Ask a Cosmologist

Jennifer Morgan, president and founder of the Deeptime Network, is an award-winning author, storyteller, and educator inspired by the work of Teilhard de Chardin, Maria Montessori, Thomas Berry, and Brian Swimme. Her Universe Story Trilogy — Born With a Bang, From Lava to Life, and Mammals Who Morph — are used in classrooms around the world, particularly in Montessori schools as part of the Cosmic Education Curriculum, and have received the Teachers Choice Award, Nautilus Semi Finalist, highest ratings from AAAS and endorsements from Jane Goodall, Neil de Grasse Tyson, astronaut Edgar Mitchell, Thomas Berry, Brian Swimme and others. She is Vice President of the American Teilhard Association. Her life inspiration is to foster emergence by helping to link a planetary nervous system of people immersed in this radical new understanding.

Stephan Martin is an astronomer, educator, and author who has taught astronomy, physics, and consciousness studies at colleges, universities, and learning centers across the US for over twenty-five years. Between 2003-2008 he studied directly with Brian Swimme and others at the California Institute of Integral Studies, out of which came his first book Cosmic Conversations, in which he held dialogues with scientists, spiritual teachers, and cultural creatives on the nature of the universe and our role in it. Since then he has led workshops on the New Cosmology at seminars and retreat centers across the US and Europe and has been active in exploring multidisciplinary approaches to exploring the universe. He is currently adjunct faculty in the Consciousness and Transformative Studies graduate program at John F Kennedy University where he teaches a course on “Cosmology and Consciousness.” Steve is also a co-director of the continuing care program at the Center for Spiritual Emergence in Asheville, NC where he assists clients in living more conscious lives from an expansive perspective.

Brian Thomas Swimme is director of the Third Story at the Human Energy Project, which seeks to disseminate the cosmology of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. He is professor emeritus at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco. A specialist in gravitational dynamics, his work for many years has been to bring the context of story to our understanding of the 13.8 billion year trajectory of the universe. Such a story, he feels, will assist in the emergence of a flourishing Earth community. He is the author of several well known and influential books and is co-author with Thomas Berry on The Universe Story and with Mary Evelyn Tucker on the award-winning book and film Journey of the Universe. His latest book is Cosmogenesis.

Penny Andrews, D.Min, MA, has had a lifelong interest in spirituality, creativity and consciousness as paths to intuition and deeper knowing. This passion led to the study of forms of art as meditation at the University of Creation Spirituality. She is an ordained interfaith minister, and during her career as a hospital chaplain applied a variety of healing modalities in her work with patients and family caregivers of all spiritual backgrounds. A retreat leader and Earth activist, Penny been actively involved in Creation Spirituality, The Work that Reconnects, the Earth Charter and DeepTime studies. Currently, she guides a weekly Work that Reconnects meditation, offers a monthly webinar with Gail Ransom called Creation in Crisis, serves on the board of directors of Creation Spirituality Communities, is a regular speaker at a local Unitarian Universalist congregation, and provides spiritual companioning for others. She is co-creating a food forest on the drumlin in Wisconsin where she has lived for 30 years. She’s a certified Deeptime Leader with the Deeptime Network.

Lisa Verni, LCSW, is a seasoned psychotherapist, deeptime consultant, writer, artist, and dancer who loves helping people live their authentic lives through alignment with the Universe. Stephan Martin sees her as a ‘cosmic lamplighter’ because of her particular gift of reflecting back people’s radiant energy to develop their allurements. Lisa holds degrees in Business/Marketing and Clinical Social Work from NYU, and is a Certified Deeptime Leader. In completing her Emergence Project, Lisa created an artistic and therapeutic offering called “Dancing with the Pain”. It is meant to inspire hope and understanding through the embodiment and expression of a Deeptime Perspective. It can be found at www.dancingwiththepain.org. Lisa lectures on topics such as ‘Applying A Deeptime Perspective to Psychotherapy’ and ‘On Creative Process’, and will be joining us throughout the program to share her Emergences. Please feel free to contact her directly at [email protected] for mentoring and Deeptime Conversation.

Gerardo López-Amaro joins us from Mexico where he engages in activist scholarship around Buen Vivir, ecopedagogies and practices of re-existence. He explores ways to highlight the experiments to co-create viable alternatives to the current system and address the global challenges of our times. He is a PhD candidate in Anthropology and Social Change by the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) of San Francisco, where he wonders about the possibilities for the emergence of the pluriverse even in dense liberal societies learning with grassroots movements. He is also part of the Steering Committee of the Ecoversities Alliance.

Orla Hazra, PhD currently lives in Sarasota Florida after recently returning from ten years in Mumbai, India. While in India she developed a curriculum to renew the Ignatian (Jesuit) Pedagogical Paradigm, applying it at St. Xavier’s College and at Tarumitra, an ecoliteracy center in Patna. Her academic formation in recreation leadership, addiction counseling, and spiritual direction, led her into a PhD program in Religious Education, from Fordham University; her research becoming a model for educational reform considering the fourfold wisdom conversation suggested by Thomas Berry — science, religion, women and indigenous peoples. She is a founding board member of the Deeptime Network and is delighted to be witnessing the model in practice, healing our trauma of separation.

