BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Cheryl Demmert Fairbanks, Esq. supports AVF through her collaboration with the Life Comes From It Foundation. She is Tlingit-Tsimshian. was born in Ketchikan, Alaska, and works in the area of Indian law as an attorney and tribal court of appeals justice. Currently she is the Interim Executive Director of the UNM Native American Budget and Policy Institute. She recently was in Oregon serving as the Walter R. Echo-Hawk Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law at Lewis and Clark; and also she was a visiting Professor of Law at the University of New Mexico’s Southwest Indian Law Clinic.  Formerly a Partner at Cuddy McCarthy LLP, she had a general practice in Indian law, including tribal-state relations, personnel, tribal courts, peacemaking and family conferencing, mediation, family, school, education, and indigenous law.

Collette Ruoff is a Transformational Coach who has been leading workshops, coaching engagements and team journeys for more than 20 years.  Ever since she was a child growing up on Long Island, she sought out the wilderness.  In 2013, she launched an arts based non-profit organization to celebrate the lives of elders in our community through original songs.  She lives in the Hudson Valley, NY.  Her training includes, PCC Coach with International Coaching Federation, Integral Coaching Certification, New Ventures West, Organizational and Relationship Systems Coaching, CRR Global, Deep Democracy Training, Anima Training, Transformational Facilitation Training, Aberkyn, Certified Gestalt Psychotherapist, Gestalt Associates for Psychotherapy, NYC, BBA, Finance and Marketing, Hofstra University, MBA, Economics and International Business, NYU, Yoga Teacher Certification, ISHTA Yoga, Plant Spirit Medicine Certification, Blue Deer Center, Myers Briggs Type Indicator, Tracom Social Styles, Leadership Circle Profile and Culture Survey, and the School of Lost Borders and The Ecology of Leadership Training with the Regenerative Design Institute.

Shawn Stevens is an enrolled member of the Stockbridge Munsee Band of Mohicans, whose ancestral homelands are the Berkshires, including the entire Hudson Valley. Shawn is a Mohican cultural educator, artist, musician, and ceremonial helper, who has been speaking and teaching in the Berkshires for the last twenty years. Apart from his beautiful artwork, which can be found in all 50 states and 14 countries, he is also a traditional storyteller, drummer, dancer, singer, flute player, as well as an ordained minister of the Universal Church of Light and a certified facilitator of White Bison’s Mending Broken Hearts.

Lev Natan is a proud husband and father, and lives with his family in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts. Since 2010, Lev has been catalyzing breakthroughs for changemakers, as a leadership coach, organizational consultant, men’s group facilitator, & sound healer.  He founded AVF in 2018 as the breakthrough project in his MA in Organizational Leadership.  Lev is also certified as an Integrative Sound and Music Practitioner and Empowerment Life Coach.  Lev was raised in the Jewish tradition; his ancestors come from Kiev & Odesa in the Ukraine; and he sustains his connection to the lineage of Kabbalah, Chasidut and Jewish mysticism. He also practices the indigenous ceremonial way of life; including sundance, vision quest, and sweat lodge.