Carmina Osuna

Carmina Osuna is a native of Boyle Heights in Los Angeles, and attended college at UC San Diego and Loyola Marymount University. Carmina began her career in education as a founding Spanish teacher with Alliance College-Ready Public Charter Schools.

She later helped open Camino Nuevo Charter Academy’s second high school where she served as a teacher, Dean, and Assistant Principal. Carmina joined Thrive Public Schools' innovative team as the founding Director of its secondary school. Carmina has over 10 years experience in education and 7 planning and leading professional development and building strong teams with Council at the core.cription text goes here

Kate Lipkis

Kate Lipkis began facilitating circles under the Circle Ways banner in 1999 and helped establish council programs in five public schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

She was previously a trainer for Center for Council’s Organizational Wellness Project and the prison program, Council for Insight, Compassion and Resilience. Kate has been a member of the Council of Advisors for The Ojai Foundation (now Topa Institute) and its Trainers Mentoring Circle. During the pandemic, she increased her online offerings, including council trainings, which continue to be offered virtually. Her website lists a variety of council programs, both online and in person. Council Heart offers affordable international online council training for individuals or for groups seeking to begin a practice together. Trainings are scheduled after hours or on weekends for those in the U.S. or in Europe or Australia. Offerings also include a regular online council practice and a regular in-person council practice. Both are offered monthly.

JIll Valle

Jill Valle, MA, MFT began her council work in 2001 following her first training at The Ojai Foundation. Jill is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and holds a B.A. in Psychology from Boston College and a Masters Degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Lesley University in Cambridge, MA.

Jill spent two decades in schools as a counselor and health educator in both California and Boston creating life skills programs for grades 5-12 with Council as the foundation of the curriculum. She has led parent, student and faculty councils in addition to Council based retreats for adolescents and young adults focusing on issues of identity, body image, rites of passage, sexuality and leadership. An artist and photographer, Jill utilizes the council process in her “I Am A Woman Who” photography campaign. The campaign seeks to empower women and girls worldwide through cathartic stream of consciousness writing, storytelling and portraiture. Jill is currently the Senior Manager of the Council Program at Snap Inc. where she has spent the past 8 years designing, scaling and growing a global Council program in over 30 countries.

Hannah michelle Provisor

Hannah is a theatre artist with a BfA from Penn State, a visual artist, and music educator for elementary and middle schoolers– she was also a preschool teacher, where she had paint-covered, hands-on practice incorporating all of these art forms and more into emerging curricula.

She has always been drawn to children with huge emotions, the ones often designated as “problems" by adults. For years, she has been tuned in to young ones, following their lead as she worked with them to learn, regulate, and thrive through conversation, art, play, movement, reading, and yes, sometimes just letting it all out with a good cry! Her own experience as a neurodivergent, Queer kid – who often felt at odds with the world around her – has led her towards this purpose: helping kids gain more tools and opportunities for safe, transformative expression. Hannah began sitting in circles with her family from day one, and both her elementary and middle schools offered weekly circles for all students.

Diana frier

Diana Fried is a dedicated practitioner of emotional and trauma healing. In 2005, she co-founded Acupuncturists Without Borders (AWB) to provide community acupuncture healing in disaster-stricken and underserved areas.

Her work has taken her to locations such as the U.S., Haiti, Nepal, Mongolia, Ecuador, and Mexico.
Diana is trained in Five Element acupuncture and brings that to groups worldwide as a powerful modality to heal relationships. She is trained in Council practice through the Upaya Zen Center, the New England Council Collective and the Center for Council. Diana integrates Five Element teachings from Chinese Medicine into Council as a powerful doorway to deeper states of awareness, rejuvenation, relationships with self, others and nature, and the energetic transformation of healing. She is also a graduate of the Upaya Zen Center Buddhist Chaplaincy program and has studied various forms of Buddhist practice since the 1980s. Diana Fried is a highly experienced practitioner of emotional and trauma healing and leads groups, workshops and adventure travel for businesses and individuals through Your Life Medicine (yourlifemedicine.net).

