Anam Cara Foundation - Board Members

Michelle Burns, President Michelle Burns is the president and founder of Anam Cara foundation. Michelle received her Bachelors of Science from the University of Maryland in the field of Nursing and worked in hospitals all over the world in the United States Army and in civilian environment. She also received a Bachelors of Science in Alternative Medicine from Everglades University in Florida. Throughout her career, she has focused on helping others and teaching as a form of healing and empowerment. After a severe trauma in her adult life, Michelle began searching out support to help her heal from the changes in her life. Through first hand experience, she discovered the power of women to support each other through challenges and growth. The seed was laid for the creation of the Anam Cara Foundation. Michelle currently owns her own business, Advanced Holistic Healing Arts, which provides health consultation and guidance for those seeking to achieve the best health possible, regardless of injury or illnesses. She is also a speaker, author, consultant and trainer for those looking to enhance their abilities to share information through workshops, classes and training. Michelle is a past president of AGLCC (Austin Gay/Lesbian Chamber of Commerce) and has worked with other nonprofit organizations, including Waterloo Counseling Center, Austin Integrative Health Coalition, and Wright Wellness Center and an Advisory Board member for Academy of Health Professions—Austin.		Niki Doering, Board Member Niki received her massage therapy license from the ALR School of Massage in Austin over 20 years ago. She was also trained in the use of Solar Nutrition for maintaining good health as well as Touch for Health and Reflexology. Previous to that, she completed training and certification in the field of Respiratory Therapy at Houston Baptist Memorial Hospital. Niki has always been passionate about accessing the creative space that allows for more aliveness, harmony and flow. During her career, she has focused on exploring human nature and the potential that is within us all. She loves assisting others to this end. Niki currently owns her own business which provides a variety of services from brainstorming ideas and actions that support innovation in multiple areas, to organizing events, homes, offices and human bodies with a number of complimentary services. She is also a house painter, bookkeeper, rebirther and currently licensed massage therapist. Niki was responsible for being first to bring Lamaze classes to the Southeast Texas area along with Gail Parks over 30 years ago. She has served on the boards of for-profit and non-profit organizations in several cities and has worked on both the service and administrative sides of business. Niki lived in an experimental community for over 13 years to study human dynamics and the power of the unconscious first hand. She is active with her cleaning and painting business when she needs a break from getting too stuck in her head.
Theresa Clatto, Board Member Theresa Clatto has served as an educator in the public school system for 25 years and is currently an Intervention Program Reading Specialist. Her duties include overseeing the implementation of the program, coaching teachers, coordinating and presenting workshops, and collecting data to evaluate the effectiveness of the program. She is also the creator and director of the Ben Lombardo rBowl event, an annual academic competition for students in the reading intervention program. She values service to community whether it is on land or in the sea, working with an organization or simply helping a neighbor. She has been involved with service-learning projects with students, as well as volunteer work with sea census and Cozumel’s turtle protection program. Her students’ service-learning projects included cleaning up graffiti in the City of Austin in conjunction with the City of Austin/Travis County Graffiti Abatement Program and Adopt-A-Nursing Home. She presented Service Learning: Students and Community Involved at the 2000 TMSA Conference. Turtles are a particular passion of hers, and over the years, she has been involved with the Cozumel turtle protection program, whose purpose is to save the sea turtles from extinction by educating the younger generations and having teams of biologists and volunteers locating and tagging female turtles, collecting data, and releasing hatchlings. Theresa’s start with Anam Cara began when Michelle Burns, founder, approached her with her vision of starting a women’s group. She encouraged Michelle to go forward and before she knew it she too was going forward. Theresa is a current member of the Anam Cara Womyn’s group. She is honored to be a part of the Anam Cara Foundation and for the opportunity to contribute to the community. She enjoys her summers in Cozumel, Mexico diving.		