The Light of Spiritual Direction and Companionship
SDI 2026 Online Conference Presenters
Keynoters & Presenters
Meet our 2026 conference keynote and workshop presenters!
For full details on our conference workshops, please visit the Workshops page.
Parker Palmer
Keynote Presenter
Parker J. Palmer is a writer, speaker and activist who focuses on issues in education, community, leadership, spirituality and social change. He is founder and Senior Partner Emeritus of the Center for Courage & Renewal.
He holds a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California at Berkeley, as well as fourteen honorary doctorates, two Distinguished Achievement Awards from the National Educational Press Association, and an Award of Excellence from the Associated Church Press.
Palmer is the author of ten books—including several award-winning titles—that have sold nearly two million copies and been translated into ten languages: On the Brink of Everything, Healing the Heart of Democracy, The Heart of Higher Education (with Arthur Zajonc), The Courage to Teach, A Hidden Wholeness, Let Your Life Speak, The Active Life, To Know As We Are Known, The Company of Strangers, and The Promise of Paradox.
In 1998, the Leadership Project, a national survey of 10,000 educators, named Dr. Palmer one of the thirty “most influential senior leaders” in higher education and one of the ten key “agenda-setters” of the past decade.
Since 2002, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) has given annual Parker J. Palmer “Courage to Teach” and “Courage to Lead” Awards to graduate medical education program directors and designated institutional officials.
In 2005, Living the Questions: Essays Inspired by the Work and Life of Parker J. Palmer, was published.
In 2010, Palmer was given the William Rainey Harper Award whose previous recipients include Margaret Mead, Elie Wiesel, Marshall McLuhan, and Paulo Freire.
In 2011, the Utne Reader named him one of 25 Visionaries on its annual list of “People Who are Changing the World.”
In 2017, the Shalem Institute in Washington, D.C., gave Palmer its annual Contemplative Voices Award, “created to honor those individuals who have made significant contributions to contemplative understanding, living and leadership and whose witness helps others live from the divine wellspring of compassion, strength, and authentic vision.”
In 2021, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Freedom of Spirit Fund, which “honors exemplary individuals and institutions embodying that inner freedom that is the energizing source of human courage, creativity, and love in the world.”
A member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quaker), Parker Palmer and his wife, Sharon Palmer, live in Madison, Wisconsin.
Dr. James Finley
Keynote Presenter
Student of Thomas Merton and clinical psychologist, Dr. James Finley teaches how connecting to our Divine indwelling can transcend fear and shame and awaken to our True Self. A faculty member at the Center for Action and Contemplation, he is the author of Merton’s Palace of Nowhere and The Contemplative Heart, and the host of CAC’s podcast Turning to the Mystics.
Brenda Bertrand
Workshop Presenter
Brenda Bertrand is a spiritual companion, ordained minister, and retreat leader who has spent over two decades guiding individuals and communities in contemplative practice, discernment, and transformation. A former university and military chaplain, she is known for creating sacred spaces where honesty and holiness meet, where people can bring their full, complex selves before God. Her work invites others to listen to their lives with courage, compassion, and curiosity.
Brenda’s journey with anger, learning to sit with her own and companion others through theirs, inspired Praying with Fire, a workshop designed to help spiritual companions hold this powerful emotion as sacred teacher rather than threat. Drawing on her background in theology, communication, and spiritual direction in the Ignatian tradition, Brenda helps others rediscover presence, integrity, and liberation in the midst of life’s heat. She lives at the intersection of contemplation, authenticity, and embodied spirituality.
Igal Harmelin
Workshop Presenter
Igal Harmelin is an ordained rabbi, a certified spiritual director, a certified master-practitioner of NARM (an advanced modality for addressing complex trauma), a coach and a meditation teacher.
For decades, Igal has been an avid student of the mystical teachings of the world’s major religions, and he offers courses in applied mysticism to followers of all faiths, as well as with those who profess to follow none.
He has taught meditation to thousands of people on four continents and has spent years in extended meditation retreats under a number of spiritual teachers.
He lives in New York City with his wife, Rabbi Lisa Goldstein.
Dianne Daniels
Workshop Presenter
Rev. Dianne M. Daniels is an ordained Unitarian Universalist Minister, Spiritual Director, and Course Creator whose ministry bridges spirituality, creativity, and personal transformation. A 2022 graduate ofStarr King School for the Ministry, she brings over 40 years of personal journaling practice and extensive experience in adult formation, pastoral presence, and contemplative teaching.
