FOUNDER + EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

A renowned spiritual teacher of the Inka Nature Wisdom Tradition, Wiraqocha Foundation Founder & Executive Director, Elizabeth B. Jenkins is the international bestselling author of The Return of the Inka, Journey to Q'eros, and The Fourth Level, widely regarded as the most influential books on the Inka Nature Mysticism Tradition. For 30 years she has worked to better the lives of the Q’ero people, and to promote the teachings of their Inka path and in 1996 founded Wiraqocha Foundation to resolve a 60% infant mortality rate and provide educational assistance to Q'ero youth. In 2010, Elizabeth led a Discovery Channel team to film never-before-seen rituals on Wamanlipa, the most sacred Q'ero mountain. In 2020, during the pandemic, Elizabeth began teaching courses with the Q'ero on Zoom to put food on their tables and WF sent over 30,000 lbs. of food by truck to Q'eros, installed WiFi in 4 Q'ero Villages for education and communication as well as water reservoirs needed due to global warming. In January, 2021 Elizabeth and 12 Q'ero Masters founded the GLOBAL PAQO SCHOOL, a year-long training with direct Quechua to English translation. In August of 2022, Elizabeth with GPS Faculty, all Presidents of Hatun Q'eros and about 80 Q'ero Community members, inaugurated the HATUN Q'EROS CULTURAL CENTER in Cuzco, Peru. Elizabeth B. Jenkins' works have been published throughout the world in 27 countries and translated into 24 languages. Her profound yet simple teachings have helped countless people from diverse paths across the globe to achieve wellbeing and find inner and outer harmony and personal power. She is also a licensed psychotherapist, cultural investigator, sought-after public speaker and organic farmer. She and her family live and work on their farm on the Big Island of Hawaii. 

Semi-retired Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapist, Rowena is passionate about learning and practicing ceremony through ritual and offerings. Rowena brings her skills with Process Oriented BodyWork, and many other modalities of bodywork, to those who are ready to heal. She assists clients with fully inhabiting their physical and emotional bodies. She loves making delicious high vibrational foods and is also skilled with bookkeeping. Rowena assists Wiraqocha Foundation with daily bookkeeping, monthly financial reports, and is our beloved WF Treasurer.

For over 30 years, Theresa Puchly has practiced as a Naturopathic doctor and holistic practitioner focusing on women's health. Her specialty is in lymphatic drainage and healing energy work as a Reiki Master. For over 25 years, Theresa has served as a covenant companion journeying with the Wheaton Franciscan community. As a board member with the Care of Creation team through the Wheaton Franciscans and board member with the Covenant companion leadership team, Theresa is active in helping humanity. Theresa also enjoys being on the Emergency response team in Dupage county in Illinois and lives in the western suburbs of Chicago, Il. 

Cyntha Gonzalez comes from American and Mexican backgrounds, having lived in both countries, and delved into the indigenous ways of both. She lived in Peru in the mid-1980’s, studying the coastal shamanic path. She currently lives in Dubai, UAE, her home for the last 24 years, where she regularly leads desert retreats of silence, fasting and deep connection to the land and self. She is a teacher, seminar leader, expressive arts trainer, coach and emotional and energy bodyworker, providing a safe place to encounter one’s deepest truth, face anything preventing its full expression and the support to live one’s most realized life – personally, professionally and as a contributing community member. Cyntha serves as WF secretary.

Kalani is a gifted storyteller, singer, songwriter, musician, performer, poet, philosopher, priest, political satirist and peacemaker. A Hawaiian practitioner and cross-cultural facilitator, he has experience in promoting social justice through conflict resolution. Executive director of the Olohana Foundation, a non-profit focused on community capacity, his workshops and lectures inspire, challenge and entertain the listener while calling all to be their greater self. His native roots allow him a unique perspective of the collision of two worlds: one steeped in traditional culture, the other a juggernaut of new morality and changing economic and political persuasion. He is a messenger of integration and collaboration in a world normally rife with exclusion, oppression and hopelessness. His work in behavior modification research, leadership, team-building and political strategy gives him generous insights into group dynamics and systems of governance. 

Dr. Suzy Ross is currently Director of Recreation Therapy for the Department of Health Science and Recreation at San Jose State University College of Applied Sciences and Arts. She also serves as consultant to the Veterans Administration and to individuals in private practice. As a therapist, she specializes in the treatment of women survivors of sexual trauma, post-traumatic stress, and in adventure therapy. Her doctoral research examined the underlying archetypal phenomenon of personal transformation and is the subject of her book, The Map to Wholeness: Finding Yourself through Crisis, Change, and Reinvention. 

Audrey Peterman is President and Co-founder of Earthwise Productions, Inc., an environmental consulting and publishing firm focused on connecting the public lands system and the American public. Audrey serves on the board of the National Parks Conservation Association, the Association of Partners for Public Lands, and the National Parks Promotion Council. She is co-author with her husband Frank of Legacy on the Land: A Black Couple Discovers Our National Inheritance and Tells Why Every American Should Care, and the recently-released travel guide, Our True Nature: Finding a Zest for Life in the National Park System.

Elizabeth Kapu'uwailani Lindsey, Ph.D., is the first female National Geographic fellow and the first Polynesian explorer at the National Geographic Society. An award-winning filmmaker and anthropologist, she is committed to ethnographic rescue - the conservation of vanishing indigenous knowledge and tradition. A descendant of Hawaiian chiefs, English seafarers, and Chinese merchants, Lindsey was raised by native Hawaiian elders who prophesied her role as a steward of ancestral wisdom. Lindsey's expeditions now take her to some of the most remote regions of the world. Lindsey has shared her passion for indigenous science with audiences throughout the world, including at Oxford University, Harvard University, the Smithsonian Institution, the American Museum of Natural History, and on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.

Chrystelle Hadjikakou is a healer, teacher, filmmaker, writer, translator in German, English, and Spanish, and an initiate in the Scandinavian, Toltec, Mexica and Andean paths of energy techniques for self-empowerment and self-healing. A resident of Mexico City, she was featured as a contributing author in the international best -seller Transforming Through 2012, published in 2010.

Fredy grew up in the Andean village of Lares, a place very similar to Q’eros. His first language was Quechua, and he was trained in the tradition by his Grandfather from the tender age of ten. Fredy is the very first official mystical tour guide of Cuzco, authorized by the Peruvian Tourism Authority. Part of Fredy's job is to train other tour guides in the authentic traditions of his land. He is a most excellent guide, a master of organizational details, and an expert simultaneous Quechua-to-English translator. Fredy has worked with Elizabeth Jenkins and the Wiraqocha Foundation for more than 15 years.

Udine, Italy

Udine, Italy