We wish to honor the four co-founders of Women of Spirit and Faith — Reverend Guo Cheen, Kathleen Hurty, Kay Lindahl and Kathe Schaaf who came together at the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Melbourne in 2009 with a shared passion and a deep curiosity about women’s spiritual leadership. After several years of working collaboratively as a vital part of the leadership circle, Reverend Cheen and Kathleen Hurty have moved on to pursue other passions. We miss them both and carry their wisdom always at the very heart of this organization.
The current Core Circle serves as the Board of Directors for the non-profit corporation and provides collaborative leadership for the organization.
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Alison Fast is a Los Angeles-based, media consultant and storyteller who supports people and communities to tell their own stories. Since 2006, she has designed and led filmmaking and photography workshops across the United States, Africa and the Middle East in the context of health, human rights, gender equality and democracy building. Presently, she is bringing circle work to small towns in the rural South with a focus on cultural and economic renewal. Her leadership with the WSF Core Circle has grown since 2012 to include participation in the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW), Parliament of World’s Religions and frequent interfaith retreats with women of diverse faiths. Alison’s spirituality finds expression in the mystical aspects of daily life. Her practice includes contemplative prayer, respect for life, compassion and community.
Anne Fitzgerald, founder of ~Spirit at Work Globally~, serves as spiritual midwife and guide to successful women who are feeling called to contribute globally. She uses an intuitive approach with her keen listening skills as well as her thirty years of expertise as organizational consultant and executive leadership coach to assist women in identifying where their passion and purpose might make a global impact. She will speak more easily of what she has learned from the women of Iraq and Kenya than of what she has contributed as a speaker and facilitator at global women’s conferences. Her commitment is to the empowered-ness of women particularly through IPI-International Peace Initiatives. She has been called to be a guardian of the Water, and is listening to the wisdom of the Earth shared by indigenous traditions. Best known for her design and facilitation skills she was on the planning team for WSF’s Alchemy II and is committed to honoring the wisdom of each woman, and designing circle processes that allow each woman’s contribution to become part of an illuminated pattern. Anne lives in Waltham, MA.
Kay Lindahl is the founder of The Listening Center and is recognized as an inspiring teacher and spiritual guide to people of all religious backgrounds. She conducts workshops and retreats around the world on the sacred art of listening for religious, spiritual, educational, health services, community, and business groups. She is a Certified Listening Professional. Kay is a dedicated spokesperson for the interfaith movement and serves on the Board of Directors for The Rumi Educational Center, The Interfaith Observer and Women of Spirit and Faith. She is a past trustee for the Global Council of the United Religions Initiative, former chair of the North American Interfaith Network, an Ambassador for the Parliament of the World’s Religions and an Honorary Canon to the Cathedral Center of St. Paul in the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles. Kay is the author of The Sacred Art of Listening, Practicing the Sacred Art of Listening, and a children’s book, How Does God Listen, all published by SkyLight Paths Publishing.
Mohini Moore is on the Board of Directors of the Morningstar Foundation, a non-profit whose mission is to preserve and support traditional indigenous cultures, to protect sacred sites, and to educate the community, with a special emphasis on elders, the youth and women. She is employed at Sony Pictures Entertainment supporting the company’s mobile technology services, where she enjoys the combination of quickly evolving technology and assisting people with their wireless communication needs. Mohini studied theatre, film and photography at Santa Monica College, and still finds much of her inspiration through the arts. She sees the incredible benefit of spirit in people’s lives and has a great desire to connect with people on that level, in order to develop compassion, understanding and unity. Mohini was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, relocated to Venice, California as a teen and continues to call Los Angeles, California home, with her partner Joseph Mundy.
Laura Paskell-Brown began the journey back to her own wisdom a decade ago, when she entered an addiction recovery program and realized that 23 years in formal education had not equipped her for life. A former birth doula, she currently runs workshops and retreats to help women step into feminine spiritual leadership through circle, embodiment practices, ancestral work and tracking their menstrual cycle. A native Brit, she lives in the woods of Massachusetts with her boyfriend, two dogs and six chickens. You can find her at doulaforyoursoul.com or follow her on Instagram at @doulaforyoursoul.
Kathe Schaaf is one of the co-founders of Gather the Women Global Matrix and has anchored numerous ‘collaborative conversations’ connecting women and women’s organizations internationally in the past decade. Her collaborations include several international Gather the Women Congresses, a series of trans-partisan dialogues for women and Constellations of Hope in November 2008, which brought together representatives of 40 North American women’s organizations. Kathe is a co-founder of Women of Spirit and Faith, where she currently serves on the Core Circle. She served as a Trustee of the Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions and co-founded their Women’s Task Force in 2014. Kathe was an editor and contributing author for Women, Spirituality and Transformative Leadership: Where Grace Meets Power which was published by SkyLight Paths in November 2011. She is also an artist who enjoys painting and poetry