Our Team
Who is the Planet Project?
The Planet Project forges collaborative partnerships with people, projects, groups and organizations around the world who are on the forefront of the evolutionary shift to a world that works for all.
OUR STAFF
Beau Rezendes, Co-Founder, Board Chair, Culture Holder
Beau grew up in Peoria, Illinois and has lived in Colorado since 1964. She attended the University of Colorado where she earned an undergraduate degree in Psychology, an MA in College Student Personnel Administration, and a Doctorate in Counseling Psychology.
Beau’s background is a blend of corporate, academic, and public sector work. Her career encompassed senior and line management positions in energy, healthcare, manufacturing, and data processing, and professorships for the University of Colorado’s graduate program and Regis University’s school of undergraduate studies. Her coaching work includes interpersonal communication, transitional change management, and executive development. She was the founder and guided development of one of the first Hospice programs in America, currently known as TRU Hospice, and was a founding member of the National Hospice Organization. She also participated in the Global Volunteer Program teaching conversational English in Ghana, China, and Portugal.
Steve Melville, Co-Founder, Technology, Memetics
A Colorado native, Steve earned a BA in Philosophy from Hamilton College and an MS in Computer Science from University of Colorado. He enjoyed a 30+ year career as a software developer and enterprise architect helping high-tech companies improve their competitive posture, agility, and responsiveness. He contributed to the architecture and use of various distributed computing platforms at US WEST and spear-headed Sun Microsystems’ shift from phone-centric to web-centric customer support as Chief Architect and Development Manager for their Online Support Center. While at Sun, he later led a Solution Design team responsible for what is believed to be one of the largest CRM/ERP implementations of the Oracle eBusiness Suite ever attempted. Steve managed the architectural evolution of Oracle Corporation’s portfolio of applications supporting Oracle’s $18B Services business and served as lead architect for an initiative that enabled Oracle to achieve certification as a HIPAA Business Associate.
Yet throughout his career, Steve grew increasingly aware of the mounting interconnected global crises and felt a deep calling to find ways to leverage his technical skills to help address them. In 2021, Steve left his professional career to focus full-time on helping to drive the realization of an integrated social, economic, and technical architecture supporting those on the forefront of the evolutionary shift towards a world that works for all life.
Roger Briggs, Co-Founder, Operations, Vision
Roger grew up in the mountains of Colorado and fell in love with nature and science at an early age. After studying physics and classics at the University of Colorado, he jumped into the world of public-school teaching at age 22. For the next thirty-two years he was a team builder, program developer, curriculum writer, and an award-winning teacher who touched many lives. During this time, he also established himself as one of the pioneering rock climbers of his generation. Since retiring from the public schools in 2005, he wrote the book, Journey to Civilization: The Science of How We Got Here (2013), and founded and grew a local non-profit for public lands stewardship. His latest book, Emerging World: The Evolution of Consciousness and the Future of Humanity (2021) is the culmination of his lifetime of seeking and research that lays the foundation for the Planet Project. See also www.rogerpbriggs.org
Scott Rowland, Multi-Media Creative
Born and raised in Florida, Scott Rowland is a media strategist with over a decade of experience. He graduated from the University of North Florida with a degree in Economics in 2010 and soon after, moved to Colorado where he founded ALOC Media, a video production company based in Boulder. He is also the Lead Video Producer at Couched Media and now Planet Project! When he’s not in content creation mode, you’ll find him hiking with his pup, Bella, or watching sci-fi and fantasy films, and slowly making his way through Daniel Schmactenberger’s recommended reading list.
Ava Ardito, Director of Innovation and Engagement
Ava is from the Belgrade Lakes Region of Maine and was brought up exploring and observing the state’s vast ecology. She was raised on core values surrounding family, community, wholeheartedness, stewardship, and curiosity. Ava became fascinated with ecology from observing environmental issues within her community. Ava recently graduated from the University of Maine with a degree in Biology, concentrating in Ecology, and minoring in Environmental Ethics. She was a proud member of the Honors College where she was awarded the 2024 Honors College Service Award. She was introduced to The Planet Project through her engagement with the Honors College and is a founding member of the UMaine Planet Project student group. In collaboration with the UMaine Planet Project students, Ava helped to start the Environmental Topics and Dinner program for the UMaine community. During her time at UMaine she was involved in various research labs and conducted her Honors thesis “The ecological effects and ethics of a species range shift on aquatic ecosystems” at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, within the Gremmer Lab. Ava’s research interests are fostered through her passions in community driven science and education. Ava has served as a teaching assistant and research mentor within the Honors College, where she learned the importance of community building and collaboration. Ava works to foster hope through action in her roles as an ecologist, environmental philosopher, and community member.
