We provide a six-month long advanced leadership and interpersonal dynamics training to a select cohort of 24 leaders across climate, regenerative, and social impact organizations.
The Fellowship is supported by a uniquely assembled team of experts in time-tested lineages and cutting-edge innovation practices.
As Fellows, we will gather with other founders, visionaries, and directors to undergo personal and professional transformations vital for our collective survival. We train ourselves to unlock unexplored team and organizational potentials critical for activating collective intelligence. We grapple with the most valuable questions we can surface and sustain in contemplation so that we may cascade our contributions into the communities and ecosystems we are called to serve.
Join us in creating the sacred space for deep refuge and radical coordinated action.
Climate Wisdom is a 501(c)(3) organization.
Dustin DiPerna is a Harvard-trained scholar of world religions and meditation teacher in the Tibetan Dzogchen tradition. He currently serves as adjunct professor at Stanford University where he teaches classes on meditation, human flourishing, and purpose finding.
Dustin spent 20 years studying with Ken Wilber and is considered an expert in Integral Theory. He is a senior teacher of Tibetan meditation practices in the Pointing Out Way Lineage and studied with his main meditation teacher, Daniel P. Brown, for 16 years. Dustin and Dan co-taught Mahamudra and Dzogchen meditation retreats together for 10 years until Dan’s passing. Dustin teaches regularly in the US, Europe, Australia, and China.
Through his writing, teaching, and entrepreneurship, Dustin helps people find happier and more fulfilling ways of being in the world. His books include Streams of Wisdom, Evolution's Ally, and Earth is Eden. An avid lover of art, design, and nature, he lives in California with his wife, Amanda, and daughters, Jaya and Rumi.
Diane is the founder and lead trainer of the Real LIFE Programs. She is an award-winning mediator, and a teacher of Zen meditation. She received dharma transmission from Genpo Merzel Roshi in 2006.
Diane served as the Director of Dispute Resolution for the Utah Judiciary from 1994 - 1999, mediating many kinds of matters from simple neighborhood disputes to complex, multi-party negotiations. She was most recognized for her skills in facilitating the difficult conversations related to race, gender, and religion in Utah.
She began working with Ken Wilber and the Integral Institute in 2004, and for fifteen years has held transformative containers for many people interested in their own development. She is the author of three books, most recently Compassionate Conversations, co-authored with Gabriel Wilson and Kimberly Loh.
Aithan Shapira (MFA PhD) is an established artist, internationally acclaimed Lecturer at MIT Sloan, and founder of TILT, a firm focused on evolving leaders and cultures for ever-changing contexts.
Aithan serves on McKinsey's think tank for Learning Innovation and has evolved his curricula intersecting transformation, skills development, culture and creativity for the future of work at MIT Sloan, Harvard iLab, Stanford d.school, and the Berklee Institute for Creative Entrepreneurship. He has trained more than 12,000 leaders, 200 facilitators, given over 100 keynotes, and delivered customized leadership curricula for more than 30 Fortune 500 organizations in health, technology, finance, and energy.
Aithan developed his research on the creative process at the Royal College of Art & Design, lived in an Australian Aboriginal community for three years to study creativity in cultures of survival, and continues to be a visiting critic at arts institutions internationally. He exhibits his artwork in museums and galleries in New York, London, and Miami.
Gabriel Wilson is an Integral facilitator, leadership advisor, and co-author of Compassionate Conversations.
He grew up in New York City and in Rio de Janeiro, the son of an inter-racial and cross-cultural marriage. This naturally led him to explore the power of radical collaboration in committed, diverse relationships. Through Stanford's Masters program in Policy, Organization, and Leadership Studies (POLS) Gabe studied design thinking, adult developmental psychology, and leadership. Recently, he founded "Freedom and Fairness," a program devoted to helping individuals and groups enact greater freedom, fairness, and compassion.
Kim's past work includes mediation and conflict facilitation, peacebuilding research and policy development for the United Nations, international NGOs and universities, and work as a lawyer in London and Singapore.
