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Avalon Springs' Core Council


Michael Woods is President of Baywood Capital Corporation. He graduated from San Francisco State University in 1974 with a degree in business. Michael has earned a reputation as a skilled dealmaker and manager of real estate investments through 50 partnerships he’s formed since 1977. In 1990, Michael purchased his first hotel in Calistoga, California. The historic Mount View Hotel was built in 1917 and is renowned for its restaurant and its European spa. Michael has been the managing partner for the White Sulphur Spring Resort & Spa in St. Helena, California, the Carmel Valley Inn and Tennis Resort in Carmel Valley, California, the Emerson Hotel in Palo Alto, California, the El Pizoti Lodge in Costa Rica, and the Inn at Eagle Mountain in Scottsdale, Arizona. Under Michael’s skilled management, these hotels have flourished and grown into strong and successful ventures. Michael is a practical anchor for Avalon Springs, providing the foundation of business expertise and acumen, as well as his commitment to creating business practices that foster prosperity through supporting human potential, health, and spiritual balance. Michael is also the founder of Avalon who took the first steps to pioneer its manifestation. email: Michael@AvalonSprings.org

Deidre Sommers has been practicing professionally in the healing arts since 1989. She is the founder of Alchemy of the Heart, a sanctuary for conscious evolution in Calistoga since 2002. Deidre's mission in life is to embody her calling as a visionary steward of the Earth's evolution. This passion for spiritual leadership has enriched Avalon's team with a fierce devotion to spiritual connection and integrity. She is a certified Biodynamic practitioner; in training to become a teacher of Biodynamic Cranial Touch through the Dynamic Stillness school (http://www.dynamicstillnes.com). She is a certified massage therapist as well as an ordained minister since 1989. In the last couple of years, Deidre has been initiated by the Q'ero shamans of Peru, who are direct descendents of the Inka, as well as in the Munay-Ki (http://www.munay-ki.org) which are the nine great rights of initiation in the Inkan medicine way. Originally raised within a Sufi community and a family of healers, Deidre discovered from a very early age the power of love; our innate capacity to heal and to awaken to our true nature, which, she feels, are one and the same journey. Since living in conscious intentional community in Hawaii ten years ago, she has been preparing the ground and holding the vision for Avalon Springs, and is excited to see the vision becoming reality. email: Deidre@AvalonSprings.org. Web Site: http://www.alchemyoftheheart.com


Richard Bock is an internationally renowned teacher of WaterDance and Watsu, two forms of aquatic bodywork, and an accomplished healer utilizing breath work (Quantum Light Breath), massage, reflexology, and Self-inquiry. Richard has lived and worked in intentional community since 1976 and is known as a natural project instigator and community leader. At Harbin Hot Springs where he has lived and worked for the past fourteen years, he spearheaded the successful effort to design and build a temple. Richard brings his natural talent for building and supporting community to Avalon Springs, as well as his expertise in aquatic bodywork and authentic relating. email: Richard@AvalonSprings.org


Mellissa Seaman graduated from Stanford University in 1991, and from the University of San Diego School of Law in 1995. She spent five years as an attorney in the areas of public interest law and litigation. Mellissa is a natural entrepreneur, the founding director of the Center for Improvisational Arts and the former owner of the San Diego Circle Shamanic Healing Arts Center. Mellissa gave up her legal practice six years ago to follow her calling as a shamanic healer, teacher and group facilitator. She brings a unique balance of business know-how and spiritual connection to the design and co-creation of Avalon as a deeply intentional business and community.  email: Mellissa@AvalonSprings.org



Iva Tashlick has studied and worked in the massage, healing, and wellness education fields for 27 years. In Maryland, Iva helped create and lived in a women's intentional community which included a women's temple. Iva has spent many years creating and leading spiritual ceremonial gatherings that provide deep grounding for spiritual transformation and enlightenment. She enjoys blending body awareness, movement, meditative states, communication, deep listening, and laughter. Iva is a delighted student of alternative nutritional wisdom, permaculture and bio-mimicry technologies, enthusiastic about her total commitment to the ongoing creation of Avalon Springs.  email: Iva@AvalonSprings.org