Reema Patadia, Youth Ambassador
Reema grew up in Colorado and has had a passion for STEM and Environmental Studies for as long and they can remember. They’ve worked with the Boulder Valley School District to plant trees on Boulder County grade school campuses with the help of student populations, as its their vision to reverse heat islands, create biodiversity, improve air and support mental health within their local community. Reema has been an intern for Planet Project during the summer of 2023, and now as a Youth Ambassador, hopes to involve younger generations with the movement.
Scott Rennak, Communications & Branding
Scott was raised as a Boy Scout in the midwest and those values have continued to guide him his entire life. He’s a serial small business entrepreneur and marketing operations veteran who feels privileged to support the Planet Project with his skills and experience. Scott is also a dedicated father to two teenagers.
OUR ADVISORY COUNCIL
Dr. Marc Bekoff, Advisor
Marc Bekoff, Ph.D., is professor emeritus of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He has published 31 books and won many awards for his research on animal behavior, animal emotions (cognitive ethology), compassionate conservation, and animal protection. Marc co-chairs the ethics committee of the Jane Goodall Institute, and has worked closely with Jane Goodall for many years. He also works closely with inmates at the Boulder County Jail. In June 2022 Marc was recognized as a Hero by the Academy of Dog Trainers. His latest books include the second edition of The Emotional Lives of Animals (2024), Jane Goodall at 90 (2024) The Animals’ Agenda: Freedom, Compassion, and Coexistence in the Human Age, Canine Confidential: Why Dogs Do What They Do, Unleashing Your Dog: A Field Guide to Giving Your Canine Companion the Best Life Possible, A Dog’s World: Imagining the Lives of Dogs in a World Without Humans, and Dogs Demystified: An A to Z Guide to All Things Canine. Marc also publishes regularly for Psychology Today. His homepage is marcbekoff.com
Dr. Oakleigh Thorne II, Advisor
In 1954, Oak Thorne founded Thorne Ecological Institute, now known as Thorne Nature Experience, when he was a graduate student in Biology at the University of Colorado, and also founded Thorne Films, an educational film company that produced more than 800 titles. In the 1960s, Oak helped the campaign to pass a sales tax to create the City of Boulder’s Open Space program, one of the first in the U.S. In 1987 he helped found the Environmental Studies Department at Naropa University and has been working at Thorne Nature Experience ever since, running its bird banding program and connecting youth to nature. Today, in addition to his work at Thorne Nature, Oak serves on the External Board of the Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies and is on the Leadership Council for the Yale School of the Environmental. He is also on the Advisory Board for the American Music Research Center, as well as the Science and Technology Committee for the Conference on World Affairs, both at the University of Colorado. In 2022, he was profiled in the documentary film, Mighty Oak.
Dr. Cheryl Genet, Advisor
Cheryl Genet earned her BA in Psychology and her MA and PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies (Science and Theology). She is an Adjunct Professor of Philosophy (DE) at Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo, CA, (2007 to present). As past Managing Editor of the Collins Foundation Press (CFP) and director of the Science and Humanities Program for the Collins Educational Foundation (CEF) (2002-2019), she co-chaired and co-edited several conferences and resulting books, including The Evolutionary Epic: Science’s Story and Humanity’s Response, and Science, Wisdom, and the Future: Humanity’s Quest for a Flourishing Earth. She also designed and published Roger Briggs’ first book, Journey to Civilization, and Scott Brown’s Active Peace.
