Meet your Staff and Instructors
Meet Your Staff
Jyoti Ma
Grandmother Vision Keeper
Darlene Hunter
Spiritual Director and Co-Founder of the Center for Sacred Studies, Co-Founder & Instructor of the Ministry Training Program; A Founder of Kayumari Community; Minister; Maitri Breathworker
Darlene is a founding member of both Kayumari, a global spiritual village with communities in both America and Europe, and the Center for Sacred Studies as one of the principal community builders and teachers. As the Spiritual Director for CSS, Darlene holds a vision for Peace & Unity, inspiring staff, board and community members worldwide to carry the mission of CSS through Educational, Ministerial, Sanctuary and Advocacy Programs dedicated to sustaining ways of life based on collaboration and reciprocity with the Earth and all Her beings.
As a Minister, Instructor and co-creator of the Ministerial Training Program, and Instructor for the Stargate Mystery School, an international school on consciousness, Darlene provides individual and group ministry to support awakening by holding prayer ceremonies to bring people in direct contact with the Divine. In the last three decades she received initiations into traditions from around the world and has devoted more than a decade of service to the International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers. Since 2012 she has served as a bridge to the Fountain and the Earth Initiatives it carries.
Darlene travels internationally to cultivate and develop community growth by sharing of resources, knowledge and prayer dedicated to the ancestors and the next 7 generations.
Susan Coleman
Global University Director
Susan Coleman came to us through an internship with Sonoma State University and jumped on with the International Council of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers: She headed the peacekeeper group in Nepal, assisted the grandmother’s in Europe, and co-created the “Calling All Nations” gathering at Sonoma State. As a CSS Ministry of Walking Prayer, she was an integral part of the Unity Concert in South Dakota and assisted Children’s Stargate, and more! Susan is a Spiritual/Life coach and counselor with a Master’s degree in Depth Psychology and has 25 years of healing, working and learning deep within Earth-based traditions. Her motto, “Let’s Walk Together”
Lyla Sofía Márquez M.A.
Minister Training Program Registrar
Lyla is a trauma-informed Spiritual Counselor with over twenty years of experience working with children and teens through the process of art. She is an artist and teacher, with a master’s degree in Spiritual Counseling and East-West Psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), weaving expressive arts and journaling into her work with her clients. Lyla also supports individuals with the integration of expanded states and recovery from trauma. Her work is supported by her practice of earth-honoring ritual and prayer, grounded by her devotion to the Mother. In addition, Lyla attended the Ministry Training Program with the Starseed clan of 2022 and serves as the Registrar for the Ministry Training Program (MTP) at the Center for Sacred Studies (CSS).
“After my own healing crisis, I moved through a dark night of the soul, where I discovered trauma was at the heart of suffering. I pledged to serve, assisting others on their path to self-reclamation. I believe education is a significant factor in emotional wholeness and utilize it as a tool to guide my clients into becoming their own self-reflective witness.”
Meet Your Instructors
Jyoti Ma
Grandmother Vision Keeper
Russell D. Park, Ph.D.
Community Elder, Instructor
Russell Park, Ph.D., is a licensed clinical psychologist specializing in transpersonal psychology and spiritual awakenings. Russell has served as an associate research faculty member for the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology. He has practiced psychology privately and started a neurofeedback clinic. He is an ordained minister and teaches courses for the Center for Sacred Studies’ on-line Ministerial Training Program (MTP). As a Chief Psychologist he served as the Chief of Mental health for the California Department of Corrections, supervising the clinical staff and managing the daily operations. Currently he provides mental health support for patients in skilled nursing facilities. As the former research coordinator for the Spiritual Emergence Network, founded by Stan and Christina Grof, Russell has taught professionals in Europe, South America, and the United States in the diagnosis, treatment, and transformative potential of spiritual emergence phenomena.
In addition, he has a background in clinical laboratory medicine, alternative healing approaches, and energy psychology. Other interests include personal empowerment, the interface between psychology and spirituality and the use of visual and auditory media for psychological change. Russell, together with his wife, Jyoti, teaches seminars and workshops on transformational processes to an
international community of professionals.
