She has been married to Andrew Cohen since 1986 and has been a student since Andrew began teaching. Born and raised in Mumbai, India, Alka received a bachelor’s degree in commerce from Bombay University. Later she studied yoga and moved to Bangkok, Thailand, where she was a yoga instructor for several years. Living in Thailand, Alka began meditating and became inspired to pursue a spiritual path. Upon returning to India, she met Andrew, at that time a fellow spiritual seeker, and they traveled throughout India for two years visiting ashrams and teachers. Alka currently lives at the EnlightenNext World Center in Lenox, MA, working closely with Andrew. She is passionate about exploring the challenges and potentials for women on the path of Evolutionary Enlightenment, and has been instrumental in creating EnlightenNext’s women’s programs. She is a senior instructor of Evolutionary Enlightenment, and a mentor of other instructors. Alka also oversees landscape design for EnlightenNext’s 220-acre property.

Close

Amy has been a dedicated practitioner of Evolutionary Enlightenment since 1986 and has worked closely with Cohen in numerous capacities. Over recent years, she has contributed in key ways to the creation of dynamic governance and organizational systems for EnlightenNext that reflect the values and principles of Evolutionary Enlightenment. As one of the senior editors for EnlightenNext magazine for five years, Amy authored numerous pieces on the great wisdom traditions and their relevance in today’s world, interviewing contemporary spiritual leaders including the Dalai Lama, Ammachi, Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, and Brother Wayne Teasdale. She most recently served as part of the senior management team as Communications Director and is currently working with Cohen on his forthcoming book on Evolutionary Enlightenment. She lives with her husband, Jeff Carreira, in Lenox, Massachusetts, and is the founder of an award-winning online copywriting business, Ascent Copywriting.

Close

Bob has worked closely with EnlightenNext founder and spiritual teacher Andrew Cohen to help cultivate and develop a growing global movement of “Evolutionaries”—individuals interested in creating a revolution in consciousness and culture. He has also worked with the organization in various capacities since it was incorporated in 1988. Formally trained as an ecologist, Bob earned his PhD from the University of Massachusetts. His extensive training in systems ecology has found a new form of expression at EnlightenNext in his work facilitating the creation of an integrated organization that reflects the principles of Evolutionary Enlightenment. Under Bob’s guidance, EnlightenNext reestablished its Board of Directors, implemented a strong supporting infrastructure, and created a new management structure to provide a solid foundation for the organization’s development. Prior to working with EnlightenNext, Bob worked for fifteen years as a software consultant and trainer and coauthored several bestselling software books for Que Publications.

Close

Calvin has been with the organization since 1991 and has held various roles, including Director of Operations, Marketing Director, and Director of Membership Services. In 2006, he spearheaded the initiative to rebrand the organization, long established as a spiritual and educational nonprofit, as EnlightenNext. It was also under his guidance that EnlightenNext launched the first membership program that significantly broadened the base of active participants in the organization’s activities. Since Calvin assumed the role of CEO in 2007, EnlightenNext has clarified and articulated its organizational mission and has unified its programs and initiatives to align with its core mission. He is currently shepherding EnlightenNext into a new phase of sustainability. Additionally, he serves in the capacity of global CEO and sits on EnlightenNext’s Global Council. Prior to his work with EnlightenNext, Calvin was trained and worked as a network engineer in the information technology industry and also spent many years in sales and finance. He holds a BA in psychology from Westminster College in Fulton, MO, and currently lives with his wife Kelly in Lenox, Massachusetts. He enjoys travel, has toured extensively throughout Europe and Asia, and is also an avid fan of Oklahoma football.

