Core Team
The co-creators of 7th Generation Labs play diverse roles in the world. We include community weavers, social artists, organizational and leadership development consultants, systems thinkers, educators, strategists, ethicists, technologists, visionaries, grassroots activists, facilitators, personal coaches, leaders, followers and learners.
What we share in common is our mission:
Weaving old and new eyes wisdom to co-create a future that works for all beings.
Stephanie Nestlerode, MSW
Founder & Chief Synthesizer
As a social worker and strategic planner, I’ve focused my 45 year career in the areas with most heart and meaning for me = healthcare, social services and education. For me, these arenas are essential for democracy.
No matter the setting, my goal is bringing all 'voices into the room’ to learn and make wise choices for our shared future. Organizations expand their capacity to serve the common good. Individuals expand their ability to shift with changing circumstances.
As a life-long learner, indigenous wisdom expanded my worldview forever. My journey began over 20 years ago when I met Paula Underwood, keeper of a 10,000 year old oral history. At the very first break, I spoke to her and pledged to do my best to bring her practical wisdoms to ‘all listening ears.’ These wisdoms completely altered both my personal life and my consulting career.
The journey continued with Grandmother Tu Moonwalker, an Apache medicine woman. She shared an indigenous blueprint for peaceful co-existence that begins with the rights and responsibilities of being born into a human suit. Her practices reveal the power of aligning to universal laws and principles. Her work continues through Grandmother Láné Sáan Moonwalker.
As Chief Synthesizer for 7th Generation Labs, I’m joining with kindred spirits to gather a treasure trove of ways to learn what matters. At this moment, what matters above all else is creating a future that works for all beings.
Láné Sáan Moonwalker
Wisdom Carrier of Apache and Yaqui Lineages
Moriarty, New Mexico USA
Grandmother Láné Sáan Moonwalker has been an oracle, healer, spiritual teacher and environmental guardian for more than 40 years. Láné began her training in the healing arts at the age of 12 and learned to work with creative expression as a doorway to spirit. In 1987, she met her main teacher Grandmother Tu Moonwalker, an Apache, the great great granddaughter of Cochise. The Moonwalker lineage is about a medicine way of being. Grandmother Tu was the holder of this unbroken Moonwalker lineage and Láné is a part of that lineage.
Working with Grandmother Tu helped Láné manifest her vision to train teachers, healers, and oracles, and ministers under the umbrella of environmental guardianship. Together Grandmother Tu and Láné founded the Philosophy of Universal Beingness within the Whole. The foundation of this system is about working with nature in a sacred way, understanding that if we don’t take care of the Earth, there is no basis for anything else.
Marita One Who Catches Lightning
Wisdom Carrier of Zapotec, Purapecha and Sephardine Lineages
Marita is an artist, filmmaker, singer-songwriter poet, motivational speaker, metaphysical healer, a guide and mentor – helping others sing their parts into harmony thus finding the peace and happiness of being alive. They offer the rarest cacao in the world – made in ceremony for ceremony. Proceeds go to land restoration, indigenous elders, growing food for the local community, animal rescue, first nation sovereignty efforts, and subsidizing/free access to teachings for indigenous students.
Tiago Vilas Boas
Chief of Belonging and Unity
Brazilian from São Paulo, based in the Netherlands
Weaving south and north wisdoms
Odette Bovenberg
Chief Storyteller
Rotterdam Netherlands
Writes, asks, structures, learns and co-develops 7GL offerings
“More indigenous material?” the eyebrows of my husband ask. I am reading a 7GL flyer. Grateful for the friend who mailed it. “It is a course based on the work of Paula Underwood,” I smile.
Roughly twelve years now, I journey through her work. As a tribe of one. For not many in the Low Lands study Paula Underwood, keeper of a 10.000 year old wisdom tradition. Her words reach me. She has a special way to dance with paths to wisdom on paper. I like being nudged to hop on one leg, then on the other on a sandy path. Answering her question “What may you learn from this?” when I am back to walking on both feet.
Slowly I add her exercises in my work. The Empty Cup Company, a place where healthcare professionals discover simple methods to structure their working together. How to meet as a group? Brainstorm? Improve the best suggestion on the table? Decide unanimously? How to address issues with each other in a way… that works. And I learn that her wisdoms work to build working communities today.
