Italy 

Mother, socio-anthropologist, Community development and self-funded communities Trainer, Feminist for a Maternal Gift Economy

Francesca Lulli, socio-anthropologist, community development and self-funded communities trainer. Member of the network  International Feminist for a Gift Economy, she has been collaborating for several years with the Feminist Study Center for the Gift Economy of Rome (Italy).  She has been involved in studying gift and popular economies, community building dynamics and grassroots women’s associationism, mainly in Sub-Saharan Africa. She wrote the book Microfinance, Informal Economies and Associationism.

A Feminine Perspective, (Editori Riuniti 2008) and several articles including : “Grandmothers at the Centre in Velingara, Senegal. The Transmission of Knowledge, education, intergenerational relationship and the gift logic”, in Canadian Women Studies 2020. She has taught at La Sapienza University and in several Master’s programs. She has worked with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and several NGOs mainly on issues related to education, social and economic inclusion of women and youth, and gender issues. She has been involved in project design, researches, data analysis and evaluations, especially in sub-Saharan Africa.

She has been collaborating since 2011 with feminist philosopher and theorist of the Maternal Gift Economy, Genevieve Vaughan, through supporting activities to promote the Gift Economy and feminist visions for more equitable societies. She has been working as a research consultant with the American-Senegalese NGO Grandmother project – Change through Culture. She has been leading studies on  women’s relationships, intra-and intergenerational relationships, gender relations, female sexual health in adolescence, adult education, girl schooling and changing social norms. 

Germany

Multiplier for transformative education and inner development processes for an outer change, reseacher for a good life for all (following the “buen vivir” concept), systems thinker, spiritual seeker, forest lover

Lena Seyfried is a committed systems thinker and advocate for socio-ecological transformation, dedicated to integrating inner growth with broader societal shifts. Inspired by the South American “buen vivir” philosophy, Lena focuses her work on fostering sustainable and harmonious ways of life. With a multidisciplinary background spanning ecology, environmental psychology, and transformative education, she brings a holistic approach to creating impactful change.

Her professional and volunteer work reflects a strong commitment to community-led initiatives. Lena has coordinated food-sharing programs, co-managed sustainability projects, and facilitated educational workshops on global learning and sustainability. As a student assistant in her university’s Green Office and an active member of organizations like the Centre for Good Living in Germany, she excels at fostering collaborative, impactful change within communities. Lena is also skilled in nature and wilderness education, emphasizing deep ecology and “Coyote Teaching” to strengthen connections to nature.

In 2023, she joined the SHE-EDE program in Magliano Sabina, sparking a profound interest in blending matriarchal principles with the ecovillage movement. Passionate about holistic practices, Lena enjoys embodiment work, dance, and singing heart-centered songs with others around the fire, finding joy and connection in shared human experiences.

Portugal

mother, Artist, Designer, Facilitator of creative and expansive processes, Explorer and creator of spaces in the creative mind, Movement researcher

Sofia is a Woman of Nature who, in her essence, explores herself, transforming, dying and being reborn cyclically. This surrender feeds her creativity, which she brings to her creations and dances.

Her curiosity for the creative expression of the being, led her to become a teacher and facilitator, exploring the individual’s ability to express their feelings, looking for what each person has to say and how they want to place themselves in the world, motivating natural creative expression and awakening the need to nurture the self, without fear or prejudice, just following the stories of each person intuitively.

As a designer, she combined her professional career with an academic one, creating her own design studio. She has taught in the areas of design, design methodologies, design thinking and participatory methodologies. 

She has been developing her self-knowledge by participating in programs and workshops in the areas of art, design, spirituality, and sustainability. She has taken part in training courses specializing in body and movement and the practice of body psychotherapy, dance as a somatic narrative, which esteems the body as a ritualistic territory of appeal and reconnection with primal knowledge, and which serves as a exposure and antidote to today’s elemental syndromes.

She participated and was part of the communications team for the first edition of She-EDE, WOMEN ECOVILLAGE DESIGN EDUCATION, in Magliano Sabina (Italy), in May 2023. Between 2021 and 2022, participated in the Gaia Education Design for Sustainability & Regeneration (GEDS).

Her work as a facilitator endorses the creative nature that exist in all human beings. With this vision, she seeks to expand a common language that transcends verbal language, accessing symbols and meanings that relate and interconnect experiences, located in the individual and collective conscious and unconscious.

Italy

Sociologists and International Project Manager, Activist and Feminist for Women’s Health, Founder of “Le Matriarcali“

Sociogist and international project manager, her activism is directed to  women’s  health , to reclaim women role in human evolution and is  rooted in  anti-war philosphy, with Women in Black; her feminism and  modern matriachal studies  are closely interconnected. She  researches link between women oppression in  patriarchal  systems,   ecological destruction and historical roots.

Founder of Le Matriarcali collective in 2005 she  is interested in how  studies of egalitarian societies of the present and the past can inspire  new forms  of  mothers -women centered communities  weaving peacefull relationships. 

She views decolonizing practises an ‘empowering action” for women  which involve  criticism  patriarchal logic with its social and economical structures. 

Believer of the  Earth as  living entity, she advocates  combining nature based  spirituality immanence with social justice  issues.    

She devotes her time to  explore and develop rituals linked to ancient wheel of the year  (wheel of life) celebrations rituals  as tools to personal spiritual path; she travels  often  to  experience ancient  places  energies. 

Her love of dance and  working with groups  as Biodanza facilitator  support her commitment towards live  embodied experiences to enhance human and nature interconnection and reclaiminin ancient ways of the Feminine.  

Avid reader, passionate hikers, love meditating and creative gardening as permaculture beginner; she   enjoys  collecting wild herbs and  making clothes  for herself and friends. 

Formed with Vicki Noble, Starhawk and Lama Tsultrim Allione, currently graduating in Modern Matriarchal Studies with Dr. Heide Goettner-Abendroth (Hagia Akademie),