TEAM

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Shawn Stevens is an enrolled member of the Stockbridge Munsee Band of Mohicans, whose ancestral homelands are the Berkshires, including the entire Hudson Valley.

Shawn is a Native American cultural educator, artist, musician, and ceremonial helper, drawing on experience from living a Native American spiritual way of life. Apart from his beautiful artwork, which can be found in all 50 states and 14 countries, he is also a traditional Native American storyteller, drummer, dancer, singer, and flute player. Shawn is an ordained minister of the Universal Church of Light and a certified facilitator of White Bison’s Mending Broken Hearts.

Cheryl Demmert Fairbanks, Esq. supports AVF through a collaboration with the Life Comes From It Foundation. She is Tlingit-Tsimshian and was born in Ketchikan, Alaska.

Cheryl works in the area of Indian law as an attorney and tribal court of appeals justice. Currently she is the Interim Executive Director of the UNM Native American Budget and Policy Institute. She recently was in Oregon serving as the Walter R. Echo-Hawk Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law at Lewis and Clark; and also she was a visiting Professor of Law at the University of New Mexico’s Southwest Indian Law Clinic.  Formerly a Partner at Cuddy McCarthy LLP, she had a general practice in Indian law, including tribal-state relations, personnel, tribal courts, peacemaking and family conferencing, mediation, family, school, education, and indigenous law.

Kristine Marie Hill is a member of the Beaver Clan, Tuscarora nation, Haudenosaunee Confederacy. 

As part of her lineage within the Confederacy, she takes her responsibility of peacekeeping and respecting the land and waterways of her peoples seriously. She has been practicing indigenous peacekeeping for over 25 years in the context of the educational and familial systems of her home community on the Tuscarora reservation, serving the next generation’s re-acquisition of their language, traditions, and ceremonies.  She is the proud mother of four adult children and six grandchildren, several of whom are speaking the Tuscarora language that her grandmother was forced to forget in the Carlisle boarding school. After over 20 years working in K-12 education systems as an educator, an accountant and auditor, in the past two years, she has followed openings to share practices of peacekeeping beyond her home community and into the larger historical waterways of the Haudenosaunee and beyond.  

Sara Jolena Wolcott, M.Div, is a descendent of some of Founding Fathers of the United States of America.

She is now building people's capacity to collectively reMember our ecological familial, national and global origin stories to enable more harmonious futures. An ecotheologian and unconventional minister, she is the founder of Sequoia Samanvaya, a healer, a ceremonialist, and a Legacy Advisor with Innovation 4.4. Her formal education includes an MA in international development from the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, UK;  and a Masters of Divinity (M.Div.) at Union Theological Seminary. Her international speaking engagements have brought her to 10 countries and she has spoken in over 16 U.S. states. She currently lives on the historical homeland of the Mohigan/Mahican people in the Hudson Valley.

ADVISORS

Grandmother Margaret Behan sits on AVF’s Northeast Indigenous Climate Council. She is a Native American woman—Southern Arapaho-Cheyenne on her mother’s side and Northern Arapahoe/Northern Cheyenne on her father’s side—and a fourth generation descendant of an ancestor who was a survivor of the Sand Creek Massacre. Behan is the founder of the Cheyenne Elders Council, a group of native healers and teachers, and a former member of the International Council of 13 Grandmothers.

Chief Jake Singer serves as AVF’s spiritual advisor and sits on the Northeast Indigenous Climate Council. He is a Dine Navajo Medicine Man, Sun Dance Chief, Ceremonial Leader and decorated Vietnam Veteran. He conducts many traditional ceremonies for his community and has been working for twenty-plus years on bringing awareness to support Native American Veterans, as the Commander of Walk with the Warriors, an advocacy and education organization for Native American Veterans. In that role, he walked across the entire continental United States and has held traditional ceremonies in Washington DC to bring awareness to this issue. Currently, there is a bill in the House, proposed by the first Native American Secretary of the Interior, Deb Holland, to officially establish November 7th as a Federally-recognized Native American Veteran’s Day holiday. Jake is also Lev Natan’s adopted grandfather.

The Honorable Robert Yazzie sits on AVF’s Northeast Indigenous Climate Council and supports AVF through a collaboration with the Life Comes From It Foundation. He served as the Chief Justice of the Navajo Nation from 1992 through 2003. He practiced law in the Navajo Nation for 16 years, and was a district judge for eight years. He is now teaching Navajo Law at the Navajo Technical University. He was the Director of the Diné Policy Institute of Diné College (Navajo Nation), developing policy using authentic Navajo thinking. He is the author of articles and book chapters on many subjects, including Navajo peacemaking, traditional Indian law, and international human rights law. He is a visiting professor at the University of New Mexico School of Law, an adjunct professor of the Department of Criminal Justice of Northern Arizona University and a visiting member of the faculty of the National Judicial College. He recently taught Navajo law at the Crownpoint Institute of Technology. Chief Justice Yazzie continues a career devoted to education in formal participation in faculties, lectures and discussions of traditional indigenous law at various venues throughout the world. He has a global audience and he has frequently visited foreign lands to share his wisdom about traditional indigenous justice and governance.

