1. Can you describe yourself in 25 words or less?
I’m an environmental scientist with a wonderful career supporting science and higher education. Nature lover, collaborator, explorer, volunteer leader, mentor, friend, and kin to many.
2. What awakens your energy?
Being in nature; collaborating with people to accomplish outcomes to try to make the world better for all; spending time with my loved ones; and experiencing music, especially live music.
3. How did you become involved in ITP? And are you currently a member of any ITP group?
I’ve been a member of the Tulsa Wednesday evening ITP group since March of 2024. I had the most amazing, seemingly fate-driven introduction to ITP. I was invited by a friend and fellow ITP Tulsa member to join her and a group of women friends walking the last 100 kilometers of the Camino de Santiago in Spain and continuing on to Provence, France in September 2023. She and I were both seeking a spiritual sojourn after losing our husbands -- hers to cancer and mine to a very painful divorce. I experienced this amazing journey with her and three other ITP women who include two of our remarkable ITP leaders -- Lucy Piper and Pam Kramer. You can’t ask for a more incredible introduction to ITP than to travel, walk, and have a transformative experience with these women! I joined our Tulsa group and the ITP community after I returned from that trip and have made lifelong friends and joined a local and worldwide community that means the world to me.
4. Within your practice, what insights have you experienced that have made the biggest impact in your daily life?
I’ve had an inherent understanding that everything/everyone is interconnected since I was a child, but being in the ITPI community has strengthened my perceptions related to that state of being and how together we can all move toward a future that embodies evolutionary love.
5. What ITP practice resource/exercise/quote has been most helpful in your transformative journey?
Participating in my weekly Tulsa Wednesday group is the most important part of my transformative journey. They are the best people in every way, and I especially love doing the Kata together!
6. Have you participated in any ITP programs and if so, what resources or teachings have benefited you most from the experience?
I participate weekly in our Tulsa Wednesday night community, and I’m in the current cohort engaging in the Ki of Cooperation training and doing the annual ITP challenge. (I also completed it last year.) I attended the Experiencing the Extraordinary conference, celebrating the 20th anniversary of ITPI at Esalen in September 2025, the Care and Feeding of the Soul workshop held in Tulsa, Oklahoma in April of 2025, and the Living Your Values Workshop held in Tulsa in April 2024. All of the exercises and activities we engaged in during our weekly meetings, the conference, the workshops, the training, and the challenge have been of tremendous value to me. But the Leonard Energy Training-related activities and the Kata exercises have been especially meaningful -- learning to be sensitive to my own physical presence in space and time, my energy in relationship to others’ energy, and feeling connection with the energy of the universe/ universal consciousness in an ongoing, unfolding journey of discovery. Being at Esalen together with fellow ITPI practitioners, founders, and leaders was such a tremendous gift! I also find sharing and discussion dyads to be such a wonderful experience for building rewarding relationships and deepening understanding of myself and others.
7. What is one affirmation you currently have/or had that has been particularly helpful in realizing your own extraordinary capacities?
Over the last several years, I had been experiencing deep loneliness after a divorce that left me shocked and reeling. Childhood trauma also contributed to a sense of overwhelming grief and abandonment. In spite of having a successful career and wonderful colleagues, a supportive family, and lots of amazing friends and being a part of caring communities, I longed for a life partner and wondered if I was destined to live the rest of my life alone. I worked with two affirmations over the past year related to my desire to have a special someone in my life. One that emerged from therapy --"I am worthy of love” -- and another expressing my hope for a new beginning --“I welcome a new romantic partnership I will cherish into my life.” I feel my affirmations helped me align my energy and being in the world such that I was able to meet my new love this last July. We both felt such an immediate connection -- like we had been waiting for each other our whole lives and finally met. He is a professional musician and brings a whole new world of music into my life that brings me joy every day! I’m still working with my third affirmation -- "I receive help, guidance, and comfort from source/universal consciousness.” This affirmation also has been transformational in my life this year. My next affirmation is going to be something about alignment, but I don’t have it crafted completely yet.
8. Do you have any favorite books, podcasts or newsletters that align with and support your practice? Please share with our community.
I’m currently reading two ITPI books I haven’t read until now -- The Silent Pulse and The Life We Are Given. Both are so compelling. I also just purchased Jeff Kripal’s history of Esalen (Esalen: America and the Religion of No Religion). I am looking forward to starting it. Another book I’m reading with a friend that I learned about in ITP is The First and Last Freedom by J. Krishnamurti.
I love the Krista Tippet podcast On Being. (It was an NPR show until recently. Check out the online archive.); the Luminous podcast and everything Brené Brown writes and podcasts. I’m a world-news junkie and read the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Atlantic Daily, and listen to National Public Radio daily as well. They all have a wide diversity of stories that support my practice. As a practicing scientist, I read a lot of science articles, which I think also supports my practice.
9. What ways have ITP and this practice supported your work/engagement in the larger community and world?
My work in my career and as a leader in my Unitarian church -- the largest in the country -- are very much focused on using collaboration to do good in the world through science, education, and service to others. The training I’m receiving in the Ki of Cooperation course; the deep conversations I experience during my weekly ITP group meetings; and the training sessions, workshops, and conferences I’ve attended help me fulfill my management and leadership roles with authenticity and integrity.
10. Any additional comments you would like to add about ITP?
I believe in the transformative potential of ITP and hope we can bring more people across the world into our community. It’s exciting to see all the science and other work that supports the value of ITP for personal transformation and for moving humanity forward, as presented by Michael Murphy, Jeff Kripal, Michael Lifshitz, Robert Nadeau, Teja Bell, and all the other amazing leaders at the ITPI anniversary conference.