In 2021 Genet participated in a project of the Cultural Evolution Society (CES) to develop a course entry for their educational outreach: Dynamic Models of Human-Earth Systems: How they can help us explain our past and manage our future. As part of her work on the project she wrote a paper, Dynamic Systems Thinking and Modeling: Interdependent Systems Processes, that graphically portrays (with narrative) the eight “systems thinking skills” developed by Barry Richmond in his An Introduction to Systems Thinking. Stella. She and her husband Russell Genet live in Payson, Arizona, and Waianae, Hawaii in the winter.
Dr. Louis G. Herman, Advisor
Louis Herman is a Professor of Political Science and Chair of the Division of Social Sciences at the University of Hawaiʻi–West Oʻahu. He grew up in a traditional Jewish community in neo-Nazi, racist South Africa in the aftermath of the Holocaust. The two poles of his formative political experiences were outrage at human-inflicted suffering and the healing beauty of southern Africaʻs rugged wilderness. He obtained degrees in medicine and the history and philosophy of science at Cambridge University in England, then emigrated to Israel where he lived out his Jewish connection to the Biblical homeland working on a kibbutz. His participation in the Yom Kippur War as a paratrooper confronted him with Palestinian indigeneity in a way that impelled him to return to big questions of life and philosophy: How do we know what is true and good? How should we live together? After three years of graduate work in political philosophy at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, he was invited to complete his Ph.D. at the University of Hawaiʻi. He formulated this vision in Future Primal: How our Wilderness Origins Show us a Way Forward (2013) and then founded The Institute for a New Political Cosmology in 2018 to promote an educational and political culture with truth-questing as the central practice of a new political cosmology.
Dr. Jude Currivan, Advisor
Jude Currivan is a cosmologist, planetary healer, futurist, author, and co-founder of WholeWorld-View. She was previously one of the most senior business women in the UK, has a Masters degree in Physics from Oxford University specializing in quantum physics and cosmology, and a Doctorate in Anthropological Archaeology from the University of Reading researching ancient cosmologies. She has traveled to nearly 80 countries and worked with wisdom keepers from many traditions and her extensive experience and knowledge of world events, systems, and trends has led her to speak internationally on transformational reforms.
She is a life-long researcher into the scientific and experiential understanding of the nature of reality, integrating leading edge science, research into consciousness, and universal wisdom teachings into a wholistic worldview. She is the author of seven books, including the best-selling and Nautilus award-winning The Cosmic Hologram: In-formation at the Center of Creation (2017, Inner Traditions) and The Story of Gaia: The Big Breath and the Evolutionary Journey of our Conscious Planet (2022, Inner Traditions), and she is a member of the Evolutionary Leaders circle. In 2017 she co-founded WholeWorld-View to communicate the emerging paradigm of unified reality and to serve the understanding, experiencing, and embodying of unity awareness to empower conscious evolution.
She lives in Wiltshire, England with her husband Tony. www.judecurrivan.com
Riane Eisler, Advisor
Riane Eisler is a social systems scientist, cultural historian, futurist, and attorney whose research, writing, and speaking have transformed the lives of people worldwide. She is internationally known for her bestseller The Chalice and The Blade: Our History, Our Future, now in 57 U.S. printings and 27 foreign editions. Her newest work, Nurturing Our Humanity: How Domination and Partnership Shape Our Brains, Lives, and Future, co-authored with anthropologist Douglas Fry (Oxford University Press, 2019), shows how to construct a more equitable, sustainable, and less violent world based on Partnership rather than Domination.
Dr. Eisler pioneered the extension of human rights theory and action to the majority of humanity: women and children. Eisler is the recipient of the Distinguished Peace Leadership Award, earlier given to the Dalai Lama, and other national and international awards for her ground-breaking contributions as a systems scientist. She is president of the Center for Partnership Systems dedicated to research and education; Editor-in-Chief of the Interdisciplinary Journal of Partnership Studies, an online peer-reviewed journal at the University of Minnesota that was inspired by her work; keynotes conferences nationally and internationally; has addressed the United Nations General Assembly, the U.S. Department of State, and Congressional briefings; and has spoken at corporations and universities worldwide on applications of the Partnership model introduced in her work.
Eisler was a child refugee from Nazi Europe, and that experience eventually led to her multidisciplinary re-examination of human societies and human possibilities. Her book on economics, The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics, was hailed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu as “a template for the better world we have been so urgently seeking.”