Michael Foster, Ed.D., M.P.H.

Dedicated to advancing equity through empowerment evaluation, throughout his career, Michael Foster, Ed.D., M.P.H., has worked on efforts to empower individuals from marginalized communities. He has worked for more than a decade as a consultant at the Leadership Institute at the Santa Fe Indian School in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The overarching goal of the Leadership Institute is to build leadership capacity within and across Native American communities throughout New Mexico. Through this work, Dr. Foster has contributed his expertise in program evaluation and curriculum development.

Susan Jameson - Event Coordinator

Susan is a passionate interfaith minister who has dedicated the last four decades to the pursuit of awakening through multiple faith traditions including the non-dual path of A Course in Miracles. She is the Founder of Humanity in Concert and has served as co-founder and co-director of Healing winds, a not for profit organization which focused on Native American teachings, education, culture and healing traditions, and was the producer of the Rock, Rattle & Drum Pow Wow which was a well loved, signature event of the Berkshires for more than a decade.

Diana Chaplin - Communications Advisor

Diana brings over 15 years of experience in marketing and communications strategy in both nonprofit and startup organizations with a distinct passion for sustainability, regenerative leadership, and storytelling. Most notably her recent experience includes being the Marketing Director at global reforestation nonprofit One Tree Planted, establishing the organization as a media-savvy environmental brand and growing a robust internal team as the organization funded the planting of over 40 million trees. She oversaw content throughout all web, email, social media, and custom distribution channels, and developed key marketing and communication strategies across audiences that range from one-time donors to large-scale businesses seeking to fulfill sustainability goals. In addition to marketing, Diana's experience includes fundraising, publishing, wellness, and leadership development through the lens of emotional intelligence after working directly with bestselling author and executive leadership expert Daniel Goleman. Through her work, Diana seeks to develop and promote restorative leadership competencies that can lead to a more conscious, connected, and sustainable world.

Yonah Sadeh, Podcast and Video Producer

Yonah Sadeh is an 18 year old filmmaker, drone pilot and producer from northwest Connecticut. A student at Bard Academy at Simon’s Rock, Yonah has been making films since a young age. He has created promotional content for local businesses and non-profits, filmed several weddings, engineered podcasts, and made multiple short films. His most recent film, PLUTO was a finalist in the young filmmaker category of “My RØDE Reel”, the worlds largest short film competition.When he isn't making films, flying drones or producing podcasts, Yonah likes to bike, box, and spend time with his friends and family. Through film and media work Yonah hopes to spread knowledge and joy, and bring attention to social issues. You can check out Yonah’s work at birdseyeviewfilms.org

Emily Costello - Social Media Manager & Content Creator

Emily brings a passion for sustainability and making the world a better place to every aspect of her work. Her most recent experience includes working with thought-leaders and companies advocating for diversity and ESG standards in the communications and consumer packaged goods industries where she designed social media strategies and creative photos and videos in addition to handling all community management to foster support around the brands' mission. Social media is just one of her many interests as a jack-of-all-trades that loves ecology, mycology, volunteering, mental wellness, art, photography, music, and anything science-fiction related. Above all, Emily believes in creating safe spaces for all to collaborate and be their authentic self.

Michael Johnson - Community Engagement, Training, and Strategy

Michael is a seasoned peace builder who draws on many years as a yoga practitioner for inspiration and inner tranquility. He has inspired people to take positive actions for peace through his writing, personal coaching, public speaking, documentaries, national and local media interviews and community events. 

For many decades, Michael has used his creative talents to create documentaries on social issues and global peace initiatives, including the United Nations International Day of Peace

Lev Natan, MA | Founder & Executive Director

Lev Natan founded the Alliance for a Viable Future in 2018 to develop leadership for breakthrough climate solutions and intercultural peacemaking through programs and consulting in organizations, businesses and communities.  Since 2010, Lev has been catalyzing breakthroughs for changemakers, as a leadership coach, organizational consultant, men’s group facilitator, & sound healer.  He holds an MA in Organizational Leadership. 

Lev is also certified as an Integrative Sound and Music Practitioner and Empowerment Life Coach; and walks a path guided by wisdom teachings from his heritage in Jewish mysticism and the indigenous ceremonial way of life. He pours sweat lodges in the Southern Ute tradition of his adopted grandfather, Jake Singer, who is a Navajo Medicine Man. He also vision quests, Sundances and is a pipe-carrier in the Lakota tradition.

He is also a proud husband and father, and lives with his family in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts.

Ryan Nelling - Photography | ryan.m.nelling@gmail.com
Dawn Kasper - Photography & Video Editing | dawnkasper@gmail.com