Close

Carter’s areas of expertise range from metaphysics to politics to science and technology, and his in-depth features reflect the careful rigor of contemporary journalism and a passionate concern for the development of human culture. He regularly represents EnlightenNext magazine at conferences and leadership gatherings, including Deepak Chopra’s Evolutionary Leaders Forum, the invitation-only Assembly of Leaders prior to the 2004 Parliament of the World’s Religions, the 2008 Edinburgh Festival of Spirituality and Peace. Carter has appeared on BBC Radio’s Reporting Religion and on New Dimensions radio, and he is a regular guest on Deepak Chopra’s Wellness Radio on Sirius. He is also featured in “The Shift,” a soon-to-be-released documentary, alongside global spiritual leaders and activists including the Dalai Lama, Al Gore, and Desmond Tutu. His first book, Evolutionaries, a manifesto for the emerging evolutionary spirituality, will be published by Harper Perennial in Spring 2011. Carter has a degree in economics from the University of Oklahoma. He has been a student of Andrew Cohen since 1991 and now lives with his wife Ellen in Lenox, Massachusetts.

Close

A serious spiritual practitioner for more than thirty-five years, Chris has been studying Evolutionary Enlightenment with Andrew Cohen since 1986. As Cohen’s most senior student and teacher of Evolutionary Enlightenment, Chris has played a key role throughout the history of EnlightenNext. As cofounder of the EnlightenNext London Center in 1992, he has guided the evolution of individuals and groups throughout the UK. He has also directed EnlightenNext centers in Holland, Germany, and Australia.

Chris has contributed significantly to the development of the practice of Evolutionary Enlightenment. Working closely with Cohen, he has done pioneering work developing Enlightened Communication, a unique art and science of dialogue beyond ego that is based on the principles of Evolutionary Enlightenment. He has also traveled extensively, delivering workshops on Evolutionary Enlightenment around the world, and has been invited to speak at numerous centers and conferences, including: Winchester University (England); Terre du Ciel (France); Tetra (Belgium); National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation (USA); Whole System Change (USA); and integral conferences such as the Frankfurt Autumn Academy. As a contributing editor to EnlightenNext magazine, he has published interviews with contemporary spiritual teachers, including Ramesh Balsekar, Douglas Harding, and the Shankaracharya of Sringeri. Chris is known for his very English sense of humor, and has recently begun writing and speaking about British culture and the particular challenges it presents to the aspiring Evolutionary. Prior to his work with EnlightenNext, he was a practicing homeopath and pioneered an innovative approach for treating acute illnesses in homeopathic clinics.

Close

As a computer science engineer, Didier’s background centers around international telecoms. He started his professional career as a trainer for an American computer company, where he developed and taught courses to thousands of computer and software professionals. He later became part of a small team responsible for launching a number of subsidiaries in Eastern Europe and Africa, where he lived for several years. Through his international professional experience, Didier has developed a strong interest in multicultural environments and developed skills in conflict resolution for large international business projects. Before returning to his native France, Didier spent seven years working in the UK and managing logistics for the EnlightenNext London Center. He has been a student of Andrew Cohen’s since 1997.

Close

Her bestselling book, Mother Daughter Revolution: From Good Girls to Great Women, was heralded by Gloria Steinem and Carol Gilligan as “the book women have been waiting for.” Elizabeth received her doctorate in human development and psychology from Harvard University, where she was a founding member of the Harvard Project on Women’s Psychology and Girls’ Development, directed by Dr. Carol Gilligan. Elizabeth has been sought after as an expert on girls, women, and the evolution of gender roles by major media outlets in the US and abroad and has lectured in the US, Canada, and Europe. She has made multiple appearances on Oprah, Good Morning America, and NPR, and was featured in a major Lifetime documentary on girls’ development. She has also been a consultant for numerous films and television programs, as well as to foundations, nonprofit educational organizations, corporate law firms, and businesses. Elizabeth has taught at Harvard University, the New School for Social Research, and the Graduate Institute, where she was Academic Director of the Master of Arts program in Conscious Evolution. Her work has appeared in academic publications, popular media, and international anthologies as well as in EnlightenNext magazine. She is under contract for a new book, tentatively titled The Evolution of Love: Men, Women, and the Possibility of Transformation, to be published by Pantheon. At EnlightenNext, Elizabeth teaches and develops programming on the evolution of gender and the next women’s liberation. She has been a student of Andrew Cohen’s since 1996.