Kacey Amrita Carmichael, MA, MEd, sees the Universe unfolding as YOU! She delights in helping you experience this directly, through embodied creative and meditative arts. To this she brings the dynamic synergy of her experience as an expressive arts psychotherapist; ordained interfaith minister, ritual leader and spiritual counselor; Certified Deeptime Leader; Waldorf educator; mindful yoga and meditation teacher; mother; cosmos lover; and lifelong mystic, writer, and dancer. Grounded in her rigorous education at Harvard and Yale as well as decades of artistic and contemplative practices in several modalities and traditions, she’s known to help people enter into deep creativity and intuitive knowing. She works with individuals and groups, creating community and together celebrating the creative ecstasy of the 14 billion year brilliant beloved unfolding we are. She has some availability for expressive arts-based deeptime/spiritual counseling, movement and writing groups, or retreat, ritual and ceremony leadership at [email protected]. In the 90’s Kacey wrote a book called Going Direct, on the writing that emerges from the practice of Authentic Movement. In decades of practicing and teaching AM, she has developed this into a Deeptime Cosmogenesis practice.

Elena Pardo: Educator, cultural manager and promoter of intra- and intercultural education in urban and rural areas of the Cusco Region, Peru. She is director of CEPROSI and speaker at conferences, forums and events at regional, national and international levels. Promotes the Watunakuy (international seed event) that has been held for 19 years at the Raqchi Ceremonial Center, an international meeting for the exchange of collective healing and the exchange of seeds. He is a member of the Watunakuy Ayllu Network and the Ecoversities Network.

MARY CONROW COELHO has a background in both science and theology. She has an MDiv degree from Union Theological Seminary and a PhD from Fordham University. She is the author of Awakening Universe, Emerging Personhood: The Power of Contemplation in an Evolving Universe. She has been a watercolor painter for many years. She has been a member of the Steering Committee of the Friends Committee on Unity with Nature, is on the board of The American Teilhard Association and founder with others of the New Story Group at Friends Meeting at Cambridge and a similar group in New York City. She has led a number of workshops on the integration of the epic of evolution and the Western contemplative/mystical tradition. She brings her theological studies, her background in science as a biology teacher and her excitement about our transformed worldview to her work as a water painter of images evoking the new cosmology. A few of her paintings and some accordion books are on her website: http://newuniversestory.com. Mrs. Coelho is a signature member of the Northeast Watercolor Society, exhibiting her paintings in the northeast.

Sarbmeet Kanwal, PhD is an award-winning educator and a pioneer in novel ways of teaching quantum physics and astronomy. He holds a PhD in Theoretical Physics from the California Institute of Technology. His aptitude for explaining intricate scientific concepts in everyday language, has made him a sought after speaker among both science and non-science communities. He recently gave a TEDx talk on our new cosmic story, titled “Chaos to Cosmos”. Sarbmeet is a follower of the Sikh religion and a long time board member of the Monmouth Center for World Religions and Ethical Thought where he helped initiate several interfaith projects including the cofounding of an award winning youth leadership program called MOSAIC. In the last two years he has assisted with instruction for Deeptime Network courses.

Ezekiel Fugate is the co-founding director of Deep Belonging (Deep Belonging),an educational platform dedicated to catalyzing the transformation of human consciousness. He is also a doctoral candidate in the Philosophy Cosmology and Consciousness program at CIIS where his research focuses on Autocosmology and Cosmogenetic Experience.

Anthony Robert Zelle, Esq., Tony is an Earth lawyer. While serving as Chair and President of the Earth Law Center, following 30 years in private practice trying cases and arguing appeals, he served as lead editor and author of the only comprehensive book on the subject: Earth Law: Emerging Ecocentric Law-A Guide for Practitioners. Developed for law school curricula, and now part of developing LLM programs internationally, the book has also become the primary reference source for practitioners.

The focus of Tony's current work is developing Earth law in practice and creating revenue-generating opportunities for Earth lawyers.

Learn more about Tony’s journey from a recent Boston College Law School Magazine profile.https://lawmagazine.bc.edu/2025/02/voice-for-the-earth/

Maisie Paddon, Maisie is spearheading the advancement of Earth Law by integrating its principles into transformative policies and business strategies that resonate with Earth-centric practices and Nature's patterns. At the helm of Project 2040, she seeks to revolutionize financial systems, foster circular economies, and develop regenerative food systems. Her extensive experience in top-tier management consulting, with roles at Ernst & Young and Capgemini, showcases her ability to lead complex innovation programs and engage with C-suite leaders. With a solid foundation in Philosophy and Climate Science, Maisie is deeply committed to beneficial systemic change. She champions the inclusion of Nature's voice in discussions that tackle the multifaceted crises of today's modern world, while aligning her efforts with global frameworks like UN SDGs, ESG principles, and ISO standards. Her holistic and emotionally intelligent approach underscores her pursuit of sustainable and equitable solutions.

