The only way to predict the future is to create it.        

–Peter Drucker

Many of us are searching for ways to make a difference, to transform our families, communities and the world we live in. And each of us can make a difference - we all have the seeds of leadership and service within us. We can nurture these seeds, learning the skills and tools we need to transform ourselves and embody our highest potential.

Whether you have prior experience and training, or you have recently felt called to step onto a path of leadership for the first time, this program is a unique opportunity to deeply explore who you are, who you wish to be, and what your specific offering is to others. 

Through the Ecology of Leadership courses, you can learn to articulate your vision, get in deeper touch with your gifts, and develop new tools, routines, mindsets and skills to be more effective in manifesting what you see for yourself and the world.

Hear Ecology of Leadership directors James Stark and Christopher Kuntzsch talk about the Ecology of Leadership program on a Sustainable World Radio podcast.

The Adventure

The process of transforming your life and bringing your leadership forward in the world is an adventure, full of opportunity, challenge, and possibility. The Ecology of Leadership provides many pathways to step into this adventure, helping you to explore the landscape within and without, supported by a powerful alliance with the natural world and a community of other leaders.

The Ecology of Leadership will allow you to experience:

• Being engaged in a deep personal relationship with the natural world – and feeling nature's regenerative power
• Discovering and/or focusing your true nature, passions, and vision
• Transforming and releasing old patterns to develop new skills and ways of being
• Developing the capacity to live a life you love
• Creating a way of living and leading that manifests your dreams and your potential

The Journey

At its foundation, the Ecology of Leadership has three main elements: re-establishing your intimate relationship with the natural world, developing a powerful leadership tool bag, and exploring your "inner ecology" to remove blocks to your potential.

We Are Nature: Through the Ecology of Leadership, you will experience what is naturally yours – an intimate relationship with the natural world from which a unique quality of leadership arises. You'll learn to source your leadership from this connection with the earth, and stay attuned to the natural patterns in your own life, creating a new level of effectiveness and awareness to your leadership.

Leadership Tool Bag: This element includes powerful skills, habits, mindsets, and ways of being that improve your effectiveness as a leader, including:

• Effective communication
• Making and honoring powerful commitments
• Project development and stewardship
• Moving your vision forward in the world
• Presentation skills
• Getting things done with grace and ease
• Using time effectively
• Coaching – helping others grow, transform, and develop new skills
• Bringing all aspects of your life into balance and harmony

Inner Ecology: Our "Inner Ecology" influences how we show up as leaders. You'll discover how your thoughts, mental models, beliefs, and the stories you tell – about yourself and those around you – affect your life and your ability to make a difference in your family, community, and chosen work in the world. As you understand and transform your inner ecology, you become more effective at manifesting your dreams.

Integrating these three elements, you will begin to experience leadership as a dynamic process that translates your awareness and insights – about yourself and the world around you – into effective action towards your intended goals.

On your development journey, you will:

• Design and implement a self-inspired project, giving you the opportunity to practice new leadership skills while making a difference in your community. 
• Explore patterns of behavior, as well as the thoughts and beliefs you operate from, and determine which of these do and do not serve you in your life and work in the world. 
• Receive structured coaching and support from your peers between workshops, as well as from program instructors and alumni.
• Adopt routines to deepen your relationship with the natural world and who you are as a leader.
• Take on practice assignments that will help you develop your personal leadership ecology and integrate the skills, mindset, and routines of the course into your daily life and chosen projects.
• Develop and grow a regional leadership circle during the course of the program. After graduation, this circle will continue to serve and support you on your leadership journey.

As the Ecology of Leadership program unfolds, you will experience leadership as a new way of thinking and being. By engaging in the practices and routines offered in the program, you will deepen your relationship to the natural world and transform your life and leadership effectiveness.

Instructors: James Stark and Christopher Kuntzsch

Ecology of Leadership Programs

EOL Scholarship Fund

Please note that we welcome donations into our EOL Scholarship Fund, which provides financial support to young community leaders who would otherwise be unable to take part. If you would like to submit a donation, please contact our office at (415) 868 9681. We are grateful for your gift as this supports the vision we hold for this program.

Course Testimonials

It feels like I’ve been given license to source the regenerative power of nature.  It feels so right – nature as guide/teacher/elder.  I have also learned effective processes for decomposing stories that no longer serve me. I am speaking with more power.  I am more open and coming from my heart rather than my head.  I am also supporting others’ journeys and dreams and am bringing deep listening to my relationships. As I change, everything else in my life shifts as well.

– Mary Schriner

I feel stronger in my conviction, clearer in my visioning and fuller in my heart. I know a complete certainty of purpose and am finding the language to help share the dream. I feel completely loved and supported in my personal process and in bringing these gifts out more fully into the world.

–Ruth Paradise

In my leadership I have noticed more clarity, more humor, more human-ness, and more self-acknowledgement (internally). I have noticed more of a willingness to share myself and an even greater desire to have more of a leadership role in my current job.

– Leah Smith

I have a deeper understanding, forgiveness, and patience and new, wiser ways of seeing the world and people around me. James and Christopher led us through the class with compassion, patience, and passion.

– Brittany Richardson

I feel more clear and confident in myself, my skills, and abilities. I feel more open and my relationships and friendships have blossomed as a result. I have more peace – and can reach more people with inner peace than inner panic!

– Andrew Wollenberg

If you are up for radical renewal, ready to purge your root systems of encumbrances, ready to get clear on your stake and purpose in the world in service to the environment, with a group of like-minded and like-hearted souls you can co-create community with for the rest of your life, then this is the program you've been waiting for. from 1-5,  a 10 – off the charts!

– Catherine Walker

I learned to transform triggers by tracking their roots and then smiling at the source. Attachments to old patterns melted away. This opens my heart space to receive more authentic responses to my intentions – the world has suddenly opened up!

– Salvatore Caruso

The course has supported me in honoring and embodying my own personal truth.  If you feel the call to embark on this journey, I absolutely invite you to say YES! To accept the knowingness within your own being to embody your potential and show up powerfully in the world.  The world beckons you to share your light.

– Jennifer Riley