The core vision of the Alliance for a Viable Future is to regenerate the human connection to Grandmother Earth

Mission

The Alliance for a Viable Future brings together community and organizational leaders in the Northeast bioregion to generate a whole-systems paradigm shift to address our climate emergency.

Staff

Lev Natan, MA | Founder & Executive Director

Lev is the founding director of Alliance for a Viable Future. He holds an MA in Organizational Leadership. Since 2010, he has been catalyzing breakthroughs for changmakers, as a leadership coach, group facilitator, & sound healer. To learn more about his work, visit www.levnatan.com.

He is also certified as an Integrative Sound and Music Practitioner and Empowerment Life Coach; and walks a path guided by wisdom teachings from around the world, including his heritage in Jewish mysticism and his commitment as a Pipe-carrier and Sundancer in the Lakota tradition.

He is also husband to Sarah Chase Natan and proud father of his growing baby boy, Emet Kol Natan. They all live together in Sheffield, MA.

Jeff Wallman | Executive Director

Jeff is Executive Director of Alliance for a Viable Future. He holds an MS in Mechanical Engineering and a BA in Philosophy, both from Boston University. Jeff brings 20 years experience managing mission-driven non-profits. He is inspired by Lev’s vision and strategy for addressing our climate emergency, connecting indigenous voice and inspiring business leaders to be active participants on a grass-roots level.

Jeff lives with his family in New Marlborough, MA restoring a 220 year old house and enjoys listening to the chorus of birds in the hills, valleys and rivers of the Berkshires.

Yonah Sadeh | Podcast and Video Producer

Yonah Sadeh is a 16 year old filmmaker, drone pilot and producer from northwest Connecticut. A student at Bard Academy at Simon’s Rock, Yonah has been making films since a young age. He has created promotional content for local businesses and non-profits, filmed several weddings, engineered podcasts, and made multiple short films. His most recent film, PLUTO was a finalist in the young filmmaker category of “My RØDE Reel”, the worlds largest short film competition.

When he isn't making films, flying drones or producing podcasts, Yonah likes to bike, box, and spend time with his friends and family. Through film and media work Yonah hopes to spread knowledge and joy, and bring attention to social issues. You can check out Yonah’s work at birdseyeviewfilms.org

Casielle Gaerlan | Social Media & Graphic Design

Casielle is a multidisciplinary with a degree in Fine Arts and Communication Design from Parsons the New School for Design. Casielle is passionate about colors, concepts and narrating stories through images and illustrations. When she is not consumed with social media projects, brand development or marketing campaigns you can find her discovering delightful flabors from around the globe.

Emet Kol Natan, Chief Inspiration Officer

On the first day in the birthing center with his newborn son, Lev realizing that Emet is truly the Chief Inspiration Officer. Born on Thursday, August 29th, 2019, he is an everyday reminder of why we are doing this work - for the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. To read more about Lev’s experience Becoming a Dad, click here.

Advisory Board

Dr. Kathleen Allen, Organizational Leadership Consultant

Dr. Kathleen Allen is President of the consulting firm, Kathleen Allen and Associates. She has been working in organizations for over 22 years and consulting with organizations and leaders for over 18 years. In her consulting practice, she specializes in leadership coaching and organizational change in non-profit organizations, foundations, small to mid-sized businesses, community development, higher education, and collaborative networks.

Dr. Allen has written and presented widely on topics related to leadership, human development, and organizational development. The earmarks of her work are the creation of shared ownership of the results of a change project, long-term sustainable change for the organization, and increased capacity for the staff members and leaders of organizations.

Dr. Allen co-authored Systemic Leadership: Enriching the Meaning of Our Work, has written many articles, and contributed to a variety of books, including The Transforming Leader: New Approaches to Leadership for the Twenty-First Century and Innovation in Environmental Leadership: Critical Perspectives. More recently, Dr. Allen has written Leading from the Roots: Nature-Inspired Leadership Lessons for Today’s World.

Jalaja Bonheim, Ph.D.

A visionary and group facilitator who awakens women to their true power as healers, peace-makers, and world-changers. In her circle gatherings, which are infused with profound sense of safety and sacredness, women connect in a spirit of authenticity, open-heartedness, freedom and joy. Inner peace and clarity emerge as participants learn to embody the essential attributes of the circle itself: Centeredness, sacredness, balance, unity and wholeness. Women rediscover their own unique beauty and power while simultaneously awakening to the true meaning and importance of sisterhood.

