- Who we are -
Each a story. Distinct lenses on reality.
Weaving together to hear and enact a possible future.
SANE operates at the personal, interpersonal, community, bioregional, and planetary levels.
We are meta-systemic solutionists who are committed to learning and growing.
We engage in full-stack permaculture to enrich the interconnectedness of the ecologies we inhabit, cohabit, and count on as a human family.
Stephan
Founder. Vision. Executive Director.
Stephan's lifelong passion and pursuit is to move beyond ideas, discussions and theorizing to actual implemention of meta-systemic solutions to the meta-crisis, with a special focus on creating a new decentralized economy that incentivizes regeneration and bioregional resiliency. He is the manager and founder of SIFCo (the Slocan Integral Forestry Cooperative) — a leader in bioregionally based climate change adaptation, community resiliency, ecosystem-based management and economic diversification. Stephan works as an integral consultant and project manager for societies, coops, businesses, co-housing projects and communities as they develop vision, inter- and intrapersonal discernment skills and practices, and seek to implement these in ways that are effective and resilient to change. He has worked in community development and ecosystem-based planning since 1993. For the past 30 years he has designed and led numerous transformative educational events internationally, specifically for ecologists, community builders, educators and parents, working in the field of human consciousness evolution, and specifically applying an Integral framework to environmental work, education, parenting and mediation
Miriam
Co-founder. Operations Manager. Human Resources.
Miriam brings thirty years of community-building experience to the SANE team. She specializes in coherence-building methodologies and practices that encourage collectives to achieve higher service capacity. Miriam is a mother, therapeutic counselor, parenting coach, writer, speaker, and researcher. She holds an M.A. in Psychology from the University of Zurich, with specialization in Youth and Child Psychology, and has been working in private practice as an integral therapeutic counselor since 1995. Through her writing, workshops, speaking engagements, counselling for individuals and couples, as well as parent coaching and online parenting courses, she helps clients discover and express their evolving potential – in themselves, their relationships, and the world. Miriam is also vice-president of Next Step Integral, an international organization that brings an integral perspective to ecology, education, parenting and community, and co-founder of an Ecovillage where she lived for over a decade.
Brian Hoffstein
Marketing & Communications Director.
Brian Hoffstein's work with SANE bridges over a decade of synthesis pioneering evolutionary culture, frontier innovations, and collaborations in research and development across prestigious organizations like Harvard and notable think tanks in New York and the San Francisco Bay Area. Brian's strategic acumen, paired with his talent for forging key partnerships and effective communication, has been essential in propelling startups into venture-backed successes, blending technology advancements and cultural dynamics, ecosystem design and dynamic marketing approaches. His insights, featured in the Harvard Business Review, Forbes, and various multimedia outlets, advocate for a regenerative future through the conscious cultivation of AI, blockchain, and cybernetic systems, aiming for a harmonious balance between human progress and ecological resilience. Brian embodies his ethos through dedicated meditation and fitness practices, as well as a holistic approach to environmental wellness and community building that is geared towards catalyzing proactive initiatives for the flourishing of the earth and all its inhabitants.
Phil
Ecuadorian Andes lead.
Phil is founder and lead teacher at Cancion de Corazon Institute in Vilcabamba, Ecuador — a holistic permaculture and health center dedicated to the research and implementation of regenerative principles. Within his lifelong quest for an integrated understanding of the deeper truths of the evolutionary human experience, Phil has sourced and synergized a diversity of investigative knowledge ranging from ancient and indigenous wisdom traditions, leading-edge sciences, emerging technologies, self development and wholistic wellness modalities, earth sciences and ecological regeneration, and his own experiential interpretations and insights. His bent for direct experience and embodiment have guided his way of life to utilize and self-validate the essential principles that he distills from his investigations. He is also deeply committed to helping communities regain their sovereignty and involved in local initiatives in the Ecuadorian Andes on this front.
Adonia
Youth lead.
In response to a pervasive lack of depth within modern-day connections among her peers, Adonia organizes and facilitates Youth Consciousness Summits in the Ecuadorian Andes, combining her extensive outdoor experience and passion for joyful living with her love for the arts to create unforgettable ten-day immersives. These summits form an integral part of SANE, and acknowledge the essential role young adults — their perspectives and capacities — contribute toward helping humanity find a better path forward.
Daniel Friedman
Tech co-lead.
Daniel is a full-stack software engineer and artist who brings inspiring projects to life. With a background in Computer Science from Columbia University and experiences in the NYC startup scene, Daniel excels in infrastructure, design, and innovative solutions. He is the creator of Resonance Domes, Chrysanthemum, and InPhiKnit, blending technology and art to create spaces and experiences that connect us to what’s important. His software portfolio includes projects like Watercycle, abc Kitchen, and Viewcy, showcasing his versatility and commitment to innovation and creativity, pushing the boundaries of both fields.
