Biographies of Speakers for the 2009 Women's Visionary Congress
Irina Alexander
Irina Alexander is vice-chair of the national board of directors of Students
for Sensible Drug Policy.
Carolyn (Mountain Girl) Garcia
Carolyn Garcia first encountered the world of psychedelics while
working in the organic chemistry department at Stanford University.
She later joined a group of psychedelic pioneers called The Merry
Pranksters and climbed on board the Great Bus "Furthur" where she lived
until 1967.
Carolyn and her family settled in San Francisco with
her future husband, Jerry Garcia, of the Grateful Dead. In 1976,
Carolyn published her classic book on organic marijuana cultivation,
The Primo Plant, which is still in print. In 1987, she joined the
Rex
Foundation founded by members of the Grateful Dead. Garcia is also a member of
the
Threshold Foundation and sits on the board of the
Furthur
Foundation.
Kristina Hunt
David Ledeboer
Mariavittoria Mangini
Mariavittoria Mangini PhD has been a family nurse midwife for the
past twenty-five years. She has written extensively on the impact of
psychedelic drug experiences in shaping the lives of her
contemporaries, and has worked closely with many of the most
distinguished investigators in this field. In her clinical practice
with
Frank Lucido MD, she has investigated the standard of care for
medical cannabis patients and worked to increase the acceptance of
cannabis as a legitimate therapy. As part of the home birth movement,
she participated in a revolution in women's health care and in
obstetric care particularly, which reshaped the way that women give
birth to accommodate consumer demands and preferences.
Her current project is the development of a "death midwifery"
practice providing services to dying patients and their families. As
in the birth attendant model, the death midwife would be the
patient's and the family's trusted and experienced companion through
a transformative process. The death midwife would provide bedside
clinical care including pain and symptom management for the dying
person; perform the last offices; prepare the body for burial,
cremation or viewing; arrange for the care of remains; and assist
families in memorializing their dead.
Annie Oak
Annie Oak is the founder of the Women's Visionary Congress and the Women's Entheogen Fund. She is a journalist
and filmmaker who was inspired to create gatherings that celebrate the work of visionary
women. While occasionally social and grateful for friends and allies, Annie prefers the
wilderness and the company of other species including her cat and her horse.
Marsha Rosenbaum
Marsha Rosenbaum was the director of the San Francisco office
of the Drug Policy Alliance.
Nicki Scully
Nicki Scully
has been teaching healing, shamanic arts, and the Egyptian Mysteries since 1983. During her first visit
to Egypt with the Grateful Dead in 1978, Nicki experienced an epiphany that transformed her life. She
deepened her focus on healing and began delving into the hidden shamanic arts of Egypt. She is now a lineage
holder in the Hermetic tradition of Thoth, her teacher and mentor. With Thoth she developed Alchemical Healing,
a comprehensive healing form that is practiced by thousands of practitioners internationally. In the late '80s,
Nicki founded Shamanic Journeys, Ltd., and continues to guide inner journeys and spiritual pilgrimages to Egypt
and other sacred sites. Nicki lives in Eugene, OR, where she maintains a healing and shamanic consulting practice.
She welcomes you to study with her in her beautiful garden center.
Nicki's newest published work is a seven CD audio program,
Becoming An Oracle, Connecting with the Divine Source for
Information and Healing . Her most recent books are
The Anubis Oracle, A Journey into the Shamanic Mysteries of Egypt
(book and card deck, September 2008), and
Shamanic Mysteries of Egypt, Awakening
the Healing Power of the Heart (2007), both co-authored with Linda Star Wolf and illustrated by Kris Waldherr. She is the author of
Alchemical Healing, A Guide to Spiritual, Physical, and Transformational Medicine , and
Power Animal Meditations, Shamanic Journeys with Your
Spirit Allies .
Elizabeth Stephens and
Annie Sprinkle
Annie Sprinkle &
Elizabeth Stephens are the
Love Art Laboratory.
Annie Sprinkle was a prostitute and porn star for twenty years, then
became an internationally acclaimed performance artist and sex
educator. She has authored six books, and produced and starred in her
own brand of feminist "post porn" films. Much of her work was inspired
by her experiences with psychoactive substances, shamanic journeys,
tantra and ecstasy breathing. Sprinkle is currently a popular
visiting artist lecturer at colleges and universities. She has a
Ph.D. in human sexuality. She toured four different one-woman theater
pieces about her life to sixteen countries.
Elizabeth Stephens is interdisciplinary artist and activist who has
explored themes of sexuality, gender, queerness, and feminism through
art and performance for over 20 years. She is also an art professor
who for the past three years has been the chair of the Art Department
at the University of California in Santa Cruz. She is currently
pursuing her Ph.D. in Performance Studies at UC Davis.
Sprinkle and Stephens utilize visual art, installation, theater
pieces, interventions, live-art, exhibitions, lectures, printed matter
and activism. Currently they’re touring their new theater piece, Dirty
Sexecology -- How to Make Love to the Earth. They live ecstatically
together, along with their dog Bob, in a Victorian home in San
Francisco.
