Paul Abodeely, B.A., has been working with youth in schools, social service settings, and the outdoors for over 15 years. An apprentice in the Rites of Passage guide training program, he has led programs with Rites of Passage and with related organizations. Paul is skilled at supporting and empowering young people as they face the challenges of becoming healthy and successful adults. He brings authenticity, joy and wholeness, in addition to a deep familiarity and ease with the natural world, to his work with young people.
Tom Anderson is a husband, father of two, and successful business man whose mission is to be a voice for purpose in the world. A life-long camper, hiker, and lover of the outdoors, he first quested in 2006 with Rites of Passage and has since participated in our training and apprenticeship programs. His personal experience inspired him to create new avenues to bring the concepts of the vision quest to an even wider audience. He now works with business and non-profit organizations using the vision quest model to uncover purpose and meaning in individuals and groups. Tom's role is to help those who are beginning to feel the call of their soul to understand its meaning and message and then to guide them to a place where they can begin to live a life that is purposeful and passionate. Tom believes that in living our deepest purpose, we not only serve ourselves, but we serve the world as well.
Phil Baum is a Navy Korean War era veteran who served as the TRIO Program Director/Coordinator/Counselor at Palomar Community College, where he worked with a variety of students from a multitude of backgrounds, including veterans who fought in the Viet Nam and Iraq wars. Phil trained as a vision quest guide at the School of Lost Borders.
Michael Bodkin , M.S., MFT, is a psychotherapist and wilderness guide who has directed the work of Rites of Passage for over 25 years. His passion is leading people to the mirror of nature to discover the gifts of their soul. He directs the guide training programs for Rites of Passage and has led Vision Quests and trainings in places as diverse as South Korea and Australia. He's also a strong voice for men's soul work, having guided men on the Men's Vision Quest for over 20 years. Michael lives with his wife Renée in intentional community near Santa Rosa, CA where he grows organic vegetables and plays bluegrass guitar and dobro.
Robert Boyle, Ph.D., vision quested, trained and apprenticed with Rites of Passage with our work in Australia. Robert is Senior lecturer at the College of Complementary Medicine in Hornsby, NSW. A shamanic practitioner, sweat lodge leader, transpersonal art therapist, artist and group leader with over 25 years experience in personal and professional development, he brings compassion, humor and deep insight to his work as a guide.
Dana Carman is an expert in human and organizational transformation. Since 1984 Dana has worked as a senior advisor, consultant and executive coach to leaders of more than 200 visionary organizations on five continents. Dana studied Environmental Education at The University of Vermont, Business at San Francisco State University and The Center for Management Design. He is a certified consultant in Polarity Management, Spiral Dynamics, the Leadership Development Profile, Holocracy and Overcoming your Immunity to Change. He has also trained with the Rites of Passage guide training program.
Kaysie Dannemiller, M.S. began working in the wilderness nearly 20 years ago after a river trip in the Grand Canyon that transformed her life. She began by taking a group of troubled youth from Detroit to Northern Michigan and Canada for backpacking, climbing, canoeing, and therapy. She has since worked with a variety of adventure and wilderness based programs. She has apprenticed with Outdoor Leadership Training Seminars, earned a Masters degree in Ecopsychology where she focused on nature as a place of healing for people with life-threatening illness, and trained as a guide with the School of Lost Borders . She has worked extensively with programs that bring women and girls into the wilderness, including work with GirlVentures, Women’s Wilderness Institute, and the School of the Living Springs. She is also certified as a Wilderness First Responder. Kaysie believes that Nature is the place where we deeply connect with our essential selves and from this we find purpose and joy.
Vicki Dean vision quested, trained and apprenticed with Rites of Passage with our work in Australia. She is Principal and Senior Lecturer at the College of Complementary Medicine in Hornsby, NSW. She is a shamanic practitioner, a transpersonal art therapist who developed a diploma program for Mask and Traditional Healing, a sweat lodge leader, and an experienced group facilitator. Vicki is an deeply perceptive and compassionate counselor as well as a visionary artist, and she brings these gifts to her work as a guide.
Alison DeLong received her Master of Arts in Eco-psychology, a field of psychology that acknowledges one's relationship with nature as an integral component to well-being. During her studies she apprenticed with Anne Stine of Wilderness Rites and began leading quests in 2002. A native of Yosemite National Park, Alison has spent the past 14 years sharing with youth, adult and family groups the challenge, healing and joy evoked by the wilderness. She brings a passionate and joyous approach to wilderness rites of passage, weaving in diverse strands of her professional history in environmental education, communication, psychology, yoga and massage therapy. Alison is especially passionate in assisting teens and their families to succeed in healthy transitions to adulthood.
Damien McAnany has a passion for bringing healing both to people and to the land. He received his M.S. in Environmental Education from the Audubon Expedition Institute, a traveling, experiential program in transformative education, and has completed an intensive training program with Rites of Passage. Damien has been leading people on mountaineering and backpacking trips since 2000, with Outward Bound and Rites of Passage. His gifts include a strong Buddhist meditation practice, an ecstasy for wild places, and a love for helping young people discover their life path.
Doug Paxton, MBA, Ph.D. is a learner, educator, writer, and artist who is passionate about how we learn from our own experience and connect to the people and places around us. He currently teaches in the area of Values, Leadership and Sustainable Organizational Change at Saint Mary’s College of California. Having completed the Rites of Passage Guide Training Program, Doug brings his extensive experience with teaching and facilitation in support of people who wish to discover their inner gifts on the Vision Quest.
Renee Sweezey first vision quested with Steven Foster and Meredith Little in 1982 when they were still the co-directors of Rites of Passage. She found the experience life altering and profoundly affirming. Since then, she has been an advocate and supporter of the work, by serving both as a staff person and board member with Rites of Passage for over 20 years. Renee honors and holds with deep regard those who feel called to this journey, leaving what is familiar to go into the sacred wilderness of the world and of oneself. She sees herself as lovingly assisting the work, and it is in this capacity that she brings her gifts of open heart, quiet courage and gentle presence to serve both participants and guides in helping create unique and vibrant community in the field. Married to Mike Bodkin, the Executive Director of Rites of Passage, Renee lives in a rural intentional community in Northern California.
Linda Sartor holds a Ph.D. in Integral Studies and an M.S. in environmental education, and is a faculty member at two graduate institutions. She has been leading wilderness trips for more than 15 years and has led Vision Quest programs for 10 years, having trained with Rites of Passage and the School of Lost Borders. When she is not in the wilderness, Linda is teaching research methods and supervises thesis/dissertation work. Linda has also been spending about half of her time in Sri Lanka as part of the Nonviolent Peace Force, a group of 18 internationals chosen to provide a protective presence to support civil society and to establish and maintain peace and justice. With a passion for collaboration, Linda works toward facilitating groups with the intention that each individual member bring forth his/her own contribution in service of the group's purpose as well as having the group support its individuals in their unique purposes.
Munro Sickafooseis a husband, father, whitewater river guide, and ceremonial leader. He has been deeply involved with indigenous earth–based ceremonies for many years, trained as a vision quest guide at the School of Lost Borders, and has been leading groups and individuals in the wild since 1996. He is also a facilitator in the Way of Council, having trained at the Ojai Foundation. One of the founders of a men’s community in Portland, Oregon, Munro currently serves as the Netkeeper for the Wilderness Guides Council, an international organization of rites of passage guides. With his wife, Susanna, he teaches couples to use Council for sacred relationship communication.
