Chair
Westina Matthews, PhD
Savannah, Georgia (USA)
For the over 15 years, Westina (she/her) has been connecting with others through her writings, speaking, workshops/retreats, spiritual companioning, mentoring, and teaching. Her practice reflects contemplative living through “holy listening”. A graduate of the Shalem Institute, for 12 years Westina taught contemplative spiritual direction at General Theological Seminary in the Center for Christian Spirituality. An educator at heart – with a doctorate and two post-doctoral fellowships in education — she believes that learning never ends. After a 24 year career with Merrill Lynch, she retired as a managing director; and then was a fellow at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard where she studied women and girls of faith in Burundi in central Africa. Westina then became chief program officer for the Jackie Robinson Foundation for four years. But writing is her passion, the author of Dancing from the Inside Out: Grace-Filled Reflections on Growing Older (2019), This Band of Sisterhood: Black Women Bishops on Race, Faith, and the Church (2021) and lead editor of Soul Food: Nourishing Contemplative Living and Leadership (2023).
Her vision for SDI is to be an intentionally inclusive community that embodies a holistic spiritual grounding, drawing from the wisdom of the ages and the new emerging voices.
Vice Chair & Secretary
Agnes Hermans
Aotearoa New Zealand
Agnes Hermans (she/her) is a spiritual companion, supervisor, and serves as a hospice spiritual care coordinator. She is one of the founding coordinators of the Contemplative Network Aotearoa New Zealand.
Agnes has a background in social work, community development, health service management as well as governance roles in community organisations. Across these roles she has worked to improve equity of access to services and outcomes for Māori and raise awareness of the effects of colonisation. She has compiled two books with stories about her community.
Agnes lives on the Whangārei harbour in the north of Aotearoa New Zealand, with her husband Peter. They have three children and three grandchildren.
Treasurer
Leslie Keener, CDP
Melbourne, Kentucky (USA)
Sister Leslie Keener is a Sister of Divine Providence of Kentucky who directs a ministry called God Space, which fosters community and spirituality through small groups, social events, and service. A campus minister for twelve years, she now serves as the vocation director for her community, meets with people for spiritual direction, and offers preached and directed retreats. She has a Masters in Ministry and a Certificate in Spiritual Direction and Retreats from Creighton University. Leslie is a native of Cincinnati, and she enjoys spicy food, arts and crafts, and dancing.
Eric Massanari, M. Div.
Bellingham, Washington (USA)
Eric (he/him) is an ordained pastor in the Mennonite tradition, living in northern Washington state where he serves as the Executive Conference Minister for the Pacific Northwest Mennonite Conference of Mennonite Church USA. He also maintains a private practice in spiritual direction. Eric has served on the SDI Board of Directors since 2018 and brings a passion for inter-faith and inter-spiritual connections, community formation, peace and justice building, and companioning people who are at diverse places on the spiritual journey. An avid poet and essayist, Eric is a contributing author of An Open Place: The Ministry of Group Spiritual Direction.
In his own words: “I celebrate how spiritual companioning takes so many vital forms across time, place, traditions and cultures. In its myriad expressions it’s a practice that our world needs now more than ever, as together we seek the paths that make for enduring peace.”
Wanjîkū J. Kîarîe, M.Div, SD, SEP
Nairobi, Kenya (East Africa, Africa)
Wanjîkū M.Div, SD is a Trauma-Informed Teacher, Spiritual Director and Integrated Healer. She is the Founder and Lead at Integrated Living.
Wanjîkū has been formally offering Integrated Well-Being Services to Individuals, Groups and Organizations since 2008. Wanjîkū works with Children, Youth and Adults in their quest for Emotional, Mental, Spiritual, Social and Physical wholeness. She combines Trauma-Informed Somatic Experiencing, Spiritual Companionship, Ancestral Healing, Art and Nature Healing modalities in her work.
Wanjîkū holds a Masters of Divinity in Biblical Studies from Africa International University, Kenya and is a Spiritual Director Trained in the Holy Conversations, Spiritual Formation Program by the Anglican Diocese in New England, Massachusetts. She is a Somatic Experiencing ® Practitioner (SEP). . Wanjîkū is a student of Thomas Hubl since 2020, under whom she has and continues to be trained in Integrated ways of Healing Ancestral, Individual and Collective Trauma.
Wanjîkū is a Mother of five, Two of them are with the Ancestors and Three are with her. She currently lives in Nairobi, Kenya with her family. Wanjîkū enjoys being with and in nature, reading, writing, travelling and making new friends. She is a published author, a blogger and a liturgy writer
Cindy Lee, PhD
Los Angeles CA (USA)
Cindy is a spiritual director, aspiring mystic, asexual, and proudly Taiwanese-American. Her spirituality honors the traditions of her family which include the Christian tradition in a Taiwanese immigrant church as well as Taiwanese ancestral, Daoist, and Buddhist traditions. She is a graduate of the Stillpoint spiritual direction program in California and completed her PhD in the area of spirituality from Claremont School of Theology. She teaches as an adjunct professor in the areas of spirituality, mysticism, and spiritual direction. She is also director of the Liberated Together Spiritual Direction school that centers the healing and liberation of women of color and non-binary people of color. Cindy is the author of Our Unforming: De-Westernizing Spiritual Formation (2022) which is written from a Christian perspective. She also leads retreats and workshops in BIPOC-centered spirituality and spiritual care.
