Mark Yaconelli is a speaker, community-builder, and author of Between the Listening and the Telling: How Stories Can Save Us as well as five previous books. As founder and director of The Hearth nonprofit, Yaconelli has worked with The Ford Family Foundation, Compassion International, The Greenbelt Arts Festival, The Eli Lilly Foundation, The Mexican-American Center of Austin, among other organizations. Yaconelli holds an MA in Spirituality from the Graduate Theological Union and received a spiritual direction diploma from San Francisco Theological Seminary. Interviews and profiles of Mark’s work have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, BBC Radio, and ABC World News Tonight. He and his wife have three grown children and live in Ashland, Oregon.

Brian D. McLaren is an author, speaker, activist, and public theologian. A former college English teacher and pastor, he is a passionate advocate for “a new kind of Christianity” – just, generous, and working with people of all faiths for the common good. 

Born in Ireland and raised in the south of England, Mary is an experienced educator, having taught at High School, College and Graduate School levels. She is a Salesian Sister with a deep love and understanding of people, especially the young. After six years in Rome, Italy at her congregational headquarters and visiting many parts of the world, in 1997 she joined the Institute of Salesian Studies in Berkeley as an adjunct lecturer at the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology of the GTU. Presently she is engaged full time in workshops and retreats in this country and in other parts of the world. Her background in Salesian Spirituality and its active-contemplative way of life is the impetus of her most recent reflection and research. The union of the two, while still a work in progress in her own life, has become a profound passion for her. She delights in sharing this passion with energy and enthusiasm when given the opportunity.

Wendy Farley is Rice Family Chair of Spirituality and Director of the Programs in Spiritual Direction and Formation at the University of Redlands Graduate School of Theology (San Francisco Theological Seminary). Prior to coming to Redlands, she spent 28 years at Emory University, where she was Professor of Religion and Ethics and Chair of Theological Studies. Her research has focused on philosophical and feminist theology as well as comparative theology and contemplative practices. She is interested in connections between social justice and spiritual practice and the role of contemplative practices in supporting resilience and radical compassion in dark times. She is the author six books. 

Enuma Okoro is a Nigerian-American author, speaker, lecturer and consultant whose work explores Identity and Culture, Africa and the Diaspora, Holistic Wellness and Spirituality, and the transforming Power of Story and Narrative. Her work explores how stories (told and believed) are the central way of shaping human perspectives and behavior. Currently at work on a novel about identity and notions of home, Okoro has published four books of nonfiction, and her articles and essays have been featured in The New York Times, CNN African Voices, AEON Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, The UK and US Guardian, The Washington Post, Essence Magazine, and other media outlets.

In addition to writing Okoro speaks and teaches seminars, leads developmental workshops and retreats, and coaches on the topics; Understanding and Using the Power of Narrative for Transforming Communities and Relationships, Identity and (Dis)Belonging, Spirituality and Holistic Wellness, Personal Well-being and Development, and Living with Intention and Alignment of Purpose.

Born in New York City and raised in Cote D’Ivoire, England, North America and Nigeria, Okoro has taught spiritual and creative writing workshops at Princeton Theological Seminary, Duke Divinity School, The Collegeville Institute and more. She has been the recipient of writing fellowships at The Callaloo Creative Writing Program at Brown University, The KimbilioWriting Residency in Taos, New Mexico and The CivitellaRanieri Foundation’s International Artists Residency Program in Umbria, Italy. 

Her educational training and professional background is in Creative Writing, Psychology and Communication, Family Systems Therapy and Human Development, and Theology. She is a certified coach and spiritual director in the Jesuit-Ignatian tradition.

Her first book, Reluctant Pilgrim was recognized by USA Book News as a 2010 Best Books Award Winning Finalist for Religion, and received the 2011 Indie National Book Awards Winning Finalist in Spirituality and Non-Fiction.

In 2018 she was recognized by The Guardian Nigerian national newspaper as one of the 100 Most Inspiring Women in Nigeria. 

As an international speaker, Okoro had the honor of being the first woman of African descent to speak from the historic 200 year-old platform of The American Church in Paris, France, where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was the first man of African descent to speak  from the same platform in 1965, after winning the Nobel Peace Prize in  Oslo. 

