PUP is fortunate to have benefited from the talents of our outgoing crew and is excited to welcome several new people to the mission.

The PUP team welcomes Shanti Gaia (Board Director), Alia Aurami (Advisor), David Christenson (Advisor), Ellen Malloway (Membership Experience Manager), and Eric Vargas (Assistant Membership Experience Manager). They are introduced below.

Shanti Gaia (Director)

Shanti, American, has worked with Sean Esbjörn-Hargens, the founder of the MetaIntegral Associates, focusing on teaching the MetaImpact framework through courses called “Designing Wisdom Economies” and on working towards the creation of MultiCapital value accounting software. He has spent a decade living at two different ecovillages that were also nonprofit education centers, spending a significant amount of his time in leadership roles at those organizations. He spent three years on the Board of the Sirius, Inc. nonprofit, including approximately two years as Treasurer. He also spent a couple of years on the statewide Steering Board for the Massachusetts 350.org network. Throughout his career, he has founded or worked for over half a dozen environmental nonprofit organizations. Overall, he has worked in the nonprofit sector for most of his career. He also has expansive training and practice in ecological consciousness-raising work--having trained directly with Joanna Macy and others in Experiential Deep Ecology--along with training in similar work by the Pachamama alliance.

Alia Aurami (Advisor)

Alia, American, for over 60 years as an adult has taught pre-school children, college students, and other adults; done marketing/strategic planning; been a spiritual counselor; designed onboarding programs; and written and advised on Integral management. She wrote two forthcoming books, one based on the Integral framework. Her main blogs are https://exploringsecondandthirdtier.blogspot.com and https://organizationalintelligences.blogspot.com. She is co-creator of Enlivening Edge, a global nexus for people co-creating more-conscious organizations and is the Managing Editor, Inter-organizational Synergy Catalyzer, and Workspace Host, among other roles. She has been Head Minister since founding an independent church in 2005. Everything she does is a ministry of the church. Alia helped build online international communities since 2006. She also co-designed the Operating Agreement and Management System for a next-stage organization. Alia has served since 2012 in the Core Advisory Team for the international movement Integral City.com.

 

David Christenson (Advisor)

David, American, became the founder and CEO of a consultancy group, primarily doing business as O4R: Organizing For Resilience, after he retired from his position as the Assistant Center Manager for the interagency Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center (LLC). David helped to design, build, manage, and lead the LLC from 2001 through 2014. He focused on creating a widely used knowledge management system as he helped create a new Learning Center with the United States’ 300,000-member wildland fire community.

David completed the Master of Science degree in Human Factors and Systems Safety at Lund University, Sweden in 2012. He was a researcher in the Leonardo da Vinci Laboratory for Complexity and Systems Thinking under the guidance of Professor Sidney Dekker. David previously completed the Master of Arts in Applied Geography, after a Bachelor of Science degree in Regional & City Planning, at New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, New Mexico, in 2000.

David and Tanya Christenson reside in Oro Valley, Arizona, where he enjoys creating landscape artwork with acrylic paints

Ellen Malloway (Membership Experience Manager)

Ellen, American, is a graduate of Arizona State University's online Master of Sustainable Tourism program with a B.A. in Cultural Anthropology from the University of California at Santa Barbara. Her ultimate career goal is to collaborate with people of diverse backgrounds to create a lasting positive impact in communities and destinations using sustainable/regenerative strategies. She has always loved learning about and visiting cultural and natural heritage sites across the globe and believes sustainable tourism is one of the best means to protect these invaluable resources.

Eric Vargas (Assistant Membership Experience Manager)

Eric, Costa Rican, studied biology at the University of Costa Rica. He has experience as a teaching and research assistant, as well as an independent consultant in environmental education. He served as the volunteer coordinator for the I Latin American Congress on Heritage Interpretation organized by PUP and El Colegio de Michoacán. He is currently working on his degree in environmental interpretation at the University of Costa Rica with a focus on Ecology and undergoing interpretation training with a tourism company in Turrialba, Costa Rica, with support from PUP.

PUP thanks its outgoing staff members. Michelle Lewis leaves as Director, Zach Garcia as Secretary, and Leandro Vigna as PUPnotes Editor. Within his one-year contract position, Vigna also oversaw PUP’s email outreach shift to MailChimp. And Garcia helped modernize the organization’s Board reporting system. Thank you again to Michelle, Zach, and Leandro for their efforts to support communities in the protection and management of natural and cultural heritage and evolving Integral approaches and tools.

Lastly, PUP continues its search for a Secretary. Inquiries can be directed to membership@pupconsortium.net.