Ani Samaha

Ani has been leading council circles with corporate teams, the LGBTQ community, and various schools and universities for 14 years.

She fell in love with council in 2006 when she began working with the Ojai Foundation, and she later became a council trainer- leading trainings for the public, teachers, graduate students, and inmates in prison. Facilitating council circles to help people connect to themselves and one another has been some of her most rewarding work. In addition, Ani has a Masters Degree in Chinese Medicine and is an avid outdoor enthusiast. From 2004 to 2006, she taught and ran the outdoor program at a semester abroad high school in New Zealand. For the past 20 years, she has worked with Santa Barbara Middle School- facilitating outdoor learning with their 6th-9th graders. Ani also enjoys sculpting, swimming in the ocean, and working in her garden.

Doug Adrianson

Doug is a certified council trainer and has led numerous council training programs over the past decade.

Doug has facilitated weekly council circles with students at five schools in Southern California, has guided rites of passage programs for hundreds of teenagers and adults, and served 11 years on the Ojai Foundation Board of Directors. A lifelong writer and editor who loves the power of language, Doug holds a journalism degree from Northwestern University and brings to his council work the experience of 25 years in daily newspaper editing, mainly at the Miami Herald and Los Angeles Times. His ongoing education also has included a vision fast and other programs at the School of Lost Borders, an initiation weekend with the ManKind Project, and a vision fast with Animas Valley Institute. Doug is an avid musician, hiker, ropes course facilitator, adventure diner, and tree house builder

Irasha Talfero

Irasha is a certified council trainer. She has been connected to The Ojai Foundation since its beginning in 1975 and has been a longtime leader of its Youth Team, leading rite of passage retreats for high school students.

She is a naturalist and has worked with projects such as M.E.S.A., Naturalists at Large, Camp Whittier, Forest Hills, Taft Garden, and Wolf. She has worked as a substitute teacher for the Oak Grove School since the early 1980s. Through her work as an educator and a naturalist, she has designed many programs over the years, all starting and ending with council. Her most powerful experiences are with at risk youth and newly released prisoners

John McCluskey

John W. McCluskey, teacher, administrator, council carrier, activist, trainer, and principal of New Vista High School, in Boulder, Colorado, co-founded the Colorado Center for Council Practice in 1996. He has been working to change the way we think about education, schools, and schooling since 1989.

Council practice has played a critical role in his efforts since 1991. He is a long-time faculty member with the PassageWorks Institute. John has held council in diverse settings for youth, educators, men, couples, and civic groups, and has been instrumental in bringing council as a practice into many public, charter, and independent schools in Colorado and beyond. John is living in council with his wife and three children in Longmont, Colorado.

Bonnie Tamblyn

Bonnie is a Certified Council Facilitator and Trainer with Circle Ways and Center for Council. She served for 3 years in an advisory body called the Nine for the The Ojai Foundation, developing standards and practices for council. .”

She has created council curriculum for many schools. Bonnie first interned as a council facilitator in 1993 at Crossroads School for Arts and Sciences and then taught there for 15 years in the Human Development Department. She facilitated council at Palms Middle School, where she met Joe Provisor, and brought the program to Santa Monica Alternative School (SMASH) and Archer School for Girls. She has conducted yearly Council Intensives for GiRLFeST Hawaii, whose mission is to prevent violence against women and girls through education and art. Bonnie is the Council Mentor for the Katherine Michiels School in San Francisco. Bonnie currently serves on the Trainers Mentoring Circle, a certifying body for Trainers and Facilitators in the Ojai Foundation’s Way of Council Path. A singer-songwriter as well, Bonnie’s passion is building community and giving voice to the human story, whether told in a Council Circle, or shared on stage with a guitar in her arms. “While I was an Artist in Residence at SMASH in the 80’s, I discovered council through my colleagues at Crossroads. As a music and art teacher, I found council to be wonderful process to develop authentic expression, and find meaning through our shared realities and stories. I love bringing people together to celebrate life and as we share our Stories. I embrace the harmony and discord alike on the journey we take together. The circle of wisdom I find with those who sit in council has been the focus and touchstone for my personal growth for the past 30 years, and I am honored to be in community with them.

