Frank Berliner
BA, Yale University
MA, Naropa University
Frank Berliner is a core faculty member in the Contemplative Psychology Department and a psychotherapist and organizational consultant in private practice, specializing in communication training and conflict resolution. Frank has been a student of Naropa’s founder, Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche, since Naropa's opening session in summer 1974. He studied the psychology and practice of meditation intensively for four years at the Karme Choling Buddhist Retreat Center, then served three years as national director of Shambhala Training and four years as director and teacher-in-residence of the Berkeley Shambhala Center.
Mariana Caplan BA, University of Michigan, Cultural Anthropology
MA, California Institute of Integral Studies, Counseling Psychology
PhD, Union Institute and University, Contemporary Spirituality
In addition to her degrees in cultural anthropology, counseling psychology, and contemporary spirituality, Marianna attributes the majority of her education and inspiration to years of research and practice in the world's great mystical traditions, and to living in villages in India, Central and South America, and Europe. She
is a counselor, a professor of yogic and transpersonal psychologies, and the author of seven books in the fields of psychology and spirituality, including Halfway Up the Mountain: the Error of Premature Claims to Enlightenment and Do You Need a Guru?: Understanding the Student-Teacher Relationship in an Era of False Prophets.
Dr. Caplan resides in the San Francisco Bay area where she has a private practice in counseling, and teaches at the California Institute of Integral Studies. Her web address is: www.realspirituality.com.
John Davis BA, Wake Forest University
MA, University of Colorado, Boulder
PhD, University of Colorado, Boulder
John Davis is director of the low-residency MA in Transpersonal Psychology program at Naropa. A professor and former chair of the Transpersonal Counseling Psychology department, he teaches transpersonal psychology and ecopsychology. John is the author of The Diamond Approach: An Introduction to the Teaching of A.H. Almaas and entries on Transpersonal Psychology and Wilderness Rites of Passage in the Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature, as well as a number of articles and book chapters on transpersonal psychology, ecopsychology, wilderness rites of passage, and research methods. His primary interest is full human development and self-realization with a special focus on the intersection of spirituality, psychology, and the natural world. In addition to his work at Naropa, John is an ordained teacher of the Diamond Approach of A. H. Almaas and a staff member of the School of Lost Borders, where he trains wilderness rites of passage guides and leads wilderness retreats.
Sherry Ellms
BA, University of California, Los Angeles, Psychology
MA, Naropa University, Environmental Leadership
Sherry Ellms is chair of the Environmental Studies Department, teaches a variety of contemplative practices, including meditation, and facilitates earth-based experiences and their application to leadership, earth stewardship and personal sustainability. She leads wilderness solos and other nature-based programs that facilitate a deep connection with the power and insight of the natural world. For the past twenty-five years, she has been conducting retreats and teaching meditation in secular settings such as Outward Bound, as well as in spiritual settings throughout out the country. She teaches an online course, Meditation for Social Change Leaders, in the Ecopsychology concentration of the MA Transpersonal Psychology Program. Sherry is a longtime meditation practitioner and a student of the university’s founder, Choygam Trungpa Rinpoche.. Her master’s thesis was titled "Tonglen as a Tool for Transformative Environmental Engagement." In addition to her contemplative scholarship, she served as Naropa University’s dean of students for twelve years. She has studied with Joanna Macy and trained at the School of Lost Borders. She is committed to investigating the interdependence of landscape and the psyche and facilitating activities that transform human consciousness.
Glenn Hartelius BA, Pacific Union College, Interdisciplinary Studies
MA, Loma Linda University, Religion
PhD, California Institute of Integral Studies, Psychology
In addition to his position as adjunct faculty at Naropa University, Glenn is Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Palo Alto,CA, and has taught at the doctoral level for the California Institute of Integral Studies. He has led workshops on mindfulness and the dynamic processes of attention regulation in the U.S., Canada, and Europe. He served as lead author on a major article published in The Humanist Psychologist (Hartelius, Caplan, & Rardin, 2007) that developed a concise, comprehensive, historically-rooted definition of the subject area of transpersonal psychology, as well as for the entry on transpersonal psychology in the upcoming 4th edition of Corsini’s Encyclopedia of Psychology. As a counselor in somatic and integral therapies, his work spans more than twenty-five years. His vision is to integrate the insights of participatory transpersonalism, somatics, interdisciplinary consciousness studies and phenomenology into powerful new models and clinical approaches for the larger field of psychology.