Close

A student of Evolutionary Enlightenment since 1996, as well as Andrew Cohen’s editor for almost a decade, Ellen has developed a unique perspective on how his philosophy and vision has evolved and developed. She is currently editing a book of teachings from Cohen’s talks and retreats. Ellen received her degree in literature from the University of London, and runs a successful consulting and writing business, providing creative collaboration and publishing know-how to authors in the fields of spirituality and business. She lives with her husband, EnlightenNext Executive Editor Carter Phipps, in Lenox, Massachusetts, where she enjoys competing in local triathlons and long-distance cycling events.

Close

He also works closely with UK Managing Director Chris Parish, building relationships with organizations in the UK to explore the significance and impact of a new spiritual paradigm for the twenty-first century. Faheem received a BSc degree in computer science and development studies from the University of Central Lancashire. After several years working as a member of the Global Quality Team at Accenture Global Management Consulting, he became an independent IT consultant in Microsoft technologies. Faheem met Andrew Cohen in 1992, and although he was not looking for a spiritual path at the time, was struck by Andrew’s one-pointed dedication to spiritual inquiry as a source of depth and meaning in an increasingly complex world. He decided that wherever his career would take him, this inquiry would be at the heart of his life. Faheem is married to Kona Goulet, EnlightenNext’s Development Director, and they juggle their busy lives on each side of the Atlantic to spend time together between London and Lenox, Massachusetts.

Close

Jeff received his undergraduate degree in physics and spent five years working as a research engineer in a telecommunications firm before realizing that life’s deepest questions could not be answered through science alone. He then decided to move to a more humanitarian field and received a MEd in education, after which he spent seven years working in special education as a teacher and school administrator. During this time he met Andrew Cohen. Since then, more than sixteen years ago, Jeff became a founding member of the EnlightenNext center in Boston, EnlightenNext’s Marketing Director, and in 2001 became Andrew Cohen’s personal assistant.

As Director of Education, Jeff oversees and creates the programs and events that inspire Evolutionaries around the world. He has been responsible for designing and teaching courses and training more than eighty teachers of Evolutionary Enlightenment. He has also built a strong membership program by tapping the educational and communications potential of online and telecommunications technologies. Jeff founded and cohosted an internet radio program, the EnlightenNext Weekly Webcast, and is a key figure in the ongoing development of the EnlightenNext Discovery Cycle. In recent years, he has developed an interest in the philosophical roots of Evolutionary Enlightenment, and in particular the work of the American transcendentalists and pragmatists, and has given talks on this subject throughout the US and in Australia. Jeff lives in Lenox, Massachusetts, with his wife Amy Edelstein.

Close

She is a senior instructor of Evolutionary Enlightenment courses. Katrin grew up in East Berlin, in a secular family without any religion or higher guiding principle. When the Berlin Wall came down, she experienced the exhilaration of a kind of freedom she had never known. But in the years following she realized that real freedom is not found in outer circumstances but is an inner matter. Katrin turned her attention to spiritual exploration and in 1994 met Andrew Cohen at a retreat in India. This meeting changed her perspective on her own life and on human development. She became an active student of Evolutionary Enlightenment, and cofounded the first EnlightenNext center in Cologne, Germany. Later, she spent five years at the Amsterdam center supporting EnlightenNext’s work in Holland, and returned to Germany as part of the management team when the center moved from Cologne to Frankfurt.

Close

Bringing together her professional expertise with her spiritual interests, Kona is a passionate advocate for the potential of philanthropy to uplift and transform culture. Kona served as Managing Director for EnlightenNext London from 2004 to 2006, and in that capacity oversaw the organization’s programs and activities including launching a venue-hire business to help sustain organizational activities. In late 2006, she was invited to the EnlightenNext World Center in Lenox, Massachusetts, to launch a development department as its director. Under Kona’s leadership, the EnlightenNext Development Department has consistently increased and met fundraising targets, even during challenging economic times. With the success of these accomplishments, Kona was invited by Professor Nadine B. Hack to speak at New York University’s Wagner School of Public Service on a panel exploring “integrated organizational leadership” as part of a course on “development strategies for nonprofit capacity building.” She has also presented on the subject of “faith and finance” at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City as part of the Interfaith Experiences forum, and has been working to develop creative forums for philanthropists to come together as agents of transformation. Prior to her employment with EnlightenNext, Kona worked for ten years in the corporate, law, and financial sectors in England, Australia, and Holland.

