She had no discernible early life indication she would become a leader of Zikr-Sufi Ceremony of Remembrance; a Cheraga (licensed Universal Sufism minister); energy healer; Dances of Universal Peace leader; facilitator of spiritual exploration classes; storyteller, owner of Local Roots, a Farm to Table Restaurant, or connect to her Cherokee heritage.

Rev. Dr. Barbara King is the Founding Minister of the Hillside Chapel and Truth Center, Inc., in Atlanta, Georgia. She began this nondenominational, ecumenical ministry in 1971 with twelve members in her living room. The Hillside complex,covers nearly twelve acres with a growing congregation numbering more than 10,000. Through elaborate ceremonies, rituals and prayers, in 2001 Dr. Barbara became the first female to be enstooled as a Chief at Assin Nsuta, Ghana, West Africa.

Rev. Linda Vanessa Boyd, a Reiki Healing Master Teacher, founded Reiki by La and facilitates attunement workshops, which provide tools for those open to the healing gifts with which we each are born. Born in Brooklyn, New York, Boyd is a resident of Atlanta, Georgia, and has been a healing practitioner for over 10 years. For more information on Boyd, please visit her website at www.reikibyla.com.

Judith Kravitz, an ordained minister and doctor of metaphysics, was diagnosed with throat cancer in 1976. Refusing drugs and surgery, she relied upon the power of conscious breathing and affirmative prayer to heal herself. From that experience, she developed a unique brand of breath therapy, Transformational Breath™. To learn more about Kravitz and her work, visit www.breathe2000.com.

Baiyina Abadey, an activist, nurturer, sister-friend, daughter, lover, and mother great and grand, always there to uplift and support. The sixth of seven children, she grew up in New York State but has made the Washington, DC, metropolitan area her home for the past 40+ years. Baiyina has a passion for progressive music, fine art, and vegetarian gourmet cuisine, as well as a keen interest to attain higher levels of spiritual consciousness and optimum health. www.artsdpc.net

Venerable Dhyani Ywahoo Founder and Spiritual Director of Sunray Meditation Society, holder of the Ywahoo Lineage and Chief of the Green Mountain Ani Yunwiwa. As repositories of the sacred knowledge of their people, they passed to Ven. Dhyani Ywahoo the spiritual duty and blessing to carry the traditions on which the work and teachings of Sunray are based. For more information visit, www.sunray.org.

Barbara Daniel Cox possessed vast experience in planning, development, and special events production. She served as executive director of the Mayor’s Commission for Women in Philadelphia for four years and as adjunct faculty at Temple University, Antioch University, and Bryn Mawr Graduate School of Social Work and Social Administration.

Sharon Franquemont, an author, coach, and consultant, focuses her work on the wisdom of intuition and its application in integrative healthcare, sustainable development, and world citizenship. Franquemont works primarily with the Life Science Foundation in Excelsior, Minnesota, and also serves the Shumei International Institute in Crestone, Colorado, and in Japan.

Margaret J. (Meg) Wheatley is a writer and management consultant who studies organizational behavior. Since 1973 Meg has served as a professor of management in two graduate programs. She is co-founder and president emerita of the Berkana Institute, a global charitable leadership foundation. To learn more, visit www.margaretwheatley.com.

Carole Schwinn is cofounder of InGenius, a Michigan-based consulting practice that works with organizations committed to bringing people together for the purpose of improving the quality of life in their communities. Schwinn feels most passionate about her family, fiber arts, and gathering together with women of craft.

Queen Mother Osunnike Anke is a natural Healer’s healer, Spiritual midwife, Priestess of Osun and spiritual teacher and guide. She is the co-founder and president of the Institute of Whole Life Healing, an organization designed to assist individuals and groups in rebirthing their divinity. She is also the founder of One Million Wombs United (OMWU) and the chief priestess of the Sacred Feminine Mysteries Initiation – Passage into the Great Mother (SFM).

Rhonda Anderson, a recognizable television personality, produced A Different Perspective, a successful Atlanta area television program (www.rhondatv.com). Anderson hosted the program, interviewed celebrities, scientists, and best-selling authors in the fields of global consciousness and spirituality. She was an invited guest on The Oprah Winfrey show to talk about her prophetic dreams.

Patricia Moore Harbour, founder of BreakThrough Coaching and Healing the Heart of Diversity resides in Suffolk, Virginia and is an internationally recognized transformational coach, trainer and social change leader. She is, also, a public speaker and former educator who inspires individual, community and organizational change.