An engaging speaker and teacher, Jalaja has transformed countless lives with her wisdom, compassion, laser-sharp intuition, and warm authenticity. She has trained hundreds of female leaders from around the world to facilitate their own circles and has gathered special acclaim for her groundbreaking work with Jewish and Palestinian women in the Middle East. She led the first women’s retreat ever offered in the West Bank in 2010, followed by the Circlework Training in 2014.

Today, Circlework is practiced in India, Afghanistan, Europe, Kenya, Columbia and other places around the world. In the United States, Jalaja’s students have taken Circlework into diverse fields such as counseling and psychotherapy, spiritual practice, activism and healing work.

Books by Jalaja Bonheim include:

• The Magic of Circlework: The Practice Women Around the World Are Using to Heal and Empower Themselves (2018)
• The Circlework Training Manual (2018)
• The Sacred Ego: Living in Peace with Ourselves and Our World (2015). This book won the Nautilus Award for Best Book on Social Change and Best Book of the Year.
• The Hunger for Ecstasy: Fulfilling the Soul’s Need for Passion and Intimacy (2001)
• Aphrodite’s Daughters: Women’s Sexual Stories and the Journey of the Soul (1997)
• Goddess: A Celebration in Art and Literature (1997);
• The Serpent and the Wave: A Guide to Movement Meditation (1992)

Thomas O. Murtha

Thomas (Tom) Murtha is enjoying the world and working to keep the world enjoyable. He resides in both New York City and Norfolk, Connecticut and is working with many others to transition to a new story where we make a more regenerative, inclusive, kinder, beautiful, and diverse world possible. His service on the advisory boards of This- Is-My-Earth and the Alliance for a Viable Future focuses on biodiversity conservation and leadership for social change, respectively. At Preventable Surprises, his work focuses on forceful stewardship and corporate engagement to address the systemic risk of the climate emergency and biodiversity loss. After retiring from the Nature Conservancy (TNC), Tom continues actions initiated at TNC to help corporations address impacts and assume necessary responsibility for conservation and preservation of biodiversity and living natural systems.

In an earlier part of his story, Tom worked as an analyst and investment banker in Tokyo, Hong Kong, and New York for the investment bank Jardine Fleming, a joint venture between Hong Kong trading company Jardine Matheson and UK investment bank Robert Fleming. At T. Rowe Price Associates in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, Tom was a portfolio manager for the International Stock Fund and the Global Technology Fund. Tom is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and earned an MPA degree in Environmental Science and Policy from Columbia University and, MA and BS degrees, in economics and mathematics, respectively, from Ohio University. His publications include op-eds in Institutional Investor, Pensions and investments, Greenbiz.com, and the Huffington Post. Tom and his spouse Elizabeth Knowles actively support the Norfolk Land Trust and Great Mountain Forest in Connecticut’s northwest corner. Tom also serves on the advisory board of Climate and Forest Capital.

Ann Renee Rosencranz

Everyday Mystic, Woman of Prayer, Ordained Minister, M.A. in Philosophy and Religion

Ann devoted more than a decade of service as Program Director and fundraiser to the International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers. She's an instructor in the Center for Sacred Studies Ministerial Training Program. As a devotee of the Mother Waters, Ann birthed the WaterSongline with Omileye Yeyeochun, and sits on the Mothers of the Water Council.

Through her life-long devotion to the Great Spirit, Ann has been guided by visions, dreams and miraculous encounters. In the last three decades she has 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.

Rob Garrity

From off-grid cabins in ’01 to a utility scale CDG projects today, Rob has been selling, constructing and developing solar projects in New York for over 17 years. Most recently, from early ’14 to mid-’18, he led Borrego to the state’s largest C&I market share, developing >60MW of projects, from origination & site control through permitting, interconnection, MWB, property tax negotiation and complete entitlement. He now runs his own solar development consultancy.

He has served on NY Solar Energy Industry Association’s (NYSEIA) board since 2013, on the executive committee as both Secretary and President of the board and leading the charge to build-out NYSEIA’s staff, increasing the organization’s impact in the State. He is currently facilitating NYSEIA’s RPTL487 Property Tax Campaign, working with NYSERDA and the Governor’s office.

Rob is also working on a documentary film series about The Great Work. The series highlights, explores and contemplates places, communities, projects and governing structures embodying The New Story of our interconnected place on this wild, awe-inspiring life experiment we call Earth.

Jennifer Browdy, Ph.D.

An associate professor of comparative literature and media studies at Bard College at Simon’s Rock, with a special interest in environmental literature, strategic communications and media campaigns for social and environmental justice.

