The New Dimensions Café

Brenda Peterson is a novelist, nature writer, and writing teacher. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Orion Magazine, and O: The Oprah Magazine. She’s a regular commentator for Seattle NPR and the Huffington Post. She is the author of eighteen books, including Build Me an Arc: A Life with Animals and the novel Duck and Cover (Backinprint.com 2004), Wolf Nation: The Life, Death, and Return of Wild American Wolves (De Capo 2017) and I Want to Be Left Behind: Finding Rapture Here on Earth (Da Capo Press 2010) She is the Co-author of Wolf Haven: Sanctuary and the Future of Wolves in North  America( co-author Annie Marie Musselman) (Sasquatch Books 2016)Tags: Brenda Peterson, wolves, Patricia Nelson Limerick, wild animals lawyers, legal rights of dogs, Jane Goodall, culling wildlife, Animals, Ecology, Nature, /Environment 

Diana Leafe Christian is an author, former editor of Communities magazine, and a nationwide speaker and workshop presenter on starting new ecovillages, on building communities, and on sustainability. She lives in an off-grid homestead at Earthhaven Ecovillage in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, USA. She is the author of Creating a Life Together: Practical Tools to Grow Ecovillages and Intentional Communities (New Society Publishers 2003) and Finding Community: How to Join an Ecovillage or Intentional Community (New Society Publishers 2007)Tags: Diana Leafe Christian, sociocracy, consensus decision making, democracy, governance, N Street Consensus, dealing with objections, Community, Social Change/Politics

Kate Marianchild is a “Citizen Scientist” who shares the delight that comes from walking slowly or sitting quietly in nature. She is the author of Secrets of The Oak Woodlands: Plants & Animals Among California’s Oaks (Heyday 2014).Tags: Kate Marianchild, topophilia, adaptive survival skills, movie Lion, Yosemite, Scott Sampson, John Lane, Ann Meyer Maglinte. Oak Woodlands, Ecology, Nature, Environment, Science, Animals

Mary Mackey is an American novelist, poet, and academic. She is the author of seven collections of poetry and fourteen novels. Her Earthsong Series covers 30 years in the lives of the people of Neolithic Europe and about 26 years in Mary’s writing life. She's the author of The Year the Horses Came (Harper Collins 1993), The Horses at the Gate (Amazon Digital Services 2011), The Fires of Spring (Amazon Digital Services 2011), The Village of Bones: Sabalah’s Tale (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform 2016)Tags: Mary Mackey, Neolithic history, prehistoric times, imagination, visualize, researching a novel, Basque language, Marija Gimbutas, Goddess cultures, goddess artifacts, Writing, History, Women’s Studies

Sarah van Gelder is cofounder and editor-at-large of the award-winning YES!Magazine. She writes and speaks internationally on environmental, social, and economic alternatives and on community-based change. She is the editor of: Sustainable Happiness: Live Simply, Live Well, Make a Difference (Berrett-Koehler Publishers 2015), This Changes Everything: Occupy Wall Street and the 99 Percent Movement (Berrett-Koehler publishers 2011). And author of: The Revolution Where You Live: Stories from a 12,000-Mile Journey Through a New America. (Berrett-Koehler Publishers 2017)Tags: Sarah van Gelder, grassroots activism, Dr. Victor Garcia, worker owned businesses, Jubilee year, Tamera Village Spain, place based community, reclaiming local power, Community, Political change, Politics, History, Indigenous Wisdom, 

