Lauren Artress
lauren@veriditas.org
Lauren is the Founder and Creative Director of Veriditas. She is the author of Walking a Sacred Path: Rediscovering the Labyrinth as a Spiritual Tool (Putnam/Riverhead Books, New York), The Sand Labyrinth Kit, (Tuttle Publishers) and The Sacred Path Companion: A Guide to Walking the Labyrinth to Heal and Transform (Riverhead, 2006).
Lauren is a priest of the Episcopal Church, and her home parish is Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, California. From 1986 to 1992, she served there as Canon Pastor and then as Canon for Special Ministries until August 2004. In May of 2006, her work with the labyrinth was acknowledged by Grace Cathedral and she was given by the title of lifetime Honorary Canon.
In 1991, while on a brief sabbatical, Lauren walked an informal taped labyrinth through the work of Jean Houston. The idea gestated for a few months and then she was compelled to go to Chartres Cathedral, where she moved the chairs and walked the ancient labyrinth. This courageous act has led to the rediscovery of the labyrinth. Lauren not only introduced the walking meditation back into the Christian tradition but also introduced the labyrinth back into Western culture. By December 1991, she had replicated the Medieval Eleven Circuit Labyrinth at Grace Cathedral beginning in canvas form. Due to the enormous response of people desiring to learn a walking meditation, the tapestry labyrinth was installed inside the Cathedral in 1994. The outdoor terrazzo labyrinth was installed in the Interfaith Meditation Garden in 1995. In 2007, Grace Cathedral decided to install a permanent stone labyrinth in the floor where the tapestry labyrinth has been. Veriditas is storing the carpet until it can realize its vision of a retreat center where the carpet labyrinth will once again have a home.
In 1995, Lauren created the non-profit Veriditas as a 501c3, with the initial vision of "peppering the planet with labyrinths". After successfully launching thousands of labyrinths in churches, hospitals, cathedrals, prisons, spas, community parks, hospices and other settings, a new mission for Veriditas emerged: To facilitate the transformation of the human spirit through offering the Labyrinth Experience.
Lauren travels worldwide offering workshops and lectures on the labyrinth, Hildegard of Bingen, Opening the Divine Imagination, Taking That Creative Leap ~ Navigating A Life Transition, and on other topics related to the spiritual journey and the mystical life. She creates large group experiences that nurture the connection between the human and divine such as Walking a Sacred Path held twice a year in Chartres Cathedral.
Working with Judith Tripp, The School of the Sacred Feminine was launched to create more awareness about the Divine Feminine throughout history and its relevance for our times.
Lauren is a much sought after Keynote speaker, ordained as an Episcopal priest and licensed as a psychotherapist in the State of California. She holds a Bachelor's Degree in Special Education from Ohio State University and a Master's of Education from Princeton Theological Seminary. She received her analytic training in Object Relations and Systems Theory at The Blanton-Peale Graduate Institute at The Institute of Religion and Health in New York City. Her Doctor of Ministry degree was granted in 1986 from Andover Newton Theological School in Boston Massachusetts in Pastoral Psychology.
Lauren is a Diplomate in the American Association for Pastoral Counselors and a Clinical Member in the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapists and a Marriage and Family Therapist in the State of California. She sits on the Editorial Board of Presence Magazine and is a Panelist for the On Faith series sponsored by Newsweek Magazine and the Washington Post.
Read a recent article about Lauren here.
Dawn Matheny, Ph.D., Executive Director
dawn@veriditas.org
Dawn Matheny is a seasoned administrator who has worked for over 30 years, running programs in local government and non-profits. She has a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology from University of California in Santa Cruz, a Masters Degree in Counseling from Sonoma State University, and a Doctorate in East West Psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies.