Close

Kyrsten met Andrew Cohen in Australia in 1995 and has been a student and an active member of EnlightenNext since then. She has always had a love for art and did her undergraduate and postgraduate work at Sydney University in visual arts and philosophy, but most of her career has focused on social activism. Passionate about creating social change through politics, she worked for several years for the Australian federal government as Assistant to the Federal Minister for Consumer Affairs, Sydney Secretary of the Youth Wing of the Australian Labor Movement, and an advisor on aboriginal affairs and women's issues. Since 1997 when she moved to London, Kyrsten has had several roles at the EnlightenNext Center, including managing EnlightenNext’s international speakers’ series Voices from the Edge and developing relationships with other spiritual alliance groups in the UK. She is currently the Director of The Window, a thriving venue rental business at EnlightenNext’s London Center and leads workshops on Evolutionary Enlightenment and meditation in the UK and Europe. She is married to Chris Parish, Managing Director of the London Center.

Close

He has worked extensively in theater, television, radio, and film throughout the world. In 2002, he won the London Evening Standard Best Actor Award for his portrayal of Samuel Taylor Coleridge in Julian Temple’s acclaimed film Pandemonium and in 2003 he was nominated for a Golden Globe Best Actor Award for his portrayal of Robert Kennedy in the TV film RFK. With a career that has taken him from Shakespeare’s Richard II to Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins, Linus is currently starring in the popular television series Law and Order, where he plays Assistant D.A. Michael Cutter.

Linus met Andrew Cohen in 1994. Already at the peak of a successful career, Linus found that the perspective of Evolutionary Enlightenment radically reoriented the trajectory of his life, which had until then been focused on his career alone. Discovering that his creative and artistic talents were only a small expression of a much bigger creative and evolutionary impulse of life itself, Linus found a greater context for his own life that gave it new meaning and purpose. After spending nearly two years away from the business of acting, and immersing himself in the study of Evolutionary Enlightenment, Linus decided to return to his chosen profession but with a newfound set of priorities and values. With those values now at the core of his life, Linus has learned to navigate the often overwhelming and confusing waters of success, ambition, and celebrity, and still make spirituality his highest priority. Along with his full-time work as an actor, Linus is currently Managing Director of EnlightenNext’s New York City center. He and his wife, Rosalind Bennett, divide their time between New York City and Lenox, Massachusetts.

Close

After graduating from Australian National University with a degree in Asian philosophy and language, Mary lived in India for several years, studying with some of the most revered teachers of this century, including Nisargadatta Maharaj and J. Krishnamurti. She later moved to England, where she was cofounder and board director for an international retreat facility and became a practicing psychotherapist. Mary met Andrew Cohen in 1986 and moved to the US in 1988 to join him as one of the founding members of EnlightenNext. Over the next two decades, she played many roles at EnlightenNext, including cofounding the first London center and supporting the establishment of centers in Europe, the US, and Australia. Mary was also co-director of EnlightenNext’s international speakers series Voices from the Edge. Passionate about the potential for this work to bring about real change in the world today, Mary gives public talks and leads seminars on Evolutionary Enlightenment in the US and abroad.

Close

Patrick received a BA degree with honors in textile print from Manchester Metropolitan University in England and has produced fine art paintings, drawings, and prints exhibited in London and India. He also trained as a printer and graphic artist, working for many years as a freelance graphic artist for London’s top design agencies. An avid traveler, Patrick was born in Ireland and has lived in Holland, Switzerland, England, and India, exploring different spiritual practices and teachings before becoming a student of Andrew Cohen’s in 1995. Patrick has worked closely with EnlightenNext London’s Managing Director Chris Parish developing and facilitating Enlightened Communication discussion forums. He currently leads seminars on Evolutionary Enlightenment, serves on the Management Board for EnlightenNext London, and is a member of EnlightenNext magazine’s creative team. Patrick has a keen interest in the relationship between art and the evolution of consciousness.