So yes, somewhere downtown Rotterdam last spring, I clicked that 7GL button.
And look where it got me.
www.theemptycupcompany.nl
Carolina Carvalho
Community Weaver and Facilitator
BSc in Environmental Biology and MSc in Natural Resource Management and Conservation
Sintra, Portugal
Carolina Carvalho is a portuguese ecologist with a particular interest on the interconnectedness of living beings and how to apply this knowledge to human society.
Accelerating our transition to a regenerative future as Activation Team member at the Global Regeneration CoLab (GRC), Data Scientist at African Data Technologies and Permaculture Designer at Kumano Shindo GIA.
Marc Choyt
Santa Fe, NM USA
I am a social entrepreneur, activist and writer, dedicated to fostering the rebirth of Circle wisdom as a tool and teacher that can help us think differently and make decisions based on the coherence of Nature. I drew upon this wisdom to pioneer ethical sourcing/fair trade in the jewelry sector. I dedicate myself to sharing this wisdom with all who seek to understand the deep structures necessary to bring about a regenerative economy and more vibrant individuals and communities. My approach will be shared in, “Think Like A Circle: Centering in the Gravity of Grace.”
William Nestlerode, PhD
Founder & Chief Technology Architect
Whidbey Island, WA. USA
Bill weaves 7th Generation Labs’ platform, hardware and software together into an integrated system to ensure its effectiveness and efficiency.
Bill is a mathematician, technical consultant and systems engineer with experience designing and implementing integrated software and hardware solutions. His specialties include open source and security systems. He enjoys solving complex technical problems, minimizing resource requirements and maximizing results. He is skilled at tutoring people learning new ways – whether in math, statistics, physics or computing. As Director of Research Computing at the University of South Carolina, he bridged math faculty into the world of computing. He has provided systems engineering expertise to IBM, MCI, BSDI, Hewlett-Packard, Agilent Technologies and Unisys. As a tutor with high school and college students, he is especially gifted with students who experience math anxiety.
Virginia Stockwell
Chief Tech Support
Austin, Texas USA
Chief Technical Support
Virginia is our dedicated tech support with a passion for helping organizations like ours thrive in the digital realm. She’s responsible for ensuring that the technology we use (Kajabi) meets the needs of the people and organizations we serve – to make sure it’s user friendly. Her background in sales and marketing gives her the expertise to help us ensure we stay connected with our participants in all the ways they participate – sending us feedback, taking on-line offerings, receiving occasional newsletters, tracking our offerings and stories, and creating customized libraries for the practical wisdoms we share. She guides us though the process of course creation, membership site setup, marketing automation and website design. She’s a master of empowering others with the knowledge and tools to build a thriving online community.
Our Founding Elders
Paula Underwood 1932 - 2000
Paula's grandfather's grandmother began the task of Keeping an Ancient Way of Learning safely preserved until a future generation could give it as a gift to all Earth's children with Listening Ears.
This Learning Way from the Oneida begins with the assumption that it is the responsibility of each of us to learn to understand who we individually are, the unique way in which we learn, what we need from our community and what we can give in return.
It is the responsibility of the community to enable and encourage these understandings in the most effective ways it is able to devise.
You may learn more about Paula's story here - the site is hosted by Paula's dedicated students.
Tu Moonwalker 1953 - 2011
Grandmother Tu, of Apache and South American native American heritage, focused on bringing sacredness into our daily lives.
She died in her home surrounded by family and friends in 2011. She died as she lived, celebrating life.
Her artwork is in several private and museum collections nationally and internationally including the Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C. and the Smithsonian Institution.
Since the mid-1980's, she travelled nationally as a spiritual teacher and minister. In 1988, she and Láné Sáan Moonwalker founded the Philosophy of Universal Beingness within the Whole, a spiritual system based on environmental consciousness and peaceful coexistence.
Her community, family, and students worldwide honor her as a Grandmother of great wisdom and insight.
Tu loved life and is missed by her students, friends, and family. We continue to celebrate her life, honoring her legacy.
Our Partners
Kindred spirits, social artists, organizational and leadership development consultants, systems thinkers, educators, strategists, ethicists, technologists, visionaries, facilitators, personal coaches, leaders and learners.