Christine elder

Chris has been facilitating council circles since 1995. An award-winning educator in public and private schools for 25 years, Chris was a founding member of New Roads School in Santa Monica, California, where she served as a teacher and middle school director for 18 years.

She has introduced council into all of Ventura Unified School District’s middle schools and is expanding into elementary and high schools.

Natalie Plachte White

Natalie Plachte White sat in her first council circle with educators in 1990 and knew immediately that this practice would change the way she taught, communicated, and listened in both her professional and personal life.

Tara contreras-peters

Tara’s first teaching experiences were in South Korea where, along with her parents and siblings, she taught Korean children at summer camps from 1995-2001. That led her to take a full-time teaching position for two years in Busan, South Korea, after graduating from UCLA with a bachelor’s in World Arts and Cultures.

On her return to the U.S., she worked as a lead teacher for the after-school program for Para Los Ninos on the outskirts of Los Angeles’ Skid Row. There she saw the critical need for well-rounded educational programs in the inner city and learned about inclusion of students with special needs – and also realized she needed to brush up on her Spanish. After her PLN stint, she went to Central America, where she studied Spanish in Guatemala and El Salvador. In 2008, Tara was accepted by the Teach for America program and became an RSP teacher at John Liechty Middle School while earning her master’s degree in special education from Loyola Marymount University. At Liechty, Tara served as the School Council Leadership Committee Coordinator where she supported teachers in holding Councils in their classrooms, led parent and family Councils and ran the student Council Club. She also coached the Students Run L.A. team, training teams of 15-30 students to run the Los Angeles marathon. Tara’s wide-ranging experiences in education have instilled in her the belief that every child has unique strengths and abilities that must be tapped into and nurtured. She advocates for instructional programs that meet the diverse needs/learning styles of each student and for access to the arts and other extra-curricular opportunities.

Michelle Mansfield

With more than 25 years of council experience, Michelle weaves council into a variety of classroom situations: from Spanish instruction to helping students and staff explore an event happening in the world or on campus.

Michelle began practicing council in 1991 with Los Angeles youth in Watts, California where she taught creative writing at I Have a Dream Foundation. At the time council was remedy to the blank stares and frequent student protest “We have nothing to write!” It continued to be an integral part of the workshop from 7th grade until high school graduation.In 1998, she began training with Joe Provisor and has continued facilitating circles ever since. Her work with schools is vast and varied. She has facilitated councils at schools in California and Mexico where she lived for eight years. She has created and facilitated retreats for youth and adults exploring themes such as community, restorative practices and mentorship. From 2014 thru 2015 Michelle co-directed Council in Schools and was actively involved in all aspects of the organization from designing custom programs for individual schools to serving as the site-coordinator at Camino Nuevo Charter Academy Burlington. She has served as mentor, parent council facilitator and trainer. Michelle graduated USC in business administration and has a background in dance, poetry and yoga. She is bilingual and has translated council materials into Spanish. She is also a contributor to the CIS Educator’s Training Manual.

VALERIE WILDMAN

Valerie Wildman, M.A. Psy.D.(c) graduated from Sonoma State University with a Masters of Arts in Counseling. She is currently pursuing a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology and has been certified as an Expressive Arts therapist at Meridian University.

Jamy Myatt

Jamy Myatt is a Council trainer through the Ojai Foundation tradition and has worked at Crossroads school leading council for the last 25 years. In that time, she worked with students in grades 6-12 with council as the foundation of the curriculum, led scores of senior rites of passage trips and been the chair of the middle school Life Skills program.