Kim Loh works at the confluence of communication, embodiment and mindfulness. She helps people navigate conflict more fluently, with clarity and compassion, and transform their conflicts and themselves in the process.
Kim is the co-author of Compassionate Conversations: How to Speak and Listen from the Heart with Diane Musho Hamilton and Gabriel Wilson.
She also is a guide for embodiment and meditation, teaching on and off since 2013. She is a practitioner in the Two Arrows Zen community. Kim is grateful to live and play on the island of Kaua’i, Hawaii.
Rob McNamara is an author, leadership coach, advisor and consultant with expertise in adult development and human performance. He is a co-founder of the leading consulting firm Delta Developmental and former Harvard Teaching Fellow.
McNamara’s coaching focuses leaders on clarifying life purpose, growing critical leadership skills to advance value creation and fostering organizational development to enhance learning and innovation.
McNamara is a former Harvard University Teaching Fellow. Through the Graduate School of Education and Harvard's Extension School, Rob taught Adult Development in Professor Robert Kegan's course on Adult Development. Rob began his academic teaching career providing graduate and undergraduate lectures and courses on integral psychology, developmental psychology and human development in 2001. He spent a decade as a professor of human development, developmental psychology and transpersonal psychology in Boulder Colorado.
Rob is known by his students for his heartfelt passion for teaching, his conceptual clarity and his playful, yet creative engagement of his student's bodies, minds and hearts.
Gail Hochachka, PhD, studies and works with the human dimensions of climate change.
As a postdoctoral researcher at UBC (University of British Columbia), her work emphasizes the meaning-making processes that people use to bring climate change into their awareness and the various psycho-social aspects that shape choices, motivations, and action. Some of this work explores the action-logics as well as the shadow dynamics that surround the climate change issue today. Her research has been widely published and includes novel insights for climate policy design and engagement.
Alongside this academic work, Gail has for decades been a practitioner of human interiors, as a skilled facilitator, a former yoga teacher, and an associate-level integral coach. Much of this practice-based work has sought to integrate interiority in sustainability work. In that capacity, she has extensive experience working in sustainable development globally, including co-founding the Integral Without Borders Institute. This background, combined with her current academic research, affords her a unique perspective in the current climate discourse.
Karen O’Brien is a Professor in the Department of Sociology and Human Geography at the University of Oslo, Norway. She is also co-founder of cCHANGE, an organization that supports public engagement with transformations to sustainability.
Karen’s research emphasizes the social and human dimensions of climate change and implications for human security. Her current research focuses on the relationship between climate change adaptation and transformations to sustainability, with an emphasis on the role of creativity, collaboration, empowerment, and narratives. She is particularly interested in the role of beliefs, values, worldviews, and paradigms in generating conscious social change. Her recent books include You Matter More Than You Think: Quantum Social Change for a Thriving World and Climate and Society: Transforming the Future (with Robin Leichenko). Karen has been named by Web of Science as one of the world’s most influential researchers of the past decade. In 2021 she was co-recipient of the BBVA Foundations Frontiers of Knowledge Award for Climate Change. Karen is currently co-chair of the International Science-Policy Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) Transformative Change Assessment.
MONTH 1
The Frame
May 18 - Kick-off
June 1 - Diane Hamilton
June 2-4 - In-Person Retreat
Berkeley, CA
MONTH 2The Importance of Roots
June 15 - Dustin Diperna
June 29 - Group Workshop
MONTH 3
Ensoulment
July 13 - Rob McNamara
July 27 -Group Workshop
MONTH 4How to Innovate
August 10 - Aithan Shapira
August 24 - Group Workshop
MONTH 5Working with Difference
September 7 -Gabriel Wilson
September 14 -Panel Talk w/ Gail Hochachka & Karen O'Brien
September 21 - Group Workshop
MONTH 6Creativity in Conflict
October 5 - Kim Loh
Oct 19- Closing
Spencer is the founder and lead trainer of the Climate Wisdom Fellowship, a graduate of Pomona College’s interdisciplinary Environmental Analysis program, and a Certified Integral Facilitator.
