Our Guides
We are an interconnected circle of guides who share a deep respect for the land, human nature, ceremony, and each other. We extend this same respect and caring to each person who feels the call to join us in ceremony. We take the role of guide seriously. We are not gurus or healers; we are skilled midwives in supporting the natural transitions and initiations of living and dying. Our teachers are the land, the ceremony itself, and each person bold enough to step across the threshold into the unknown and into their true nature.
FOUNDER
Meredith Little (she/her) and her husband Steven Foster co-founded Rites of Passage Inc. in 1976 and The School of Lost Borders in 1981, pioneering new methods and dynamics of modern pan-cultural passage rites in the wilderness and creating innovative practices of “field eco-therapy.” She has dedicated her life…
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“Roo” Ruth Wharton (they/them), deeply rooted in earth, body, ceremony and a long lineage of guides from the School of Lost Borders, Roo offers an abundance of love and fierce insight to those Roo guides and mentors. Beginning to guide wilderness rites of passage at the age of…
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Angelo Joseph Lazenka (he/him) began guiding vision fast in 1984 and often says that the work grew him up and now he is asking it to grow him down into the rich territory of elderhood. He began working as a guide with the School in 1993 and from 2003…
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Betsy Perluss, Ph.D. (she/they), lover of landscape, story, and myth, grew up as a semi-feral child on Pimu (Catalina Island), where she was ignited with a passion for wild and unbounded places. She stumbled upon the School of Lost Borders in 1998 and since has been involved as…
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Emerald North, visionary, painter, sculptor, gardener and poet, brings years of vital and vibrant experience to the School of Lost Borders. She teaches from the depth of a full and rich life with humor, vision, and love. Emerald values the personal relationships that are forged through ceremony and…
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John Davis (he/him) has been leading nature-based rites of passage and related programs since 1984. Over the years, his work in this area has taken various forms, including vision fasts for youth and adults, designing and directing a graduate program in ecopsychology that included wilderness intensives, writing both popular…
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Larry Hobbs (he/him) has served in many ways. From a field biologist studying whales and dolphins, to a psychotherapist working with individual and family systems, to a teacher and naturalist leading wildlife trips worldwide, Larry came to Lost Borders to train and to guide vision fasts. Although still…
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Nancy Jane (she/her) is an educator, wilderness guide, and councilfacilitator. She began her study of wilderness rites of passage in 1981 andhas been following this calling ever since. Nancy leads youth and adultvision fasts, has pioneered wilderness rites of passage in school settings,and currently also guides quests for Naropa…
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Pedro McMillan (he/him) is a queer elder with more than 20 years of experience with rites of passage work. A father, grandfather and environmentalist since childhood, he became an early eco-entrepreneur, founding and running a green business for 26 years before leaving to focus on rites of passage work.…
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Petra Lentz-Snow (she/her) is certified naturopath and first generation immigrant from Germany who came to the Western United States in her twenties, following a deep call and a faint breadcrumb trail to what would become her life work. She has been guiding vision fasts and wilderness rites of passage programs…
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Scot Deily LCSW, SEP (he/him) is an adoring husband, father and ceremonialist with an ear to the ground listening for what it means to be human in increasingly inhumane times. Scot brings care-filled levity to his commitment of creating safe havens for all peoples to courageously commune with mountains…
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Scott Eberle (he/him) has worked as a wilderness guide at the School of Lost Borders since 2003. While he guides an array of programs for the School, he has two special interests. The first is exploring how the symbolic death-and-rebirth dimension of the School’s ceremony is informed by his…
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Silvia Talavera (she/her) Inspired by the wild places without borders, Silvia has been a wilderness guide since 1993. She is a supporter of deep immersion into the natural landscape where exploration of the mythic, archetype and the imaginal dimensions offers a playground for the soul. She brings grace, humor, curiosity and a…
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Will Scott (he/him) is a life-long lover of the natural world and a dedicated student of the human-nature relationship. He has worked as a guide with Youth and Adult programs at Lost Borders since 2007, and has been a trainer with School since 2016. Will’s lineage comes primarily out…
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Bettina Straub (she/her) is a creative and rooted rites of passage guide. She brings earth ceremony, body awareness, and mindfulness to her work. Her intuitive approach is enriched by years of experience creating safe and empowering spaces for collective exploration and awakening. She is a trained mental health counselor…
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Cary Gaunt, Ph.D. (she/her), a lover of earth and spirit, has dedicated her life to listening deeply for, and serving, their call.