Aurora Hill BA, Temple University, Interdisciplinary: Education, Psychology, Religion
MEd, Temple University,Group Dynamics
PhD, Institute of Transpersonal Psychology,
Psychology
Aurora Hill is an intellectual property specialist, a research psychologist, teacher, writer, lecturer and an adjunct faculty member in the MATP program at Naropa University. She teaches at Bucks County Community College in Pennsylvania and is the founder of Heartstone (www.heartstonepub.com), a company that invites awareness of transpersonal, ecopsychology, Native American Indian and feminine perspectives. Her teaching style integrates traditional and nontraditional approaches with a focus on experiential and mindfulness practices, guided journaling and the works of Angeles Arrien.
Dr. Hill has authored numerous works such as A Woman’s Moon-Time Journal and The AnimalTeacherTMJournal for Children and co-authored The Secret of Freedom: A Family’s Unfinished Business. Her dissertation was "JOY Revisited: An Exploratory Study of the Experience of JOY through the Memories of the Women of One Native American Indian Community."
Her current interests include the intuitive inquiry research method, innovative teaching and somatic recognition practices, and positive experiences such as joy and creativity.
Nancy Jane
BA, French and Education, Lake Erie College
BS, Natural Resources Conservation, University of Massachusetts
MA, Transpersonal Psychology / Ecopsychology, Naropa University
Nancy Jane is an educator, wilderness guide and council facilitator. On staff at the School of Lost Borders in CA, a training center for wilderness rites of passage guides, she leads youth, adult, and elder wilderness solos and has pioneered bringing this work to school settings. She has trained in the way of council with the Center for Council Training, Ojai, CA. For many years a naturalist and forester, Nancy is also an author (Bicycle Touring in the Pioneer Valley), an editor, an instructor of English as a second language, and formerly the director of admissions for a Waldorf school. Nancy has a special interest in working with people in deep ways, by connecting them to nature and furthering personal growth.
Jequita (J.P.) McDaniel BA, Metropolitan State College, Cultural Anthropology
MA, Regis University, Psychology
Ph.D., Union Institute & University, Psychology/Ecopsychology
JP is a visiting instructor in the low-residency MA program and teaches Ecopsychology and Master's Papers courses. She recently completed her doctorate degree in the new field of Ecopsychology, with her dissertation examining ecological identity influences with natural childbirth. Her interests in ecopsychology are long-standing and include ecological identity development, sense of place, our connection to animals, and also biological and cultural influences of the human relationship with the natural world, including indigenous North Americans’ relationships with nature. She conducts classes and retreats that help reconnect urban dwellers to the natural world, and has been extensively involved with several environmental non-profit organizations. She also facilitates a variety of relationship workshops, emphasizing non-violent communication skills, and adjustment to life's transitions. She recently wrote a children's book about environmentalist Mardy Murie, which is scheduled for publication in the fall of 2010.
Gloria E. Nouel
BA, Stephen F. Austin University, Psychology
MA, West Georgia College, Humanistic Psychology
PhD, Duquesne University, Clinical Psychology
Gloria Nouel is the Assistant Dean of Program Development and Strategic Planning at Naropa, and has an appointment as an Assistant Professor in the Transpersonal Counseling Psychology Master’s program. For the last 10 years Gloria was full-time faculty and director of the Master of Science in Counseling Psychology and the founding director of the Master of Arts in Leadership and Organizational Transformation at Chatham University. Prior to that Gloria worked in the non-profit world as a director and psychotherapist for the Women’s Counseling Center of the YWCA of Greater Pittsburgh. Her PhD has an existential-phenomenological approach to clinical psychology. In her M.A. she explored social phenomenology and the intersection of spirituality and psychology. In her community work Gloria has been involved in diversity initiatives, women’s empowerment issues and organizational change. Her research has focused on the transformation of maternal bereavement in its social, symbolic and spiritual dimensions and women’s positive aging. She brings a commitment and aspiration to an integrated vision of organizational life where dialogue, reflection and joyful action co-exist and are an impetus to a better society.
Lori Pye PhD, Pacifica Graduate Institute, Mythological Studies and Depth Psychology
Lori Pye’s background consists of nonprofit executive management and academic instruction. As an environmentalist, Dr. Pye worked with international NGO’s to co-develop the Eastern Tropical Pacific Seascape Corridor with the Ministers of the Environment from Costa Rica, Colombia, Panama, and Ecuador. She has led international conferences on diverse issues as Nature and Human Nature, Changing Perspectives,The Mythology of Violence, and The Aesthetic Nature of Change. Dr. Pye teaches Ecopsychology at the University of California in Santa Barbara (UCSB), Ecology Concepts and Applications for Ecopsychology at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado, Human Ecology and Sustainable Global Management at Antioch University and Myth, Literature &Religious Studies at Pacifica Graduate Institute. She is on the Editorial Board for Ecopsychology Journal. Dr. Pye is the Director for the Institute for Cultural Change at www.instituteforculturalchange.org .