Alex Gamburg
Tech co-lead.
Alex creates interfaces that make people’s lives happier and simpler. With a Bachelor of Science in Human-Centered Design from Stanford University, he has extensive experience in product marketing, design, and multimedia production. Formerly a Program Manager at Microsoft and Chief Technology Officer for Writing Pad, Alex has a rich background in leading innovative projects. He is also the cofounder of Recess, a design studio committed to making the world more playful. Alex’s work consistently focuses on enhancing user experience and bringing joy through thoughtful design.
ADVISORS
Charles Eisenstein — writer, observer of Life, speaker, father, deeply caring human, social commentator, philosopher, and someone willing to live his life in service to what is true, what is beautiful and also good. As an advisor to SANE, Charles brings his unique lens on economy, culture, and ecology. As a human committed to becoming evermore sane, he helps us land the vision and dream of a sane world more fully.
Bill Twist
Bill Twist — Co-founder of Pachamama Alliance and serving as its President. With an extensive background in business, he worked in the management consulting business and then in the equipment leasing and financial services industries.
Bill is a founding member of the executive committee of the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature and has served on the Board of Directors of the Centro Economicos Derechos y Sociales in Ecuador.
Ting Ocean Kelly
Ting Ocean Kelly, founder and director of The Ume Foundation, is a visionary ritual facilitator, oracular artist, and blueprint channeler who harmonizes the wisdom of ancient temple arts, mystery schools, and innovative business leaders. The Ume Foundation supports global initiatives focused on Water, Economics, and Civic Arts, advancing ecological resilience and cultural revitalization. Informed by her formative experiences with indigenous rituals in Bali and Tibet, and her involvement with transformative events like Burning Man and contributions to WIRED Magazine, Ting transitioned from a distinguished career in strategic consulting to redefine these fields through a trans-lineage, non-dogmatic approach rooted in devotion and planetary stewardship.
Bonnitta Roy
Bonnitta is founder at Alderlore Insight Center, which serves as a home/farm & experimental garden for people to learn to cultivate a deeper intimacy with our non-human kin. Her equine workshops and insight practices help individuals recognize their natural state, realize the deep continuity of mind, body and nature, and understand the shared genealogy of cosmos and self. At The POP-UP School she hosts online courses to address the modern, western "malware" that parasitizes our imaginations, and facilitates innovative intersubjective practices, which enable communities to co-create new imaginaries for social transformation.
Ferananda Ibarra
Ferananda Ibarra serves the web of life through her active engagement with technology, culture, and regenerative economies. As the Director of Commons Engine, she mentors and designs tools for projects dedicated to revitalizing and managing communal resources. Ferananda chairs the Coventina Foundation, fostering collective intelligence and decentralized economic infrastructure. She also co-founded the Metacurrency Project, the mother think tank that created Holochain and Holo, building platforms for a healthy, value-creating economy. Her work spans currency design, organizational architecture, and regenerative culture, consistently championing radical innovation and transformative change. Ferananda aims to align human systems with the adaptive brilliance of living systems.
Andrew Hewitt
For over a decade, Andrew has been bringing together Game Changers — high-performing, mission-driven businesses and organizations — to evolve economics from a systemic perspective and to shift economics from the rivalrous win-lose proposition to win-for-all outcomes. He is on the board of the Pachamama Alliance, and works as a speaker, advisor, and networker. Andrew is a big-hearted human, with integrity and embodied ethics, committed to a path of lifelong learning and discovery.
Cameron Najafi
Cameron is devoted to the path of greatest service to all beings. His particular focus is on large-scale catastrophic risk and meta-systemic solutions, where he has been in involved in research and lobbying projects. He is a Vajrayana practitioner and sees spiritual practice as central to his path of service.
We are visionaries. A life without Vision is a life without direction and intention. We are at a moment of great choice. Do we swim along with the seemingly inevitable tides sweeping across the globe? Or do we pause, and listen to what the future is calling for? We are choosing the latter, and committed to bringing such Vision into Action.
We are innovators. Each moment is a new one. Each moment offers the invitation to repeat the past, or innovate a new present. We are listening for what is emergent at the edge of possibility: within ourselves, amongst one another, in our relationship with the great web of Life.
We are dreamers. We dare to dream of a world more beautiful, more true and sane. We hold these dreams in our hearts, and work daily to bring them alive through our hands, minds and relationships with self, others and nature. We find strength in dreaming together and creating new structures and systems for such dreams to find grounding and become lived realities.
We are regenerators. Life itself is continuously regenerating. To align with Life, we too must be willing to regenerate, to realign, and remember the Regenerative Principles at the foundation of Life itself, and embody these.
We are hopeful, and are combining stubborn optimism with action. Life is Sacred. Each of us matters. We can make a difference. We need each other to propel us all to the next version of humanity. And any solution needs to deeply consider the Whole.
Let's keep in touch!