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SPIRIT & NATURE
Presenter Biographies
Congresswoman Lois Capps has served as the Representative of the 23rd District, including Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties, since 2003. Capps serves on the powerful Committee on Energy and Commerce and the influential Natural Resources Committee and its Subcommittees on Fisheries, Wildlife and Oceans and National Parks, Forests and Public Lands. Serving on this committee provides Capps with an opportunity to help guarantee the long term protection of our nation’s public lands and coastal waters. On this Committee she will work to ensure that we serve as faithful stewards and manage our precious natural resources in a responsible manner. The daughter of a Lutheran minister, Capps has been an active member of Grace Lutheran Church since 1964.
Reverend Cynthia Bourgeault, Ph.D. is an Episcopal priest and contemplative, a Benedictine Camaldolese oblate, and an internationally known writer and retreat leader. She has worked closely with Father Thomas Keating in the development and teaching of Centering Prayer. Her books include: Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening, Mystical Hope, Nurturing the Heart, The Wisdom Way of Knowing, and Love is Stronger than Death. She has served on the faculty of Bangor Theological Seminary and the Vancouver School of Theology and is founding Director of the Contemplative Society in Victoria, BC, and the Aspen Wisdom School.
Shaikh Kabir Helminski is a Shaikh of the Mevlevi Order, which traces back to Rumi, and is the Co-Director of the Threshold Society. He holds a Masters Degree in Transpersonal Psychology and an honorary doctorate from Selcuk University in Konya, Turkey. He has translated many volumes of Sufi literature, including the works of Rumi, and is the author of Living Presence, The Knowing Heart, and the Beliefnet Guide to Islam. Kabir teaches widely throughout the world and is also a renowned musician, and educator.
Shaikha Camille Helminski is a gifted musician and author of Women of Sufism: A Hidden Treasure, Book of Character, Book of Nature. She collaborated with Refik Algan on a translation of Ahmet Hilmi’s classic, Awakened Dreams, and was the first woman to translate a substantial portion of the Qur’an in her book The Light of Dawn. She has collaborated on several translations of the works of Rumi, as well as a CD of Sufi music.
Rabbi Rami Shapiro, Ph.D. is widely regarded as one of the most creative voices in contemporary American Judaism. An award winning poet and essayist, his liturgies are used in prayer services throughout North America. He has written over a dozen works of poetry, liturgy, short story and non-fiction including: Open Secrets, The Jewish Prophets, Proverbs, The Wisdom of Solomon, Minyan, Ten Principals for Living a Life with Integrity, Last Breaths, Open Hearts, Open Minds, and The Divine Feminine. Rabbi Shapiro is a graduate of Hebrew Union College, Jewish Institute of Religion, and holds a doctoral degree in religious studies from Union Graduate School.
Pravrajika Vrajaprana, a member of Sarada Convent in Santa Barbara since 1977, is an ordained nun or sannyasini of the Vedanta Society of Southern California. A frequent participant in interfaith gatherings and active member of the American Academy of Religions, she is the author of Vedanta: A Simple Introduction as well as editor of Living Wisdom: Vedanta in the West and Seeing God Everywhere.
Don Trent “Four Arrows” Jacobs, PhD, EdD, a member of the Wolf Clan of Southern Band of the Cherokee, is Professor of Educational Leadership at Fielding Graduate University in Santa Barbara and Associate Professor at Northern Arizona University. He is the former Dean of Education at Oglala Lakota college. The author of 12 books, Dr Jacobs holds several academic degrees including an MA in Health Care Administration, a PhD in Health Psychology and an EdD in Curriculum and Instruction. He is passionate about teaching and learning, American Indian education and school renewal.
Michael Potts, Chief Executive Officer of Rocky Mountain Institute, is a former Managing Partner with Galway Investments, an investment firm focused on alternative public offering strategies for small-cap and mid-cap companies, and a consultant. Prior to Galway, he served as CEO for American Fundware and Vice President of Public Sector Solutions at Intuit. Potts currently serves on RMI's Board of Trustees, as well as the boards of the Business School at the University of Colorado in Denver, Denver's Curious Theater, and Kripalu Center, the nation's largest spiritual retreat center.
Ernst von Weizsäcker joined the Bren School as Dean in January 2006. Previously, he served as the policy director at the United Nations Centre for Science and Technology for Development, director of the Institute for European Environmental Policy, and president of the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment, and Energy. He is a member of the Club of Rome, a global think tank devoted to improving society, and he served on the World Commission on the Social Dimensions of Globalization. Later he became a member of the Bundestag, the federal parliament of Germany, where he was appointed Chairman of the Environmental Committee. He has also served as a professor of interdisciplinary biology and was the founding president of the University of Kassel in Germany. Von Weizsäcker has authored several influential books on the environment, including “Earth Politics” and “Factor Four: Doubling Wealth, Halving Resource Use.” His many honors and awards include the prestigious Takeda World Environment Award and the Duke of Edinburgh Gold Medal, presented by World Wildlife Fund International. He is a graduate of Hamburg University and earned his Ph.D. at Freiburg University.
Dr. Michael V. McGinnis lives in the Santa Barbara foothills with his partner Christina and two cats. Since the early 1990s, Mike has been active in community efforts to protect coastal and marine life of the region, and his webpage bioregionalism.org provides information on the ecology and human activities of the region. He is currently teaching courses in the Environmental Studies Program and the Graduate School of Environmental Science and Management at UC Santa Barbara. He has published over 60 articles, essays and book chapters on the subject of nature and culture, with a focus on place-based activism and science. His book Bioregionalism (Routledge, 1999) remains the primary treatment of the subject from an interdisciplinary perspective. He has received three research awards from the National Science Foundation, two research awards from the Department of the Interior, and a number of other grants, awards, and fellowships including a Fulbright Scholar Award to teach in Montenegro next year.
Sharyn Main worked for nearly a decade at the Community Environmental Council. She served as the Assistant Director of the Pollution Prevention Program and established CEC’s Watershed Program. Utilizing her marketing background, she developed award-winning Public Service Announcements and educational outreach as part of her work. In 1999 Ms. Main left CEC to become Program Officer for the Wendy P. McCaw Foundation. During her eight years at the Foundation, Ms. Main worked with local, national and international groups to help develop and fund projects to protect and restore wildlife and habitats. Ms. Main co-founded the South Coast Watershed Alliance (SCWA) in 1998, and served as chair for nearly a decade. SCWA was made up of environmental organizations and citizen-based groups working to improve water quality and restore steelhead to local creeks. SCWA was instrumental in raising awareness about watershed issues and in the formation of the City and County water quality and creek restoration programs. Ms. Main currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Environmental Defense Center of Santa Barbara.
Ed Bastian, Ph.D. is President of the Spiritual Paths Institute. His Doctorate is in Buddhist Studies and Western Philosophy from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Bastian studied for nearly a decade with Buddhist Monks in monasteries in the U.S., India and the Himalayas. As a Fulbright Scholar, he studied Indian philosophy at Banares Hindu University and translated Buddhist scriptures from Tibetan and Sanskrit sources. At the Smithsonian Institution, Bastian served as Director of programs on BioDiversity and Intellectual History, where he taught courses and moderated conferences on Buddhism, world religion, and Tibetan human rights. He has lectured, presented scholarly papers and his films in the U.S., England, Japan and India. Bastian is the Executive Producer of television programs on Asian religion for the BBC, PBS, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
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