Isaiah Jackson is a scholar, writer, activist, teacher, and embodied healer. Their work stems from a deeply personal quest to assist in the healing of generation upon generation of personal and cultural trauma. As a queer, trans-masculine, mixed-race individual, Isaiah’s identity has been shaped and contoured by various intersecting systems of privilege and oppression. This experience has served as a continuous source of embodied research into the roots of violence and oppression and illuminated pathways towards healing and resilience. After having survived their own traumatic childhood, Isaiah felt deeply compelled to contribute to a more just and hospitable world by creating a palpable change in the lives of others, and for this reason, began working with youth, with the hope that by raising new generations of humans more socially and emotionally literate, they could help to slow down, shed light on, and heal the vicious cycles of pain that continue to plague human existence.

Melvin Allen received his doctorate in depth psychology in 2016 at the age of 70 and has two masters, one in depth psychology and another in spiritual psychology. Melvin was born in the inner city of Chicago in 1947. In 1955 at the age of eight he and his family attended the funeral of Emmett Till, a young African American boy who was murdered by a group of racists in Mississippi. At the funeral his mother told him, “Don’t let race stop you from doing anything you want to do!”

Ida M. Covi holds an MA in Engaged Humanities and the Creative Life with an Emphasis in Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute; a BA in psychology from St. Michael’s College; and two specialization certifications, the first in Eco-Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute and the second in Leading From The Emerging Future from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Ms. Covi is currently working to transform the thinking of future-oriented people as the CEO and co-founder of iRewild (iRewild.org) located in Washington, DC. iRewild is a global institute for thought leaders, an intellectual team of non-political change-makers creating new approaches and breakthrough ideas in order to foster a flourishing planet for all its inhabitants. iRewild seeks to create eco-citizens and a more reciprocal relationship between the human psyche, society, and our natural world. Ms. Covi states, “No one person or business can restore our world’s fragile environment, but we can restore bits and pieces of the environment that are within our reach. Collaborative think tanks are the heart of success, sustainability, and innovation.”

“I arrive here, a Xicana woman Sangre Dividida, as both the colonized and colonizer (Tarahumara and Spaniard), the victim and victimizer. I carry the story of divide; I carry the lineage of rape: of land, body, and spirit, arranged for me before the birth of my mother and her mother. I carry with me simultaneous temporality and potentiality, the past while becoming. My journey is not rational. It is not linear but is also not unique.”

Juana Ochoa was raised in the Pico-Gardens housing project in Los Angeles, east of the Los Angeles River, a marginalized, drug infested, gang protected community, fighting persistent poverty. A first-generation Mexican American, Ms. Ochoa lived her life within the partitions of what was safe and secure. She started working right after high school, and began her educational career at the age of 26, excited to learn more about thoughts and actions, family dynamics, and her community.

Charles Caldwell earned a Bachelor’s degree in English Literature from the University of Missouri-Columbia and a Master of Arts in Mythological Studies with an Emphasis in Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute. As a naturally curious person, Charles enjoys acquiring new knowledge, improving systems, and creating innovative solutions to prickly problems. As such, he has worked his whole adult life for community service organizations.

Charles has served as Director of Strategic Advancement at Hospice of Santa Barbara, Inc. since 2015, where he specializes in fundraising and advancement, foundation giving, special events, and donor outreach.  He is moved by HSB’s relationship-centric approach to walking with people through the difficult journey of grief and illness. Before coming to HSB, Charles spent seven years with Girls Inc. of Greater Santa Barbara as the director of advancement and ten years with United Way of Santa Barbara County as the director of special projects. In addition, Charles volunteers at Foodbank and several other local nonprofits in a hands-on capacity.

Heather Taylor is in her second year of the Mythology Program at Pacifica Graduate Institute. After earning her Masters in Producing Film and Video, Heather created her production company, Archetypal Images, LLC. She directed, wrote, and produced the award-winning documentary, Breaking Through The Clouds: The First Women’s National Air Derby (BreakingThroughTheClouds.com). Heather’s attraction to myth is especially strong regarding finding one’s voice and stepping into the individual and collective stories that promote healing. Myths involving nature and animals continually capture her imagination. Heather is grateful to Pacifica and the Pacifica Alumni for supporting, inspiring, and guiding her on this journey.

While studying art history at Purdue University and viewing artworks only on slides and in books, Colleen Salomon decided she had better see the real thing.  So she continued her education at the Sorbonne in Paris and the University of Hamburg, Germany. A decade of living in Europe offered abundant examples of the importance of myth to culture. In addition, she had the privilege of hearing many stories of the trauma of the twentieth century told by the people who had lived through the events, and she witnessed the healing that emerged through the telling of the stories. In this way, she learned about the fundamental necessity of myth to the individual. Colleen was drawn to Pacifica in order to study mythology with a particular emphasis on the role of myth in the healing of trauma. Her dissertation focuses on the ancient knowledge of trauma contained within the old stories still told in Germany.