Dawn started her work life in the non-profit sector, working in a children's residential treatment program and a volunteer bureau and then as an executive director of a shelter program for women and children who had been victims of domestic violence where she supervised 11 staff and 40 volunteers. She worked with the board to raise funds for both operational and capitol budgets. In 1984, she was hired by the County of Sonoma to create a volunteer program that would serve County departments. That program grew to over 2,000 volunteers who do a wide variety of tasks from tutoring kids in juvenile hall, walking trails in parks, to cat cuddling in the animal shelter. Dawn's job expanded over the years and involved many projects and assignments including producing on large scale recognition events, editing a 12 page monthly newsletter, and culminating in the coordination of two public sector commissions, the Commission on the Status of Women and the Commission on Human Rights. She ended her career in county government to accept the position with Veriditas.
Dawn's doctoral dissertation was titled Dreaming: the Relationship to Self, in which she explored the various ways that people have of relating to their dreams. Dawn is a member of the Association of the Study of Dreams and has made numerous presentations in classes and at conferences on dream related topics. After getting her Ph.D., Dawn taught Qualitative Research and Research Methods as adjunct faculty at John F. Kennedy University and the Institute of Integral Studies.
Dawn got involved with the labyrinth by attending and then assisting with Women's Dream Quests over the past six years. With strong administrative, organizational and people skills, Dawn is delighted to join Rev. Dr. Lauren Artress in building Veriditas to promote the wisdom of the labyrinth.
Roberta Sautter, Administrative Coordinator
roberta@veriditas.orgRoberta has been running the office at Veriditas for the past 3 years. She has a bachelor's degree in English from Brown University, where she then worked for 12 years. During that time, as Rhode Island's first Paper and Library Materials conservator, she founded the Department of Library Conservation in the John Hay Special Collections Library. After a sojourn in the field of human services, working with autistic children and later emotionally disturbed teenagers, she went on to become a project manager for a software development company. She brings her technical skills to Veriditas, handling the database, setting up Internet communications and introducing new software, but also enjoys talking to people who want to sign up or call with questions about Veriditas programs.
Judith Tripp, Coordinator, School of the Sacred Feminine
SOSF@veriditas.orgJudith Tripp has a Masters in Counseling and is a licensed Marriage/Family Therapist. She is a transpersonal psychotherapist, a Veriditas trained facilitator, as well as a musician with several CDs in circulation. She has been leading Veriditas sponsored Dream Quests at Grace Cathedral and around the country for almost 20 years. She is member of the Veriditas Council and works for Veriditas to coordinate, develop and lead the School of the Sacred Feminine.
Ed Pryle, Bookkeeper
accounting@veriditas.orgEd Pryle came to Veriditas with extensive background in auditing and accounting in both the private and non profit sectors. He has done full charge accounting all the way through financial statements for more than twenty years. He has worked for institutions as varied as Bank of America, Francis Coppola' film company and the Haight Ashbury Free Clinics. He has also been walking the Labyrinth for almost a decade, and is very active in the Grace Cathedral Labyrinth Guild.
Kate Kilbourne, Web Master
webmaster@veriditas.orgKate Kilbourne is the Veriditas Webmaster and the Website Director for Grace Cathedral. She has been developing sites professionally since 1994. Kate spearheaded the redesign of Grace Cathedral's site, GraceCathedral.org, which received the Webby Award for Spirituality websites in 2004.
Volunteers on Staff
Financial Comptroller: Barbara Ludlum, (accounting@veriditas.org)
Labyrinth Photographer: Cindy Pavlinac, (cindyp@sacred-land-photography.com)
Production Manager for Chartres Programs: Lisa Steckley, (WASPproductions@veriditas.org)
Web Masters for Verditas Facilitator Portal and listserv: Margaret Saizon ( listserv@veriditas.org) and Kathy Kothman ( portal@veriditas.org)
Newsletter Production Team: Tina Margason and Jay Edge with Marjorie Connelly, Newsletter Desktop Publisher
Veriditas Certified Facilitators and many, many more volunteers who help with our events.