Dianne empowers individuals—especially women 50 and wiser—to live Dynamic, Intriguing, Vivacious, and Authentic lives grounded in spiritual depth and self-understanding. Through her workshops and SoulScript Journaling programs, she demonstrates how writing can become a sacred dialogue that reveals divine wisdom, fosters inner peace, and strengthens compassionate presence.
Jane Vennard
Workshop Presenter
Reverend Jane Vennard has led peer supervision groups for over 20 years, and has facilitated several SDI webinars. She was called to the ministry of teaching and spiritual direction and ordained in 1987 by the United Church of Christ. She is retired senior adjunct faculty at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colorado, USA. Jane has presented workshops at SDI conferences and offered a Plenary Address at the 20th anniversary celebration in 2010. She has led programs for Spiritual Direction Colorado’s continuing education events including an afternoon on the topic of racism. A number of church groups have also sponsored programs on white privilege including UU, Catholic, Episcopal, and UCC. Jane has taught in spiritual direction formation programs at Garrett Theological Seminary, Columbia Theological Seminary and The Community of Christ spiritual formation program. She is a spiritual director in private practice and the author of eight books. Her most recent is “Fully Awake and Truly Alive: Spiritual Practices to Nurture Your Soul”. Jane lives with her husband Jim Laurie in a retirement center in Denver, Colorado.
Doug Moore
Workshop Presenter
Doug J. Moore, Ph.D. is a psychologist, life coach, and spiritual director devoted to helping others thrive and awaken to a greater consciousness. Through his sessions, teachings, and online learning center, he helps others learn how to move out of Survival Mode and choose to Thrive. This transformative process is grounding and essential for a sustained awakening.
For more than four decades, Doug has explored the integration of psychology and spirituality. He draws upon mindfulness, meditation, energy work, the Enneagram, and the wisdom of lived experience. His teaching and guidance help others develop tools for self-discovery such as complete acceptance, self-compassion, clearing reactivity, and conscious awareness.
Doug facilitates a long-standing Deepening Presence® study group and offers online programs for self-discovery and conscious awakening, including The Essence of Thriving and Thriving with Self-Compassion. Learn more at dougjmoore.com and thriveandawaken.com.
Fran Grace
Workshop Presenter
Fran Grace was certified as a spiritual director in 2001 and received her Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary. In 2008, she founded The Institute for Contemplative Life, a 501c3 interfaith nonprofit dedicated to the “inner pathway.” She was Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Redlands for 25 years, where she established a pioneering contemplative education program and was invited to share her spiritual research on CSPAN, NPR, History Channel, etc. Academic life, however, did not fulfill her deep inner quest. In 2003, a life crisis broke open her inner world and she met a spiritual teacher who revealed the “inner pathway” that respects the essence of all spiritual traditions. Her book, The Power of Love (2019) is a Silver Award winner in the Benjamin Franklin Book Awards for “Best Inspirational Books in 2019.” After her son died of Covid, she was certified as a death doula in 2021.
Nicholas Collura
Workshop Presenter
Nicholas Collura directs the Radius program at MIT, which promotes communities of ethical reflection on technology and culture, and he serves as an adjunct professor of pastoral ministry at Villanova University. A former Jesuit, Nicholas earned an MDiv from the Boston College Clough School of Theology and Ministry, trained as a spiritual director at the Jesuit Collaborative in Watertown, MA, and completed his Clinical Pastoral Education as a board-certified interfaith chaplain at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and at Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia. Nicholas holds a DMin in Spiritual Care and Counseling from Fordham University. He is also a teacher in the Narrative Enneagram tradition.
Afrika Afeni Mills
Workshop Presenter
Afrika Afeni Mills is a spiritual director, assistant pastor, and writer who helps individuals and communities discern God’s presence in the ordinary rhythms of life. Through her ministry, Soul Compass Spiritual Direction, Afrika offers sacred listening and discernment companionship that nurture peace, wholeness, and belonging. She also serves as Assistant Pastor with Grace Communion Steele Creek in Charlotte, North Carolina, guiding the community’s discipleship ministry. Drawing from her experiences in education, racial healing, and contemplative practice, Afrika invites others to live into shalom — the holistic peace that restores us to God, ourselves, and one another. A member of the Transforming Center’s Transforming Community 20, she is completing her forthcoming book, Sowing the Seeds of Shalom: Racial Healing as Spiritual Formation (InterVarsity Press), which weaves together theology, story, and practice for those seeking a more just and compassionate spiritual life.