Karen Simms-Tolson
Louisville, Kentucky (USA)
Karen Simms Tolson is a spiritual director and Educator with a decade of experience as a spiritual director, and over 35 years of experience in teacher education, social justice program development, and community outreach. She graduated with a Diploma in the Art of Spiritual Direction Program (DASD) from San Francisco Theological Seminary. Karen has extensive experience working with local and national non-profit organizations, including experience serving on the Board of Directors for the National Association for Multicultural Education (NAME), The Life Adventure Center of Kentucky (LAC), the National Underground Railroad Commission, and others. As the previous Equity Division Director for the Kentucky Department of Education, she has also worked with Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) program development. Karen currently serves on the Justice and Advocacy Commission of the Kentucky Council of Churches (KCC). She has presented for the XXV Anniversary Congress of the International Academy of Law and Mental Health at the Università degli Studi di Siena Università and the XXX Anniversary Congress of the International Academy of Law and Mental Health, Paris. Karen brings a broad range of experiences and background in education, program development, fundraising, and spiritual direction experiences with BIPOC communities. Karen is a native of North Carolina ,and actively participates in the Louisville, KY, interfaith community.
Stephen Rivet
Grand Ledge, Michigan (USA)
Stephen (he/him/his) has been married to Anne for 39 years. They have four grown children and eight beautiful grandchildren. Over the years, they have had several exchange students from around the world. Recently, as Licensed Foster Parent, they have taken in two Unaccompanied Minor Refugee boys from Eritrea, East Africa. He has a large extended family, great friends and a supportive community; really this is the heart of his spiritual life.
He is Spiritual Direction trained at the Dominican Center (Marywood) with a Master of Pastoral Studies from Loyola University – New Orleans; his passion is spiritually journeying with working professionals and youth. Currently working as a business consultant; he has 40+ years of International Business experience from engineering to sales to executive management in a number of industries; small, large, and international companies. He has traveled extensively throughout the world, lived in Europe and speaks French. He is also a FAA Certified Private Pilot.
His primary strength is turning vision to action with measured results and calculated strategic risk-taking. However, it is his own brand of authentic, humble, compassionate, and loving servant leadership, not just expertise, which guides and fosters a trusting and inclusive climate of diversity, creativity, mutual vitality and growth; he sees the growth and inclusion as the vision for SDI.
Joel Kushner, Psy.D.
Los Angeles, California (USA)
Dr. Joel L. Kushner (he, him, his) was appointed the Director of the Kalsman Institute on Judaism and Health at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) in 2013. There he manages the pastoral internship program for rabbinic students on the Los Angeles campus as they complete a variety of programs including hospital chaplaincy, jail chaplaincy, spiritual counseling in rehabilitation setting, as well as other field placements. Dr. Kushner has also successfully developed and produced a biennial event called “Jewish Wisdom & Wellness – A Festival of Learning” that explores the themes of Judaism, health, and healing which has offered 250 programs to over 8,500 people in the greater Los Angeles area.
Dr. Kushner originally came to the College Institute in 2005 to found the HUC-JIR Institute for Judaism, Sexual Orientation, and Gender Identity, opening up a unique online resource center at the intersection of LGBTQ+ issues and Judaism. He continues to consult with a variety of Jewish and non-Jewish organizations, locally and nationally on LGBTQ+ issues and has lectured on LGBTQ+ education and inclusion across the country. Previously, he sat on the National Religious Leadership Roundtable of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the Executive Board of California Faith for Equality, Nehirim, and LAGPA, the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Psychotherapy Association. He has also consulted with the staff and boards of JQ International and A Wider Bridge.
Trained in counseling, clinical and organizational psychology, Dr. Kushner holds graduate degrees in counseling and clinical psychology from Teachers College, Columbia University and from the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology at Rutgers University. From this training and his ten years of management consulting experience, he also offers executive coaching particularly in the area of senior executive job change, supervision, and employee performance. Additionally, he holds certificates in Intensive Case Management and in Human Resources Management.
Thirty years after his initial chaplaincy training at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York, Dr. Kushner returned to chaplaincy and clinical pastoral education (CPE) in 2013 and completed a half unit of CPE at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. In 2017, he completed training as a Spiritual Director in the Morei Derekh program of the Yedidya Center for Jewish Spiritual Direction and now sees Jews and non-Jews in his spiritual direction/spiritual companioning practice. For two years, he led a class on spiritual reflection at the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies of American Jewish University and has also lectured on LGBTQ+ issues and spiritual direction for Spiritual Directors International.
Always seeking meaning and authenticity, creativity has been an essential path of learning and growth for Dr. Kushner, and led him to pursue a two year training to become a Jewish Studio Process Creative Facilitator. He is passionate about sharing this methodology with others to help them experience new ways to connect to Judaism, to deepen spiritual companioning work, and to help people find their creative place and reach unique understandings of themselves and the world around us.
Rev. SeiFu Anil Singh-Molares, MTS
Seattle, Washington (USA)
Rev. Seifu is the Executive Director of SDI and an ordained Zen Buddhist priest, as well as a practicing spiritual director/companion and motivational speaker. He is a veteran of numerous interfaith and interspiritual efforts over the years, including Seeds of Compassion in Seattle in 2008, where he was one of the chairs, and as founder and executive director of the Compassionate Action Network. He has a Master’s in Theological Studies from Harvard University.
Rev. Seifu is an accomplished speaker and university lecturer and is a key contributor for the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. In a previous life, he was also an executive at Microsoft, where he successfully grew international groups and divisions and provided leadership to multi-cultural teams around the world.
