Meet the Integrated Planning Committee Leadership Team

The Integrated Planning Committee is a group of dedicated volunteers who have assumed the important task of identifying the needs of the Blue Deer Center. Some of those needs include improvements to the buildings and other long term needs, such as setting up the structure to receive bequests in individual wills. With the completion of the Dream Catching Project, they are assembling committees to address these needs as stated by the many of you who responded to their questionnaire. Here, the members of the IPC introduce themselves to you.

Andi Tilmann, IPC Campaign Consultant - I came to the BDC project, well, before there WAS one! It happened to be during my PSM class that Eliot announced for the first time that he had been tasked with “finding a place to do his work”. He had been searching on his own for years, using solely his own resources. At that time, he believed that he had found the right place, and needed assistance to quickly raise the funds for a down payment. As we discussed this momentous news around a fire that evening, I innocently said: “Eliot, if you need a place to do your work, but you are the only person who knows all the people who have received your teachings and would support it, wouldn’t it make sense for all those people to gather and discuss this together?” To which Robin Lockwood said “Yes! It would be like a family reunion!” Thus began a most incredible journey which has transformed my entire life, and so many others…

So, in a very direct way, it was Eliot’s answer to a call to “do his work”, and that first gathering of folks to meet and dream about the BDC that gave rise to the entire Sacred Fire Community, the Sacred Fire Foundation, and every project, initiative and miracle for our People, the Land, and the precious remaining Elders that have arisen since. And so to me, the BDC is not just sacred land and the physical homeland for our beloved community – it is the true ancestral homeland of the Dream of our community, the vital and precious work we do in the world – and of the Future of our people.

It is a very deep honor and blessing – one of the greatest of my life - to have been given a small role in the birth of the Dream of the BDC. And it is a great gift to be invited to service in that Dream again, now, this time for a Future for our People and the World that I have come to know and believe in very deeply, with every fiber of my heart.

K'Anna Burton - I have been involved with the BDC for over 5 years, first coming to the Center as a PSM student and quickly falling in love with the land, the river, the fire community and the depth of work with plant spirits. I soon became a volunteer wanting to support the BDC in all ways and get more involved. In early 2010, I began the co-chair work with the Dream Catcher Project, this naturally lead to my current commitment to the work of the IPC.

My background and interest in community service is truly fed by being part of the leadership of the IPC. I enjoy working with the totally dedicated women of our team. Our hearts connect in supporting meaningful and sustained activity at the Center and being of service to our community. With some experience working on maintenance and upkeep of other community spaces, I am happy to now coordinate the Site committee for IPC work. The adventure of community work continues and I am excited to be a part of it all.

Karen Smith Fernandez - After receiving my B.A. in psychology from the University of Virginia, I headed west for graduate school obtaining a M.S. degree in child-clinical psychology. More importantly, I began to wake up to the realization that something "more" was going on in the world than it seemed. I started paying attention and spent huge amounts of time with nature. And then it happened - I fell in love with the world.

Returning east, I began working for non-profit organizations. Turns out, my heart was leading me home, although I didn't know it then. Along the way I became certified in non-profit management at Duke University, became a Plant Spirit Medicine practitioner, served the Sacred Fire Community in many ways, had two sons, became an apprentice in the Huichol shamanic path, took a job with the National Audubon Society, and worked for several years to raise the funds to purchase and renovate the Blue Deer Center.

Being called back to help the Center, I have begun to remember what I already know. I know that the Center is a dream of the gods - an awakening dream. I know that when it fully fulfills its mission, the Blue Deer Center will be a literal home for healers rooted in authentic traditions. I know this is truly a miracle. Did you ever think that profound spiritual healing and learning, something many of us long for and many of us need, would be found so easily in our own country? I know that if there was ever a time to let the barriers to fulfillment fall, it is now! I will facilitate the Home Project and the Ambassadors Committees of the IPC. Want to be part of a living miracle? Join me!

Jane Wollack - Many of you know me as the Marketplace Manager for the SFC, but I have been a very long time supporter of the BDC as well. I came to this community through my Plant Spirit Medicine studies way back when the search for the Blue Deer Center was just beginning. I am part of the IPC team because I know that the BDC is one of those doorways to changing our world for the better.

I’ve worked on many projects over the years for the community: both BDC and SFC. I have learned that the personal blessing is not in the end result of a project, as critical as that can be. Rather the real blessing is in the opportunity to work with others and build relationship with people who share a common ideal, a common goal and a mutual commitment. My work with the IPC has brought me that gratification. In my role on the leadership team overseeing the Communications and Volunteer committees I look forward to meeting people in a common vision for our future. It’s all about community working side by side. That’s how the change happens.

The members of the Integrated Planning Committee for the Blue Deer Center can be reached at IPCBDC [at] gmail [dot] com. (Note: the old email was changed.) Please consider joining us in this ongoing project to support the work of the Blue Deer Center in the world.