Board of Directors & Consultants

Sharlene Hemingway
President & Executive Director

Sharlene Hemingway, M.A., PhD. has 35 years of experience in the mental health field.  She holds a masters degree in Counseling Psychology and a doctorate in Clinical Psychology.   She has also worked as a Social Worker.  She directed the Steinbeck Treatment Center (a chemical dependency program) and the Child Abuse Prevention Council for Monterey County. 

Shara is now the President/Executive Director of the Lambourne Institute for Life Mastery.  Dr. Hemingway believes that if people work together for the welfare of others they can make a difference in the lives of people who are experiencing a variety of social and psychological problems and thus makes the world a better place. She believes that education is a major factor in empowering people – especially women and children.

Shara has received awards from President George H.W Bush and Congressman Leon Panetta for outstanding service to the community, state, and nation.

Arlene Krebs
Secretary of the Board

Arlene Krebs has worked on projects in the arts, education and the media for over 35 years. Her experience includes strategic planning, research, project evaluation, funding and marketing strategies. She is the author of The Distance Learning Funding $ourcebook: A Guide to Foundation, Government, and Corporate Support for Telecommunications and the New Media, (four editions). She has served as President of the Board of Directors for Loaves, Fishes & Computers, President of the Board for the Arts Council of Monterey County, and on the Boards for the Monterey History and Art Association, the Monterey County Film Commission, the Media Center for Arts, Education & Technology, the Society of Satellite Professional International and the US Distance Learning Association. Arlene recently retired as the Director of Technology Development at CSU Monterey Bay, where she was responsible for fundraising and grant writing for innovative technology projects. She provides leadership to the Central Coast Broadband Consortium (CCBC) to create a tri-county (San Benito, Santa Cruz, Monterey Counties) broadband network. Arlene was named a California Broadband Champion (2014) and also received the "In the Arena Award" from the Center of Digital Education. Previously, Arlene was a Communications Professor in New York City, with over 30 years of teaching at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Heather Parsons
Member of the Board

Heather Parsons is a lifelong student, practitioner and teacher of the healing arts. She is a Certified Massage Practitioner with more than thirty years of experience in a variety of modalities. Heather is a Certified Death Midwife, having trained with Gerrygrace Lyons of Graceful Passages, and guides classes and workshops on end-of-life issues. Heather’s talents include her musical expression (library of recorded original music, choir and kirtan leader), and creative design (feng shui harmonization, jewelry creations, fabric/home furnishings through Sacred Bali Designs).

Heather holds a BA in Art History and has worked in advertising, publishing and art sales. She set foot on her spiritual path long ago and seeks ways to love and serve those around her. Her work has mainly taken place in Hawaii and California, with occasional adventures to exotic locales. Heather is married to Maui eco-activist Rob Parsons.

Maren Elwood
Communications Director, Website & Social Media Consultant

Maren is a Visual Anthropologist who uses her technology  skills and love of cultures to bring life to websites for various non-profits.  She is currently working on an anthropological project in Peru.  She is our digital media manager and website developer. 

Maren works with several non-profit organizations bringing their missions to life with digital tools and social media.  She produces film for various websites and helps organizations plan, promote and executive events to raise funds and awareness of the various programs each is involved in.

Her client list includes local organizations including Franklin Legacy Fund, The Gather For Women, Power Over Parkinson's, Dress For Success, Restorative Justice Partners, SpectorDance and On-Site Expeditions. 

Janis Fabian
Advisory Board

Janis is a licensed clinical social worker with a doctorate in metaphysics and a license in Ministry.  She works with individuals,families, children and young adults . Her broad range of training from the 1960s to the present has given her the ability to access many disciplines across psychotherapy practices..
Currently she has a Private Practice in Carmel and has been working with girls group homes for the last 26 years in Monterey County, California.
Education Credentials

• National Professional Honorary Society In Health Sciences.
  
• Magna Cum Laude - Bachelor of University Studies in Mental Health Counseling and Health Sciences.
  
• Ambassador to the United States at The Naval Postgraduate School Monterey, California for Defense Resource Management Training of fifty five different country's 1990 to 1999

Kim Scudder
Member of the Board

Kim is an RN and Board Certified Specialist in Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing.
Her work is informed by years of spiritual searching and training, encompassing Zen study and practice, Unitarian service, Quaker practices, yoga study and practice, and Native American ceremonial rites devoted to Nature and the collective soul. Growing up on Iroquois land in the Adirondack foothills of New York, Kim lived her formative years outdoors, observing animals, the natural world, and weather. She became an excellent swimmer, a mountain climber, a cross country ski racer, and eventually, a skilled practitioner of ancient and traditional shamanic healing through advanced study with anthropologist, Michael Harner, and the faculty of The Foundation For Shamanic Studies. After nursing school, Kim earned an MA in Transpersonal Psychology from The Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Palo Alto, and launched into an eight year training analysis with Armin Wanner,STL and Foundation faculty at The CG Jung Institute of New York, and The CG Jung Institute, Zurich.
Kim has served independent secondary schools, out- patient intensive treatment facilities, hospitals, and private individuals for 40 years, and is currently working with teenagers in a Crisis Intervention Unit in San Francisco.
In 2019, in the Taoist tradition of her mentor, Tianyun Wu, Ph.D., DAOM, L.Ac., Kim became a Certified Death Doula to honor her conviction that a conscious, comfortable, natural death, is life’s final developmental goal.
Kim holds a BS in Managerial Economics from Russell Sage Women’s College in Troy, New York. She loves to manifest capital to help children and the least protected citizens
in our communities. As a freelance writer, Kim advocates for enforceable safety standards through ongoing correspondence with local, state, and national public health offices. Kim is a mother and a grandmother.

Susana DeFatima Silva, MA
Member of the Board

Susana is the co-founder, proprietor and managing partner of Test of Tyme.  She is a Visionary Entrepreneur with an International perspective. She is a member of the Institute for Luxury Home Marketing and an Associate Member of the AIA of Monterey Bay – a Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. Susana DeFatima is a native of the Açores Islands of Portugal and has over 20 years of experience in project management and real estate development. She holds an MA Degree in International Policy Studies, with a focus on International Trade, Investments & Development from the prestigious Middlebury Institute of International Studies and a BA in Communications from CSU Monterey Bay. Susana is also an active community volunteer, and has worked with MEarth, Monterey County Reads of the Panetta Institute, Kinship Center of Monterey County, Meals on Wheels, Big Brothers Big Sisters and F.D.E.S. Portuguese Hall of Monterey, a non-profit that raises revenue to fund scholarships for local youth."

Steve Horvath
Treasurer

Steve has over 44 years in the financial services industry as a financial advisor and senior portfolio manager.