Julian Norris, PhD, is a scholar-practitioner and wilderness guide, and founding director of the Wolf Willow Institute who has spent his life exploring the crossroads where human development and systems transformation meet. Originally trained as an anthropologist, he is a faculty member at the Haskayne School of Business where he teaches courses in leadership and complexity. Julian’s work is seasoned by a love for the bardic traditions, a lifetime spent in wild landscapes and a long-standing practice of contemplative and somatic disciplines. His past roles include Director of Systems Leadership at Banff Centre and Associate Director for Outward Bound Canada and he is a coach-advisor for senior leaders and organizations in the government, corporate and social sectors grappling with complex challenges and opportunities.

Laura Blakeman, PhD is a highly creative and strategic thinker known for her capacity to build beautiful and engaging transformative experiences. She draws from her trans-disciplinary experience in the performing arts, depth and developmental psychology, spiritual practice, wilderness guiding, and land-based living to better equip practitioners with the capabilities required to meet complex challenges. Her colleagues particularly appreciate her ability to take a systems-approach, centering learning as the core driver of change in all domains and at every scale. Laura has researched and written extensively on the state-shifting power of beauty. She is a founding director at Wolf Willow and calls the southwest U.S. canyon country home.