Rainfest Awakenings – Board of Advisors
Jill Townsend-Sorel
P.O. Box 970 • Ojai, California, 93024
Jill has worked in the international arena mediating conflicts in Southern Africa, the Middle East, the South Atlantic and South East Asia. She is a facilitator and trainer of mediation, negotiation skills and the Council process. Jill also guides Vision Fasts, Rites of Passages and Ceremonies. She is a Spiritual Councilor and has worked the Council process in prisons, schools, at UCLA and at various Zen Centers throughout California.
The following quote comes from The Centre for the Analysis of Conflict in the U.K.:
“Jill’s primary experience has been as a practitioner of ‘facilitation’ and mediation in protracted international conflicts. After an initial career in the performing arts, Jill worked as a freelance writer and journalist, contributing to the financial pages of Britain’s Daily Mail newspaper. She then pursued research into the areas of environmental and international law, providing a resource for U.K. parliamentarians and a number of environmental lobbying groups. In 1982 she was appointed Deputy Director of The Foundation for International Conciliation (F.I.C.), a Swiss non-profit organization which develops and practices techniques of third party mediation in international conflicts. She worked on behalf of F.I.C. in both Geneva and in the U.K. In the course of this work she pursued a developing interest in the social psychology and culteral dimensions of international conflict. In 1985 she joined the Harvard Negotiation Project as Senior Research; taught negotiation there to 3rd-year law students (January program) and on the Program of Instruction for Lawyers. She then became engaged in practical efforts at mediation in the Middle East, in Southern Africa, the South Atlantic and South East Asia. In 1987, she took up an appointment at Templeton College, Oxford which involved working with Industry, Oxford University and 10 Downing St (the government) on the development of a business/management college at Oxford University. In 1989 Jill moved residence to the States where she continues her work.“
Ann Stein
Ann Stein is a Panamanian Native who currently lives in California. She has experience in the fields of education and agriculture. Ann is an entrepreneur and owner of Scarborough Farms (www.scarboroughfarms.com), an organic and conventional farm that grows herbs and vegetables. Her company began in her back yard and today encompasses 750 acres in Southern California and now employs 150 people. Ann brings her plant knowledge to Rainforest Awakenings and will serve as a consultant to bring organic food gardens to local tribes in Panama to reduce slash and burn agriculture, as well as providing outreach for Rainforest Awakenings programs. She serves as an advisor for relations between other cultures and Panama. She embodies a unique passion for the earth and nature and a desire to support projects that allow people to live in harmony with the each other and the planet.