Jia (Carol) Xu
Organizational Learning Partner
San Francisco Bay Area, CA USA
Co-founder of The Present Of Work Co-founding steward, Starter Cultures
Explorer, thriving systems of life and the modern workplace
Being a former academic researcher of management science, Carol has always been fascinated with new ways of organizing people and resources (such as self-organizing, agile development, Decentralized Autonomous Organization, sociocracy, Deliberately Developmental Organization) that empower creativity, resilience, and transparency. Carol designs and hosts social spaces and innovative "sandboxes" that integrate contemplative, creative, and strategic elements into learning for organizational leaders, community stewards, and purpose-driven individuals. Her personal experience with work burnout years ago turned out to be a great gift that helped her to better connect with herself, her natural gifts, and to be able to see tremendous promises in the messy, liminal spaces we often find ourselves in as individuals and collectives. Carol holds a Ph.D. in Management Science and Engineering in the area of cross-cultural communication and management from Stanford University. She loves going on (in-person, virtual or metaphorical) hikes with people from all walks of life. See more at https://www.linkedin.com/in/jiacarolxu/
Jane Wei-Skillern PhD
Chief Researcher
Berkeley, CA USA
Jane Wei-Skillern is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Social Sector Leadership at the Haas School of Business at University of California, Berkeley. Previously, she has served on the faculty at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Harvard Business School (HBS), and London Business School. She has studied and published extensively on nonprofit networks for more than two decades. She has taught social entrepreneurship, nonprofit strategy, and network leadership to MBAs and executives for more than two decades and is the author and coauthor of dozens of HBS and Haas UC Berkeley case studies, book chapters, and journal articles.
A distillation of her work can be found at newnetworkleader.org. Her research has focused most prominently on network leadership. This research examines how nonprofit leaders that focus less on building their own institutions and instead invest to build strategic networks beyond their organizational boundaries can achieve dramatic gains in mission impact more efficiently, more effectively, and more sustainably.
For the past several years, she has taken a leave from teaching in the MBA classroom to focus on supporting social impact leaders in the field to grow their impact through networks. Jane is frequently invited to present keynote speeches, webinars, and workshops to share her research on network leadership and to facilitate the development of trust based collaborations within organizations and communities.
Agnes Meneses
Equity Weaving Partner
Chicago, IL USA
Agnes nurtures spaces so organizations can navigate their own direction and strategies that align with their work and purpose. Her passion stems from a strong belief in people’s interconnectedness with one another; she focuses on helping people tend to the social fabric of their relationship to themselves, their organization, and community.
Her goal is to help communities envision higher future possibilities by using systems change through the lenses of equity and belonging. Inherent in how she works is to recognize and acknowledge people’s assets, lived experiences, and wisdom in the process, while helping individuals stretch their own learning and ways of knowing. She has a knack for understanding nuances of what on the surface are disparate issues yet are deeply intertwined. Through dialogue, she helps guide people to see their unique relationships to the whole system rather than focusing on just its parts. She supports individuals through their own learning journey, amidst all the tensions, complexity, ambiguity, and messiness of the work.
Agnes works in philanthropy and nonprofits. She has a Master’s in Business Administration from DePaul University and a BS in Marketing from University of IL at Chicago. She earned her Certificate in Nonprofit Management from the Kellogg School at Northwestern University. She serves as a coach for a Chicago-based fellowship program for women of color activists and organizers and is a trained racial healing practitioner as part of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s national initiative, Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation.
Brandon Dube
Richmond, VA USA
Brandon is a philosopher and social commentator focused on “The Present of Work.”. As a skilled convener and systems leader, he illuminates the paradigm-shift happening in business through conversations with leading-edge thinkers.
Brandon’s background in a variety of business organizations provides a strong vantage point to view what lies beyond “business as usual” ... a more relational and integral approach, in which self-study provides a means for greater purpose and meaning, and how we live is valued as much as the work we are doing.
