Biographies of the WVC 2013 Speakers
Brad Burge
Brad Burge is Director of Communications for the
Multidisciplinary
Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). He
earned his B.A. in Communication and Psychology from Stanford
University in 2005 and his M.A. in Communication from the University
of California, San Diego in 2009. His graduate work focused on the
political, scientific, and cultural changes required to make illicit
drugs into legitimate medicines. In 2009, he presented his work on the
history of the distinction between the recreational and medical use of
drugs at the Critical Legal Studies conference at the University of
Leicester in the UK. He has also interned for the
Drug Policy Alliance
and has a longstanding interest in drug policy reform and activism. He
began working with MAPS as an intern in 2009, joining the staff in
January 2011. Brad believes in the importance of communication for
helping people develop honest and responsible relationships with
themselves, each other, and their pharmacological tools. He lives in
Santa Cruz, California.
Valerie Corral
Valerie Corral is the co-founder of the
Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana (WAMM),
a pioneering medical marijuana collective and cooperative. Valerie was a
key player in the crafting and passage of Proposition 215 (also known as
the Compassionate Use Act of 1996), which allowed patients with a doctor's
recommendation to use marijuana medicinally. WAMM became the first medical
marijuana collective to be granted non-profit status in the United States.
Bruce Damer
Dr. Bruce Damer
is a designer and scientist who
harnesses vision and imagination in the service of humanity. He is
currently designing
a machine to crack the mystery of the origin of
life. Damer has delivered
designs for asteroid and
lunar missions for NASA, fabricated
cyber garments,
charted the
history of computing.
A
podcaster, Damer pioneered the
medium avatar cyberspace, wrote a blueprint for a constitutional
convention, and built some of the earliest user interfaces for
personal computers. He also has collected a large vintage computer
collection and archived a portion of the library of Dr. Timothy Leary.
Yalila Espinoza
Yalila Espinoza is a sexual/spiritual health counselor who received a
PhD in Transformation and Consciousness and Spiritual Counseling
training at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San
Francisco. Yalila is a registered social worker in British Columbia,
Canada and has worked in the areas of addiction, mental health, and
sexual abuse trauma. She currently offers Spiritual-Erotic Awakening
groups in the USA and Canada and also co-facilitates a 13 Moon Women's
Initiation group in Northern California. She is writing a book
titled:
Flying with the serpent: Embodied sensual wholeness and plant
consciousness focusing on how the purification and guidance of plant
teachers revitalize erotic health and liberation.
Shonagh Home
Shonagh Home is an author,
shaman and spell breaker, who takes people beyond the cultural
mass-trance and into the territory of the sacred. She works with both
individuals and groups to foster new paradigms and awaken self-healing
through her classes and immersions. Shonagh shares mystery teachings
about the magic of the body, the reclaiming of the Divine Feminine
within, and our ability to engage with the technology of nature. She
is author of the books,
Ix Chel Wisdom: 7 Teachings from the Mayan
Sacred Feminine, and
Love and Spirit Medicine. She teaches in the
Pacific Northwest and offers workshops around the country.
Beatriz Caiuby Labate
Beatriz Caiuby Labate
has a Ph.D. in Social Anthropology from the State University of
Campinas (Universidade Estadual de Campinas, UNICAMP), Brazil. Her
main areas of interest are the study of psychoactive substances, drug
policies, shamanism, ritual, and religion. She is Visiting Professor
at the Drug Policy Program of the Center for Economic Research and
Education (Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas, CIDE -
Región Centro) in Aguascalientes, Mexico. She is also Research
Associate at the Institute of Medical Psychology, Heidelberg
University, co-founder of the
Nucleus
for Interdisciplinary Studies of
Psychoactives (NEIP),
and editor of its site. She is author, co-author, and co-editor of
nine books, two with English translations, one journal special
edition, and several peer-reviewed articles.
Mariavittoria Mangini
Mariavittoria Mangini, PhD, FNP, has been a family nurse midwife for twenty
five years. She has written extensively on the impact of psychedelic
experiences in shaping the lives of her contemporaries, and has worked
closely with many of the most distinguished investigators in this
field. Her current project is the development of a "death midwifery"
practice providing services to dying persons and their families.
Julie D. Megler, MSN, NP-BC
Julie D. Megler is a board certified nurse practitioner in psychiatry
and family practice. She received her Master's of Science in
Nursing from the University of Miami, Florida. After graduating she
worked at an emergency room (E.R.) in Detroit, Michigan. Her
E.R. experience illustrated the gap between medical and psychiatric
care, and how the mind/body connection is often ignored. These gaps in
care encouraged Julie to pursue a psychiatric-mental health nurse
practitioner certificate at the University of California, San
Francisco so she could develop a practice that integrates medicine and
mental health for most effective treatment. Julie is now working with
homeless veterans living in transitional housing. In addition to her
work with veterans, Julie also has a integrative psychiatry practice
in collaboration with therapists, an acupuncturist, a naturopath, a
body worker, and a medical doctor.
Ralph Metzner
Ralph Metzner, Ph.D. is a recognized pioneer in psychological and
cross-cultural studies of consciousness and its transformations. He is
a psychotherapist and Professor Emeritus at the California Institute
of Integral Studies. His books include
The Unfolding Self,
The Well of Remembrance,
Green Psychology,
The
Expansion of Consciousness,
Alchemical Divination and
Mind Space and Time Stream.
He is the editor
of two collections of essays on ayahuasca and of psilocybin mushrooms.
Lakshmi Narayan
Lakshmi Narayan came to the USA from India in 1982 to pursue a Masters
degree in Visual Communication at the University of Illinois. She
currently lives in Santa Cruz, California, and has spent the last
three decades helping companies large and small to identify,
articulate, and enhance their presence in the marketplace through
design of their brand and web and print materials. She believes in the
power of word, image, and media as a force in conditioning culture,
from Stone Age drawings on a cave wall to our present day plethora of
communication tools and channels.
The company she founded,
Awake
Media, is dedicated to using media to raise the collective
consciousness.
Annie Oak
Annie Oak is the founder of the
Women's Visionary Congress
(WVC).
She is a journalist, event organizer, and founder of the
Full Circle Tea House.
Ms. Oak is working on book that profiles seven years of WVC presentations.
She
writes about the impact of psychedelics on science and creativity.
Nicki Scully
Nicki Scully
has been teaching the healing and shamanic arts since 1983, and
developed a comprehensive healing form called alchemical healing that
is practiced by thousands around the world. She is also the founder of
a spiritual travel company called Shamanic Journeys, Ltd.
Diana Slattery
Diana Reed Slattery is a novelist, psychonaut, xenolinguist, and video
performance artist. She completed a Ph.D. in psychedelics and language
at the University of Plymouth, UK, in 2010.
Zara Snapp
Jane Straight