Close

He is a theoretical physicist and a professional musician in several genres. Peter is also the author of the award-winning Danish book Into the Music: A Book about Music and Consciousness. After receiving his physics degree from the University of Copenhagen, Peter studied for fifteen years with the legendary Romanian born conductor and philosopher Sergiu Celibidacke. During this time he also taught chamber music and bassoon at the Royal Danish Conservatory. Peter cofounded the Danish Wind Quintet, one of Scandinavia’s finest chamber music ensembles, and the multi-music fusion group Bazaar, and has had a rigorous concert schedule for the past four decades, touring throughout the world. Since the publication of Into the Music in 1987, he has been a popular guest on Danish television and radio and has produced numerous programs about music and consciousness. Peter is very passionate about cultural change and speaks widely on this topic. Since meeting Andrew Cohen in 1999, he has been deeply influenced by the philosophy and vision of Evolutionary Enlightenment and is now a senior instructor of Evolutionary Enlightenment courses. Peter has received many awards for his cultural contributions, and was most recently appointed Knight of Dannebrog by the Queen of Denmark.

Close

As the general manager of the Dutch edition of EnlightenNext magazine, he led its launch in the beginning of 2009 and currently plays an important role in moving the magazine into a new digital era.

Rob’s longtime passion and expertise is in the field of health and fitness, in which he has been actively involved for many years—from certification as an Olympic lifting trainer and a Crossfit trainer, as well as a practitioner of martial arts and qigong, to his work as a physical therapist in hospitals, rehab centers, home care, and his own private practice in Holland. He also has a master’s degree in acupuncture. An avid believer in our capacity for and the importance of achieving optimum health, Rob recently designed an educational course called Health is Wealth that approaches physical well-being from an evolutionary perspective. He has been a student of Andrew Cohen’s since 1993.

Close

He received his undergraduate degree from the National Conservatory in Chile and his master’s degree from the Royal Conservatory in Holland. As a classical musician Rodrigo has performed throughout Europe, South America, and the US in several ensembles and released two baroque music CDs. He has also taught at the Music Conservatory in Tilburg, Holland, the San Francisco Conservatory, and the Catholic University in Chile. Although his early career focused on classical music, Rodrigo is a jazz lover and turned his attention to this genre seven years ago when Unfulfilled Desires was founded. Since then, he has been performing with the band in Europe and the US and released three CDs. He has always been compelled by the powerful potential in music to create a higher state of consciousness, and gives talks on music and the evolution of consciousness. Rodrigo has been a student of Andrew Cohen’s since 1987.

Close

After a highly successful career as an actress in the UK, on stage and television as well as in cinema, she decided to go behind the camera, and has been a key figure in EnlightenNext’s audio/video department for the past decade.

Ros was born in Manchester, England. She met Andrew Cohen in 1994 and moved to the US in 2002. Over the years, she has traveled extensively with Cohen around the world, working closely with him to document the unfolding and development of his teachings.  She is passionate about transmitting Cohen’s vision of a new enlightenment through the medium of film and video in order to affect as many people as possible with this miraculous potential for human society. She and her husband, actor Linus Roache, divide their time between Lenox, Massachusetts, and New York City.

Close

Sri met Andrew Cohen in 1993 and has been a student ever since. He volunteers as a systems consultant at EnlightenNext and oversees all the organization’s initiatives and programs in his native India. The latter reflects Sri’s abiding interest in the history of the evolution of culture at a global level, and in applying the fundamental themes of Evolutionary Enlightenment to further cultural development. Sri leads an active professional life as Principal Consultant at a leading global IT and business-consulting firm. He holds a bachelors degree from the Indian Institute of Technology (Madras) and a doctorate in computer systems from the University of Massachusetts. He is married to Sylvia Smetana, EnlightenNext’s Director of Finance, and they reside in Lenox, Massachusetts.

