Mother Tree Council - Pseads
In Year Three of Hope on the Rize, Pseads is really excited to announce the inaugural members of The Mother Tree Council! These six incredible mentors and collaborators viewed a selection of students’ films (there were over 900 student films created in Year Three!), and each is honoring a collection of films, including 3 films they each have awarded “High Distinction." Each member of the Council also has influenced the Hope on the Rize curriculum and program, and inspired its creation and expansion. Huge thanks to Belvie Rooks, Dr. Brian Thomas Swimme, Dr. Drew Dellinger, Steve Uzzell, SenSaSheri Maasera, and Lauren Conrow for their incredible work in the world and support for this project! Please check out their bios below, and check back for more on some of their favorite films from this year!
And such heartfelt appreciation and congratulations to all of the students and teachers across more than 45 classrooms who created incredible original short films and projects this year, and who contributed to the planting of over 900 new trees (one tree for every completed film)! We can’t wait to celebrate further, and to include even more students and schools in the year ahead!
Meet The Mother Tree Council:
Belvie Rooks
Belvie Rooks is co-founder with Dedan Gills of Growing a Global Heart, a project and vision designed to inspire the ceremonial planting of memorial trees to honor forgotten individuals and communities and aid social and environmental restoration, particularly along the Underground Railroad in the U.S. and Canada and the TransAtlantic Slave Route in West Africa. Meeting Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as a teenager had lasting impact on Belvie’s understanding of and commitment to social justice. She has spent her life as a writer, educator, producer, and human rights and social justice advocate, and her work weaves spirituality, feminism, cosmology, and ecology. As an educator, she was a member of the founding faculty of the College of Social Justice at the State University of New York (SUNY) Old Westbury, and is the creator of Hey Listen Up!, a groundbreaking urban eco-literacy project. She is creator and host of ConverZations That Matter, and has served on the boards of Bioneers, the Ella Baker Center and the Institute of Noetic Sciences. Belvie’s published works have appeared in many publications and anthologies. She is an American Book Award winner and co-founder of Wild Trees Press with Alice Walker. She served as co-producer (with Damani Baker and Danny Glover) of the award-winning documentary “The House on Coco Road" (on Netflix). She is co-author with Dedan Gills of the book I Give You the Springtime of My Blushing Heart, which Pseads brings into classrooms with students of all ages. Belvie serves as a Strategic Adviser to Pseads with focus on community building. Belvie’s longer bio.
Dr. Brian Thomas Swimme
Brian Thomas Swimme, Ph.D., is a mathematical and evolutionary cosmologist and the Director of the Center for the Story of the Universe and a professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) in San Francisco. He received his Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Oregon for work in gravitational dynamics. Dr. Swimme is the author of The Hidden Heart of the Cosmos, The Universe is a Green Dragon, and Cosmogenesis: An Unveiling of an Expanding Universe. He is co-author of The Universe is a Green Dragon, which is the result of a ten year collaboration with Thomas Berry. Dr. Swimme is also the creator of three educational video series: Canticle to the Cosmos, The Earth’s Imagination, and The Powers of the Universe. He co-wrote and stars in the award-winning film and education series The Journey of the Universe, and lectures widely, including previously at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, UNESCO and the United Nations, among many others. His central concern is the role of the human being within the earth community, the cultural implications of the epic of evolution, and the role of humanity in the unfolding story of earth and cosmos. Matt, Elizabeth and Richard studied with Dr. Swimme throughout graduate school and doctoral study. Through Pseads, Dr. Swimme’s teachings and work reach young students every day, and bring students into contact with new ways of understanding the universe and their place within its history and continuous unfolding.