Jennifer’s memoir, What I Forgot ...And Why I Remembered: A Journey to Environmental Awareness and Activism Through Purposeful Memoir, was one of six finalists for the 2018 International Book Awards in the memoir category. Her writer’s guide, The Elemental Journey of Purposeful Memoir: A Writer’s Companion won a 2017 Nautilus Silver Award.

The founding director of the Berkshire Festival of Women Writers, which ran from 2011 – 2016 with the aim of nurturing and inspiring women writers of all ages and from many walks of life, Jennifer also founded and directed the Butterfly Leadership Project, a writing-intensive leadership program for teen girls. She is currently co-host, with Rosa Zubizarreta, of the South Berkshire Climate Change and Consciousness Hub, continuing the work of the Findhorn CCC19 Conference.

She offers workshops in purposeful memoir nationally, internationally and online, and provides coaching and manuscript review for authors in fiction and nonfiction. In addition to authoring many articles and book chapters, she is the editor of three anthologies of global women’s writing, including Women Writing Resistance: Essays on Latin America & the Caribbean (Beacon Press, 2017). She is co-publisher, with Jana Laiz, of Green Fire Press; recent titles Nature, Culture & the Sacred: A Woman Listens for Leadership, by Bioneers co-founder Nina Simons (Nautilus Gold Medal, 2018), and Wisdom Lessons: Spirited Guidance from an Ojibwe Great-Grandmother, by Native American activist Mary Lyons. She is also the editor of the online magazine Fired Up! Creative Expression for Challenging Times. Find out more at http://www.jenniferbrowdy.com.

Jeff Wallman

Jeff was Executive Director of Buddhist Digital Resource Center (BDRC) from December 2009 to September 2018. He led the organization on its journey from a fledgling start-up to a vibrant, information-rich global organization that delivers unique, open source technologies and open access resources. Under Wallman’s direction, more than 15 million pages of vulnerable manuscripts and block prints were preserved and four major strategic plans were implemented. He expanded operations in Asia, developed an innovative technology ecosystem for digital archiving and data management, galvanized new global audiences, directed the creation of hundreds of thousand of metadata objects, and expanded a content delivery platform in multiple languages and countries.

Jeff secured foundational long-term strategic plans from 2007-2018, securing new funding partners for BDRC and expanding its mission. He raised $12M for mission expansion from 2014-2017 and led the formal change of corporate charter and mission via long-term strategic plans in 2007, 2011, and 2015. In 2017, he secured $1.8M in funding and created an international network of 52 scholarly contributors and five major institutional partners to accelerate adoption of BDRC’s current strategic plan.

Debi Medeski

Debi has over 20 years experience teaching Yoga, running her own studio and leading Yoga teacher training programs. For 10 years she led retreats in Costa Rica, Mexico and Peru through her center, which she passed on in 2012. Debi has been apprenticing with her teacher, learning the healing power of medicinal plants for many years and continues to lead spiritual retreats along with her husband John, to sacred power spots throughout the mountains and jungles in North and South America. John has been a musician for his entire life and regularly tours with his band and with others. He brings his talent and love of music to the spiritual gatherings he and Debi lead together. They live in upstate New York and when they are not traveling, love to be home with their daughter and tending to the garden, the animals, their bees and their tribe. Debi recently completed her second year at Moon Dance in Mexico where John supported. They are part of a beautiful community of people who have been sitting together in various ways for over 13 years. They run sweat lodges and sacred circles and are eternally grateful to be able to pray in the ways they do and to share what has been shared with them from their teachers.

Allison advises clients on a wide variety of employee benefits and general employment matters. These matters include fiduciary duties under ERISA, prohibited transactions, negotiation and implementation of Department of Labor settlement agreements, tax qualification and fiduciary correction issues, severance pay issues, ERISA reporting and disclosure issues, employment agreements and policies, and employee handbook compliance.

Prior to joining the firm as Counsel, Allison had experience both in private practice and in government. She has gained valuable insights into the practices and priorities of agency investigations, based in particular on her government experience at both the federal and state levels. She served with the U.S. Dept. of Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration, where she investigated alleged violations of ERISA and of the Affordable Care Act. Allison had also interned at the New York State Division of Human Rights and Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, investigating alleged violations of state and federal non-discrimination laws.

Allison received her law degree and Certificate in Employee Benefits from Temple University Beasley School of Law.

