Director profile:  Stuart Moody, M.A., R.Y.T.

Roots.  My family grew up in the Berkeley Hills, one block from the Rose Garden and a child’s wonderland called Codornices Park.  Tilden Regional Park was a quick ride up the hill, and Pt. Reyes was not too far on a leisurely weekend.  Every summer we spent weeks in the Sierra Nevada, hiking, swimming, and playing on the shores of Lake Tahoe and Union Lake in Stanislaus National Forest.

What got me going in conservation.  Pure love of nature.  I couldn’t bear the thought of so much smoke in the sky that we couldn’t see the ridges of the Marin Headlands clearly, or the fact that San Francisco Bay was 2/3 its original size due to filling.  My first sense of environmental injustice came the day my friend Bill Swartz had to go home from Codornices because the smog was making it hard for him to breathe.

How I met Green Sangha.  Our family went to Fairfax for an Earth Day exhibit.  At an unstaffed table we found an action sheet on water conservation, some free faucet aerators, and a flyer describing spiritually-based activism.  “Meditation and the environment,” my wife said, “that sounds just like you.”

What I like about Green Sangha.  The people, the programs, the vision.  The Board’s commitment to working together makes planning and implementing a joy.  Green Sangha gets things done on the ground – restoring habitat, educating citizens, testifying to government agencies – in ways that are positive, pleasant, and persuasive.

What’s got me excited.  Implementing proven models for social change such as Eco-teams in the Low Carbon Diet and Resilient Neighborhoods.  Exploring deep ecology in our campaigns and retreats.  Bringing up the next generation of leaders through the Teen Environmental Leadership Academy.  Sharing the most amazing technology of all – somatic awareness and meditation – with eco-leaders, citizen activists, and civic officials from aides to city planners to state legislators.