Kerry Hudson, Hudson works as an activist and public interest lawyer with a focus on social justice, and an academic and employment history addressing heirs' property reform and protections of the Florida aquifer. He served as co-founder and manager for a medical practice that focused on Environmentally Acquired Diseases, and the effects of that most macro of human phenomenon—climate change, on the most granular, personal issues—individual health and the chronic and intractable maladies brought on by changing climate. He has served as Education Director for Rights of Nature and eco-centric education, creating informational content addressing topics such as environmental protections and property law, and the Public Trust Doctrine, and creating supplemental educational content for the law school textbook Earth Law: A Practitioner’s Guide. He holds an MFA in writing, has a publication history with both fiction and non-fiction, and has authored funded grants examining strategies to mitigate generational heirs' property abuses. He holds a J.D. with a focus on Environmental Justice, social equity, and restorative justice and has created informational and educational content addressing the intersection of environmental and legal issues such as the one-percenters' climate change preparations. Currently based in London, He works on a long-form manuscript addressing the importance of property law, social justice, and the climate change crisis.

April Elizabeth Finlayson, April Elizabeth Finlayson is an “Edu-neer” dedicated to designing holistic and transformational learning experiences. She has a fervent commitment to reimagining education, promoting lifelong learning and creating uniquely curated, humanizing educational experiences for youth, and the young at heart. This has led to the development of nearly a dozen innovative schools and numerous educational programs in the K-12, after-school learning, adult development and Higher-Ed spaces.

April’s style of leadership and service is rooted in making space for learner voice, agency and empowerment. She believes that the best teaching and learning is reciprocal, interwoven and interchangeable. April asserts that “if a learner knows that they are seen, affirmed, “in-powered” and protected while learning, they will feel loved, and will henceforth thrive!”

April's students and graduates have gone on to international and national renown in philanthropy, entrepreneurship, professional athletics, entertainment, and being great, enjoyable people. April was cross culturally raised and educated between The Bahamas, the USA and Canada. She completed her undergraduate degree in International Development Studies, Political Science and Management from McGill University, and earned both her Master's Degree in Mind, Brain and Education and her Doctorate Degree in Education Leadership from Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Tara A. Pierce, Tara holds degrees in painting, the humanities, a J.D., and an LL.M. in Oceans, Environment, & Sustainability. This transdisciplinary background enriched her legal studies and contributed to the successful publication of several papers on Earth Law and Restorative Ocean Farming. Her latest thesis synthesised her entire academic and hands-on experiences into an approach to transforming the law into a healing practice. Tara regularly guest lectures on Ocean & Coastal Law developments for various institutions in the United States and Europe.

Cat Haas, Cat Haas is the Director of the Eco Jurisprudence Monitor (EJM), where she oversees the research and development of the world’s most comprehensive database of ecological jurisprudence initiatives globally. Since 2022, she has led efforts to document and analyze the global evolution of Earth-centered law, with a particular focus on the Rights of Nature movement, ecological law, and Indigenous ontologies. Cat holds an M.A. in Global Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where her research explored the influence of Indigenous cosmologies and pluriversal ontologies on the development and globalization of the Rights of Nature movement.
She also serves on the Steering Committee of the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature (GARN) Academic Hub, an interdisciplinary network of scholars specializing in ecological law and governance.
With a background in environmental education, Cat is passionate about fostering awareness and advocacy for sustainable, equitable legal frameworks that address the climate crisis and center ecological well-being

Ava Roche, Ava is currently a pre-law focused senior at Columbia University studying Political Ecology, conducting her senior thesis on the socio-political effects of deep-sea mining in the Cook Islands. She is attending Columbia University’s Climate School next fall, and aspires to be an earth lawyer, with experience as the student director of the Earth Law Centers, “Earth Law: Emerging Ecocentric Law- a Guide for Practitioners” course last summer. She is an avid scuba diver who is passionate about protecting earths vital oceanic ecosystems, and is interning at Columbia Law Schools, "Sabin Center for Climate Change Law” this coming summer under Michael Gerrard. Above all, she can’t wait to TA with Earth Law Practice and work in such an impactful environment.

Joseph O’Brien, Joseph recently graduated from Brown University with a concentration in environmental studies. At Brown, he organized an experimental climate negotiation simulation featuring non-human, non-state, and state actors. With a background in regenerative agriculture, political theory, and contemplative education, he is excited to support this year's cohort jump into the chaotic, beautiful, and generative world of Earth Law.

Janet Marley is completing an MA in Ecopsychology at Naropa University. She is currently researching styles of governance in traditional indigenous societies of Turtle Island and how such wisdom ways can positively influence modern ecocentric regenerative residential communities and bioregional initiatives. She has a BA in Religious Studies from Brown University. Janet is a community organizer with an abiding interest in designing and co-creating intentional living and learning centers that model and teach connection, communication, and reciprocity with the natural world. Her gifts and roles include Teacher, Naturalist, Healer, Event Producer, and Facilitator of ceremony, council, rites of passage, vision quests, ecotherapy, and trauma integration work. She is a Montessori-trained educator and mom of two young children. She currently serves as a board member for The Circle for Change Initiative and is the Director of Programming and Events at the Manitoulin Eco Park, an indigenous-led nature connection facility in Ontario, Canada.