Belvie Rooks is Co-Founder of Growing a Global Heart. She is a writer, educator and producer whose work weaves the worlds of spirituality, feminism, ecology and social justice. Her segment “Healing and Revisioning” is featured in the newJourney of the Universe, 20-part Educational DVD Series  that accompanies the book and the film by Brian Swimme and Mary Evelyn Tucker. 

She has been the creator and host of “ConverZations That Matter” an innovative dialogue series at both IONS and CIIS. She is a former board member of Bioneers, The Urban Habitat Program, and the Positive Futures Network/Yes Magazine and the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. She is currently a board member of the Institute for Noetic Sciences (IONS), and the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation and a Core Faculty member of Holy Names University's Culture and Spirituality Program.   Her published works have appeared in a number of publications and anthologies including: Sacred Poems and Prayers in Praise of Life, edited by Mary-Ford Grabowsky, The Same River Twice: Honoring the Difficult by Alice Walker, My Soul is a Witness: African American Women’s Spirituality. She won an American Book Award as the Senior Editor of, Paris Connections: African American Artists in Paris

Dedan Gills, Co-Founder of Growing a Global Heart, has pioneered the idea of "Green Recovery"--a concept that combines stewardship and restoration of blighted urban areas with an engaged dialogic process designed to restore the integrity of souls wounded by the crush of modern urban reality. His work incorporates the principles of sustainability, permaculture design, environmental awareness and the greening of the inner spirit as critical aspects of the recovery and healing process. For the past ten years he has worked with people victimized by efforts at survival in our modern urban environment including people who are homeless, suffering from drug addiction and incarceration. He also serves as a surrogate male role model and mentor to young men growing up in these challenging urban environments. 
Dedan is a writer and poet and associate producer of Watts Up! a documentary film (in progress) about a young man's transformative journey. Dedan has studied and recieved certification in permaculture from Larry Santoyo the chief advocate of urban permacultre.He has traveled extensively and has participated in international conferences on Conflict Resolution, Peace and Global Healing in Russia and Bali. He recently returned from a two-month trip to West Africa, spending time in Ghana and Senegal, as part of an ongoing exploration into the inter-generational impact of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.  

(Photo Credit: Elizabeth Miller)