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Valerie Brown (Inder Kaur) ) is a member of Solebury Monthly Meeting (PA). She is a certified teacher of Kundalini yoga and mindfulness meditation, trained in holistic spirituality, and a founding member of Old Path Sangha, a Buddhist community in New Hope (PA). She was ordained by Thich Nhat Hanh in 2003 as a lay member of the Tien Hiep Order. Valerie authored the Pendle Hill pamphlet The Mindful Quaker: A Brief Introduction to Buddhist Wisdom for Friends (October 2006).
Laura Jackson is a graduate of The Practical Farm Training Program at The Farm School in Athol, Massachusetts. In 2007 she joined the staff at Snipes Farm in Bucks County, Pennsylvania as a farmer and program manager; she also oversees their Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. Early in her life, she was a farmer’s wife. She earned a B.A. from Hollins University and an M.A. from Virginia Tech. In 1980, she spent a sabbatical year at Harvard Divinity School. Before leaving for farm school, Laura worked for twenty years as an independent documentary producer in Philadelphia. She has taught at George School, Swarthmore College, and the University of the Arts.
Laura Magnani is Assistant Regional Director for Justice for the American Friends Service Committee, Pacific Mountain Region and a member of Berkeley Friends Meeting (CA). Since the 1970s she has worked mainly in criminal justice, including extensive organizing against the death penalty. From 1971 to 1979 she was the lobbyist for the Friends Committee on Legislation in Sacramento (CA), working on issues including equal rights, housing, criminal justice, and militarism. She is author of America’s First Penitentiary: A Two Hundred Year Old Failure (1990) and Beyond Prisons: A New Interfaith Paradigm for Our Failed Prison System (2006).
Marcelle Martin is a Pendle Hill core teacher.
She is a member of Chestnut Hill Meeting (PA), which minuted her ministry of spiritual nurture: to support individuals and meetings in becoming more aware of God’s Presence active in each person and the world. She has participated in several Quaker experiments in spiritual community, including the Fairhill Friends Ministry in North Philadelphia , and completed both the School of the Spirit's program in Contemplative Living and Prayer and the Shalem program in Spiritual Guidance. The author of two Pendle Hill pamphlets, , Invitation to a Deeper Communion (June 2003) and Holding One Another in the Light (February 2006,. Marcelle is researching and writing about women with a leading to prophetic ministry.
Will O’Brien is founder and coordinator of The Alternative Seminary, a grassroots program of biblical and theological study in Philadelphia. For many years he worked on the editorial staff of The Other Side, an independent progressive Christian magazine. He also works with Project H.O.M.E., a nationally recognized nonprofit organization which provides solutions to homelessness and poverty in Philadelphia. For over twenty years he has been an advocate on issues of homelessness and poverty.
Carol Sexton is Pendle Hill’s core teacher in Arts and Spirituality, led to a ministry of encouraging creative growth and expression in others. She has expertise in many art forms and a passion for sculpting in clay, plaster, wood, and stone. Carol has worked as an art teacher, freelance artist, retreat and workshop facilitator, campus minister, and spiritual director. She earned graduate and undergraduate degrees in art education and fine arts and a M.Div. from the Earlham School of Religion. She completed the Shalem Spiritual Guidance program and is a member of Clear Creek Meeting in Richmond (IN).
Walter Hjelt Sullivan is a member of Santa Cruz Meeting (CA). In September 2006, he joined the Pendle Hill staff as a teacher and spiritual nurturer, and now serves as Dean of Students for the Resident Program. For fourteen years he was Co-Director of the Ben Lomond Quaker Center. His personal interests are to nurture vital Friends Meetings and explore the role of the body in knowing the Divine. He is a certified practitioner and instructor of Breema and Self-Breema® bodywork, and a graduate in Religion of Haverford College.
®Breema is the service mark of the Breema Center
