Mother Tree
Sanctuary
A Sacred Enclosure for Multidimensional Kinship
Connecting ~ Nurturing ~ Co-Creating
Core Staff
Wennifer Lin-Haver, PhD
Founding Mother and Vision Keeper for Mother Tree Sanctuary
First and foremost, Wennifer cherishes being a mother, daughter, sister, soul-sister, auntie, niece, and wife. It is in these meaningful, kindred relationships that she finds inspiration, purpose, and context in her multifarious life.
Having received her masters and doctoral degrees from the World Arts and Cultures/Dance Department at UCLA, she specializes in women’s birthing/healing traditions as expressed through indigenous and emergent ritual art and earth-based ontology. Her doctoral dissertation, entitled “Birth Art and the Art of Birthing: Creation and Procreation on the ‘Aina of Tutu Pele” (2008), is an interdisciplinary, diachronic, and multivocal study that draws from folklore, medical anthropology, cultural studies, eco-feminism, archaeomythology, spiritual midwifery, and female shamanism.
Wennifer has published on folk and alternative medicine and conducted fieldwork in Hawai‘i and Los Angeles. In 1999-2002, she was part of a National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine study on Latino health systems with her mentor, renowned medical folklorist, Dr. Michael Owen Jones. Within the past decade, she has actively shared her research in a number of conferences, including presentations at the Association for the Study of Women and Mythology and the Matriarchal Studies Conference (2010, 2014). She has also lectured at the East-West Center in Honolulu on “Community Building through Food and Folklore: The Importance of Reclaiming our Indigenous Matriarchal Origins” (2012).
As the great granddaughter of a traditional homebirth midwife who helped "catch" thousands of babies throughout the island of Taiwan, it is her long-term dream to continue the legacy and help her people and the people of the world reclaim their midwifery traditions. She is passionate about restoring indigenous, earth-based spirituality and cosmogonies that honor the sacred feminine (The Ancient Mother & Great Goddess of many names) as ancestral progenitor and creatrix. Wennifer hopes that Mother Tree Sanctuary will one day grow into a global forest of conscious, matristic eco-communities that serve to honor and protect our present and future generations of children and their families. Bright Blessings!
Christina Ballew
Vice President & Secretary - Educational Coordinator
Christina Ballew has a mission to make positive changes in oneself, in the environment, and in communities. She has a wide array of experience in development projects, the environment, the tourism sector, and in the health-wellness industry. She possesses professional skills in project management, event coordination, outreach initiatives, program evaluation, data collection and analysis, public speaking, research, and education. She received a Master's Degree in Development & Policy Studies focusing on community development and sustainability at Murdoch University in Perth, Australia.
christina.ballew226@gmail.com
Laura Ava-Tesimale is a Pacific American businesswoman, humanitarian, community organizer, and interfaith peace activist. She is a steward of Mother Earth, indigenous rights, empowerment of women and children, non-violence and compassion. Her professional career spans over 25 years as a Corporate Executive, managing operational and production divisions of multi-million dollar real estate lending firms.
Since 2001, Laura has also been the CEO of Ava Consulting & Management, as well as the Founder and President of One Global Family Foundation. She is a devoted wife of 30 years to "Mike" Foimai Tesimale and a loving mother to Brittany and Nicole, not to mention countless orphans and underprivileged children around the world.
Currently, Laura serves on 25 executive, advisory, and world council boards and committees. She is the Director of the Pacific Region for Give Light Foundation (building orphanages and providing sponsorship support for children around the world); a Global Ambassador for the Free Wheelchair Mission (serving the disabled poor in 88 countries, including the Pacific); and through the collaborative efforts of One Global Family Foundation and its community partners such as Be The Cause, Manav Sadhna, Tiyya Foundation, UCO-DIC, SARAH, VICC, PICC, FWM and many others... thousands of underprivileged children and families, indigent and homeless communities, displaced refugees, and disabled poor are served both locally and globally.
Laura is also active on several interfaith council boards that work in alliance with the global Parliament of the World’s Religions, the United Religions Initiative, Spiritual And Religious Alliance for Hope, The Guibord Center, and Unity and Diversity World Council, and Indigenous Stewards International.
Lisa Rayburn, CEO and Founder of The Dètente Group, is devoted to advocating for the needs she believes are necessary for our planet and humanity. One of the ways she does this is by helping to facilitate the expansion of global consciousness, specifically within the area of Conscious Business. Lisa believes that if we improve upon how businesses operate, encourage inspired leadership in our organizations, and provide solid legal and business infrastructure to Conscious companies, our world would thrive.
Lisa began her career as a trial attorney. In 2011, she took a sabbatical from litigation, spending time at Esalen in Big Sur and at an ashram in India, where she studied spiritual and consciousness practices. When she returned to California, she formed The Dètente Group, an organization that provides legal and business services to Conscious companies.
This year, Lisa's primary focus is on advocating for a healthier, more affordable, choice-driven U.S. food supply. She believes that the implementation of the tenets of Conscious Business in food companies would improve our food supply system. She is dedicated to creating awareness and solutions to what she sees as a damaged U.S. food system which is causing increased instances of cancer and illness due to the prevalence of genetically modified food, hormones, antibiotics and processed sugars in our food supply.
As attorney for Mother Tree Sanctuary, Lisa wants to support and empower women and contribute in the design for a community that provides sanctuary for mothers and their families.
Lisa Rayburn, CEO and Founder of The Dètente Group, is devoted to advocating for the needs she believes are necessary for our planet and humanity. One of the ways she does this is by helping to facilitate the expansion of global consciousness, specifically within the area of Conscious Business. Lisa believes that if we improve upon how businesses operate, encourage inspired leadership in our organizations, and provide solid legal and business infrastructure to Conscious companies, our world would thrive.
Lisa began her career as a trial attorney. In 2011, she took a sabbatical from litigation, spending time at Esalen in Big Sur and at an ashram in India, where she studied spiritual and consciousness practices. When she returned to California, she formed The Dètente Group, an organization that provides legal and business services to Conscious companies.
This year, Lisa's primary focus is on advocating for a healthier, more affordable, choice-driven U.S. food supply. She believes that the implementation of the tenets of Conscious Business in food companies would improve our food supply system. She is dedicated to creating awareness and solutions to what she sees as a damaged U.S. food system which is causing increased instances of cancer and illness due to the prevalence of genetically modified food, hormones, antibiotics and processed sugars in our food supply.
As attorney for Mother Tree Sanctuary, Lisa wants to support and empower women and contribute in the design for a community that provides sanctuary for mothers and their families.