The vision of the Sacred Fire Community may be vast and far-reaching, but we are modest as far as organizational structure goes. An all-volunteer Organizing Committee is made up of seven area managers, who oversee the various aspects of our organization and its offerings, and three Co-Executive Directors, who hold the big vision and tend to get underfoot. We all live far apart, spread across the United States and Mexico, so we gather for business meetings around the Fire twice each year – and in between, spend more time than our families would like on conference calls.
However serious the work, we endeavor not to take ourselves too seriously. Joy is a fundamental expression of Fire and heart. In this time of pervasive fear, playfulness and joy are more important than ever. Whenever we meet, it is the rising of this joy that reminds us why we do what we do. We are profoundly grateful for the gift and challenge of this work.
Meet the Sacred Fire Community Organizing Committee:
Co-Executive Directors
Larry Messerman
Larry lives in Bend, OR, and has been in this position since August 2004. He is a marakame in the Huichol tradition, a Fire Keeper, and only recently escaped a life dedicated to academia.
Mary Beth Robinson
Mary Beth teaches architectural and interior design at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, and is also a Plant Spirit Medicine practitioner. She is always willing to step into the fray (redecorating the fray along the way).
Susan Skinner
Susan is a Plant Spirit Medicine practitioner, a Fire Keeper, and a weatherworker in the Nahua tradition. Having actually run a successful business, Susan has the experience that keeps her cohorts from going too far off the Deep End unless she is already there. She lives in the Farm community in Summertown, TN.
Area Managers
Sherry Boatright – Lifeways Head Coordinator
Sherry is a Firekeeper and weatherworker in the Nahua tradition. She has a healing practice in Carrollton, GA, and is planning to open a retreat center for Southern Belles recovering from Hyper-Politeness Syndrome (HPS).
Amy Haynes – Secretary Extraordinaire
Amy lives in Asheville, NC, with her supportive and adorable husband and two sweet sons. She is the “organizational Super-Glue” that holds us all together, providing the continuity and flawless grammar that we need.
Jennifer Weise – Finance
Jennifer Weise stumbled into the role of SFC finance manager just about the time she was pregnant with her first child. It turns out she really enjoys dealing with numbers and systems, and in the rest of her life, when she’s not working in the world as a therapist, she just likes to spend time playing with friends and family.
Annie King – Fire Chief
Annie lives in Florence, SC. She is our Chief Fire Keeper, a weatherworker in the Nahua tradition, a Plant Spirit Medicine practitioner, and Editor-in-Chief of “Fire Keeper Style” magazine.
Paige Lieberman – Events Coordinator
Paige holds the record for most conference calls per week of all the managers. She is a teacher and a member of the Mesa Life Project, and she currently lives somewhere between Rio Nido, CA, and Colorado.
Robin Lockwood – Participation
Robin is a Plant Spirit Medicine practitioner, herbalist, writer, and healer of both ‘critters and fellers’ in Leiper’s Fork, TN. She believes that everyone in the world has a purpose so far as the SFC is concerned and has an uncanny ability to tell if any of us are slacking on the job.
Rachael Shea – Database
Rachael hails from Holden, MA and has a day job as a librarian at a nearby college. By night, Rachael dons black leather and goes to work as the Dark Database Princess. She has certainly helped whip our database into shape.
John Walden – Communications
John’s background is in communications media and research, which makes his brain and heartstorms clever and useful nearly all of the time. He lives in Tepoztlán, Mexico, and has future plans to join a mariachi band.
Cheryl White – Pulse
Cheryl takes the Pulse of the community, and is therefore most often the one to let us know that we are getting too full of ourselves. She lives in Weaverville, NC, and has a nurse’s get-up that could raise a pulse in the dead.
Jane Wollack – Heat Exchange Market
Jane is a massage therapist and former business consultant in Prospect, CT. She runs our ongoing "Fire Sale" to help people maintain their connection to heart and community from the comfort of their very own homes.