Jeanette Banashak has a background in traditional and alternative education, Spiritual Formation, Creativity, pedagogy, mindfulness as an educational tool, interdisciplinary studies, leadership development, human development, hermeneutics, Spanish, Forest Bathing and the Enneagram. She is the author of The Mindful Pilgrimage: A 40-Day Pocket Devotional for Pilgrims of Any Faith or None. 

Jeanette completed her dissertation on the interrelationship between creativity and mindfulness.  Her phenomenological study drew from Western and Eastern contemplative practices and considered their influence on one's creative life.  Originally a high school teacher, Jeanette has taught mindfulness to Kindergartners through second graders in Chicago Public Schools and is currently a senior instructor at Erikson Institute and a Visiting Professor of Spiritual Direction at The Graduate Theological Foundation.  She is a member of Spiritual Directors International. 

Jeanette has also presented for the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Toronto and Chicago and frequently presents at Spiritual Director International's conferences.. She is a spiritual guide and supervisor and offers them in English and Spanish.  Jeanette received her certificate in Spiritual Direction from the Dominican Center in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She holds a PhD in Education and an EdD, both from the Graduate Theological Foundation, an interreligious school in Oklahoma City, OK. 

When she's not teaching, Jeanette enjoys playing board games and telling stories with friends and family. 

Phyllis Look

Nature Companionship Faculty

Phyllis Look is Hawaiʻi’s first certified forest therapy guide and the owner and founder of Forest Bathing Hawaiʻi. Since receiving her training and certification from the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy Guides and Programs in 2018, she has guided more than 400 walks, both in-person and “virtually,” for individuals and organizations, such as Google, Blue Zones Project, Japan-America Society, the University of Hawaiʻi’s John A. Burns School of Medicine, Lincoln Park Presbyterian Church, and the Erikson Institute. She is developing a series of forest bathing walks on the island of Maui to provide opportunities for that community to process the trauma caused by the recent wildfires.

Her earlier careers were spent in the professional theatre and in marketing/communications. She sees this third career as a forest therapy guide as a way to remain physically fit, socially engaged, and to contribute to making the world a better place. She’s found it has given her so much more and looks forward to sharing this nature connection practice with you.

Brenda Salgado

Brenda Salgado is the founder of Nepantla Consulting and Program Director of the Racial Healing Initiative. She is a spiritual and mindfulness author, speaker, Indigenous wisdom keeper, healer, trainer and organizational consultant. She has over 25 years of experience in transformative leadership development, nonprofit management, traditional healing and ceremony, mindful leadership training, movement building, women’s health, and social justice. Brenda is in the process of establishing the Nepantla Land Trust, and the Nepantla Center for Healing and Renewal. She holds degrees in Biology, Developmental Psychology, and Animal Behavior.

She serves on the Healers Council for Decolonizing Wealth Project, on the BIPOC Spiritual Innovators Council for Fetzer Institutes Shared Spiritual Heritage Project. Brenda currently serves on the Advisory Board for The Charis Foundation for New Monasticism & InterSpirituality, as well as The Center for Healing and Liberation. Brenda is author/editor of Real World Mindfulness for Beginners: Navigate Daily Life One Practice at a Time. In the past, she has served as the Director of the East Bay Meditation Center, as Associate Director at Wisdom & Money, and as a Senior Fellow at the Movement Strategy Center. She has also served on the boards of Movement Strategy Center, Lion’s Roar Foundation, and Unity Church San Leandro.

Brenda has received training from elders in traditional medicine and healing ceremony in Purepecha, Xochimilco, Toltec and other Indigenous lineages, Brenda draws on the healing powers of the natural world to guide her work. Her current projects are focused on ceremony and practice to foster racial/land/ancestral healing, transformational leadership, sacred economics, mindfulness practices that draw from multiple traditions, collective transformation, and the weaving of mindfulness and Indigenous teachings/prophecy for understanding the times we are in as a human family. She is committed to co-creating a society filled with wholeness and
beauty.

Linden de Voil, RH(AHG)

Nature Companionship Faculty

Linden de Voil, RH(AHG), is a practicing clinical herbalist and professional member of the American Herbalist Guild, the only accrediting body for herbalists in the United States. A writer and educator in the field of plant medicine, natural health, and earth-based spiritual practice, her work invites us to strengthen our innate ties to the more-than-human, living world through curiosity, observation, and delight.

A believer in practical magic and an animist witch, Linden uses somatic practices, simple ritual, and plant medicine to help clients and students find their own path back into belonging and connection with the natural world.