Presenters' Bios
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As more presenters confirm attendence, and provide bios, this section will be expanded. Margot Adler
J’Ann Peacock Alvarado J’Ann is a career librarian who still works part-time in that profession. She often uses songs, music and rhythms in her story programs for children. She has been interested in Magical Arts since very young. She is a Third Degree High Priestess in both the Isian and the McFarland Dianic Traditions. She has recently begun learning about woodwork and making wands. Andras Corban Arthen
Peter Bishop & Cat Chapin-Bishop
Cat and Peter maintain Quaker Pagan Reflections, a blog dedicated to exploring the connections between Pagan spirituality and Quaker practice. They reside in Northampton, Massachusetts, where they attempt to live peacefully in the midst of chaos. Angie Buchanan
Angie is involved in and consults with a number of organizations that encourage interfaith dialog and promote unity in diversity, including, the Lady Liberty League, for which she is currently the Director of Public Relations, The Council for A Parliament of the World's Religions, Women For International Peace & Arbitration, and the Our Freedom Coalition. Angie travels extensively, speaking to groups about the importance building bridges within the inter-religious communities, and safeguarding The First Amendment. She offers workshops and retreats on a number of topics. She is the founder and Director of Gaia's Womb, an interfaith spirituality group, and has been producing women's interfaith spirituality retreats for the past 8 years. She will be presenting at the Leadership Institute. Adam Chertoff
Rachel Cohen-Rottenberg
Michael DiMartino and World Beat Ensemble Come have a listen at http://www.worldbeatensemble.com/! Jesse E. Feinberg Jesse E. Feinberg at the age of 29 has been playing piano for 27 years. He is both classically and jazz trained. Currently, he plays in several groups that include jazz standards, Afro-Latino, Reggae, Free Jazz and his own original compositions and improvisations as well as being an accompanist for the Boston Ballet and teaching private lessons. He will be bringing one of his trios to Merry Meet and looks forward to the gig with excitement. Jesse and his trio will be performing at the Saturday BBQ Jazz Brunch. Don Frew Don Frew is one of two national interfaith representatives for the Covenant of the Goddess and is on the Global Council of the United Religions Initiative. He is founder and director of the Lost & Endangered Religions Project, and has spent many years researching the origins of the modern Craft movement. Chuck Furnace
The Goddess Dancing
Ellen Evert Hopman
Ellen Evert Hopman will be presenting at the Leadership Institute. Kellianna
Galina Krasskova
Bryan Lankford
Ludmilla Padlova
Macha Lilith Ni Padraiga Has been a practicing Pagan for over 30 years. She holds degrees in Ancient Mythology, Anthropology, and Library Science. She has led groups in the traditions of Dianic Wicce, Celtic Reconstructionism and Yiddish Reconstructionism. Last year, her husband died suddenly. She learned, first hand, what is needed and what helps during a life crisis. M. Macha NightMare
Opeyemi Is a “Witch Doctor” who practiced as a fully licensed conventional family doctor from 1986 to 2005 and is now embracing right livelihood as a holistic health consultant, an intuitive healer and a ceremonialist. Maureen Reddington-Wilde Rev. Maureen Khoreia Reddington-Wilde is a minister of the Church of the Sacred Earth : A Union of Pagan Congregations. She is a Hellenic Reconstructionist Pagan, a dedicated Priestess of Aphrodite, currently pursuing a Masters degree in Classical Studies at Harvard University.
Maureen Reddington-Wilde will be presenting at the Leadership Institute. Paula Chaffee Scardamalia
She
is a freelance writer whose work has appeared on Beliefnet, and in national
magazines, and she writes book reviews for Foreword Magazine and Broadsheet
(Broad Universe). She is a member of the International Women’s
Writing Guild She presents workshops, seminars, and talks on creativity,
writing, dreamwork and spirituality, and she helps others as a creativity
and dream coach. A dream inspired her to write a fantasy novel, The
Shadow Weaver and she is the author of the award-winning Weaving
a Woman’s Life: Spiritual Lessons from the Loom. Maria Kay Simms
Gypsey Elaine Teague
Michael Thorn Certified Pilates mat instructor, Pilates reformer instructor. Rachel Watcher Is a NROOGD and Gardnerian Elder. She has been practicing some form of Craft for 45 years. She is an interfaith rep for NCLC and a past national and local officer of CoG. Laura Wildman-Hanlon
Dr. Michael York
Dr. Michael York will be presenting at the Leadership Institute.
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Margot
Adler has been a priestess of Wicca for 35 years, and a long time member
of Cog. She is the author of “Drawing Down the Moon”, the
classic study of contemporary Paganism and Goddess Spirituality, as
well as “Heretic’s Heart, A Journey Through Spirit and Revolution,”
a 1960’s memoir. In her mundane life she is the New York based
Correspondent for National Public Radio, and the host of Justice Talking,
a public radio show about law, the constitution, and American life.