Allison is a member of the Pennsylvania and District of Columbia bars. Allison is a member of the American Bar Association's Tax Section and Labor & Employment Section, and serves as Co-Vice Chair of the Defined Benefit Plan Subcommittee for the ABA Tax Section Employee Benefits Committee.

Alyssa F. Wright, Fundraising Consultant

Having spent time as a human right's activist in Eastern Europe and Africa, Alyssa brings a decade of experience in international philanthropy to Alyssa Wright Consulting. An accomplished facilitator, consultant and coach she builds new revenue streams, shifts cultural perspectives and inspires people to believe that change is possible no matter what. Recent work includes the design of a successful giving circle at the Massachusetts domestic violence and sexual assault coalition and the creation of a brand new global donor movement at an international environmental organization that raised over $500,000 in a single year. She has trained over 50 boards, from Kenya to Kennebunkport, Maine to fulfill their mission. A 2017 TedX speaker, Alyssa speaks to motivate individuals and organizations alike, to become powerful agents of change. A regular contributor to Forbes, Global Giving, Feminist Wednesday and Levo League, Alyssa is a powerful Millennial voice in the social change movement.

click here to meet our Founder’s Circle

Take a look at our blog | listen to our podcast

OUr founder’s circle

Founder and Chief dreamer Fabiola Santos-Gaerlan has provided superior child care through Honeydew Drop Child Care services in Park Slope, Brooklyn for over 20 years. After a decade of work as a TV show producer which included years in children's programming, she wanted to apply her expertise through more meaningful work within the community and transitioned into child care services.

Honeydew has catered to an average of 80 kids annually and attracts children from all backgrounds. Her love for children and passion towards her craft has lead her to discover a new mission: A mission to inform the world of the significance of a child's feelings and start a movement of awareness and training service about socio-emotional development.

When she’s not training her staff or enjoying the company of all the children, she can be seen walking her dog Troy, the only remaining baby in the house

Sarah Chase Natan MAcOM earned a masters degree in Chinese Medicine at the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine and continued her studies in Yichun, China. Sarah has been practicing Chinese Medicine including acupuncture, herbs, nutrition, and therapeutic body work since 2006 and has treated thousands of people around the world for everything from broken heart to body pain to babesiosis wholeheartedly and without hesitation.

Sarah is the founder of the Brooklyn Acupuncture Project http://www.brooklynacupunctureproject.com, a low cost sliding scale clinic in Gowanus, Brooklyn and continues to dedicate her life to making this ancient, safe, and effective medicine available to all people of all walks of life.

She is particularly focused on treating chronic Lyme, back pain, depression and anxiety, digestive issues, and woman’s health. She is a trained birth and postpartum doula and offers acupuncture support for moms and families through all stages of pregnancy, from pre-conseption onwards.

A thorough pulse diagnosis guides her approach as she hopes to encourage the highest expression of health and wellbeing in every person with whom she works. She hopes that by helping individuals and communities thrive, the rest of the the planet will benefit. She is honored to practice on Lenni-Lenape, Mahican, and Iroquois land in what is now called Western Massachusetts and New York.

Joél Mejia

Joél is a Bronx based artist, entrepreneur, pedagogue, and social activist. He graduated in 2002 from Lehman College with a degree in Economics, but his passion was quickly becoming music production and filmmaking. In 2007 he began working full time on his pursuits, freelancing with numerous clients, and mostly looking for ways to explore the intersection between Afro-Latino/Afro-Futurism aesthetics, radical activism, and indigenous shamanic practices. Above all, it is his relentless pursuit of truth, equity, and justice that fuels his creative projects and work as an educator. He teaches media literacy in a high school in the Bronx, which provides him an opportunity to fulfill his debt to the many mentors that have helped him along his journey, and providing the foundation for his current state of mind. “Switching between the role of artist, entrepreneur, and educator is in balance because of my role as a father. That singular event confirmed that what I am meant to do is be of assistance to the future generations that will inhabit this planet. I’ve always known that to be my trajectory; it’s just that being a father gives my work even more urgency now.”

Things Are Changing Productions, which he co-founded with his wife, is a pioneering social enterprise with a vision of creating a viable market for socially conscious media and to fill the educational space with programs around the principles of permaculture. The company is currently working on two distinct projects: a feature-length documentary sequel to his company’s 2015 film, Time is Art: Synchronicity and the Collective Dream, an artist-centered series exploring the mystical side of being an artist. The follow up film, due in 2020, is called Time is Art: The Frequency of Love.

