Ecopsychologist Michael J. Cohen Ph.D. founded Project NatureConnect and serves as its Executive Director. For over 50 years, Dr. Cohen has lived outdoors year round while researching, teaching and enjoying multi-sensory nature activities. He developed the theory of Natural Attraction Ecology and founded Applied Ecopsychology, the study of human sensory restoration and re-integration with the natural balance of the web of life using his method, the Natural Systems Thinking Process. Dr. Cohen established and directed degree granting environmental outdoor education programs for the Trailside Country School, Lesley College, and the National Audubon Society. Dr. Cohen’s many books and articles include Reconnecting With Nature: Finding Wellness through Restoring your Bond with the Earth, the 1990 award winning Connecting With Nature: Creating Moments that Let Earth Teach, and the self-guiding applied ecopsychology training manual, Well Mind, Well Earth. His most recent title, Einstein’s World is now an integral part of an accredited graduate course.

In her role as Dean of the Applied Ecopsychology department at Akamai, Dr. Sweeney oversees the doctoral dissertation process and supervises the mentorship of doctoral candidates, in addition to providing academic instruction.

Theresa Sweeney has a lifelong connection with nature and its healing possibilities. She has pursued experiences which have nurtured her artistic talent and love for nature, foreshadowing her life’s work: using art to help people reconnect with Nature. Dr. Sweeney earned her Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and Computer Science at Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York. She has more than twelve years of corporate experience. Dr. Sweeney earned her MS and Ph.D. in Applied Ecopsychology from Akamai University in Hilo, Hawaii, and the Doctor of Education from San Juan de la Cruz in Costa Rica. In addition to her role as academic dean, Dr. Sweeney works as an ecopsychology consultant giving workshops using art activities to help people and businesses regain identity and bonding with the Web of Life and its healing capabilities. She authored and illustrated a book, Owl Winks and Forest Songs: Finding wellness through Nature’s wisdom; she writes a column in Stone Voices magazine called “The Art of NatureConnecting”, and she is a contributor to Gatherings, an online Ecopsychology field journal. Her wildlife artwork is owned around the USA and has won numerous awards. She donated 30 original paintings to the Jack Nicklaus Children’s Hospital, Jupiter, Fla. Dr. Sweeney is a volunteer speaker for local radio and various organizations. Her artwork can be found at www.callofthewilddesigns.com.

In her role as a doctoral dissertation committee member, Dr. McLean provides mentorship and guidance to doctoral candidates.

Dr. McLean is a systems thinker and keen apprentice as to how theory translates into reality. Studying the social and cultural implications of how theological thought informs religious traditions earned her a B.A. in Comparative Religion and an M.A. in  the History and Philosophy of Religion from Montreal’s Concordia University.

Decades of interest in para-psychological and spiritual phenomena led to a Ph.D. that combined study through Carolyn Myss’ Energy Medicine and through her doctoral studies in this program.

Dr. McLean offers programs locally in Toronto through NexusWithin, with wilderness intensives offered in Hawaii. Over decades, she has been employed within public education in Canada. Years of assisting multicultural children and their families to integrate into  North American life has provided a unique, intimate opportunity to identify both the damage unquestioned culture can inflict and the hopeful possibilities for the unbinding of life’s felicity. Her conviction is that reconnecting the human mind back into the natural matrix from which it evolved will liberate it from the mentality that enslaves both itself and the planet.

In her role as a doctoral dissertation committee member, Dr. Edwards provides mentorship and guidance to doctoral candidates.Over the past twenty-five years, Sarah Edwards has helped thousands of people overcome the trauma, grief and loss of change and create naturally fulfilling lifestyles lives through seminars, workshops, and her private clinical counseling practice, as well as through her nationally syndicated columns and TV and radio shows. She is the Director of the Pine Mountain Institute, an educational organization providing an  ecopsychologically-oriented, transition focused continuing education programs for helping professionals.Sarah is the co-author with her husband Paul of seventeen books including The Practical Dreamer’s Handbook, Changing Directions without Losing Your Way and Finding Your Perfect Work. Her first novel Sitting with the Enemy, an ecopsychological drama of personal and community transformation, is in its third edition.Sarah received her Masters  in Social Work from the University of Kansas in 1974. and completed her PhD in  Ecopsychology from Akamai University in 2006. She is a Red Cross Authorized  Instructor for teaching Family Caregiving.Before opening a private  practice in 1977, Sarah served as Clinical Director of the Cathexis Institute  in Glendale, Californian, an out-patient treatment facility for severely  disturbed individuals. Prior to that, she was Director of Social Work Training at the Kansas Medical Center Children’s Rehabilitation Unit and Parent  Involvement and Social Services Specialist for the Office of Child Developments Kansas City Regional Office.She has taught courses for  continuing education credit for the California Association for Marriage and  Family Therapists and the Life Purpose Institute in San Diego, California. She  is on the faculty of Post-Peak Living has taught courses on practice and business development at the University of California at Los Angeles and Santa Cruz.

Dr Revalyn Faba Sack holds a B.A. in English and Philosophy from the University of Natal, Southafrica and an MBA in Educational Management from the University of Leicester, United Kingdom. After twenty years as a teacher and special educational consultant, she read for her Ph.D. in Applied Ecopsychology from Akamai University, in Hilo, Hawaii, and her Doctor of Education from San Juan de la Cruz in Costa Rica.

Dr Faba Sack is an experienced IB educator and workshop leader who always seeks to extend traditional classroom pedagogy to include outdoor classes for students of all ages. Her particular interest focuses on the use of natural environments as learning scenarios for students who have experienced situations of war and conflict.

She has taught in Spain, Israel, China, Thailand, Norway and is currently Head of Primary at the only international school in Barbados. Different countries and different populations have produced fertile research material but the commonality is the need to complement academic studies with support from structured and natural programs.