Sandeep Goel is President of LightBearer Investments, an investment management firm with a focus on socially conscious, Earth-friendly technology and alternate energy investments.  He is a partner in Morgenthau Accelerator Fund, an early and growth stage investment fund and he currently manages and sits on the boards of two venture backed technology companies.  Born in India, Sandeep grew up in an experimental, self-sufficient intentional community style international school where he got his first taste of a well functioning intentional community.  After college in India and the U.S. studying Physics, Computer Engineering and Systems Engineering, Sandeep served for 15 years as the CEO of an U.S. based computer software and Internet Company with international operations.  During this time, Sandeep gathered experience in all aspects of building and running a large distributed organization including product development, group/process/project management, customer service, sales, marketing, accounting, legal matters, capital raising, finance, investment management, public company reporting, mergers and acquisitions, and investor relations.  Sandeep’s passionate interests for the past 25 years have included writing, communication, physics and meta-physics, ceremony and spiritual gatherings, cosmology, environmental/green/alternate technologies, electro-mechanical engineering, large-scale complex systems design, clean sustainable energy and permaculture. email: Sandeep@AvalonSprings.org

 

Design Team

Arkin-Tilt Architects is an award-winning firm specializing in energy and resource efficient design. Their projects embody a marriage of thoughtful design and ecology, creating spaces that are comfortable and lyrical, with particular attention to the integration of the built and natural environments. Arkin-Tilt has extensive experience with alternative construction systems, including straw-bale and rammed earth, renewable energy systems, greywater, and non-toxic and recycled materials. A natural fit for the Avalon Design Team, their projects include residential and commercial, park buildings, religious facilities, and Eco-Resort planning and design.  We knew Arkin-Tilt were the right ones for the job when they walked inside the lodge, which is dark, dreary, and in need of massive renovations.  David and Anni's eyes lit up with the possibilities and the challenge, and Anni exclaimed jubilantly "Oh!  It's HORRible!"  They then went to work, devising strategies for passive cooling and heating, bringing light into the space, and opening the building to the beauty of the outdoor surroundings.

Sentient Landscape co-founders Kamala Bennett and Geoff Hall are former Associate Directors of The Permaculture Institute of Northern California. This permaculture design duo-extraordinaire has residential, commercial, hospitality, and public-policy expertise. The many features of Avalon Springs will be skillfully weaved into a verdant, unified tapestry by this talented design team.

 

 

Exos Design is an International Environmental Design Group assisting Avalon in creating a cohesive Master Plan for Avalon and all its land. Co-founders Doug Bullock and Scott Godfredson are world class Master Planners and permaculture based design specialists.  Exos has provided Master Planning and design services across the world in over a dozen countries.  Exos has assisted the Avalon Design Team to pull together a world class Master Plan that captures the Mystery in a magical and practical way while becoming a bright example and model for those who walk the path in the future.

 

 

Resident Work-Trade Staff

The Avalon Springs site is anchored, maintained, and stewarded by an extraordinary group of Avalon Work-Trade residents. While the business of Avalon's future is stewarded through the planning and expertise of the Design Team and Core Council, the Avalon Residents are holding down the fort, building a beautiful garden, taking care of the land and buildings, and anchoring the present reality of Avalon Springs every day. The Work-Trade resident community at Avalon is also helping to guide the vision of Community at Avalon by working through and setting agreements regarding living and working together as a cohesive group dedicated to the Field of Alliance, and providing ongoing input and feedback into the Core Council and the Design process.

The resident community of Avalon presently includes Alaya, Stavi, Maverick, Gaia, Paul, Ken, Andrea, Solyra, Chuck, Mellissa, Richard, Iva, Nancy, Katja, and Owen. Each one of these amazing individuals holds a history, an expertise, and a devotion of their own that enriches Avalon Springs every day.