Robert Atkinson, Ph.D., is an internationally recognized authority on life story interviewing, personal mythmaking, and soul-making, and is professor emeritus of cross-cultural human development and religious studies at the University of Southern Maine. He’s the director of Story Commons. His journeys have taken him on a series of adventures, including: sailing on the maiden voyage of the Clearwater with Pete Seeger and his singing crew; attending the Woodstock music festival; living in a cabin in the woods near the Hudson River; visiting Arlo Guthrie at his farm in the Berkshires; having a synchronistic and fateful meeting with Joseph Campbell that became a mentoring relationship; being given a cell in a Franciscan monastery as a guest; and, returning to teach a course at Southampton College, all of which frame his memoir of that period, Remembering 1969.  Robert Atkinson's books include: The Gift of Stories: Practical and Spiritual Applications of Autobiography, Life Stories, and Personal Mythmaking (Praeger 1995)m The Life Story Interview (Sage 1998), Remembering 1969: Searching for the Eternal in Changing Times (Baha’i Publishing 2008), and The Story of Our Time: From Duality to Interconnectedness to Oneness (Sacred Stories Publishing 2017) Tags: Robert Atkinson, love, unity, evolution, diversity, unity and diversity, immigration, global nomads, Bahá'u'lláh, Bahá'í faith, planet citizens, global community, culture of oneness, social justice, Religion, Spirituality, Social change, Politics

Jonas Koffler is a creative media consultant, producer, and writer. He advises internationally recognized thought leaders and creative artists, helps organizations innovate, develops strategy and intellectual property for start-ups and billion-dollar companies alike.  He is co-author with Neil Patel & and Patrick Vlaskovits of Hustle: The Power to Charge Your Life with Money, Meaning, and Momentum (Rodale 2016)Tags: Jonas Koffler, proactive, mapping your day, focus, distractions, project economy, career path, Personal Opportunity Portfolio, develop your talent base, working virtually, connectedness, Art, Creativity, Personal Transformation, Self Help

Kelly Shelstad has more than 16 years' experience working with youth in the classroom and in wilderness settings with a major in Elementary Education and a minor in Environmental Education. She has been teaching at Siskiyou School, a Waldorf school in Ashland, Oregon. With 3 other adults, she has sailed 1000 miles in open water from Fiji to New Zealand in a 39-foot boat. And has also co-created a four-day, three-night camp for girls based on the principles of self-awareness, expression, and connection in a wilderness setting through the Rose Circle Mentoring Network. • Tom Shelstad has a background in teaching in both public and private schools. He has worked in wilderness therapy, juvenile corrections organizations as well as personal and athletic coaching. He has run leadership development programs for teens and is a faculty member at Southern Oregon University. He is the founder and director of Inner Guide Expeditions. • Kelly and Tom Shelstad co-lead and create transformational experiences for youth in their organization, known as Inner Guide Expeditions.Tags: Kelly Shelstad, Tom Shelstad, Kelly and Tom Shelstad, backpacking, wilderness, teenagers,  Ecology, Nature, Environment, Personal Transformation, Relationship, Partnership, Sexuality, Travel

Terry Tempest Williams is a naturalist, environmentalist, and award-winning author. In 2014, on the 50th Anniversary of the Wilderness Act, Ms. Williams received the Sierra Club’s John Muir Award honoring a distinguished record of leadership in American conservation. She is currently the Annie Clark Tanner Scholar in Environmental Humanities at the University of Utah.Tags: Terry Tempest Williams, National Parks, sacred lands, mountain lion, Big Bend National Park, Jackson Hole, Grand Teton National Park, Grizzly bear, wolves, Yellowstone, keystone species, public lands, public commons, Ecology, Nature, Environment, History, Social Change, Politics, Animals, Travel

Stephen Dinan is a social entrepreneur, visionary political strategist, and founder and CEO of The Shift Network. He is the author of:  Radical Spirit: Spiritual Writings from the Voices of Tomorrow (New World Library 2002) and Sacred America, Sacred World: Fulfilling Our Mission in Service to All (Hampton Roads 2016)Tags: Stephen Dinan, transpartisan, democracy, progressives, conservatives, political polarization, Citizens United, political fundraising, Wolf PAC, Cenk Uygur, constitutional amendment, upgrading democracy, United Nations, Barbara Marx Hubbard, planetary nervous system, internet, www.Kiva.org, Social Change, Politics, History