Her multiple speaking invitations have included a TEDxtalk in London on global perceptions of multicultural women, identity and the power of cultural narratives, the Harvard Business School, Oxford University, The Policy Center for the New South’s Atlantic Dialogues Conference in Marrakech, The Abu Dhabi Culture Summit, Princeton University, The Bloomberg Media Conference and more.

Enuma was enthusiastically received as our speaker in August 2015 at Companions in Tahoe and we are delighted to have her with us again.

Web: www.enumaokoro.com

Rachel Elizabeth Harding, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Indigenous Spiritual Traditions in the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado — Denver.  A native of Georgia, a writer, historian and poet, Rachel is a specialist in religions of the Afro-Atlantic diaspora and studies the relationship between religion, creativity and s­ocial justice activism in cross-cultural perspective. She is a Cave Canem Fellow and holds an MFA in creative writing from Brown University and a PhD in history from the University of Colorado Boulder.  Harding is author of A Refuge in Thunder: Candomblé and Alternative Spaces of Blackness as well as numerous poems and essays.  Rachel’s second book, Remnants: A Memoir of Spirit, Activism and Mothering, combines her own writings with the autobiographical reflections of her mother, Rosemarie Freeney Harding, on their family history and the role of compassion and spirituality in African American social justice organizing. Rachel is an ebomi (elder initiate) in the Terreiro do Cobre Candomble community in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, where she has been a participant for over 20 years.

Wendy Farley, Ph.D. is Professor of Christian Spirituality and holder of the Rice Family Chair in Spirituality at San Francisco Theological Seminary. She is considered a leading theologian, having written extensively on women theologians and mystics, religious dialogue, classical texts, contemporary ethical issues, and contemplative practices. Her teaching and research interests include women theologians, Buddhist-Christian dialogue, spirituality and social justice, classical texts, and contemplative practices. She has authored  Tragic Vision and Divine Compassion: A Contemporary Theodicy (Westminster John Knox, 1990), Eros for the Other: Retaining Truth in a Pluralistic World (Penn State: 1996), The Wounding and Healing of Desire: Weaving Heaven and Earth (Westminster John Knox), Gathering Those Driven Away: a Theology of Incarnation (Westminster John Knox, 2011), and her latest book, The Thirst of God: Contemplating God’s Love with Three Women Mystics (Westminster John Knox, 2015), explores the spirituality of medieval mystics Marguerite Porete, Mechthild of Magdeburg, and Julian of Norwich.

Judy Yates Siker, Ph.D. was most recently visiting professor of New Testament & Christian Origins at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. Prior to this, Dr. Siker was at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California, serving as Vice President and Professor of New Testament at San Francisco Theological Seminary and Dean and Associate Professor of New Testament at the American Baptist Seminary of the West in Berkeley, CA.

Dr. Siker has also taught at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Meredith College, in Raleigh, North Carolina; and the Loyola Chicago Rome Center, Rome, Italy. Her teaching includes classes in the field of New Testament and Christian Origins and in biblical languages. Her current research interests are in the areas of “anti-Semitism” in the New Testament (with a special focus on identity theory and first-century Jewish/Christian relations), the history of interpretation of the Gospel of Matthew, and rethinking women’s stories in the New Testament.

Lisa Fullam is Associate Professor of Moral theology at the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University. A 1990 graduate of the New York State College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University, she received her Th.D. in 2001 from Harvard Divinity School. Her research interests include the intersection of ethics and spirituality, and Ignatian spirituality. Her published works include: The Virtue of Humility: A Thomistic Apologetic and these articles: “Virtue Ethics in Spiritual Guidance,” “From Discord to Virtues: Reframing Sexual Ethics,” "Bioethics and Public Policy" (with William R. O’Neill, S.J.) “Humility, a Pilgrim’s Virtue,” “Why Ordination Matters: A Reflection from Jamaica,” and “Juana, S.J. The History (and Future?) of Women in the Society of Jesus.”

In 2008, she climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro. The view from the top is just glorious! She is married to John Mabry and has been our speaker at previous Companions Retreats.