Grandmother La’ne’ Sa’an Moonwalker
Láné Sáan Moonwalker has been an oracle, healer, spiritual teacher and environmental guardian for more than 40 years. Láné sees the spiritual and practical as partners and interweaves the two in her life. She teaches, consults, and counsels from that place of wholeness.
Dorje Root, a healer in Crestone, has been studying with Láné for seventeen years and considers her to be “the best healer I know.” “The wisdom I’ve learned from her has brought together everything I’ve learned from other places into one unified outlook of sacredness and respect for all that is.” Whatever the topic, Láné teaches from the heart, providing very practical tools for integrating wisdom into one’s life.
Gloria D. Karpinski
Holistic Counselor, Spiritual Director, Teacher and Author
Gloria D. Karpinski is a holistic counselor, spiritual director, teacher and author. Her seminars as well as her individual in-depth life attunements emphasize the relevancy of universal spiritual principles to everyday life and the inter dynamics of mind, body, emotions and spirit. Gloria graduated from the University of North Carolina. Prior to her ordination by the International Church of Ageless Wisdom, an interfaith church without walls she was a journalist. For 40 years Gloria has taught all over North America and in many other countries. She has conducted seminars and given lectures for such diverse groups as psychotherapists, actors and doctors, stay at home parents and Students, in venues ranging from large conferences to colleges, churches, hospitals and specialized groups. Her books are used in several Inter faith seminaries in both America and England.
Alena Hrabcakova
Minister of Walking Prayer, Therapist, Teacher, and Artist
Alena Hrabcakova has been an art therapist for 32 years. Ordained as a Minister of Walking Prayer in 2011, “The Serpent Clan” and in 2012 became an instructor in the Ministry Training Program. She has a rich background in working with personal, cultural and historical trauma as well as grief and bereavement. She was part of the diagnostic psychiatric team for adolescent psychiatry for 12 years in Ohio. Worked and lived 7 years on Red Lake Nation in Northern Minnesota near the Canadian border after a fatal mass high school shooting on the reservation. With the support and funding of the reservation Alena received, “The National Native Children’s Trauma Network Certification” through the University of Montana.
Ann Rosencranz
Everyday Mystic, Woman of Ceremony and Prayer, Ordained Minister,
M.A. in Philosophy and Religion
Through her life-long devotion to the Holy of Holies, Ann has been guided by visions, dreams and miraculous encounters. In the last three decades she received initiations into traditions from around the world. This journey brought her to the center of her Star origins in her ancestral Jewish and Moravian lineage. She sings and dances to celebrate the many faces of the divine, offering ceremonial ways of transmutation.
For several decades she has joined with her beloved husband growing their spiritual prayer family. She devoted more than a decade of service as Program Director and fundraiser to the International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers. She's also gratefully served as an instructor in the Center for Sacred Studies Ministerial Training Program since its inception. As a devotee of the Mother Waters, Ann birthed the WaterSongline with Omileye Yeyeochun, and sits on the Mothers of the Water Council.
Ryan Brandenburg (Rev.)
Soto Zen Priest, Native American Church Priest, and
Advisor to CSS Board of Directors
Ho-e Ryan Brandenburg began practicing zen in 1968 with Suzuki-rosh and then became a student of Kobun Chino-roshi in 1969. He was the Director of Jikoji Zen Center (Chino-roshi’s temple and retreat center near San Francisco) for 10 years (1993-2003) Ordained as a priest in both Chino- roshi’s lineage and as a ceremonial leader in Native American traditions, he has participated in or led ceremonies and sesshin in Europe, India, Japan, and North America. As a long-time member of the Kayumari community, he served two terms as Board President for the Center for Sacred Studies and continues to serve as an advisor on Dynamic Governance. He currently maintains a private practice from his home in California and is on the teaching staff for the Center’s Ministerial Training Program
Darlene Hunter
Spiritual Director and Co-Founder of the Center for Sacred Studies, Co-Founder & Instructor of the Ministry Training Program; A Founder of Kayumari Community; Minister; Maitri Breathworker
Darlene is a founding member of both Kayumari, a global spiritual village with communities in both America and Europe, and the Center for Sacred Studies as one of the principal community builders and teachers. As the Spiritual Director for CSS, Darlene holds a vision for Peace & Unity, inspiring staff, board and community members worldwide to carry the mission of CSS through Educational, Ministerial, Sanctuary and Advocacy Programs dedicated to sustaining ways of life based on collaboration and reciprocity with the Earth and all Her beings.
