Dear Deep Living Lab Community,
It is with full hearts and open arms that we welcome our first Deep Living Lab (DLL) Executive Directors!
Barbara Mathison and Elizabeth Vanderwerff are blending their outstanding skills, extensive experiences, and big hearts to help shape DLL’s future–a future in the field of consciousness and healing and informed by the Enneagram and EnneaCrossings ™.
Thanks to an extensive search process alongside our Lindauer recruitment partners, we were fortunate to interview many highly qualified candidates. We did not anticipate connecting, however, with two people who already have a successful working relationship and are deeply aligned with our organizational philosophy. As we practiced embodying one of DLL’s primary principles, “Trusting the process,” the rightness of this hiring decision became clear.
Barb and Liz worked together at the world-renowned University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Healthy Minds and its nonprofit, Healthy Minds Innovations, Inc. They bring a wealth of experience in leadership, organization culture, change, nonprofit, and consciousness.
Barb, with her 30-plus years of healthcare executive director experience, has focused on leading change that transformed health care delivery systems, especially in women’s health and integrative medicine. She was key in creating and manifesting a vision at the Center for Healthy Minds and initiated the Healthy Minds Innovations, Inc. nonprofit organization. Her experience has included the expansion of philanthropy, outreach, staff, impact, and financial sustainability. Barb can be reached at Barb@deeplivinglab.org.
Liz comes to DLL with experience advancing understanding of mental health and well-being. She has explored bold new ways to both deepen consciousness and offer relief from suffering. Her broad skill set includes fundraising, communications, team management, building cultures of well-being and efficiency, organizational development, and strategic planning. She led the Dalai Lama’s visit to Madison, Wisconsin, which meant working with a diverse group of stakeholders. Liz can be reached at Liz@deeplinvinglab.org.
Both Barb and Liz are steeped in the development of products to support the expansion of human consciousness and well-being.
We could not be more excited, and we look forward to the next stages of growth for DLL with our new executive directors.
With deep gratitude, love, and a welcoming spirit,
Deep Living Lab Board of Directors:
Roxanne Howe-Murphy, Founder and Board Co-chair
Irma Velasquez, Board Co-Chair
Marcia Hyatt, Organizational Strategies and Communications
Dear Deep Living Lab Community,
It is with deep gratitude that I join the Deep Living Lab (DLL) team. You have collectively nurtured the Deep Living Lab to this point and now we move together into an exciting and important new phase. I have always been attracted to mission-driven organizations and to positions that allowed me to shape vision. I could not ask for a better partner than Liz Vanderwerff, who is one of the most extraordinary humans and leaders I have known.
My contribution to DLL will focus on the visioning and strategic planning process.
Over the last 30-plus years, my executive director positions focused on transforming patient care delivery systems in the areas of women’s health, oncology, and integrative medicine. I also worked to scale the neuroscience findings at the Center for Healthy Minds and, most recently, at Usona Institute, focused on moving psilocybin through the FDA process. These experiences required leading change through collective wisdom versus a top-down approach. Through deep listening, strategic analysis, building trust, and creating new organizational structures to support vision, I led teams through major growth, financial sustainability, improved clinical outcomes, and more human and compassionate experiences. I am also honored to serve on the Board of Directors for Well-being and Equity (WE) in the World, assisting in their strategic visioning and implementation.
I am deeply grateful for the spiritual path I have walked over the past 30 years. It has included over 50 retreats with amazing teachers, including numerous visits with the Dalai Lama. Each of these experiences and teachers has informed my daily practice. One transformational retreat included a deeper dive into the Enneagram, and I am interested in learning more.
An 18-month leadership experience called Courage to Lead, which focused on accessing inner wisdom for self and others, informed my understanding of what deep listening means. I have been grateful to serve others in this way.
My daily practice also includes journaling, reading and runes. As part of the process of writing a book on cultivating possibilities, I have hosted small retreats for people interested in accessing their inner wisdom to inform their future vision. These experiences have been humbling, inspiring, and full of wonder!
I believe the universe played a role in bringing us together. The interview process led by Roxanne, Irma, Marcia, and many of you consistently confirmed your deep commitment to DLL values and mission. You have created something so precious and full of potential. I am filled with joy, excitement, and curiosity, and I see light shining on our path forward.
With love and deep gratitude,
Barb
P.S. Feel free to reach out to me at barb@deeplivinglab.org or my cell@ 414 339 4133.
Dear Deep Living Lab Community,
I am truly honored and humbled to be joining the Deep Living team, whose vision it is to create a world of people living with less judgement, more compassion, and access to deeper sources of wisdom. This vision is personally energizing and has the potential for transformative change and global healing. We’ve never needed this more.
Over the last 13 years, I have served in key roles at several visionary non-profits including the Center for Healthy Minds, Healthy Minds Innovations, and Usona Institute, who are collectively advancing our understanding of mental health and wellbeing, exploring bold new ways to deepen consciousness, and offer relief from suffering.
Within these organizations, I have developed and guided many initiatives, including fundraising, communications, team management, building cultures of well-being, building efficient operations, organizational development, and engaging in the strategic planning process.
These roles have given me a deeper perspective, understanding, and appreciation that an organization truly thrives when there is a clear vision, a curious and dedicated team, and an embodiment of deeply held values. The Deep Living team has carefully crafted a strong foundation and I am thrilled to help shepherd us into this next phase.
As Co-Executive Director, I will be primarily focused on actualizing the mission of Deep Living Lab by helping the organization consciously grow and structure itself to reach a diversity of more courageous individuals who are exploring their own path to their truest selves.
I am honored to work alongside Barb Mathison, whom I have worked closely with for many years and has been the single most important mentor in my life. Through her leadership, I have learned the limitless possibilities of aligning exceptionally skilled people with sensing into what is being called into the organization, and gently but steadily moving energy in the same direction.
Personally, understanding myself and the pursuit of self-actualization has been my deepest work. Listening, meditating, journaling, creatively expressing, reading, adventuring, and moving my body has reconnected me to my grounded spirit time and time again.
While the Enneagram is new for me, I approach this sacred work with a beginner’s mindset and am already captivated by the core message of “being at home in yourself and at ease in the world.” Imagine what the world would be like if we all walked with an expanded sense of being!
I look forward to serving you and the interconnectedness of all that is. Please reach out to me at liz@deeplivinglab.org or (608) 225-8113.
With light and love,
Liz Vanderwerff
