Board of Advisors - wsspress.org

The People Behind the Press

Our Board of Directors and Advisory Board bring together scholars, activists, artists, and visionaries united by a commitment to amplifying women’s sacred traditions and spiritual knowledge.

Guidance

Advisory Board

Our Advisory Board is composed of distinguished scholars, practitioners, and thought leaders who offer guidance on our editorial priorities and help expand our global reach.

Xochitl Alvizo, PhD

Advisor

Xochitl Alvizo, PhD

Advisor

Xochitl Alvizo, PhD, is associate professor of Women and Religion at California State University, Northridge and is co-founder of Feminism and Religion (www.feminismandreligion.com). Her research areas include feminist and queer theologies, congregational studies, ecclesiology, and the emerging church. Alvizo is co-editor of Women Religion Revolution and The Emerging Church, Millennials, and Religion: Volume 2.

Cristina Biaggi, PhD

Advisor

Cristina Biaggi, PhD

Advisor

Cristina Biaggi, PhD, is widely recognized for her significant contributions to feminist art and Goddess studies. Her artwork and writing reflect her lifelong passion for art, activism, archaeology, women’s studies, literature, and the classics. Biaggi is the author of five books, and her articles have also appeared in various anthologies and publications. She has created large-scale sculptures, abstract collages, figurative works, and portraits of people and their animal companions.

Jean Shinoda Bolen, MD

Advisor

Jean Shinoda Bolen, MD

Advisor

Jean Shinoda Bolen, MD, is a psychiatrist, Jungian analyst and an internationally known author and speaker. She is a distinguished life fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, a former clinical professor of psychiatry at Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute, University of California-SF Medical Center. Bolen is the author of thirteen books published in over 100 foreign editions.

Monica Coleman, PhD

Advisor

Monica Coleman, PhD

Advisor

Monica Coleman, PhD, is the John and Patricia Cochran Scholar for Inclusive Excellence and professor of Africana studies at the University of Delaware. She formerly taught graduate theological education at Claremont School of Theology and the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. Coleman has earned degrees from Harvard University, Vanderbilt University, and Claremont Graduate University. 

Annie Finch, PhD

Advisor

Annie Finch, PhD

Advisor

Annie Finch, PhD, is a poet, speaker, cultural critic, and performance artist focusing on spirituality, feminism, and the magical tools of poetic craft. She is the author of seven books of poetry. Her other books include Choice Words: Writers on Abortion, poetic translation, anthologies, books on poetics and meter, and a poetry textbook. Finch earned a PhD from Stanford University and offers classes, retreats, and consultations on the rhythms of poetry and life.

Heide Goettner-Abendroth, PhD

Advisor

Heide Goettner-Abendroth, PhD

Advisor

Heide Goettner-Abendroth, PhD, is the founder of modern matriarchal studies. Since earning her PhD in the philosophy of science, she has published extensively on matriarchal society and culture. She has been a visiting professor at the Universities of Montreal in Canada and of Innsbruck in Austria. She is the founding and current director of the International ACADEMY HAGIA for Matriarchal Studies.

Judy Grahn, PhD

Advisor

Judy Grahn, PhD

Advisor

Judy Grahn, PhD, originated Metaformic Theory, which centers menstrual rituals as an impetus for culture creation. Her dissertation research was on living goddess traditions and menarche rituals in South India. She taught in and co-directed an MA program in Women's Spirituality for thirteen years and has published eight books (half of them poetry) on spirituality, focused on goddesses of love, power, and justice, and on creature consciousness.

Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, PhD

Advisor

Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, PhD

Advisor

Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, PhD, is a scholar, activist, and advocate of Magoism, an anciently originated tradition that venerates Mago as the Great Goddess. She earned her MA and PhD in Religion with an emphasis on feminist studies from Claremont Graduate University. She is co-founder of S/HE: An International Journal of Goddess Studies, the e-magazine, Return to Mago, and Mago Books.