Transformative Social Systems: Montessori (alum), Network Weaving, Warm Data, Sociocracy, Agile, Microsolidarity
Areas of Interest: Community Building, Cooperatives, Startups, Innovation, Inner Life, Monastic approach to work, Diversity/Equity/Inclusion/Belonging, Complexity, Emergence
DuAnne Redus
Chief Confidence Supporter
Wimberley, Texas USA
After retiring from her work as a consultant with Amadeus International, based in London, DuAnne used the skills and knowledge she gained in executive leadership and organizational behavior with multi-national organizations, to develop programs with youth as Executive Director of The LifeWorks Institute.
Through collaboration with 7th Generation Labs, her current focus is to support young leaders and entrepreneurs who are ready and willing to co-create a collective global future that serves everyone.
Her book, The 6th-Dimensional Blueprint for Shaping the Future, addresses the right to ‘be’ in work and life.
Leilani Henry
Priestess of Wholeness
Conifer, Colorado USA
Leilani Henry is a proven pathfinder in workplace creativity, whole-brain integration and change. She is the creator of the Leadership Vitality Checkup and Brain Jewels, a multisensory process for transformation. She is licensed in Educational Kinesiology and founded a national Playback Theatre company. Her lifetime experience in the performing arts is integrated into her approach to wellness, leadership and learning.
In her words “what could be slowing your momentum is all in your head and body – literally.” Leilani is a game changer who specializes in whole brain strategies for individual and collective transformation. Her experiential processes bring lightning speed results to tough challenges. She deepens the ability to ask your own questions and receive your own answers. Leilani sparks the hearts and minds of those who want extraordinary results aligned with their highest aspirations.
She is the daughter of George W. Gibbs, Jr., the first black explorer to set foot on Antarctica. Her non- fiction book, The Call of Antarctica: Exploring and Protecting Earth’s Coldest Continent, uses his diaries to introduce us to the history, science and climate change of the continent.
Maya Townsend
Chief Communitarian &
Master Chocolate Connoisseur
Watertown, Massachusetts USA
Founder of Partnering Resources
Maya Townsend, founder of Partnering Resources, brings diverse people together to tackle complex problems. Her work is based on understanding how to leverage networks: the complex, interrelated, and often messy webs of relationships that drive all group activity.
Laurie Roberts
Bayfield, Colorado USA
Laurie Roberts is Paula Underwood's daughter and lineage carrier for the wisdom tradition.
Jon Roberts
Bayfield, Colorado USA
Jon Roberts is Paula Underwood's grandson and lineage carrier for the wisdom tradition.
Hal Robinson
Kerrville, Texas USA
Hal Robinson is a teacher, author, public speaker, and Gestalt therapist. He shares a very old Medicine Way that looks for our connection with Spirit in all people and events, even those we find most painful, bringing clarity, learning, and harmony back to the relationship. The Medicine Way is aboriginal from the Americas. In practice for over 40 years, Hal is an ordained minister in the Circle of the Sacred Earth Church and is a Sun Dancer. His last Teacher in the physical form was Germaine Sitting Crow. He is in partnership with a Holistic Family Physician at the Healing Arts Center in Kerrville, Texas and is the founder of Dancing Bear Teaching Lodge serving both groups and individuals.
Erika Canales
Austin, Texas USA
Erika Canales offers over ten years of experience in planning, marketing, community outreach, training and project management. Her roles have ranged from case manager to diversity practitioner in the mental health non-profit industry. Her activities are designed to improve access and health outcomes. Erika has pioneered non-traditional outreach projects with community partners that focus on implementing innovative learning opportunities. She provides guidance to senior leaders on developing enterprise level strategies for collaborating with diverse stakeholders and role-modeling a diversity/inclusion orientation. Erika holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Kinesiology and Health Education from The University of Texas at Austin and Master of Business Administration from Texas State University.
Jeremy Solomons
Kigali Rwanda
Jeremy Solomons is the UK-born and USA-naturalized founder, owner and president of both JSA Consulting (Rwanda), Ltd. and Jeremy Solomons & Associates, Inc. Both firms help current and future leaders to connect and communicate effectively across all cultures – geographical, organizational, professional and individual.
Prior to his consulting career, he worked for six multinational institutions: Citibank, JP Morgan, Lloyds Bank International, Reuters News Agency, United Press International and the World Bank.