Colleen Stewart MA, Transpersonal Counseling Psychology, Naropa University
BEd, University of Alberta
Colleen is an adjunct faculty member for the MATP program. She is a graduate of Naropa’s Transpersonal Counseling Psychology program and has been a staff member here for over five years. Her interests include issues concerning death and dying, specifically with children. She was also an international student coming from Canada, so she is sensitive to the issues associated with international study.
Jed Scott Swift BA, Hobart College, Psychology
MA, Lesley University, Counseling Psychology
Jed is the Chair of the Psychology Department at Columbus State Community College in Columbus, Ohio. Previously, he was both the director of the Ecopsychology Concentration within the low residency Master’s in Transpersonal Psychology (MATP) at Naropa and a full time faculty in the MATP program. Jed has also been a graduate advisor for the past thirteen years for the Prescott College Master of Arts Program in Arizona. The courses he has taught at these institutions include: Ecopsychology; Transpersonal Psychology in the Wilderness; Deep Ecology; Wilderness Rites of Passage; Nature, the Sacred and Contemplation; Transpersonal Service Learning and Master’s Paper Online. In addition, Jed has previously been a wilderness rites of passage guide with over fifteen years experience successfully guiding hundreds of teens and adults on spirited wilderness quests in the Utah Canyonlands and the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. He also authored a chapter in The Soul Unearthed, edited by Cass Adams. Jed and his wife Dianne and eleven-year-old daughter Anna Gabriel live in Columbus, Ohio.
Hannah Upham B.S. Art Education – Northern Michigan University
M.A. Transpersonal Counseling / Art Therapy – Naropa University
Certificate in Horticultural Therapy – Horticultural Therapy Institute
Hannah Upham, MA, ATR, HTR, is currently an academic advisor in the TCP department and in the MATP-Ecopsychology Online programat Naropa University. She has a private practice where she offers transpersonal experiential counseling, art therapy and horticultural therapy to help children and adolescents, students and their families. She specializes in anxiety and sensory integration issues. She has worked as an educator, therapist, advisor and coach in a variety of settings including K-12 schools, colleges, private homes, mental health facilities, senior centers and youth centers. She is also a former U.S. team biathlete, an NRA expert sharpshooter, a musician, landscape designer and jewelry designer.
Jan Wall
At Naropa, Jan teaches the Master's Paper Online course. She also teaches at Lesley University, Cambridge, MA. Her courses in the holistic psychology and professional studies programs include transpersonal psychology, a holistic approach to healing, and an introduction to ancient hindu texts. She co-leads summer travel programs exploring sacred places (India, Bali, Ecuador, Tibet, Morocco), contemplative practices and cross-cultural psychology. Jan also co-leads national workshops for therapists, health care professionals and educators interested in holistic principles. She is completing a doctoral program with a focus on transpersonal perspectives, learning and development in higher education.
Stephanie Yuhas, Ph.D. (cand.)
BA, Naropa University
MA, Vermont College
Ph.D.(cand.) University of Denver
After completing a Master’s degree in Ecological Psychology, Stephanie apprenticed as assistant for the Deep Ecology in Context online course for six years and is now teaching the class herself. She is completing her Ph.D. in Religious Studies at the University of Denver where she taught Environmental Ethics in the philosophy department. She is adjunct faculty in Naropa’s Religious Studies department, teaching courses in philosophy of religion and theories and research for the Masters in Divinity program. A Buddhist practitioner for 20 years, she coordinated the in-residence visits of Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche and Ringu Tulku Rinpoche for several years, as well as the recent visit of HH Karmapa to Naropa. Stephanie studied with indigenous teachers in the Huichol and Lakota traditions and has a continuing interest in indigenous world views. She was coordinator of the Justice and Peace program at Iliff School of Theology focusing on issues of diversity, privilege and environmental justice, and is involved in the Transition movement. Her research interests include religion and ecology, children’s relationship to the natural world, consumerism, politics and the environment, and she is an advocate for cultural change.
Frank Berliner
Mariana Caplan
John Davis
Sherry Ellms
Aurora Hill
Nancy Jane 
Gloria E. Nouel
Lori Pye
Colleen Stewart
Hannah Upham
Jan Wall
Stephanie Yuhas, Ph.D. (cand.)