As a Minister, Instructor and co-creator of the Ministerial Training Program, and Instructor for the Stargate Mystery School, an international school on consciousness, Darlene provides individual and group ministry to support awakening by holding prayer ceremonies to bring people in direct contact with the Divine. In the last three decades she received initiations into traditions from around the world and has devoted more than a decade of service to the International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers. Since 2012 she has served as a bridge to the Fountain and the Earth Initiatives it carries.
Darlene travels internationally to cultivate and develop community growth by sharing of resources, knowledge and prayer dedicated to the ancestors and the next 7 generations.
Yeye Luisah Teish
Iyanifa, Oshun Nations Chief, USA
Yeye Luisah Teish is a teacher, dancer, storyteller, and high priestess. She also is an author, most notably of Jambalaya: The Natural Woman’s Book of Personal Charms and Practical Rituals. Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, her father was an African Methodist Episcopal and her mother was a Catholic, of Haitian, French, and Choctaw heritage. Yeye Teish is an Iyanifa and Oshun chief in Yoruba tradition. Yeye Teish is one of the most well known Yoruba priestesses worldwide, who is celebrated internationally in Goddess circles as a writer and ritual-maker. She quite literally a legendary woman of great character and exceeding positive impact for this generation and all time.
Abi Huff
Herbalist, Educator, Activist and Intuitive Healer
Abi Huff is an ever-evolving community and clinical herbalist, herbal educator, medicine maker, intuitive, community activist, and overall plant nerd. Her passion lies in connecting people to their inner wisdom, and responsibility to the planet and each other through gratitude for, and relationship with, the plant kingdom. Acknowledging our ancestral connection to the medicinal, spiritual, and cultural uses of plants is, in her vision, the foundation to understanding plants as medicine and inspires a deeper connection to the magic of our amazing planet.
Sibyl Star
Spiritual Guide and Alchemist of the Stars
Like the Sibyls, or prophetic priestesses of ancient Greece who foretold the future through visions, the stars speak to Rev. Sibyl through the symbolic language of Astrology. Astrology is the study of the movement of planets and stars through the heavens and is an eternal language of light. Sibyl has a thriving astrological counseling business where, through the channeling of the Star Nation combined with many years of astrological study, she is able to assist her clients in navigating these turbulent times. Sibyl believes the archetypal energies of the celestial bodies hold the key to self-understanding and the birth chart is a map that guides us to self-realization. Sibyl does several different of astrological consultations including natal, updates, relationship, and relocation readings.
Omileye “Omi” Achikeobi-Lewis
M.Ed, NCC, LCMHCA
Omi is a mother, counselor, writer, artist, mindfulness teacher, kid’s yoga teacher, Ayurvedic Practitioner, Doctoral Student of Chinese Daoist Medicine, Yeye Osun, and fifth-generation Vision Keeper. She hails from London and an African-Caribbean family and grew up with large Sunday dinners of rice and peas, curries, fried dumplings and carrot juice. She remembers the juicy chatter of world affairs and strange, magical, far-out cultural stories mixed in with spiritual life lessons. These Sunday dinners inspired her love of storytelling, cultures, peace, environment, water, and art. Today she loves helping kids and adults find the magic of the story within, the enchantment of cultures, the spell-binding power of the planet we live on, and the healing power of peace. She is also a diversity facilitator and give talks on mindfulness, trauma-healing, indigenous wisdom, and their power to create peace in our world, communities and school systems.