Lynn Kurth, Board Member, WeCAN coordinator Lynn has a Master’s degree in Water Resource Management and has been an environmental consultant for 26 years. The projects Lynn manages focus on ensuring compliance with EPA’s water quality protection programs under the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Clean Water Act. Her experience includes developing permits to control wastewater discharges from municipal and industrial facilities and conducting compliance audits to determine whether regulated entities are meeting federal requirements to prevent water pollution. Lynn has also managed large civil engineering construction projects which include infrastructure design, water quality protection, and oversight of construction activities. This experience affords Lynn a broad-based understanding of water contamination, treatment, and protection. Lynn has been very successful during her career marketing and obtaining over $30 million in contract work with federal, state, and local entities. The most rewarding part of Lynn’s work, aside from working towards protecting our planet, is mentoring junior environmental scientists and engineers and encouraging them to follow their heart, and make a difference through the career path they have chosen. Lynn actively pursues balance of mind, body, spirit in her life. Her professional work certainly challenges the mind. To feed the body, Lynn enjoys pilates, yoga, dance, and biking. She fills her spiritual piece through involvement in the Anam Cara Womyn’s Group and her connection with friends and family. Lynn has always been active in her community, and has participated in political and local campaigns for change since she was a teen. As an example, Lynn was instrumental in organizing and implementing the first, very high profile, recycling effort on the Mall in Washington DC during July 4th events. That effort continues today. More recently, Lynn has founded the Women’s Community Action Network (WeCAN) to bring people together to decide on community projects to which they wish to donate time and money as a group. Lynn is active in neighborhood groups and has lent her expertise in facilitating group meetings to bringing neighbors together to initiate a dialog about neighborhood issues and solutions. Lynn is also a Certified Emergency Response Trainee as a first responder in the event of an emergency in the community.
Jennifer Berg		Sherry Scott, Treasurer A lifelong commitment to learning has led Sherry to find new ways to help others share their knowledge through her organization Resource Connection. She produces events and workshops on a wide range of topics for personal growth. Providing innovative ways for people to internalize challenging topics is her goal. Sherry received her Master of Liberal Arts from St. Edward's University in 2002 and was honored with the award for the Outstanding Master of Liberal Arts Graduate. In 2005 it was time to move on to a new branch in her path and she left her position as Webmaster for St. Edward's, where she had been since 1990, to begin Resource Connection. In addition to the production of learning events Sherry assists her clients as a Productivity Ally. Her extensive background in Project Management along with her technical and creative skills give her many tools through which she helps people achieve clarity, easily meet deadlines and gather the appropriate tools to streamline their efforts. Sherry is a great listener and has the tools to help her clients define priorities so that their work time is efficient and effective. Additionally Sherry provides print and online design services encompassing everything from display ads, book covers, brochures, business cards, postcards, posters, programs and flyers to web banners and complete website development. During her own time Sherry loves reading, cooking, swimming and being outdoors. She is an accomplished singer and participates in the popular Hilde Girls organization. Sherry loves all kinds of music and would rather create or listen to music than do just about anything else.
Stephanie Lowe, Board Member Stephanie is retired from a long career in Information Technology (IT). She started out working with mainframes in the 70s. She saw the future in the PC and moved into that area of IT, where she was consistently promoted into more responsible positions during her career. While working for the Department of Health, she implemented a statewide email system. This project earned her the coveted Board of Health Award for Excellence. Stephanie has long been interested in the power of groups, both as a member and leader, for study and support and healing purposes. Stephanie led the Real Love group, a study and practice of the work of Greg Baer, at Riverbend. Now that Stephanie is retired, she can pursue her first love, art. She started out as an art major at North Texas State University but decided to pursue a more practical career path. Currently, she takes art classes, shows work at local venues, and does special projects for various organizations and events. In her spare time, Stephanie enjoys traveling the world, hiking, studying the Course in Miracles, and gourmet cooking. Stephanie loves animals and currently lives with a big dog and four cats.