Company Biographies
 

PeerSpirit is an educational company that offers clients a unique blend of compassionate leadership, creative innovation and pragmatic skills. Whether leading seminars indoors or in wilderness, PeerSpirit colleagues are masters at facilitating significant conversations among people in businesses, education, non-profit organizations, and personal groups.

The partners bring decades of experience in group facilitation, teaching, speaking, writing, and leadership skills to this work. For a printer-ready CV outlining corporate & educational clients, selected conferences, books authored, and other information, please click here.

Ann Linnea

Deep Water Passage: A Spiritual Journey at Mid-life (Pocketbook,1997)
Teaching Kids to Love the Earth (Pfeifer-Hamilton,1991)


Ann Linnea is a quiet and provocative educator who integrates the spiritual journey and the practical path in all her work. Whether she's presenting a workshop to business leaders, healthcare professionals, clergy and laity, a diverse group of students and faculty, or to people on a wilderness adventure, Ann embodies the stewardship of water and wild things which has characterized her life and work.

Ann has been a naturalist and teacher of outdoor skills for three and a half decades. As a high school student, she led grade school children on canoe trips in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. In her twenties, she took high school biology students and Youth Conservation Corps students into the mountains of Utah for environmental education. In her thirties, she developed Sense of Wonder Workshops taking teachers and families outdoors in a spirit of curiosity, exploration and discovery. In her forties, she led women into the wilderness on foot, in canoe, by kayak, and via dogsled. And in her fifties, she continues to guide adventure trips for people of all ages, while integrating earth stewardship, council practice, and wisdom into all of her teaching, consulting, and speaking.

Author of hiking and skiing guides during her years as US. Forest Service naturalist in the 1970's, Ann has also co-authored the award-winning Teaching Kids to Love the Earth (1991 Pfeifer-Hamilton). In 1992, she designed her own mid-life rite of passage and became the first woman to circumnavigate Lake Superior by sea kayak (an 1,800 mile journey). Deep Water Passage, A Spiritual Journey at Mid-Life, (Little, Brown, 1995; Pocketbook, 1997) portrays her extraordinary physical courage and even more extraordinary spiritual trial and transformation.

In 1994, Ann relocated to western Washington from her native Minnesota. Now living on an island near Seattle, she and author /educator Christina Baldwin co-founded their business PeerSpirit, Inc. Through PeerSpirit , the two women offer a variety of consulting seminars, practica, and wilderness programs that take advantage of their unique range of skills. She has recently keynoted at the University of Minnesota, "Bonds between Women and Water," conference, the University of Wisconsin, opening convocation, worked with the Race and Gender Institute at the University of North Carolina, and consulted with the Center for Nursing Leadership and other health care clients. When replenishing herself at home she adores kayaking, gardening, and bicycling.

For a printer-ready version of Ann's biography, please click here.

Christina Baldwin

Storycatcher: Making Sense of Our Lives Through the Power and Practice of Story (New World Library, 2005)
The Seven Whispers, A Spiritual Practice for Times Like These (New World Library, 2002)
Calling the Circle: the First and Future Culture (Bantam, 1998)
Life's Companion: Journal Writing as a Spiritual Quest (Bantam 1990)
One to One: Self-Understanding through Journal Writing (M. Evans, 1977,1991)

Christina Baldwin is an eloquent and witty speaker and educator, who integrates the spiritual journey and the practical path. Whether offering a retreat, presenting a workshop or speaking to conferences, Christina’s vibrancy, talent, and unique body of knowledge provides an enlivening experience.

Christina has taught nationally and internationally since the mid-1970s, and has contributed classic books in the emerging bodies of knowledge around personal writing, group process and spirituality. Her first work, One to One: Self-Understanding through Journal Writing (M. Evans,1977, rev. 1991) is a pioneering text that has remained in continuous print for a quarter of a century. Her marvelous sequel, Life's Companion, Journal Writing as a Spiritual Quest (Bantam 1990), extended the art of journal writing to spiritual practice. These titles have sold over 150,000 copies.

In the early 1990's, Christina began developing a group process methodology that led to the concepts presented in her ground-breaking work, Calling the Circle: the First and Future Culture (Bantam, 1998). This book has introduced thousands of people to a practical, hands-on structure for convening their meetings in circle and tapping collective wisdom. She has taken this work to the heart of mainstream culture in North America, Europe, and Africa.

Now living on an island near Seattle, Washington, she and author /educator Ann Linnea manage their business PeerSpirit, Inc. Through PeerSpirit, the two women offer a variety of consulting seminars, practica, and wilderness programs that take advantage of their unique range of skills. PeerSpirit clients include: health care corporations; health care delivery teams: university administrations, faculties, and graduate student programs; church congregations and religious administrative offices; provincial government housing administrations; Federal Corrections administration; industrial manufacturing teams; software development staff and project teams. In 2000-2001, with the Berkana Institute, she co-developed the international initiative, From the Four Directions, presented at the Women in Lucent Leadership Conference, worked with the Race and Gender Institute at the University of North Carolina, and consulted with the Center for Nursing Leadership. When at home she adores the peace of island life: beach walking, bicycling, gardening and kayaking.

For a printer-ready version of Christina's biography, please click here.

Debbie Dix

Debbie Dix, PeerSpirit Office Manager, has a degree in Art History and a Master's Degree in Japanese studies. In 1984, she went to Tokyo with her husband to see what it would be like to live there for "one or two years." They ended up staying for almost fifteen. During that time, Debbie studied Japanese and worked at a variety of jobs. She did quantitative analysis for a market research firm, free-lance editing and proofreading, free-lance research analysis, and office work for The American School in Japan.

Debbie and her husband, Frank traveled throughout Japan, and enjoyed meeting the people, sampling the food and relaxing at various hotspring resorts. While living in Tokyo, they also had the good fortune to travel extensively to places such as Turkey, Egypt, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Bali, Thailand and Hong Kong. This travel experience and the years of living in another country give Debbie a global perspective that she brings to the PeerSpirit office.

With the birth of their son, Joel, in 1998, Debbie and Frank returned to the U.S. They currently live in a house with a view of water and mountains - and are truly appreciative of this natural beauty after the urban years of Tokyo.

As a mom, Debbie appreciates the flexibility of working part-time at the PeerSpirit office. As a working woman, she enjoys assisting Christina and Ann in their work, being able to grow with the company, and working in an environment of caring and respect.