In addition to her work with young people, she has led faculty, staff, and ever-popular parent councils at every grade level, as well as council trainings for individuals initiating community circles and affinity groups. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill after a nomadic childhood as a military child of a Marine Corps officer. This unique beginning as perennial outsider in new surroundings seeded in her a lifelong desire to find ways to foster meaningful connections with people familiar and unfamiliar. Sharing the practice of council continues to be the answer to that pursuit, and Jamy loves nothing more than introducing new groups to the depth of connection that council uniquely offers.

ITAF AWAD

Based in Israel/Palestine, Itaf Awad is an international trainer and leader in the Way of Council and Capacitar, two modalities that enhance individual and collective well-being.

Fluent in English, Arabic, and Hebrew, Itaf is Circle Ways’ Program Coordinator for Israel/Palestine and the Middle East. Itaf holds a Masters degree in politics from the University of Haifa, and for the past 15 years has facilitated hundreds of councils for businesses, NGO’s, educators, and private groups in many places from the Middle East, and Europe to the United States. She has been instrumental in training teachers to implement circle practices into kindergartens, primary, and secondary schools, paving the way for a collaborative, peaceful future. Itaf is carrying the Way of Council and Capacitar to Arab communities while working on translating training materials into the Arabic language.

camille ameen

Camille is a certified council trainer. Since 1991, she’s had the privilege of working with kindergarteners through graduate students, students with special needs (autism, attention deficit, developmentally delayed, deaf and hard of hearing), English Language Learners, students in continuation high schools and young women in transitional housing.

She has mentored numerous LAUSD teachers and has led council trainings, including a personalized training for SPED teachers. In 1996, Camille co-founded Inside Out Community Arts, a national award-winning, theatre-based program working with underserved middle and high school youth to foster communication, understanding, problem resolution, and leadership skills. She co-wrote their Artist Leader Manual, and continues to train new teaching artists in the curriculum and methodology, which incorporates council elements. Camille is an Instructor for UCLArts & Healing’s Social Emotional Arts Certificate Program and UCLA’s undergraduate course, “Maximizing the Social-Emotional Benefits of Arts Education.” Working with Collective Voices and ArtworxLA, she’s combined her love of theatre and council into a curriculum for performance art and social emotional learning. At Imagination Workshop, 1987-1996, she worked with psychiatric forensic clients, homeless families and homeless/addicted veterans in recovery. A graduate of Mount Holyoke College in Theatre, she’s had a long career as a professional actress in NY and LA including Broadway, TV and film.

Aura Hammer

Born in 1957, in New York, Aura moved to Israel with her parents and siblings in 1973. She studied architecture at the Technion in Haifa (Barch) and worked as an architect for many years until she discovered her passion for working for peace. She began by co-founding a local grassroots co-existence group in the Galilee, her home, called “Schenim-Jiran – Neighbors”.

She began to study facilitation and organization, creating and facilitating women’s groups, summer camps, dialog groups, twin-kindergartens and more. Through her studies and work with Arab and Jewish women she met Ronit Rinat, and discovered Council in 2004. After studying council she became involved in Amutat Maagal Hakshava, both as a facilitator and as a member of the Leadership Council, immersing her life in Council. She is a long time Trainer. She trains facilitators and mentors others, while bringing council to everyone and every group in her life. Today Aura is both a teacher of Sustainability and an activist with Women Wage Peace and has broadened her work for a sustainable future for the next generations, expanding and extending the work and ways of Council to a wider spectrum of possibility to encompass this vision of possibility.

SAra Lev

As a long-time early childhood educator and professional developer, Sara is committed to the integration of social and emotional learning into education, for student development as well as for teacher wellness and self-care.