Margaret Kress, PhD

Advisor

Margaret Kress, PhD

Advisor

Margaret Kress, PhD, is a Saskatchewan-born woman who originates from the south grasslands in Treaty Four territory and the Métis homelands. As a scholar, teacher, and researcher, she works with several universities and generates transformative, inclusive, and Indigenous story work to help herself and others “become the change.” Her current engagements include community-based research initiatives with and led by Indigenous communities in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and New Brunswick.

Mary Mackey, PhD

Advisor

Mary Mackey, PhD

Advisor

Mary Mackey graduated magna cum laude from Harvard and received her PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Michigan. She became a writer by running high fevers, tramping through tropical jungles, being swarmed by army ants, and reading. She is the author of 9 poetry collections, including Sugar Zone, winner of a PEN Award; and The Jaguars That Prowl Our Dreams, winner of the Eric Hoffer Award for Best Book Published by a Small Press. Her poetry has been praised by Wendell Berry, Jane Hirshfield, D. Nurkse, Al Young, Daniel Lawless, Rafael Jesús González, and Maxine Hong Kingston for its beauty, precision, originality, and extraordinary range. She is also author of 14 novels including The New York Times bestseller A Grand Passion. Her most recent book is In This Burning World: Poems of Love and Apocalypse, a collection of poems which asks us not only to imagine what the world will be like as the climate of the Earth changes, but how we can preserve joy and compassion in times of catastrophe. (More information at https://marymackey.com/)

Joan Marler PhD

Advisor

Joan Marler PhD

Advisor

Joan Marler, PhD, is executive director of the Institute of Archaeomythology and is editor of the online Journal of Archaeomythology. She earned a doctorate in philosophy and religion with a concentration in Women’s Spirituality at the California Institute of Integral Studies, where she taught courses inspired by the pioneering research of the archaeologist Marija Gimbutas.

Sid Reger, EdD

Advisor

Sid Reger, EdD

Advisor

Sid Reger, EdD, received her doctorate in adult education from Indiana University.  She is an artist, educator, and independent scholar whose passions are prehistoric arts, matrifocal cultures, mythology, and animal mysteries. Now semi-retired, she still teaches widely, relating these topics to women’s spiritual journeys. She is co-founder, with the late Patricia Monaghan, of the Association for the Study of Women and Mythology and currently serves as president. She lives in western Pennsylvania with two sentient felines.

Tammi Schneider, PhD

Advisor

Tammi Schneider, PhD

Advisor

Tammi Schneider, PhD, is a professor of religion at Claremont Graduate University. Her research draws together the varied fields of archaeology, Assyriology, and biblical studies in an effort to understand the ancient Near East, especially the interactions among various peoples. She teaches ancient Near Eastern History, literature, archaeology, and religion, as well as women in the Hebrew Bible. In addition to teaching, Schneider also has experience in professional excavation and museum work.

Charlene Spretnak, MA

Advisor

Charlene Spretnak, MA

Advisor

Charlene Spretnak, MA, is a foremother of the Women's Spirituality movement and of ecofeminism. Her first book, Lost Goddesses of Early Greece (1978), and her anthology, The Politics of Women's Spirituality (1982), were foundational works of the emerging movement. Other relevant books include States of Grace (1991); Missing Mary (2004); and The Spiritual Dynamic in Modern Art, 1800 to the Present (2014).

Yeye Luisah Teish

Advisor

Yeye Luisah Teish

Advisor

Yeye Luisah Teish is an initiated elder (Iyanifa) in the Ifa/Orisha tradition of the West African Diaspora, and she holds a chieftaincy title (Yeye’woro) from the Fatunmise Compound in Ile Ife, Nigeria (1982). She is the Olori (director) of Ile Orunmila Oshun and the Jambalaya School of Ancient Mysteries/Sacred Arts Center in Oakland, CA.