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Cate Burnett (she/her) has a deep and soulful connection to wild places and all those who live there. She is a naturalist, wildlife tracker and wilderness guide, having spent over 25 years leading expeditions in the Pacific North West and Hawaii. Her devotion to honoring the ‘wild and untamed’…
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Colleen Bishop a doctoral student of Integral and Transpersonal Psychology with an emphasis in Somatic Psychology at CIIS and a graduate alumni of Naropa University—with an MA in Transpersonal Ecopsychology. She serves as co-director for Alchemy of Prana—a nature-based nonprofit operating foundation fostering the liberation of deep consciousness…
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Collin Brown (he/him) is a seeker, healer, teacher, guide who has delved deeply into the mysteries of eros, love, death, and embodiment. His path has taught him to value and trust the wisdom and insight that come from experiential learning whether it’s in a classroom or out in the…
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Cynthia Eisho Morrow (she/her) has been a wilderness guide with EarthWays LLC, a Bay Area collective, since 2006 and with the School of Lost Borders since 2011. Her father’s family lived in the Owens Valley, and so she grew up joyfully exploring the vast territory of the Eastern…
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Gretchen (Grae) Gerlach (she/her) grew up in rural Montana, where she was raised as much by the wilderness as by her nature loving parents. With the Rocky Mountains, glacier fed rivers, ancient forests, creatures of her homeland and a horse ranching community as inspiration she declared her life…
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Katie Teague is an award winning documentary filmmaker, timelapse photographer and somatic-based philosophical life coach. She’s an eclectic mystic philosopher with a Masters degree in Depth Psychology. Katie has followed the jagged arc of a destiny path that eventually led her to fasting with the School of Lost…
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Kelly McClelland (she/her) brings realness and an open heart to her work as a bi-lingual Rite of Passage guide, Wilderness Psychotherapist, Designer, and Strategist. Infusing earth-connection with business and technology, she walks the edge of what it means to live in modern society with a deep thirst for ceremony…
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Ken Crocker (he/him) has been concerned about and addressing climate change for 20 years through serving as a board member for the GeosInstitute.org, including 18 years as the board chair. The Geos Institute helps communities nationwide build resilience in the face of climate change using a holistic approach…
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Since answering the call to guiding in 2011, Kim (she/they) has wandered deserts, mountains, rainforests, and the physical and psychic landscapes in between, with humans of all ages. This work began with wilderness therapy, and expanded into rites of passage, with the two often being intertwined on the…
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Logan (he/him) is passionate about holding space and witnessing others in their journey, inviting playfulness and curiosity to council. Nature has consistently served as his container for growth in unique and special ways, and he is excited to invite others into the experience as well. Since 2014, he…
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Marlena deCarion (she/her) is a Professional Certified Coach, Faculty at the Co-Active Training Institute and a teacher of Mindfulness. Marlena’s passion for wilderness began as a child while backpacking with her father in the Sierras. As a former Outward Bound instructor and experiential educator, Marlena loves to create transformational…
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Nick LaHaise (he/him) is a rite of passage guide, teacher, artist, and professional chef. He was called to rites of passage as a teenager, seeking to understand what it means to be a fully alive and initiated adult. He spent over a decade immersing himself in various rites of passage ceremonies and…
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Paul Browde M.D. (he/him/his) is a psychiatrist, a storyteller, and a relationship guide. He has been in practice for more than thirty years. He has trained in Hypnotherapy, Internal Family Systems, and in Psychedelic Assisted Psychotherapy Paul has been profoundly affected by wilderness work and is excited to bring this exploration to groups…
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Ray Hillis (he/him) has led and assisted fasts with the School of Lost Borders for the past few years. He received his Ph.D. in Psychology from UCLA in 1968, recently retired from a lifelong career of teaching human development and counseling, and has had a psychotherapy practice (presently in…
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Sam DeBoskey (he/him) is a farmer, carpenter, rites-of-passage guide, and community organizer/organizee living in Denver, Colorado. He currently manages an urban farm in his home city and is passionate about the power of food and food growing to bring people together. Sam is a life-long student of the…
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Scott Davidson (he/him) is a wilderness rite of passage guide, wildlife tracker and cultural repairman who has given his life to community stewardship for more than 20 years. A son of North Sea ancestors and born on Ohlone homelands, he now stewards the sanctuary of Three Creeks in…
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Deeply touched by the ecological struggles of Earth in human hands, tbird (thompson) bishop, has spent the last decade immersed in graduate studies focused ecopsychology and somatics, while also reweaving his life with rites of passage. tbird is deeply grateful for the profound educational opportunities, mentorships, and experiences from…
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Yamin Chehin (she/her) is a Council trainer, facilitator, and doctor of Chinese Medicine, with intimate experience of nature-based practices that inform her work with clients and groups, and help to integrate the healing potential implicit in our stories and our bodies. She facilitates councils in English and Spanish (her…
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