Spencer is a leadership coach and facilitator with over a decade of study in transformational processes with master teachers Thomas Hubl & Diane Hamilton in the subjects human development, group process, conflict resolution, and improvisation. Before coaching and consulting, Spencer ran a design-build firm for 10 years creating interiors and landscapes for clients like Etsy, Impact Hub Oakland, and Signature Development where he learned the interplay between creative process and finished product. For 5 years, he served as the Community Director at a coliving property management company where he supported 17+ intentional communities grow from initial formation to stabilization as self-organizing, independent communities.
Spencer has trained for over a decade in Shadow yoga, Buddhist meditation, the improv musical form the Art of Circlesinging, and adult developmental theory. Outside of Climate Wisdom, Spencer works as a leadership coach, and can be found making music with friends, hiking the California coastal wildlands with his family, or building something with his hands.
Andrea is the Head of People and Culture at Earthshot Labs, a retreat facilitator, environmental educator, activist, and assistant for the Climate Wisdom Fellowship.
Andrea is a facilitator and leader with over 15 years of experience in environmental nonprofits and more recently at a climate tech startup. She has facilitated over 18 retreats, weaving together the trainings she received from Ten Directions, the Pachamama Alliance, Starhawk, Bruce Lyon, and Lynne Twist in the fields of integral facilitation, global change-making, permaculture, esoteric temple culture, and fundraising from the heart. She is immensely grateful for and devoted to carrying forth Joanna Macy’s body of work, The Work that Reconnects.
Andrea is a lead instructor bringing The Work that Reconnects to Chicago youth via After School Matters. She served as the Director of Environmental Education for a watchdog activist nonprofit, Friends of the Parks, and before that spent 13 years leading the environmental and transformational initiatives of Greenheart International. She was also a core organizer of the Global Purpose Movement and former board chair of Chicago Fair Trade.
Andrea became a Life Cycle Celebrant to support rites of passage. Beyond her professional work, Andrea organizes class reunions, stewards her local community, volunteers at a community garden, sings with her grandma, and swims in Lake Michigan.
sonj basha (she/they) is a seasoned public speaker, equity advisor, and facilitator, working with teams and organizations to build a thriving & just world.
sonj brings deeptraining in multiple bodies of work that foster transformative experiences andbuild organizational capacity including direct training from Joanna Macy with The Work That Reconnects and ecology of leadership with Regenerative Design Institute, among others. With years of praxis serving teams from grassroots togovernment, sonj is committed to honoring diversity and fostering belonging.
Our training delivers curriculum based on the following three domains:
We support our fellows in several domains of their own personal growth and development:
- Developing mental spaciousness
- Integrating shadow material; and
- Strengthening purpose
Developing mental spaciousness through practices like meditation allows us to make space for what wants to happen in a group without judgement; it is the process of "getting out of our own way" so to speak.
Integrating shadow material involves accepting parts of ourself that we have pushed away and deemed unacceptable for whatever reason. Not doing this work can be catastrophic for an organization as generally what we push away comes back with a lot of force.
Strengthening our purpose is becoming more intimate with the "story" layer of our life. The story and myths operate in the background and, when clarified, can be an immense source of direction and coherence in our lives.
Traditional leadership involves coming up with the answer yourself, telling people what do to, and controlling the outcome through external incentives. A different playbook is required in order to keep high-functioning, collaborative, self-directed individuals around.
Interpersonal and team dynamics training involves:
- Skills and processes to efficiently resolve conflict between two or more individuals
- Creating the group conditions for innovation to emerge
- Using conversations about difference to drive innovation rather than create siloed tribes
- Reading groups energetically to inform creative interventions
- Recognizing and working with layers of trauma
Organizations must digest many streams of information; from social media to news to conversations with colleagues, clients, and boards, then parse apart what is true and meaningful, and decide on what action to take next. Orienting & navigating involves making an accurate map of the territory and taking action in an appropriate direction.
This is a critical skill for leaders especially in fast-moving markets like climate and technology. For starts, we have to get comfortable in complexity and grow our capacity to see how different domains interact.