Derrick Lewis
Chief Awo Basorun Awo Olu Anikinnikun Egbe Yemi
Olu is not into titles, per se, and just wanted to share the meaning of the names he has been given during his initiations in IFA. Chief Awo Basorun Awo – General of the Awos (Babalawos), an elder that shall guide all of the priests of the community; Olu – King, Anikinnikun – IFA in your belly, which indicates a profound connection with IFA and the divination aspects of the traditions; Egbe Yemi – A leader in Egbe (Council of Elders). In an unusual twist, Yeye Omileye was also given the title of Egbe Yemi during her initiation. Born to walk in these times in duality. Ever aware of the endless beauty of creation as well as the relentless episodes of disruption. He chooses love and light as the most powerful and appropriate human behavior. Knowing that every action has an equal and opposite reaction, he finds that prayer is the best way to invoke a powerful, positive outcome. With one foot in the moment and the other in ether can walk freely and pray without ceasing.
Matthew and Terces Englehart
Founders of Cafe Gratitude, Gracias Madre, and Be Love Farm
Matthew and Terces Engelhart have a unique approach to life and business. While many would say they are “busy,” the Engelhart's prefer to refer to their lives as “full.” This spirit of gratitude and appreciation for the abundance of life has afforded this dynamic couple many opportunities. They are co-founders of the plant-based West Coast restaurant havens Café Gratitude, as well as the expanding Gracias Madre restaurants. Matthew and Terces have created a work environment unlike any other. This environment began with the development of The Abounding River Board Game. The Abounding River is an exploration board game that introduces people to an unfamiliar view of BEING ABUNDANCE. It encompasses both training people in day-to-day practice as well as discovering a Spiritual foundation that opens up to a whole new way of looking at money and resources.
Loretta Afraid of Bear Cook
Lakota Elder
Loretta, a Lakota Elder, is committed to ensuring the world is a better place for her grandchildren. She is a keeper of her culture and the female Sundance Leader for the Afraid of Bear/American Horse Sundance. Fluent in Lakota, Loretta serves as cultural specialist for The Fountain, and is the only representative on the board of the Paha Sapa Unity Alliance Black Hills Reparation, another organization with which she is affiliated, who speaks both English and Lakota perfectly. Loretta carries an enormous mission: during the Obama administration she gathered the consensus of her tribe for the return of the stewardship of the Black Hills to the peoples of The Great Sioux Nation and presented it to the White House. Loretta holds that consensus: “The Black Hills are not for sale. We want all the unceded lands in the Black Hills returned to the nine tribes of The Great Sioux Nation.” She also sits on several international boards including the Running Strong Foundation, the Sacred Healing Circle and the Black Hills Unity Alliance.
Tom Cook
Wolf Clan Akwesasne Mohawk Nation
Executive Director and Spiritual Director
In 1985, Tom founded the Slim Buttes Agricultural Development Project (SBAG) with his wife, Loretta, to bring food security to the Pine Ridge Reservation. Today, they help cultivate over 200 gardens annually throughout Pine Ridge. Tom first came to Pine Ridge as a journalist covering the Wounded Knee occupation. He speaks and writes about the history and cultural traditions of his native Mohawk community and his adopted Oglala Sioux community. Serving as the lead male dancer of the Afraid Of Bear - American Horse Sun Dance, Tom is responsible for organizing the annual ceremony, now in its fourth decade. Tom is a respected elder in his community, both in Pine Ridge and Akwesasne, NY.
Wendy Cummins
M.A, C.M.T., Minister of Walking Prayer
As a co-founder of Kayumari, the board president for the Center for Sacred Studies and a co-founder of the Ministerial Training Program from the Center for Sacred Studies, Wendy is dedicated to supporting people in diving deep into the rich tapestry of community building, personal and spiritual growth. With an M.A. in Transpersonal Psychology from the Sophia Institute, the basis of Wendy's work is from a framework of wholeness. She is a teacher of the Stargate Mystery School, a Maitri Certified Breathworker, a Certified TRE™ Facilitator and a massage therapist.
Wendy utilizes all of these modalities to support people in "excavating trauma for deeper self-love," and facilitating "inner work for outer change." Wendy has worked with hundreds of people over the years, ministering from a place of experience, education, love and, of course, humor. She loves the work she gets to do and continues to navigate life from the perspective of keeping the Next Seven Generations as the basis of her prayer work and the spiritual activism of facilitating healing, one heart at a time.