empathizer / strategist / philomath

I am an ecopsychologist and long-time nonprofit development and communications specialist. I cultivate friends, funds, and new perspectives.

My academic and professional pursuits spiral around ecological grief practices, indigenous perspectives on adaptive leadership, systems thinking theory, the evolving landscape of philanthropy, and the social psychology behind ecological and community stewardship. Shifting from old models of wealth and power to communal resource mobilization empowers the whole and creates sustainable impacts for humans and non-human kin.

As an advocate for public lands and public health, my mission focuses on reconnection and reciprocity with the Earth through mindfulness, community, and collective liberation. I love holding space for others to discover their own embodied ways of being rooted in spiritual ecology.

I’m grateful to reside on the unceded territory of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band and the Ohlone people. Known as Popeloutchom for millennia, this land is now commonly referred to as Santa Cruz County. 

You can find me digging in the dirt in a garden, reading by a river, swimming in Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary waters, or slowly roaming a tree-canopied trail with my adopted mutts.

miranda

ecopsychologist / writer / ornithomantis

An ecopsychologist and enrolled citizen of the Wahzhazhe (Osage) Nation, I am currently settled on the mountainous, unceded land of Tsalaguwetiyi (Eastern Band Cherokee), or what is often referred to as Asheville, North Carolina, within the watershed of the Tah-kee-os-tee, or French Broad River.

Over the past few years, I have been reclaiming and remembering my belonging to the natural world, a journey that began as a way to navigate severe depression. Now, I bring these practices into my work, offering them to the community as pathways to reconnect with the earth.

My graduate research culminated in a dissertation on the intersection of birdwatching practices and ecotherapeutic modalities. My hope is to provide accessible, ecopsychologically informed experiences that foster insight, healing, and an ever-deepening relationship with nature. 

I sometimes write about myth, ecohealing, and birds. Check out my writing here.

Credentials

I hold a non-clinical Master's in Ecopsychology from Naropa University and Level 1 and 2 certificates in ecotherapy from the Earthbody Institute. With over a decade of meditation experience, I have had the honor to support Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield's virtual meditation community members.