Team
Our Team
Director/Co-Founder
Ashlei Laing
Ashlei’s background is in art & design, conservation, community development, permaculture, regenerative agriculture and sustainable food systems. She completed her MA in Applied Community-Based Conservation at Future Generations University in 2014, where she was a Peace Corps Coverdell Scholar. She also holds a BA in Studio Art-Ceramics & Education from the University of New Hampshire, a degree in Interior Design from Wentworth Institute of Technology, and a Teacher Certification from the Bulgarian Ministry of Education. From 2010-2012, Ashlei was a Peace Corps volunteer based Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria, where she focused on educational development, teachers’ leadership and women’s empowerment activities. Ashlei has teaching, facilitation and research experience in the US, Western Europe, Eastern Europe and South Asia. In addition to her mother tongue of English, Ashlei is proficient in Italian, Bulgarian and Spanish.
Programming Partner Consultants
Founder - Collective Wisdoms
Kristine Marie Hill
Member of the Beaver Clan, Tuscarora Nation, Haudenosaunee Confederacy, now living on the Eastern Door of the Confederacy (the Hudson Valley, NY).
Proud mother of four, grandmother, and a queer partner.
Circle keeper, Circle Weaver, and a Story Crafter
Responding to invitations, Kristine is bringing indigenous peacemaking to restorative practices. In the process, she is holding open big space, shaping institutions, and creating the relationships necessary for the emergence of strong alliances between cultures and peoples for social structures that can enable harmonious futures. Alongside colleagues at the Ahimsa Collective and other restorative justice networks, she works to prevent and address harms ocurring within significant institutions of higher education, international spiritual communities, legal networks and other institutions. A dedicated fire-keeper, she is keen on reMembering the plant ceremonies and practices of her people, known as People of the Hemp. She primarily works with groups, organizations, and networks; she is also available for speaking and select coaching.
Founder - Empower With Nature
Maya Galimidi
Maya Galimidi is the founder of Empower with Nature, a transdisciplinary education and project management NGO. She is an International Ambassador for the Global Ecovillage Network. Maya is studying for an MA in Ecology and Spirituality at the University of Wales, Trinity Saint David. She took a double major in Public Relations and Management of Performing Arts at Istanbul Bilgi University. After graduating, Maya worked in London, New York City, Istanbul, and the Negev Desert. For the last fifteen years, she has designed and produced international conferences in thirty different countries for the Wall Street Capital Markets, Healthcare, Human Resources, Marketing, Digitalisation, Copper and Government sectors; worked with politicians such as George W. Bush and Collin Powell. Maya obtained her Permaculture Design Certificate at Kibbutz Lotan. She worked as the Global Business Developer for Kibbutz Lotan Center for Creative Ecology and created eco-tourism, eco-peacebuilding and eco-school projects in the Middle East and Brazil. She is a climate action mentor at Techcamp under the US Department of States. Her teaching experience about ecology and purpose, connecting with nature and observing the relationship between people and nature inspired her to establish Empower with Nature.