Close

His interest in Evolutionary Enlightenment was inspired by the extraordinary human potential that he experienced during the fall of the Berlin Wall, ending the communist regime in his East German homeland. With this newfound freedom, he traveled the world with his wife Katrin in a search for life’s deepest meaning. Upon meeting Andrew Cohen in 1994, he became one of the founders of the EnlightenNext movement in Germany. As a board member of its nonprofit organization, he currently holds the Development Chair. In recent years, Steffen has been working for leading technology companies in international markets and has developed a unique focus on business transformation and human development from an evolutionary spiritual perspective.

Close

She was born in Austria and studied business administration in Vienna. She met Andrew in 1994 at a talk he gave in Vienna. Inspired by the integrity, humanity, and purposefulness of his message, she decided to move to Cologne, Germany, in 1997 to join a committed group of people who had opened a center to support Andrew Cohen’s teaching. Sylvia is also a founding partner of the German edition of the award-winning magazine EnlightenNext.

In 2001 she moved to the world center in Lenox, Massachusetts, where she met her husband, Sri Pingali, and is now Director of Finance for EnlightenNext. She also supports the development of the EnlightenNext Center in Frankfurt and is very interested in bringing the teachings of Evolutionary Enlightenment into more German-speaking countries.

Close

Terri is a natural innovator with a passion for both spiritual and social transformation. After building a successful career in advertising sales for the past decade, she has found her niche in serving many of the pioneering conscious media publishers in the US, and is a key figure in EnlightenNext's Corporate Partnership program.

Terri has been a leader and entrepreneur all her life. She was a top volleyball player in her college years, and started a multimillion dollar company, Art To Wear Inc., while living on welfare as a single parent. In her early thirties, feeling the need for a deeper foundation to her life and success, Terri took an unexpected step, leaving her company to dedicate herself to spiritual practice and engagement. Under the guidance and inspiration of Andrew Cohen, she immersed herself in a new perspective on the human experience. It was this spiritual inquiry that eventually led Terri back to the heart of the business world. Her natural ease in building relationships and her flair for creative branding made advertising and corporate partnerships the perfect avenue through which to expand the reach of the leading-edge conversations she cares about. She is particularly excited about encouraging companies to get involved in sponsoring conversations that elevate culture—integrating their brands with forward-thinking solutions to life's serious questions.

Terri lives in Lenox, Massachusetts, with her husband, EnlightenNext Creative Director Will Rogers, and has a son who is serving as a US Marine.

Close

Tom earned his doctoral degree in philosophy at the University of Vienna, where he studied consciousness and social evolution using Ken Wilber's integral theory as the foundation for his research. He worked as a producer for Austrian National Public Radio, developing programming on consciousness and spiritual practices, and has been a contributing editor to several German spiritual magazines. In 1994, he met Andrew Cohen in Vienna. Deeply impressed by Andrew’s integrity and his radical approach to the spiritual life, Tom became his student and a student of Evolutionary Enlightenment. Tom gives regular public talks and seminars throughout Germany and Switzerland on the topics of integral spirituality, conscious evolution, and Evolutionary Enlightenment. His spiritual interest has led him into a powerful exploration of his cultural heritage, grappling with the impact of World War II on the German/Austrian psyche. Inspired by Andrew Cohen’s central tenet “face everything and avoid nothing,” Tom has become a provocative and respected voice urging Germans to embrace a greater responsibility for the crimes of their recent past, and in so doing, liberate a deeper dimension of their humanity. Tom has been instrumental in leading reconciliation conferences and discussions between holocaust survivors and children of Nazi leaders in Germany.

Close

Prior to his work at EnlightenNext, Will was an art director for several ad and design agencies in London. After meeting Andrew Cohen in 1992, Will became a member of the EnlightenNext London Center for several years before moving to the US. Under his guidance, EnlightenNext magazine and its website have been the recipient of several prestigious awards—two Folio Awards and two Webby Awards. Will was also a presenter at the Folio Awards in 2004.  In recent years, Will has developed an interest and expertise in branding and business development, and has been a key player in EnlightenNext’s branding team. He lives with his wife Terri Hinton in Lenox, Massachusetts, and in his spare time, is an avid basketball player and fan.

Close