(photo © 2006 by Michael Papas)
Founder
and director of the EarthSpirit Community, was adopted into the traditional
practices of a Scottish family of witches in 1969. Andras was chosen
as the pagan representative to the United Nations Interfaith Conference
in 1991, and was one of the presenters at the Parliaments of the World's
Religions held in Chicago in 1993 and Barcelona in 2004; he currently
serves on the Parliament’s board of trustees. Andras teaches about
Earth spirituality throughout the U.S. and abroad, and performs with
MotherTongue, EarthSpirit's internationally-acclaimed ritual performance
group. He is proud to have been singled out as "a bad role-model
for the youth of America" by right-wing Christian zealot Pat Robertson
on the "700 Club" in 1996. Andras lives with his extended
family in Glenwood, a 135-acre pagan educational center and nature preserve
in the Berkshire hills of western Massachusetts.
Witches
since the late ‘80s, Peter Bishop and Cat Chapin-Bishop became
Quakers in 2001. Peter, a former First Officer of the Weavers Local
Council of COG, was the cofounder and editor of Moonrise: A Quarterly
Neopagan Journal. His most recent publication is “Quaker and Pagan”
in Laura Wildman’s Celebrating the Pagan Soul. Peter is currently
a member of the Mt. Toby Quaker Meeting Committee for GLBT Concerns.
Cat
has also served COG at the local level, and has taught in Cherry Hill
Seminary’s Pastoral Counseling Department. Cat’s publications
include the essays, “A Witch is Never Alone,” “Spiritual
Counseling and Wiccan Clergy: Not Psychotherapy in Disguise,”
and “Caring for Our Communities and Ourselves When Tragedy Strikes.”
She currently serves on the Ministry and Worship Committee of Mt. Toby
Quaker meeting.
Angie
Buchanan comes from a background of law enforcement and politics. She
holds ministerial credentials through Circle Sanctuary, and is a family
tradition Pagan. She lives on the shores of Lake Michigan, midway between
Chicago, IL and Milwaukee, WI. 
Adam
Chertoff is one of the elder disciples of Master Lawrence Tan, creator
of the TanDao System of Kung-Fu and Tri-Harmony Philosophy. He has been
studying with Master Tan since 1988 and is currently the Assistant Instructor
for the beginners through intermediate class at Trisha Brown Studios
in New York City. He has been engaged in the martial arts since 1981.
He has a passion for culture, both eastern and western, their philosophies
and metaphysics. Professionally he is a Production Artist specializing
in QuarkXPress, InDesign, and Adobe CS Studio. He also works as a Technical
Support Consultant configuring and troubleshooting Macintosh computer
systems.
Rachel
Cohen-Rottenberg lives in Colrain on a small farm she shares with her
husband, daughter, and a menagerie of sheep, goats, and chickens. As
a lay rabbi, she has led Shabbos services in western Massachusetts for
nearly ten years. In addition to teaching and writing about Jewish life
for the benefit of the larger community, Rachel works closely with couples
and families to create life-cycle rituals, and officiates at interfaith
wedding ceremonies and memorial services. She will be presenting at
the Leadership Institute.
Chuck
Furnace began his Magickal journey in 1968, and is a Qabalistic practitioner
of Ceremonial Magick. He is a founding member of the Ouroborous Isis
Gnosis (ObIG) coven and The Star Lodge, and for many years owned a 24
hour bookstore and occult store in New Haven, CT. While ObIG concentrates
on Earth Magick in the Starhawk tradition, the Star Lodge has focused
on using the Middle Pillar meditation and astral WORK for a quarter
of a century. 
The
Goddess Dancing is Boston's longest running belly dance company. Pagans
and Environmentalists since the beginning, we've done our best to empower
people with the movements of belly dance for over 15 years. We are currently
teaching for the BU dance department, running a belly dance teacher
training program, creating a prenatal belly dance movement, and sharing
our annual ritual performance evening with the public. For photos, individual
bios, our schedule and calendar, check out our website 
Ellen
Evert Hopman is a Master Herbalist and lay Homeopath who holds an M.Ed.
in Mental Health Counseling. She is the Co-Chief of the Whiteoak Druid
Kellianna
is a singer/songwriter performing powerful Goddess & Mythology inspired
Folk Music and Chant at venues such as The 2003, 2004 & 2005 Goddess
Conference in Glastonbury, England and the 2004, 2005, & 2006 Women
of Wisdom Conference in Seattle, Washington, and the Everyday Goddess
Conference, Madison, WI in 2006 & 2007. 