Adelia Sandoval serves as the cultural director and liaison for the Juaneno Band of Mission Indians/Acjachemen Nation and resides in San Juan Capistrano, California, the hub of her tribal homeland. A ceremonial leader, bear dancer, re-burial rites ceremonialist, and keeper of songs, Sandoval has been taught native ways by tribal spiritual leader Ka’chi.

Iya N’Ifa Efunyale (Mother Taylor) was born on the island of Grenada and raised in Trinidad, where she was educated in the Shango Orisha tradition. she founded the Yoruba Temple of Spiritual Elevation and Enlightenment in Washington, DC. Mother Taylor is a gifted spiritualist who, for years, has humbly offered herself as a channel through which Spirit speaks and works.

Sobonfu Somé, one of the foremost voices in African spirituality, was destined from birth to teach the ancient wisdom, ritual, and practices of her Dagara ancestors to those in the West. Sobonfu, whose name means “keeper of the rituals,”s traveled the world on a healing mission, sharing the rich spiritual life and culture of her native land, Burkina Faso, which ranks as one of the world’s poorest countries, yet one of the richest in spiritual life and custom.

Dr. Michelle Coghill Chatman (Iya Omo Olofina) is an anthropologist, educator, vocalist, and devotee in the West African based Ifa/Orisha religious system. Dr. Chatman is a professor at the University of the District of Columbia and she enjoys teaching and inspiring others through her music, writing, and public service. Learn more about her work at www.wisdomfromthemat.com.

In the last decade, Gabriella has developed her own style of intuitive, improvised meditative healing and transformational music as well as her own method of sound-healing through what she calls “sound weaving.” Inspired by the Celtic lands and her deep connection with nature, her music opens hearts, lifts veils, and allows souls to remember their connection to Source. Gabriella’s sound-weaving work takes her all over Europe and the Americas, where she accepts invitations to give workshops and to share her healing and inspirational music.

Alice Walker is an author, self-declared feminist and womanist – the latter a term she herself coined to make special distinction for the experiences of women of color. She has written at length on issues of race and gender.

Nana Okomfo Yaa Densua was a senior Akan priest, trained and graduated by the late Nana Yao Opare Dinizulu I. Nana Yaa was the Executive Director of the Sons & Daughters of Serwaa Family Institute. Through this institution, Nana Yaa served persons of all ages by offering spiritual and cultural guidance to foster health, power, and reconciliation.

Pamela Ramadei, Master Certified Coach and Trainer, is on the faculty of Adler International Learning and collaborates with several coaching and consulting organizations. Her extensive background includes retreats and workshops on coaching, leadership development, and interpersonal communication skills, as well as group dynamics, conflict resolution, and synergistic collaborative learning teams. She has accomplished significant team coaching results with her “Group Synergy” team process and advocates life-long learning, mutual respect, and living with integrity and balance. For more information on Pamela’s work, visit www.choicetochange.com.

Janet Evergreen teaches Biodynamic CranialSacral Therapy, Meditation, Peacebuilding (HIPP), and Zapchen internationally. She has a special place in her heart for children and is the Spiritual Director for a unique alternative high school called INEPE in the barrios of Quito, Ecuador. For more information, visit www.janetevergreen.org.

IONE is an author, playwright/director author of the , acclaimed memoir, Pride of Family: Four Generations of American Women of Color, Listening in Dreams, and This is a Dream!, The Night Train to Aswan, Nile Night: Remembered Texts from the Deep, Spell Breaking; Remembered Ways of Being, and SB2; Listening to the Heart of Dream, both Anthologies of Women’s Mysteries. IONE is the Founding Director of the Ministry of Maat (MoM) and a Dream Specialist, Center for Deep Listening, Rensselaer, Troy, NY. (Ionedreams.us – www.ministryofmaat.org)

Luisah Teish, a writer, performer, and ritual priestess. She serves as Olori (director) of Ile Orunmila Oshun (The House of Destiny and Love). She has authored six books of African and American spiritual culture notably, Jambalaya: The Natural Woman’s Book of Personal Charms and Practical Rituals, a women’s spirituality classic. Sign her mailing list at: www.yeyeluisahteish.com, view her ritual performances at www.ileorunmilaoshun.com, also see https://luisahteish.writerfolio.com/.

Sandra Rattley, an oral historian, has conducted extensive field research in Africa and the Americas on African retentions and traditional African religions and culture. She has over 30 years of experience as a documentarian, and her production work has been recognized with Peabody Awards, the highest recognition in journalism, for Wade in the Water: African American Sacred Music Traditions and Making the Music. She also co-founded and is a founding member of numerous organizations, including the African Cultural Heritage Exchange (ACHE); Sacred Space: Where Indigenous Paths Meet; the Southern Africa Support Project; and the Spirit of Hope Campaign.

