Featured Presenters
Craig Chalquist, PhD, is Associate Provost at Pacifica Graduate Institute. He earned his Ph.D. in Depth Psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute and also holds a Master Gardener certificate and another in permaculture design. He is the author of Terrapsychology: Reengaging the Soul of Place (Spring Journal Books, 2007) and co-editor with Linda Buzzell, MFT, of Ecotherapy: Healing with Nature in Mind (Sierra Club Books, 2009). Craig was core faculty in East-West Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies and former core faculty at John F. Kennedy University, where he served as acting department chair (Consciousness & Transformative Studies), designing and launching the world’s first ecotherapy certificate.
Kelly Carlin, M.A. In 1993, at the ripe age of 30, she graduated from UCLA, Magna Cum Laude, with a B.A. in Communications Studies where she discovered her voice as a writer. She and her husband Robert McCall, wrote together and achieved some success in TV and film. After her mother’s death in 1997, Kelly found her true calling; autobiographical storytelling, and wrote and performed her one-woman show, “Driven To Distraction.” However, something more than the entertainment industry was calling Kelly, so she pursued her master’s degree in Counseling Psychology with an emphasis in Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate institute in order to explore the nexus of storytelling, psychology and those big questions of life.
Erik Davis, PhD, is an author, podcaster, award-winning journalist, and popular speaker based in San Francisco. He grew up in North County, Southern California, and spent a decade on the East Coast, where he studied literature and philosophy at Yale and spent six years in the freelance trenches of Brooklyn and Manhattan before moving to San Francisco. He is the author of four books: Nomad Codes: Adventures in Modern Esoterica (Yeti, 2010), The Visionary State: A Journey through California’s Spiritual Landscape (Chronicle, 2006), with photographs by Michael Rauner, and the 33 1/3 volume Led Zeppelin IV (Continuum, 2005). His first and best-known book remains TechGnosis: Myth, Magic, and Mysticism in the Age of Information (Crown, 1998), a cult classic of visionary media studies that has been translated into five languages and recently republished by North Atlantic Press. He wrote the libretto for and performed in “How to Survive the Apocalypse,” a Burning Man-inspired rock opera. He has hosted the podcast Expanding Mind on the Progressive Radio Network since 2010, and earned his PhD in Religious Studies from Rice University in 2015.
Kwame Scruggs, PhD, holds a Ph.D. and MA in Mythological Studies with an emphasis in Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute and is the founder and director of programs for Alchemy, a non-profit organization in Akron, Ohio established in 2003. Alchemy uses mythological stories to engage urban adolescent males. He is a recently appointed board member of the Joseph Campbell Foundation and serves on the National Advisory Committee of the Creative Youth Development National Partnership.
For more information, visit www.alchemyinc.net.
Mary Antonia Wood PhD, is Co-Chair of the Engaged Humanities and Creative Life program, and the owner of Talisman Creative Mentoring, a practice that supports artists and creators of all types. Through one-on-one consultations, group workshops and classes, Wood assists creative individuals who desire a stronger and more authentic connection to the deepest archetypal sources of creativity. Wood has been a visual artist for over twenty years, working in a variety of media. Her work has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions and has been collected by both public institutions and individuals. In addition, she has collaborated with writers and artists on public art commissions. Wood received her doctorate in Mythological Studies from Pacifica Graduate Institute where her thesis was entitled, “The Archetypal Artist: Re-imagining Artistic Expression at the Crossroads of Fate and Free Will.” Wood is currently at work on a book for Routledge based on her doctoral and post-doctoral research on the archetypal forces that shape a creative life.