Joanna Macy is the pioneering teacher of the Work that Reconnects, known world- wide in movements for peace, justice and ecological sanity. As an ecophilosopher and trainer she interweaves Buddhism, systems theory, and deep ecology. Building on four decades of activism, her ground breaking experiential work brings forth courage and community for the co-creating of a life sustaining society. Since her first workshops in Australia in 1985, when she created the Council of All Beings with John Seed, her collaboration with Australian activists has brought enduring mutual benefit. Joanna’s books include Coming Back to Life, World as Lover World as Self, Thinking Like a Mountain (with John Seed), Rilke’s Book of Hours, Mutual Causality, Dharma and Development and her memoirs Widening Circles.
Fran Macy, director of the Centre for Safe Energy, and co-founder of the US Institute for Deep Ecology, is a cross cultural organiser and trainer, leading the Work that Reconnects in Europe, Asia and North America. For eight years in India and Africa, he managed appropriate technology programs for the Peace Corps. A specialist in Russian culture and history, Fran works closely with environmental and anti-nuclear activists in the former Soviet Union. He helps them create strong citizen networks, to overcome the legacy of isolation, passivity and pollution left behind with a centralised, growth driven industrial system. In 2002, Fran received jointly with a leading Russian scientist-activist the Life-Long Achievement Award from the Nuclear Free Future fund for “decades of building bridges between the peace and environmental movements in Russia and America."