Dr. Drew Dellinger
Drew Dellinger, Ph.D., is an internationally sought-after speaker, poet, writer, and teacher who has inspired minds and hearts around the world, performing poetry and keynoting on justice, ecology, cosmology, and compassion. He is also a consultant, publisher and founder of Planetize the Movement. He holds a Ph.D. is Philosophy and Religion from CIIS, and has presented work and talks at over 1,400 events across the US, UK, Canada, and Australia. His award-winning book of poems, Love Letter to the Milky Way, was selected by ForeWord Reviews magazine as a Book of the Year Award Finalist, and has devoted readers on six continents. His work has appeared in films, books, anthologies, and magazines–from The New York Times Magazine to YES!, Tikkun, Mother Jones, Huffington Post, Kosmos, Common Ground, and others. His poems have been cited and quoted in venues ranging from prison workshops to climate change hearings before the US Congress. According to Joanna Macy, “Drew Dellinger is a national treasure. His poems for global justice bring light to these leaden times, helping us to see and defend the beauty of our world." Drew created and taught “New Cosmology: The Universe Story," one of the first college-level courses in the US on ecology, worldviews, and the work of Thomas Berry. As a consultant, Drew was a core developer and designer of the Pachamama Alliance’s Awakening the Dreamer Symposium, now used in 80 countries, in 18 languages, and he sits on the Pachamama board. He is currently writing a book expanding his doctoral work examining the ecological consciousness of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Pseads incorporates Drew’s work in classrooms of all kinds, and his poems are consistent favorites among students. drewdellinger.org
Steve Uzzell
Steve Uzzell is an operational precision specialist, inspirational speaker, and one of the top advertising and corporate photographers in the world. He started in the photography business over 40 years ago as the assistant to the editor of National Geographic and a member of their photographic staff before building his own corporation. Steve’s assignments have taken him to all 50 states and 30 foreign countries and led to an incredible portfolio of images, stories and experiences. His photographic work has garnered international acclaim and won numerous awards, including ten awards from Communication Arts. He has photographed multiple books and had his editorial work published in over 100 publications, including Newsweek, Smithsonian, TIME, and U.S. News. As an inspirational speaker, Steve’s travels are also global – in the past 25 years he has given the presentation that became his book Open Roads Open Minds – An Exploration of Creative Problem Solving to over 500 organizations in all 50 United States, as well as three Canadian provinces and five other countries, including India and China, to a combined audience of more than 600,000 people. In any project he undertakes, Steve’s preparation lays the foundation for magic to happen. In words and images, he endorses Louis Pasteur’s belief that “Chance favors the prepared mind,” and his talk inspires the audience to apply this to their own lives and problem solving. “After all, our eyes will only ever see what our mind is prepared to comprehend.” Steve’s cinematography work has aired on ABC, CBS, NBC, and PBS. He sits on the Board of Directors at Pseads. steveuzzell.com
SenSaSheri Maasera
SenSaSheri (SenSa) Maasera is a fellow at the Pseads Institute focused on community development and original research in Philosophy, Somatics, and Social and Environmental Justice. SenSaSheri is a junior at Dominican University of California, pursuing a BFA in Dance with the Alonzo King LINES Ballet contemporary ballet program. When she graduates, SenSaSheri will be in a professional contemporary dance company where she hopes to travel and learn from many communities in the world. SenSaSheri was born in Saint Louis, and also spent a lot of her childhood in Bermuda. Her family is a part of The Organization for Black Struggle (OBS), which is committed to serving the oppressed communities within St. Louis. In elementary school she joined one of OBS’ programs called Youth Undoing Institutional Racism (YUIR). Through YUIR, SenSaSheri got the opportunity to serve many marginalized communities in St. Louis, Chicago, and Washington D.C. These communities suffer from harsh redlining, food deserts, and educational disparity. Participating in Freedom Schools, gardening, and school district reconciliation, SenSaSheri cultivated a driving passion for social and environmental justice, nature, and ethics. SenSaSheri’s family has a deep rooted spiritual practice that has influenced her love for the introspection of spirituality and mindfulness.
Lauren Conrow
Lauren Conrow is entering her second year in the Peace Corps in Fiji, aiding Community Economic Development, particularly among women. She serves as an Associate Director of Brand Strategy and Partnerships at Pseads (a position she created). During high school, Lauren spent years several working with Matt and Elizabeth through a volunteer position in the middle school program at Bridge the Gap College Prep in Marin City, and reconnected with Pseads after her college graduation in 2023. Curiosity and connectivity make Lauren’s world go ’round. She is a skillful and intuitive brand manager, strategist and storyteller, extracting the essence of organizations to successfully articulate, illustrate and amplify their mission and vision. Lauren has a wide range of brand-based experience; she has served as a consultant for multiple start-ups, and has held marketing positions at larger films. Lauren is on a mission to use her brand-management knowledge, social-entrepreneurial zest and community-based experience to ignite intellectual, authentic and open-hearted conversations. She believes organizations have a unique opportunity, and a responsibility, to build community and foster genuine human relationships. Lauren’s interested also include Art History (especially Abstract Expressionism), non-fiction literature, live music, ecological restoration, and community spaces.