Rwanda is the ninth country in which he has lived, studied and/or worked for an extended period. The others are: France, Germany, Hong Kong (and China), Israel, Italy, Switzerland, his native UK and his adopted country of the USA. He has traveled and done business in 40+ nations, mostly in Africa, Asia Pacific, North America and throughout Europe.
E-mail: [email protected] – WhatsApp: +1 512 917 0293
Lee Mun Wah
Berkeley, California USA
Lee Mun Wah, M.A. (Counseling), M.S. (Special Education), is an internationally-acclaimed diversity lecturer/trainer, filmmaker, community therapist and educator. His films have won national awards for their social and emotional impact. The Color of Fear has become a classic diversity film and, in 1995, Oprah Winfrey televised a one-hour special on his life. In 1996, Lee Mun Wah opened his first Training Center to help others learn how to “mindfully” facilitate cultural and communication issues. Thousands of participants from corporations, educational institutions, and government and social agencies, have received training by Lee Mun Wah to facilitate diversity dialogues in their agencies, schools and communities.
Nadine Binder
Brake Germany
Nadine Binder is a researcher, trainer and coach with a passion for creating virtual learning spaces and enabling joint learning, personal growth, and mutual understanding. Nadine is currently based in Germany. She holds a PhD in psychology and has over 5 years of experience in designing and facilitating face-to-face, blended, and virtual learning programs for a variety of clients such as multinational corporations, SMEs, NGOs, universities, and law enforcement. Her specialty is designing virtual spaces for meaningful dialogue and connection and she is committed to creating and holding space for everyone in the group.
Glenna Gerard
Ojo Caliente, New Mexico USA
Glenna Gerard is a multidimensional and skilled consultant and human being. She has a passion for supporting individuals and collectives in growing their capability and capacity for conscious leadership, enabling them to see systems and gain the clarity needed to make wise and strategic choices in service of all Life.
She is a master facilitator and teacher of personal and organizational leadership, a business manager, a program designer, a coach, a strategic and systems thinker. In the 1990s Glenna was one of the initial pioneers in developing Dialogue, She co-authored the book Dialogue: Rediscover the transforming power of conversation, John Wiley & Sons (1998) with Linda Ellinor. Glenna’s clients span Fortune 500 companies, educational institutions, communities and various not-for-profit organizations.
More recently Glenna’s intention and attention are focused on making the Way of the Council, from the Origin Teachings of the Delicate Lodge, more accessible in our world today.
Walkabouts with Glenna, are a unique, guided process that enables you to ‘stop the action’ of your busy life, breathe and connect with the leader within you that knows what you most need NOW for balance, vitality and direction. The walkabouts are a synthesis of Glenna’s internationally recognized work with Dialogue, her deep connection with the natural world and the earth wisdom traditions, and a lifetime of guiding individuals and groups in support of creating the outcomes they want for themselves and the world.
Linda Ellinor
Dana Point, California USA
Linda is best known for her pioneering work in developing a form of Dialogue grounded in the work of David Bohm. She co-authored the book with Glenna: Dialogue: The Transforming Power of Conversation (1998, Wiley & Sons).
Her business experience includes having worked for AT&T, International Paper Company, Exxon Office Systems, and a start-up company, called Mnemos. In these companies she held marketing positions translating customer needs into new products and services. She has a decade of experience as an out-placement consultant for Drake, Beam, Morin and as an executive coach in the Center for Creative Leadership’s Leadership Develop Program. She developed a wellness center modeled on sustainable business practices outside Tucson, AZ from the mid 2000s to 2015 and served in a variety of pro-bono climate change organizations including Sustainable Tucson and the Tucson Climate Change Committee reporting to the City of Tucson.
Linda has sat on the US Board of the Academy of Professional Dialogue as Vice President (A0fPD) from 2017 – 2021. She holds video-recoded interviews with seasoned professionals within the Bohm-inspired Dialogue community and runs monthly global dialogues through A0fPD. She holds an MBA from Columbia University, a BS from New York University, and has completed a PhD program in Jungian psychology with Pacifica Graduate Institute. She lives close to the beach in Dana Point, CA with her partner, Rocky, and newly adopted Himalayan cat.
