Stewardship Network. I am currently enrolled in the Community Health Promotion for Aboriginal Communities program at Vancouver Island University in an effort to integrate my holistic health studies in continued support of First Nations’ health and well-being.

Dr. Robin June Hood | Past Board Member and Founder
Robin is a cultural geographer, educator, filmmaker
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Bill Israel | Facilitator and Past Board Member
As a
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Kim Holl | Facilitator & Filmmaker
As a storyteller, social entrepreneur and compassionate communicator, Kim spent a decade and a half in the USA working with a diverse group of nonprofits leading social change initiatives. She has worked with urban, rural, inner-city and First Nations communities, facilitating innovative, arts- and adventure-based programs that focus on bullying prevention and anti-violence, restorative practices, community engagement, and using philanthropy to inspire social change.
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Honouring Our Past Board Members
John T. Shields

John’s interest was in the transformation of the current materialist worldview, to align it with recent discoveries about the universe. This consciousness led him to revamp his own spirituality. He understood the radical responsibility that we have to bring a new world to fruition. John believed that we live on the cutting edge of an expanding universe, and that this current moment is the only time there is to co-create the world. He was passionate about the realization that everything is interconnected in a conscious and living cosmos. John was a trained IONS facilitator in Conscious Aging.
Grant Taylor

Grant was a member of the Well Foundation, which joined forces with Centre for Earth and Spirit, and is exploring, with others, how we can 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.
Michael Tacon

Michael sees that the issues of resilience and sustainability are key factors in shaping effective responses to current and future challenges facing our societies. At the same time, Michael senses that bringing together the cosmology offered by modern science with the ancient sources of wisdom is essential for the renewal of our civilization.
Val Murray

It is also true to say that Val was born to the giant cedars, ocean and mountains of Stanley Park and that she feels a kinship to all beings. Her passion for animals and their well-being is an enduring thread through her life journey. She is drawn to connect with new ideas that hide just below the surface of ordinary consciousness and to manifest visions that have not been seen before. She is a pathfinder who loves the elegance of language that gets right to the heart of the matter. Helping others see their own uniqueness gives her great joy. Retirement years have brought her in touch with her true essence, often rubbing elbows with instructive shadow beings in the process.
Daily, she listens for teachings of the Earth to speak through her intelligence, deepening her awareness, as Bill Plotkin says, “of being indigenous to Earth and thoroughly rooted in the land”.
Bev England
Prior to working at The University of Calgary, Bev was employed by School District #18 Golden, BC and subsequently Strathcona-Tweedsmuir, a private school near Calgary.
Since moving to Sooke with her husband Michael 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.

Randy Pearce | 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. He is intrigued by how these practices work at the internal level of the mind, and how the mind functions in relation to the outer realm of the environment in which we live. Randy has practiced meditation for many years and believes that it is a valid tool that can be used to gain access that allows for a deeper understanding of who we all are, and the where and when that we all live in.