Board of Trustees

Brad Learmonth (Ordained at One Spirit in 2011, ISC 2015, ELA and CIC 2020), a leader in the non-profit performing arts for over three decades, received the 2014 William Dawson Award for Programmatic Excellence and Sustained Achievement in Programming from the Association of Performing Arts Presenters. As the director of programming at Harlem Stage (1988-2015) Brad created unique and nurturing platforms in all disciplines for visionary artists of color to create risk-taking and transformative work that responds to the social and political conditions that shape our lives. He also created award winning arts education programs for k-12 public school children. He continues his work in the arts independently. The activism and service that is essential to this vision carries through in Brad’s work on his spiritual path. Brad has a bachelor’s degree in behavioral science and trained as an actor. He was born in the Boston area and has lived in New York since 1982. He resides in New York City and Sag Harbor with his husband Jon, two and a half dogs, about 150,000 honeybees, a few dozen koi and the abundance of nature.

Lina E. Ziurys is an attorney at Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP, specializing in the representation of private funds (including hedge funds and private equity funds) and investment advisers in connection with their structuring, formation and ongoing operational needs, as well as general securities law and compliance matters. She previously practiced corporate law, with a particular focus on credit and securities law matters, in the New York and London offices of a global law firm. Lina graduated from Connecticut College and Brooklyn Law School (magna cum laude), and studied in a non-degree program at the London School of Economics. She is a hospice volunteer, a lover of animals, and an ordained interfaith/interspiritual minister (One Spirit Class of 2016).

Rev. Emilie Unterweger (OSIS 2021) is a healer, writer, and workshop facilitator based in New York City where she empowers others to participate in their own wellness by providing tools for growth and change. Emilie seeks to foster healing in individuals and communities through a deepening connection to Spirit and Earth and, in doing so, aid in restoring balance to humanities’ relationship with the natural world. Emilie earned a BA in Creative Writing from Columbia University. There she trained as a NYS Certified Rape Crisis Counselor and volunteered as a Peer Educator and Peer Advocate for their Sexual Violence Response Office doing outreach, working with survivors, creating and presenting workshops. She continues to support survivors in her practice and various recovery circles. Emilie is a certified Holy Fire and Shamanic Reiki Master Practitioner, talking circle leader, and has practiced mindfulness and meditation for over a decade.

Annamma Abraham Kaba was ordained an interfaith/interspiritual minister at One Spirit in 2020. She has been a psychotherapist for close to seventeen years and an oncology social worker and member of the department leadership team at Memorial Sloan Kettering for over two decades. Annamma currently directs an institution-wide program that provides psychosocial support to cancer survivors. Incorporating her spiritual work, Annamma is a committed anti-racist practitioner with a goal of unpacking the root causes of racism while developing cross-racial relationships to fight racial disparities and abuse. Born in the East and raised in the West, Annamma values psycho-spiritual practices fostering interconnectedness by identifying one’s vulnerabilities to strengthen individual wellbeing while collectively transforming our world. Annamma is a proud mother of two teenagers, Priya and Esa.

Linda Bjork is a former decade-long CEO who built one of Scandinavia’s most profitable and award-winning design and branding agencies. Known as a mind-training pioneer CEO, Linda Bjork has developed a new intelligence system for leaders that reaches far beyond intellectual abilities and emotional intelligence called Mindfulness Intelligence™ (MQ). Linda is a trained MBSR Instructor (mindfulness based stress reduction), a Certified Executive Success Coach and an Ordained Interfaith Minister (One Spirit Class of 2019). Linda authored the leadership development book “Inner Business, Training Your Mind For Leadership Success”, and is part of the Core Team and the Board of Directors of UNITY EARTH, USA. Linda lives and works in New York City with her daughter, their dog Lion King (he really does looks like a lion) and their blind cat Lucyboy.

Activist. Counselor. Innovator. Minister. Known for her ability to give voice to the deepest expressions of Spirit and connect them to the daily experiences of living, Reverend Laurene Williams delights in creating spaces in which people can express love, experience connection, demonstrate responsibility and empower community. She believes the purpose of ministry is to serve and empower community such that people experience their natural connection to others. Reverend Laurene asserts, “The more we function from understanding the depth of our interrelatedness and degree of our interdependence, the more each of us can consciously create our lives and contribute to a world that serves us ALL. Church would expand beyond its walls as a ‘house of God’ to ‘God housed in us’ and the congregation from a group of ‘people assembled for worship’ to ‘worship resembled in people.’ God, the Nameless and Named, is a “Lived Experience and Living Presence”—the spiritual experience of a multi-faceted, multi-dimensional relationship to ourselves, one another and Life that we express and embody as our divine essence.” Whether it was human development, psychology, religious studies and sociology electives she studied as an undergraduate at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania or her choice to attend an interfaith seminary at One Spirit Learning Alliance in NYC, Reverend Laurene believes a curious mind cultivates a consciousness mindset. “Curiosity encourages us to look beyond the facts, explore the limits of what we know to discover what is True—that we’re intimately and intricately connected. My curiosity has led me to meet people from all walks of life and walk in life with all sorts of people. And with not despite our differences, we are the same in our essence.” A truth that has only deepened and expanded for her through more than 20 years of study in various educational and transformational trainings. Sought after for her compelling conversations, engaging inquiries, sense of humor and unique perspective on spirituality-infused living, Reverend Laurene explores with people how to embody their personal truth in alignment with Spiritual Truth for greater fulfillment, power, joy and peace of mind. This is accomplished through her writings, counseling, ministry, public speaking and transformational workshops and innovative programs. Born in Westbury, Long Island, Reverend Laurene Williams currently lives in Bloomfield, NJ.

Kurt Johnson, Ph.D., works professionally across a number of fields: world religions, spirituality, ethics, science, literature and business. Active internationally in trans-traditional spiritual practice, he is a founding member of the Coalition for One Voice and the World Wisdom Alliance, Dr. Johnson is also a member of Ken Wilber’s east coast Integral Alliance and Deepak Chopra’s Global Networking Leaders group. He was a co-host at the 2004 Parliament of World Religions for interspiritual dialogue. In addition to serving as a board member of One Spirit Learning Alliance, Dr. Johnson is on the faculty of the Humanist Institute and serves on the board of several United Nations NGO’s. Of Kurt’s many activities, the one closest to his heart is probably is evolution of the Inter-Spiritual understanding of his dear friend Brother Wayne Teasdale, author of the seminal work The Mystic Heart. This work is forwarded through a number of channels including Inter-Spiritual Dialogue in Action (www.isdna.org), the Community of the Mystic Heart, (www.orderofsannyasa.org), and the Inter-Spiritual Multiplex which can be accessed through the IsDNA home page. Kurt is the author of a number of articles and books in the fields of science, literature and spirituality, including the New York Times bestseller, Nabakov’s Blues. He serves on the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s panel on the Dialogue of Science, Ethics, and Religion and was a monk in the Christian tradition for over a decade. Today, however, Kurt’s primary interest is the profound simplicity of contemplative practice; and its global application for conscious living. He is a recognized teacher in the Hindu “Oneness” tradition of Advaita Vedanta.