Orienting & navigating training involves:
- Understanding worldviews and stages of adult development
- Harnessing different types of data
- Engaging the power of collectives
- Empowering careful consideration while avoiding "analysis paralysis"
The pilot program 2023 cohort of the Climate Wisdom Fellowship is currently underway through October. Input your name and email to be first to know when the next cohort's application is open. Thank you!
JOINThe in-person retreats are an experiential time to deepen and bond with your cohort in-person. There will be a mix of framing, teaching, small group and large group work on a variety of personal and interpersonal content. This is live practice and connection at a beautiful retreat site with access to nature. (2024 cohort will meet at a retreat site just north of the SF Bay Area on 600 acres.)
The virtual calls are twice a month and will have a range of content depending on where we are in the overall arc, who is presenting, and what is alive in the room. One of these calls each month is joined by a guest expert who will present their unique contribution, guide practices, and take Q&A from participants while the other call each month will be with Felllowship staff to deepen the content. Optional readings each month help to prepare and frame the work of each expert.
We love coaching but, yes, this is different. The focus of the Fellowship is on collective processes and skills. It is about taking the inner work you are doing and manifestesting the learning within your teams and organization as whole. There is an element of personal growth that we include, however the practice here is more about receiving honest feedback from peers, practicing facilitation edges, and learning as a collective to broaden our perception. You can think about it as a dojo to practice facilitation and leadership with peers outside of your high-stakes organizational context.
Participants will be founders, directors, visionaries, or thought-leaders working in the fields of climate, sustainability, biodiversity, regenerative economy, circular economy, conservation, or related fields. There will be startups using technology, AI, or other innovative technologies; there will also be organizations that have social, cultural, agricultural, or low-tech solutions to climate issues. We aim to form groups that are diverse as possible while having a determined focus on contributing to a net positive civilization.
Participants are required to attend all of the in-person components to join the program. For virtual calls, recordings will be provided in the case that one is missed.
The pod participation and panel calls are optional. The pods are a group of 3-4 individuals with which you will have one call per month to connect and deepen in your own learning. There is a lot of learning in a closed group of peers like this over the course of six months.
The optional panel talks are where we invite individuals working in climate or environmental work who are already using a number of the course frames of personal development, team dynamics, and sense-making in their own work. This is a chance to hear from some folks on the ground in their work and organizations on how some of this might look like when applied directly.
No. We are not gathering to create a hive-mind to solve any particular climate issue together. We are gathering to refine the means by which you can create and guide innovative teams that will be able to address any number of environmental issues. We are building the muscles for creating healthy, dynamic culture. There will, however, be side conversations and networking on various issues in the group no doubt given the shared background, but that will not be a focus of our work.
If you'd like to participate in a future cohort please fill out this form here. Thank you.
Premal is an entrepreneur who co-founded Kiva, co-founded renewables.org, and was one of the first employees at PayPal.
Premal sits on the boards of other non-profit organizations, including Center for Human Technology, Change.org Foundation, Watsi, and VolunteerMatch. He is also a part of a group of early PayPal alumni who have gone on to found or co-found other successful companies, including YouTube, LinkedIn, Tesla Motors, and Yelp. Premal is currently serving as President at Branch - a microfinance company serving India & Africa - as well as co-Founder at renewables.org - an investment platform for renewable energy in emerging markets.
Diane is the founder and lead trainer of the Real LIFE Programs. She is an award-winning mediator, and a teacher of Zen meditation. She received dharma transmission from Genpo Merzel Roshi in 2006.
Diane served as the Director of Dispute Resolution for the Utah Judiciary from 1994 - 1999, mediating many kinds of matters from simple neighborhood disputes to complex, multi-party negotiations. She was most recognized for her skills in facilitating the difficult conversations related to race, gender, and religion in Utah.
She began working with Ken Wilber and the Integral Institute in 2004, and for fifteen years has held transformative containers for many people interested in their own development. She is the author of three books, most recently Compassionate Conversations, co-authored with Gabriel Wilson and Kimberly Loh.