Gail Needleman teaches music at Holy Names University in Oakland, California. Her work as a writer, educator, and clinician addresses the essential role of music in the moral and spiritual development of children and the human values embodied in folk and traditional music. She leads workshops at national and international conferences exploring the deep roots of Anglo-American and African-American folk music.

Dr. Laura I. Rendón, a scholar/practitioner/activist, is interested in how educational institutions can recruit and graduate low-income, first-generation students. Rendón’s book, Sentipensante (Sensing/Thinking) Pedagogy: Educating for Wholeness, Social Justice and Liberation, offers a transformative vision of education that emphasizes the harmonic, complementary relationship between the sentir of intuition and inner life, the pensar of intellectualism, and the pursuit of social justice. She has been a featured speaker at over 100 higher education institutions and conferences throughout the nation.

Riane Eisler, an eminent social scientist, attorney, and social activist, is best known as the author of the international bestseller, The Chalice and The Blade: Our History, Our Future, which has been translated into 23 languages, including most European languages, Chinese, Russian, Korean, Hebrew, Japanese, and Arabic. Her book, The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics, has been hailed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu as “a template for the better world we have been so urgently seeking,” by Gloria Steinem as “revolutionary,” by Peter Senge as “desperately needed,” and by Jane Goodall as “a call for action.” Dr. Eisler can be contacted at center@partnershipway.org. Visit her websites at www.rianeeisler.com and www.partnershipway.org.

Carolyn Rivers, founder and director of The Sophia Institute, is a teacher, visionary, and spiritual mentor. Rivers has completed professional study with many of the leading transpersonal teachers and visionaries of our time, many of whom now serve as faculty of The Sophia Institute.

Lynne Twist has dedicated her life to global initiatives that serve the best instincts in all of us. . For more than three decades, she has held leadership positions with many global initiatives, including those to end world hunger; protect the world’s rainforests; empower indigenous peoples; improve health, economic, and political conditions for women and children; advance the scientific understanding of human consciousness; and create a sustainable future for all life.

Ivy “Okolo Shadiah” Anderson Hylton has worked as an internationally known integrative behavioral healthcare administrator, recording artist, writer, inspirational speaker, psychotherapist, and spiritual healer for over 20 years. Hylton functions on the cutting edge of a new paradigm for psychological, physiological, and emotional healing, using a breakthrough concept in sound and vibration to teach, inspire, and transform.For more information on Hylton and her work, visit www.serenityhealingarts.com.

Iyanla Vanzant is an author, Spiritual Life Coach, ordained minister, and Yoruba priestess. Using her powerful speaking and writing abilities, Iyanla fulfills her mission to educate women, especially those of color, and to help them create a better life for themselves and for their communities. She does this by assisting them in discovering the kingdom of God within.

Christine Stevens is a music therapist, the founder of UpBeat Drum Circles, and the author of The Healing Drum Kit and The Art and Heart of Drum Circles. 
For more information, visit www.ubdrumcircles.com or email her at info@ubdrumcircles.com.

Lauren Artress founded Verditas, the World-Wide Labyrinth Project, in 1996 with the mission to “pepper the planet with labyrinths.” Lauren is Honorary Canon of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, an Episcopal priest and licensed marriage and family therapist in California. She offers spiritual direction with a special focus on shaping one’s life’s calling and getting it into the world. www.laurenartress.com.

Estella Yeung was born and raised in Hong Kong. Yeung’s extensive travels and studies have given her diverse cultural and spiritual experiences. She currently lives in Minnesota and is the creator of a line of naturopathic body products.

Audri Scott Williams, the vision keeper for the Trail of Dreams World Peace Walk, is a woman dedicated to upholding the ancient wisdom teachings of love, wisdom, compassion, and forgiveness. She has traveled as a representative of the Worldwide Indigenous Science Network and participated in programs in Benin and Kenya with Prometra International, an organization with a mission to preserve and promote traditional healing and medicine.

Shri Natha Devi Premananda, Mataji, Respected Spiritual Mother and founder of Eagle Wings of Enlightenment Center, has served as an instrument of light in South Los Angeles since 1985. Mataji is dedicated to the upliftment of World Peace and Non-violence. She teaches compassion, forgiveness, love, non-violence, and universal wisdom. Since 1985, she has helped many people over the years through various ancient ceremonies, teaching them to respect the Mother Earth and all people.

Rev. Uki MacIsaac, MA, is an internationally acclaimed speaker, intuitive counselor, and ordained minister who was born and raised in Stuttgart, Germany. Through her unique gift of clairvoyance, she empowers her clients to integrate their spiritual purpose and live a fuller, more meaningful life.