As a self styled leader committed to speaking about the future in optimistic terms, his approach to creativity is rooted in co-creation and self-empowerment. Growing up in New York City, his exposure to a wide array of cultures and art forms inspired him to develop his own unique style and approach to creativity.

Throughout his youth he studied acting and photography, while simultaneously learning about the music industry through an after-school internship he was offered during his high school years. After graduating from college in 2002 with a degree in economics, he divided his time between music recording and composition, and released several albums under various aliases. In 2007 he began producing and directing music videos and documentary films for clients, adding a skill set that has since enhanced his ability to tell stories that resonate with the world.

He envisions a future that embraces diversity in not just storytelling, but in what the human experience can offer. The environmental crisis due to climate change is something that worries the artist very much. He believes that it is the separation we feel from nature and ourselves that has caused this catastrophe for future generations, and that only through healing can we move forward and help leave this planet better for future generations.

Mr. Mejia has received numerous grants for his work and programs, including: NALAC Fund for the Arts (2007), Children for Children Teacher's Assistance Program Grant (2008), Brooklyn Arts Council Regrant Award (2008), and The Fund for the City of New York Incubator Grant (2009).

Seth Lennon Nguyen Weiner

When I first learned of the Alliance for a Viable Future I felt a sense of inspiration, hope and enthusiasm. There is a simple and powerful force in our coming together. I believe that as we align we also create a future that is good, beautiful and life-giving.

I am a husband and also a father to two beautiful boys. I am a student of an animist understanding of the world. I am a descendent of Jewish immigrants and early European settlers in America and I am also a beneficiary of the kindness and generosity of a number of indigenous people and cultures who have helped me along in my own journey. In my current work I have the great honor of serving as executive director to the Wabankai cultural and healing center Nibezun in Passadumkeag, Maine. I am a graduate of the University of California, Santa Cruz with a BA in Community Studies and I also earned a JD from Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. Much of my career has been in the fields of restorative justice, human rights, philanthropy and indigenous peacemaking. I am thrilled to be a founding member of the Alliance for a Viable Future.

Jon Lee Rucker

I started the organization PermaJam to unite people in ecological, social and cultural restoration. PermaJam is about collaboration and cooperation rather than competition. We team with people and organizations that are pioneering Regenerative Culture. Featuring a wide variety of workshops in Permaculture; foraging; herbalism; renewable energies; yoga and meditation; art and music; and much more. With performances from over 70 musical groups, and we have had amazing support in collaborating with indigenous people.

The community has been steadily growing over 4 years. We’ve gone from doing one big annual event to many smaller events year round.
Our events do NOT allow drugs to provide a space for people of all ages, especially children. We have a 4 year model for transforming ecosystems as well as people through our events. Currently in our second year on 125 acres in upstate NY. A one of a kind experience, and a way for people to gather while leaving the land more healthy and abundant than we found it.

I’ve been a musician all my life; Community organizer working for environmental and social causes for over 10 years; farming for about 8 years; certified in BioDynamic Agriculture; currently co-own a gourmet mushroom farm located in Brooklyn, NY.

Glenn Bair

Glenn contributes to AVF as part of a commitment to maintaining a healthy planet for his children and future generations. As an artist and leader, Glenn values new opportunities that allow for learning and exchanging ideas through creative partnership with others. Glenn works
with artists to facilitate creative experiences that invite understanding and the possibility of changing the status quo. Beyond his commitments to AVF, Glenn serves as a program manager in the healthcare industry where he works as part of a team focused on improving patient care through innovative digital strategies. Glenn resides in Connecticut and recently earned his master’s degree in Organizational Leadership in 2019.

Thomas O. Murtha

We’re at a precipitous time of humanity that requires individuals to “show up” and bring about the collective action needed to address the multiple crises our world currently faces. Leadership, vision, and action for social change is what’s needed now. Becoming a member of the Founder’s Circle provides me with a connection with a community that is focused on co-creating and leading the transformation our species must achieve to survive, thrive, and evolve.

Rob Garrity

I entered the Founder’s Circle because I believe deeply in AVF’s work. This pragmatic, on-the-ground work is what's needed at this moment on our planet. Through such deep connection, churning through otherwise unquestioned worldviews and perceptions of common sense we see new possibilities, take deeper responsibility and move forward, in action, in the world, in a deeper, more caring stance, making a more viable, beautiful future possible.

We are striving to create a diverse alliance
and would like to have more women and people of color
represented in our founder’s circle.

If you know of anyone who might resonate with this mission,
please make the connection via email: lev@allianceforaviablefuture.org.