SPEAKER LINE UP | Day 2
My passion is exploring connection and promoting healthy relationships between self, each other and the natural world.
I love the deep sense of belonging and community that one feels when we have a strong relationship with ourselves, each other and the natural world.
I am trained in Social Work, Forest School, Non-Violent Communication (NVC), Ecopsychology, Life Initiation and Rites of Passage, Grief Tending and The Eight Shields model of nature connection.
I have witnessed the healing, enlivening and joyful benefits of intentionally building a relationship with nature and believe in the profound impact that this work can have as we move into uncertain times.
I currently run Live Wild CIC and practice privately as an Eco- therapist and mentor with children and adults. I run singing in nature retreats, grief circles and other connection-based workshops. I also host Connection Matters Podcast exploring evolutionary lifestyles, mindset, culture, healing and spirituality as well as many other issues relating to personal growth, community and nature connection.
Het Joshi is the founder of Adira Foundation, a youth-powered non-profitable organization fighting to end period poverty and taboo across Globe through service and awareness camps. She is a national level classical dancer, activist and takes keen interest in Model United Nations. With that she often participates in a lot of school debates, recitations, elocutions, inter school competitions and round square conferences.
Her interest lies in reading nonfictional books and learning about new cultures by travelling across the globe. As she read about women’s struggles for equal rights which still continue to be an issue, she got inspired not only from the women in history but also from all those women who were a big part of her daily life. She is a true feminist and she doesn’t just believe in women empowerment but, has implemented in her own life and inspired several women.
Ella Lambert is the founder and CEO of The Pachamama Project, an organisation building a network of volunteers to make reusable sanitary pads for refugees dealing with period poverty. She set up the organisation in August 2020 and now has 900 volunteers worldwide, 8 distribution partners in 6 countries and has sent over 12,000 pads for distribution.
The Pachamama Project is supporting refugees in Lebanon, Greece, the USA, the UK, Turkey and Syria and has a Pacha club in Beirut allowing refugee women to make their own pads, sell them to local NGOs and generate an income whilst increasing the organisations reach to refugees in the area.
Ella was inspired to set up the organisation after experiencing debilitating period pain from a young age. She related to women who had to miss out on school, work and daily activity due to their periods as she had experienced this herself. She heard about the plight of women dealing with period poverty, resorting to using leaves and rags during their periods and so picked up a sewing machine, learnt to sew and got to work recruiting volunteers.
She’s now living in Greece working on distributions and plans to launch the organisation everywhere!
Atyantika was knee-deep in garbage when she felt the proverbial lightning strike.
Sure, Archimedes was in the bathtub, but her local waste segregation plant was not where she expected to find her passion.
But she did, and she’s glad for it, because if not for that visit, she wouldn’t have co-founded The Red Lotus, an organisation that aims at promoting sustainable menstruation and the proper disposal of menstrual waste.
Besides working with sanitation workers and menstruators alike to further the ideals The Red Lotus stands for, Atyantika enjoys reading, walking with her dog, and reading up on Greek mythology. She’s also a keen writer, and has a slight obsession with her Excel sheets.
Whatever it may be, at the crux of all her interests lies a desire to learn and the dream of a brighter, more sustainable future. By being a part of this global initiative, Atyantika hopes to not only talk about what she believes in, but also learn.
FOR TEACHERS, EDUCATORS, LEADERS & PARENTS/GUARDIANS
Katy is doing a PhD at Oxford asking how leaders could improve the flourishing and wellbeing of those they lead; she is an affiliated researcher at the Oxford University Wellbeing Research Centre. Emmie is a former civil servant and co-founder of the Young African Leadership Programme. Katy and Emmie are co-authors of the book ‘Leader: Know, Love and Inspire Your People.’
Dr. Scott Parsons is the Character Education Integrator (Assistant Professor) for the Military Program at United States Military Academy at West Point. He assists universities and institutions in developing leaders of character by designing curriculum, integration techniques, and assessment tools with a focus on character education.
As a leader, teacher, and coach, Scott designs character education programs, based on Neo-Aristotelian and Thomistic “Cardinal” Virtues to facilitate a flourishing life for students, faculty, and staff. The Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues’ Framework for Character Education is the blueprint he uses in assisting institutions with Character Development and Integration.
As a retired Army officer with over 21 years of military experience, Scott have spent roughly half his military career in Military Intelligence and the other half in academia serving as an Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Ethics.
Harry is Co-Founder of the Altimeter Group and Associate Fellow for the Oxford Character Project where he works with researchers to craft character-focused leader and team development programs for organizations.
As a former US Army officer who spent about half of his career as an aviator and the other half as an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the United States Military Academy, he works best at conceptual intersections and deeply believes that the hardest and most interesting problems can only be solved by interdisciplinary teams.
He and his wife, Laura, have five children, who daily manage to create an ever shifting set of relational intersections that are the most colorful, hilarious, and rewarding of all.
Sue focuses on how we can work well together. She is interested in how a team of experts evolves into an expert team. She draws on doctoral research of global sailing teams, her work in complex multinational organisations and her fellowship research to explore how we can move beyond the competitive, individualistic mindset to find the power of collaboration. She believes that leadership is a team sport and the essential skill for the future is a growth mindset and the ability to develop relational expertise so that we can access the collective intelligence of divergent thinking.
Dr Jonathan Beale is Researcher-in-Residence at Eton College and an Academic Visitor at St Antony’s College, University of Oxford. He is also a Visiting Research Fellow in Philosophy at the University of Hertfordshire; a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts; and a Research Fellow for ‘BrainCanDo’ – an educational neuroscience research centre. He is the co-editor of three books for Routledge: Wittgenstein and Scientism (2017), The ‘BrainCanDo’ Handbook of Teaching and Learning (2020) and Wittgenstein and Contemporary Moral Philosophy (2022).
He has published articles on education and philosophy in academic journals including Ratio and in media outlets including the New York Times, and has given invited talks at universities including Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, UCL, Sheffield, Yale, Ottawa and Zaragoza, and for organisations including the Royal Society of Arts. He completed his PhD in philosophy at the University of Reading and was a Fellow in Philosophy at Harvard University from 2011-13.
Jonathan is an experienced Housemaster, Head of Department and schools’ inspector. His particular areas of professional interest include pastoral leadership and wellbeing; building of ‘learning communities’; boarding management; character education; adolescent mental health & wellbeing; professional learning models; flourishing school communities and educational leadership development. Jonathan has set up a learning link with one of the leading schools in Helsinki- this followed a trip to Finland a couple of years ago where he explored and researched the Finnish education system.
Following the completion of an MA in Character Education at the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues at Birmingham University, Jonathan is now undertaking part time DPhil research at Oxford University, where his research is focused on educational leadership from a character, virtue and practical wisdom perspective. Jonathan is also a member of the Maple Advisory Global Discussion Group.