BOARD of Directors
ADVISORY Committee
Paul Robear, President & Executive Director
Paul Robear has served as the President and Executive Director of the Cuyamungue Institute (CI) since 2011. He worked with CI’s founder, anthropologist Dr. Felicitas D Goodman, from his first introduction to her and her work in 1994, til her passing in 2005.
Christine VanPool, Ph.D
Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of Missouri
Christine’s work with her husband Todd, a cognitive anthropologist who also teaches at the University of Missouri, encompasses archeological field work at ancient sites in MesoAmerican and the American Southwest. They have presented and published at several academic venues. She is the author of Signs of the Casas Grandes Shamans and with Todd VanPool, Religion in the Prehispanic Southwest.
Laura Lee, Vice President, Director of Research & Outreach
Laura Lee has served as Vice President and Director of Research and Outreach for the Cuyamungue Institute (CI) since 2011. She worked with CI’s founder, anthropologist Dr. Felicitas D Goodman, from her first radio interview Goodman on her work in 1994, til Goodman’s passing in 2005.
Tony Hull Ph.D
Adjunct Professor of Physics and Astronomy at University of New Mexico
Tony Hull is the architect of a NASA study for a large space observatory to continue research in ultraviolet astrophysics. He led the team of 60 that polished the mirrors of the newly launched James Webb Space Telescope, and served as NASA technologist for Terrestrial Planet Finder, a spaceborne mission for direct imaging of exoplanets.
Jackie Haworth Hoy, Board Secretary
Jackie has served as a member of the Cuyamungue Board of Directors for many years and is currently the secretary. She became involved in the Ecstatic Trance work in the 1980’s attending workshops by Dr. Goodman. Studied Counseling at University of Dayton From Columbus, Ohio. She was a teacher and counselor at Ohio middle schools. With her Husband Ray Hoy, together they embrace music, adventure and family.
Frederick M. Smith Ph.D
Professor Emeritus, Sanskrit and Classical Indian Religions, University of Iowa
Fred Smith spent sixteen years in India, and a long career at the Department of Asian and Slavic Languages and Literatures, a unit of the Division of World Languages, Literatures and Cultures in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. His vigorous research program includes major forays into premodern North Indian devotional philosophy and poetry, deity and spirit possession in South Asia, Indian medical literature and the practice of Ayurveda, Sanskrit literature and the epic Mahabharata, the history and practice of yoga.
Cynthia B. Devlin LMPT,LPCC, Board Treasurer
Cynthia Bergstrom Devlin is a professional counselor, mental health counselor, and marriage & family therapist who practices in Santa Fe, NM. and has a strong commitment to cultivating emotional wellness.
Geert Mayer Ph.D
Associate Professor in Neurology at the Philipps University in Marburg and former Director of the Hephata Klinik in Schwalmstadt-Treysa, Germany.
For 25 years Geert worked with sleep disorders, specializing in psychiatry, psychotherapy and neurology, and degrees in German and European sleep medicine, epilepsy and EEG. He is a member of several national and international scientific societies, serving as head of the “Task Force Polysomnography” for the German Society for Neurophysiology and Imaging, the “Task Force Sleep Medicine” of the German Neurological Society and the “Clinical Committee” of the European Sleep Research Society.
Stephanie Stephens, Board Member
Board member Stephanie Stephens lives in Columbus, Ohio. She graduated from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio with a Bachelor of Music degree and has an M.A. in Music Education from The Ohio State University. She teaches vocal music to middle and high school students and she is very involved in theatre, working regularly as a music director in and around Columbus.
Thomas Riccio Ph.D
Professor of Visual and Performing Arts, University of Texas, Dallas
As Professor of Theatre at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks and Director of Tuma Theater, an Alaska Native performance group, he devised and directed several performances. He documented, revived, and re-imagined indigenous Alaska Native performance vocabularies and expressions for application in a contemporary context, with over thirty traditional Yup’ik, Inupiat, and Athabaskan villages. This work served as a template, combining ethnography, drama therapy, aesthetic production, activism, education, and cultural development, for work with numerous indigenous groups worldwide. He continued this work in ritual and indigenous performance, creating performances and conducting research in South Africa, Zambia, Kenya, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Russia, Alaska, Korea, India, Nepal, with the !Xuu Bushmen and the Miao of China.
Julie Strider Nichol, Board Member
Julie trained as an architect and spent 15 years as an associate with a firm in Sussex before setting out as a freelance surveyor. She was appointed as the Adult Education teacher in Shamanism for West Sussex County Council! Her work with Labyrinths in various landscapes to celebrate the seasons, and teaching workshops on the Labyrinth, led to proposing, and collaborating with Paul, on the design and installation of a permanent 40-ft diameter labyrinth at the Cuyamungue Institute.
Brian Tucker, Cross Cultural Spiritual Advisor
As Spiritual Director with the Guild for Spiritual Guidance, Brian organized and facilitated Interfaith events for the Vincentian Renewal Center in Plainsboro, NJ, He consults both non-profit and for-profit organizations, individuals and organizations, on technology. His book, Generations of War: A Family’s History of World War II examines generational trauma.
Lawson Malnory
Ethnomusicologist
Ethnomusicologists study the diverse range of instruments and sounds produced by cultures and people from all over the world. Besides ethnomusicology, Lawson is a musician, arts manager, singer-songwriter, filmmaker, and percussionist trained in orchestral, popular, and world music. Lawson earned his MA in Ethnomusicology at Arizona State University, conducting research on the relationship between sound and altered states of consciousness. He finds the study of Spanish deepens his perspective on the cultures and music of Latin American countries, having studied in Cuba and Mexico. He has participated in the Cuyamungue Institute conferences and research since October 2020.
Barbara Cox
Founder & Principal, Photokunst.com
Barbara works with fine art, cause-oriented photographers. Through her agency Photokunst she helps shape careers and market their work in art books, exhibits, and presentations for publishers, galleries, museums, collectors and events worldwide. Her fine eye and long experience in the power of imagery to tell a story and convey a depth of emotion and meaning is highly valued in photo journalism and photo art, as she consults worldwide for archival, institutional, and private art collections, exhibitions, publications, film, social media, and content delivery in a wide array of mediums.