Elizabeth Doty
El Sobrante, California USA
Elizabeth specializes in designing and facilitating high-engagement conversations that integrate strategy, values, and execution. For over 30 years, she has helped C-Suite leaders improve strategy execution by building cultures of commitment, collaboration and action. Ms. Doty writes regularly for strategy + business magazine. Elizabeth served as a Network Fellow with the Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University. Based on that work, she was named a Top Thought Leader in Trust by Trust Across America. Her book, The Compromise Trap, documents the challenges executives faced in trying to live their values and lead with integrity during the build-up to the financial crisis. She earned her MBA from Harvard Business School in 1991.
Elizabeth’s clients are mission-driven leaders looking to:
- Align Teams for Execution
- Build a Culture of Commitment
- Deliver on Brand Promises to Customers & Other Stakeholders
Ken Homer
San Rafael, California USA
Founder, Collaborative Conversations
Ken founded Collaborative Conversations after a decade as a member of the core team that developed The World Café dialogue process. Certified as an Integral Coach through New Ventures West, Ken has been exploring how what we do in conversation commits us to action and produces results at work for the better part of the last 20 years.
Diane Miller
Austin, Texas USA
Principal, Civic Conversations
Diane Miller specializes in the design, facilitation and implementation of processes that help diverse groups of people find common ground for action. For the last fifteen years, she has worked with Central Texas governments, businesses and community groups on topics such as community visioning efforts, land use and transportation planning, education and sustainable development.
Lisa Heft
Chief Curate, Culture & Learning Facilitator
Berkeley, California USA
Consultant, Facilitator, Educator – Opening Space
President Emerita, Open Space Institute US
Fellow Emerita, Columbia University’s Center for International Conflict Resolution
Lisa provides guidance, facilitation and consult for 7th Generation Labs and its users in realms such as access and inclusivity, experiential learning, interpersonal communication, content and service proposals and the curation and care of resources, culture and community.
Ondine de Kroon
Chief Artist
Bear, Wolf, Turtle and Eagle: you see their images on the website. Symbols that link to old wisdom about living together as a community.
They are stamps made by Ondine de Kroon. A Dutch artist, specialized in the art of lino cutting and etching. When 7GL requires another symbol on its website: we’ll ask Ondine to make it.
We like her work. And like the fact that she shares her knowledge with young children. That she initiates community projects. Like the ‘Giant picture book of the Heemraadssingel’. Where young and old work together to bring a street alive in the form of art. Neighbors make linocuts to create a giant shared book of what makes that street what it is. A project that brings people together.
Or the smallest stage of the world project. Where children make linocuts that are printed on concrete tiles. “If you walk barefoot, you can feel my flowers”, a child explains.
"I love lino cutting, It is an old traditional method. An indirect way of expression. The material is crumbly, which makes it somewhat headstrong. The figures in my linocuts are as vulnerable as the material but self-conscious at the same time. Recognizability is very important to me. Yet, colors, I make more intense, situations more absurd, people more vulnerable. I treat my subjects with as much irony as love”.
Want to learn more about Ondine?
https://ondinedekroon.nl/en/
Elizabeth Bisno
Learning Lens
Walla Walla, WA. USA
I’m a college student looking to explore psychology as well as environmental studies and conservation. What a surprise given that I was lucky enough to spend my childhood cradling rabbits, hopping along a rocky creek bed under trees filled with birdsong, living abroad for a year, and dreaming of rescuing animals when I grew up.
My fascination with the perspectives of different cultures around the world has strengthened my belief in cross-cultural empathy– to the point where I believe the most effective solutions to today’s problems will ultimately begin with simply listening to one another. The ideas that 7GL share are a voice for that compassion, for more effective ways of working together. In this way, my own personal beliefs and 7GL’s principles reinforce one another.
To 7GL I bring the outlook of a young learner, providing some feedback to material as we create it, and pitching in where help might be needed. I learn indigenous perspectives through varied lenses thanks to the flexibility of my role, such as when I participate in brainstorming how a workshop or toolset we share might appeal to young learners like myself. This is part of a symbiotic exchange, as the wisdom that I’m absorbing from 7GL is feeding into the formation of my core values at this growth stage in my life. And for that, I couldn’t be more grateful.
7th Generation Labs is a fiscally sponsored project of Inquiring Systems, Inc. EIN: 94-2524840
