Michael Shattah (2015 – present)

President

Susan Tingley (2018 – present)

Secretary

Susan was born in 1952 and is part of the baby-boom generation. Susan has recently become semi-retired, which has allowed her to choose a new project and focus for her life. That new focus is her lifelong passion for changing the world. She is currently developing an innovative, holistic education system for young women in prison.

Susan started out as a teenager in the late sixties and early seventies living in a small conservative town in upstate New York. She was curious, artistic, and loved to read. She developed an intense interest in issues and problems facing culture and society through self-directed study. What sparked this passionate interest was her reading about women’s liberation at that time in history. She had the revelation that her own sense of alienation, loneliness, and lack of confidence stemmed not just from personal failure, but from the cultural experience of being a woman. Her eyes were opened to the prejudice, rigid role assignment, oppression, violence, and cultural and literary exclusion and denigration of women and girls she had been experiencing all along, but could now see as a bigger picture of cultural forces at work.

From her understanding of women’s issues, blossomed her understanding and appreciation of the forces of oppression on people of color, LGBTQ+ people, poor people, and yes, men too. She realized that cultural forces had a strong role in restricting the natural fairness, kindness, and empathy that is the birthright of all people, including men. She understood that denigration of women’s interests and glorification of military might was part of the problem. Men and women naturally choose some different interests, but both these interests can be valued and respected. Domination and bullying shape all of us, but conscious and educated resistance becomes healing and transformative.

Susan’s sense of outrage at injustice and her strong sense of the need for change inspired her to be politically active as a teenager. She also had a strong realization that education is a very powerful force for change, but did not put this realization into practice until later.

It’s one step forward to know and understand that cultural forces have shaped our internal attitudes, but it’s a different and additional step to realize that knowing alone is not enough, and that internal work is still necessary for true freedom. I say this because even though Susan knew about oppression and how it applied to her own life, she married a man who was abusive. She freed herself from her physically violent husband and left her marriage, realizing later that it was her own lack of worthiness that was at the bottom of her partnership with a very controlling person. Successfully freeing herself from that dangerous situation was very empowering for Susan.

Susan raised her daughter from that marriage, and eventually married again. She has great compassion and insight into mistakes young women make as they create families, because she too made mistakes raising her daughter and two step children.

Susan’s work has been varied and eclectic. She has been self-employed as a landscape designer and installer, a music professional, and a project manager for home renovations. As an employee, her job titles have been Tax Examiner, Group Facilitator, and Manager at the Internal Revenue Service, Sales Manager at Pender Nursery, a wholesale landscaping nursery, and Administrative Director at Khabele Strong Incubator, an innovative private school for middle and high school students. She has been a teacher many times, such as a preschool teacher at Fleetwood School for Gifted Children, Choir Director, both children and adult, and piano teacher for hundreds of students. Susan currently works part time as a piano teacher.

Although Susan’s first strong passion was about changing the world, as she matured, worked, and raised her family, she became deeply interested in spirituality. Her understanding of her life as a spiritual journey brought peace and deepened her understanding of humanity. Her use of spiritual principles, such as forgiveness, acceptance, transformation, and guidance in decision-making is important to her. She is committed to the path of wisdom-seeking and spiritual education as a way to understand her own life and a way to better serve humanity.

Susan has become engaged in community activism in the last year. She is an active and contributing member of both the East MLK Contact Team and the Hog Pen Neighborhood Association, both volunteer community betterment groups. She led the successful effort to get needed sidewalks for her neighborhood and improve a dangerous intersection. She is currently working on connectivity issues in her east-side neighborhood (traditionally African-American and historically red-lined and historically receiving unequal city services). She is active in her church, Unity Church of the Hills, and currently volunteers as a “reading buddy” 3 times a week for Spanish speaking and underprivileged 1st graders.

---

Stacey Loop (2018 – present)

Member

Stacey Loop is passionate about education and considers herself to be a lifelong student around the mind/body connection and the potential for tapping into optimal wellness, which is different for each person and requires appropriate application of using the right tools at the right time.

After years of working in public schools as a Special Education Teacher, Stacey began her personal journey only after the birth of her son, who was diagnosed with Sensory Processing Disorder. Fascinated by the ancient teachings of yoga and holistic health, she embarked upon in-depth certifications as a yoga therapist and health coach. She shares this gift with her community and with her son to assist in moving them toward greater balance.

Stacey has taught over 2,500 classes over the span of 15 years in the format of teacher training, educational topics, therapeutic private lessons, mentoring, and public classes. She co-wrote the curriculum for Yoga Yoga’s Children’s Teacher Training and leads teachers in this 95 hour certification program as well as training in other programs around the therapeutic aspects of yoga and meditation.

She is known for her insight and playful approach in helping individual students move in a forward direction through the profound teachings of yoga and holistic health coaching applied strategically to meet the “bio individuality” of the student.

• C-IAYT = Certified International Association of Yoga Therapists
• E- RYT 500 hours; E-RYT 200 hours Certifications in the Hatha yoga tradition
• Children’s Yoga Certifications: Yoga Ed K-8th; Yoga for the Special Child
• Studied at the American Viniyoga Institute
• IIN Health Coach Certification
• Studied Holistic Health Coaching at the Institute of Integrative Nutrition (IIN)
• BS in Special Education, Oklahoma State University
• Public Relations assistant for Modern Holistic Healthwww.modernholistichealth.com
• Co presenter at U.T. Social Worker’s Conference 2017 on “Inner Transformation: A Holistic Approach for Kids with Neurological Issues”

---

Luiza Reingatch (2018 – present)

Member

Luiza is an alternative care practitioner that works with homeopathy and applied kinesiology.

Author of “Higher Nutrition”,  a self care book.

Reiki Master with the violet flame. App developer in the area of health and nutrition.

“Educate, Empower and Elevate” is the tag line for my “Higher Nutrition” brand, because I feel it is a human birthright to be furnished with truths to make a conscious decision based on that.

---

Shahnaz Erwin (2021 – present)

Treasurer

---