Each time, I felt deep gratitude and kept moving forward. I decided to dedicate my life to healing myself and the world around me. But first I needed to make sense of the world, and learn the tools of creating change. I studied biology and anthropology at UCLA to make sense of life on this planet. I lived with the Achuar of Ecuador to connect with deeper meaning and the sacred. I studied Environmental Science at Yale to understand the human impact on Earth’s ecosystems. But I also needed to learn the tools to create change.

My first career was as a community organizer with ACORN. I organized communities around social and environmental justice for seven years to learn community organizing. I also wanted to learn the tools of government, so I worked for a congressperson, and then became a chief of staff to a councilmember and ran political campaigns. Finally, I wanted to learn the tools and logic of business, so I became a businessperson, grew several companies to over 50 employees, and became a developer to learn how to create the built environment.

Today, I have the tools I need. From here forward, I dedicate the rest of my life to creating spaces and movements that honor the beauty of life. The Haven Communities will be centers where people can gather to pursue novel ways of approaching and honoring life--as individuals and as communities. It is a place for people who have come to understand that the current valueless models, which detach humans from each other and the planet, aren’t working, and where we can explore new ways of being—as individuals and community—toward living more lovingly on this planet for ourselves and future generations . I invite you to join me to create a Haven for those seeking the sacred in an otherwise tumultuous world.