She believes that her role as an educator is to guide a community of learners to connect knowledge that they have to knowledge that they need, while building relationships, using culturally responsive teaching practices, and cultivating a sense of joy and independence. This philosophy holds true for all children, as well as for all adults. Sara earned a Bachelors degree from the University of Rochester and a masters in early childhood education from Bank Street College. She is a National Faculty member with PBLWorks and a co-author of Implementing Project Based Learning in Early Childhood: Overcoming Misconceptions and Reaching Success. Sara is also a certified yoga instructor and offers workshops for educators and health care workers on how to bring the benefits of yoga to the children in their lives.

A Certified Council Trainer under the auspices of The Ojai Foundation (now Topa Institute), Natalie is an engaged member of Circle Ways and other Council organizations. She has worked in the leadership and classrooms of Mar Vista Elementary, and Palms, Daniel Webster, Paul Revere, Fortune, and Marlton Schools, the University of the West, and coordinated the Pressman Academy Middle School Council Program for many years.
She has also trained and mentored in non-profits, with incarcerated men in a California prison program, with groups in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Mexico City, and has a passion for bringing the work wherever it may serve.
Natalie earned both her BA in English/Music and a California Secondary Teaching Credential from UCLA, and was a Language Arts teacher for 24 years. She has her Masters degree in Clinical Psychology and is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with a private practice in West Los Angeles.

Ray Tucker (emeritus)

Ray is a retired school police officer and a certified council trainer since 1995. He has convened circles in many diverse communities, including public and private schools, a special needs school for the deaf, law enforcement, prison, foster youth, and many more.

Ray co-authored a 6th grade council curriculum. His participation in the practice of council has inspired him to share the process with anyone who will take time to listen.

MONICA CHINLUND

Now based on the Big Island of Hawaii, Monica has been a council facilitator, trainer, and program specialist since 1995, facilitating council in public and private school classrooms. With Joe, she co-founded Council In Schools in 2006 and served as Program Advisor for the CIS office in LAUSD's Office of Instruction from 2006-13.

She has received training in restorative justice and has worked as a dialogue facilitator for The National Conference for Community and Justice (NCCJ), a human relations organization dedicated to promoting social justice. She holds a masters degree in School-Based Family Counseling from California State University, LA and is a credentialed Child Welfare and Attendance counselor in the State of California.

lori aUSTEIN

Lori is a council trainer and facilitator, hypnotherapist and coach, and Waldorf teacher. Past experiences as a lawyer and program coordinator for the Cowichan Intercultural Society have informed her appreciation for justice and diversity.

She is about to celebrate 20 years of making council a part of her personal and professional life. Lori has facilitated programs for youth, educators, non-profits and in the field of mental health. She lives on Vancouver Island, British Columbia where she lives Council with her husband and delights in being a step-mother to an adult step-daughter and a mother to an adult son. She mentors a group of council facilitators as we continue to grow the practice of council in Canada. She likes to spiral in to serve the trainer community now and again, serving currently on the Trainers Mentoring Circle. She continues studies in transpersonal psychology and hypnotherapy at The Wellness Institute and she and her husband recently spent some time training in Flesh & Spirit with Jack Zimmerman. “I have a deep love for human beings and a great trust in the power of authentic expression to bring forth inner peace, deep and satisfying relationships, and more peaceful communities. I bring compassion to the tender places, my own and others, encouraging health and growth.”

jack zimmerman

Jack holds a BA, MA and PhD from Yale University, Harvard University and the University of Southern California, respectively. He is the co-author of Flesh and Spirit: The Mystery of Intimate Relationship with his life partner, Jaquelyn McCandless, and co-author of The Way of Council with Gigi Coyle.

Jack held several leadership roles at The Ojai Foundation over a period of 30 years, including President, and co-founded the Oakwood Secondary School in Los Angeles. Jack started Heartlight School in Los Angeles in 1979 where the use of Council in schools was initiated. The success of Council at Heartlight led to Council programs in other independent and public schools in California, and in other parts of the US, as well as abroad.

Our People

Joe Provisor