Galina
Krasskova is a free range tribalist Heathen and has been a priest of
Odin for over ten years. She is the founder of Urdabrunnr Kindred in
NYC, and a member of both Ironwood Kindred (MA) and Asatru in Frankfurt
(Frankfurt am Main, Germany). Her primary interest is Heathen devotional
work and she has both written and lectured extensively on this subject.
Galina is heavily involved in the reconstruction of northern tradition
shamanism and, in addition to several of her own books, has contributed
extensively to Raven Kaldera’s Northern Tradition Shamanism series.
Galina holds a diploma in interfaith ministry from The New Seminary
in NYC, a BA in religious studies from Empire State College and is currently
pursuing her MA in religious studies at New York University. Her published
work includes “Exploring the Northern Tradition,”
through New Page Books, “The Whisperings of Woden,”
the first devotional ever published in modern Heathenry/Asatru, “Walking
Toward Yggdrasil” and ‘Sigdrifa’s Prayer”
both through Asphodel Press as well as the forthcoming "Full
Fathom Five: Honoring the Norse Gods and Goddesses of the Sea”
also through Asphodel Press. She may be reached at 
Bryan
Lankford is a leading Wiccan practitioner in the Dallas pagan community.
He has been trained as a High Priest in the McFarland Dianic Tradition,
a Wiccan tradition founded in the early 1970s by Morgan McFarland, and
has master standing in Old Path Wicca. He is the cofounder and High
Priest of the OIC coven, an Old Path Wiccan coven that holds regular
circles of its own as well as performing rituals for the Dallas Pagan
community.
Ludmilla
is an architect and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED™)
Accredited Professional. For over a decade she has been an advocate
for sustainable design and living in her professional and community
life.
M.
Macha NightMare P&W, is an author, teacher and ritualist. She is
among the founders of Reclaiming Tradition Witchcraft, and an initiate
of both 
Ordained
in 1988, her ministry has been dedicated to interfaith outreach in local,
regional, national, and international levels. She served as the New
England Regional Religion Coordinator for Earth Day 1990, which led
to her founding role in Eco-Spirit New England, an interfaith environmental
Paula
Chaffee Scardamalia is a professional weaver whose luxurious and colorful
rayon chenille throws and wearables have sold through galleries across
the country, and to clients from coast to coast, and around the globe
in locations such as the British Isles, Japan, and Guatemala. She is
the creator of her unique intuitive line of shawls and throws called
Woven Dreams/Threads of Time.
HPS
of Circle of the Cosmic Muse, she has been a professional astrologer
for over 30 years, and is a former Chair of national Council for Geocosmic
Research, Inc. and is a member of the Association for Professional Astrologers
International. She holds NCGR’s certification as Consulting Astrologer,
and also the professional certification from American Federation of
Astrologers. She is the author of 8 books, the most pertinent of which
in regard to this presentation are A Time for Magick and Future Signs,
as well as her most recent, Moon Tides, Soul Passages and to some extent
The Witch’s Circle. Maria is also an accomplished artist. Her
website, The Art and Astrology of Maria Kay Simms is 
Gypsey
Elaine Teague is Branch Head of Clemson University’s Gunnin Architecture
Library. She is a nationally recognized teacher, writer, and lecturer
on the subject of transgenders and is the only male to female transsexual
faculty member at any South Carolina state university. As a member of
the Women Studies Department at Clemson, she teaches transgender and
gender subjects to both graduate and undergraduate students. She is
also on the South Carolina HIV/AIDS Prevention Council as the liaison
to the state’s transsexual population.
Laura
is the author of What's Your Wicca I.Q? (Citadel Press 2002), Wiccan
Meditations (Citadel Press 2003), and Celebrating the Pagan Soul (Citadel
Press 2005). She is the Academic Dean of Cherry Hill Seminary, a virtual
Pagan seminary offering Professional Pagan Ministry and Leadership Education
(
Michael
York was Professor of Cultural Astronomy and Astrology for the Bath
Spa University's Sophia Centre until his retirement in 2004. He also
directed the New Age and Pagan Studies Programme for the University's
Department for the Study of Religions. He co-ordinated the Bath Archive
for Contemporary Religious Affairs, and continues to direct the Amsterdam
Center for Eurindic Studies and co-direct the London-based Academy for
Cultural and Educational Studies. His major publications are The
Roman Festival Calendar of Numa Pompilius (1986), A Sociology
of the New Age and Neo-pagan Movements (1995), The Divine versus
the Asurian: An Interpretation of Indo-European Cult and Myth (1995),
Pagan Theology: Paganism as a World Religion (2003), Historical
Dictionary of New Age Movements (2004) and Pagan Ethics: Paganism
as a World Religion (forthcoming).