HOW Retreat 2023
May 20 – May 21, 2023
Narrowsburg, NY
Our second annual weekend dedicated to reconnecting with yourself and other members of the Quorum community.
There will be amazing speakers, interactive discussions and health and wellness activities.
You’ll come away refreshed with strengthened self-awareness, prepared to create greater impact.
Agenda
Friday, May 19
- 6:00pm Welcome Wine tasting, Artisanal Cheeses, and Buffet Dinner – Tasting of female vintner-produced wines hosted by Jody Jackman, accompanied by farm fresh artisanal cheeses from Calkins Creamery
Saturday, May 20
- 8:00am Connecting over Breakfast
- 9:00am HOW to Create Space for Yourself – Sage ritual to clear the mind and set personal intentions, Susan Mendoza, The Chi Hive
- 10:30am Break
- 11:00am HOW Embracing Herbs Can Impact Our Health, Kendra Payne, The Herbal Scoop
- 12:30pm Lunch and Discussions
- 1:30pm HOW We Convene and Connect with Nature, Naturalist-led walk, Laura Chávez Silverman, The Outside Institute
- 3:00 pm HOW Did You Arrive Here? Group Discussions: Reflection on past and present, Somi Kim, Design Strategist
- 4:30pm You time – Us time
- 6:30pm Dinner with Stand-Up Comedy from Quorum’s own Liz Austin
- 8:00pm Dance it Out for a Cause: A special evening with cocktails and DJ Shredder Thor. Hosted by Blue Fox Motel and Quorum Initiative to benefit Evergreen Meadow Academy who provides help for girls and their families suffering from trauma. Everyone is welcome to join us!
Sunday, May 21
- 8:00am HOW to Center Yourself – Chi-flow Yoga and Singing bowl meditation, Amanda McCormick, The Chi Hive
- 9:00am Connecting over Breakfast
- 10:00am HOW Our Financial Health Contributes to Wellness, Allen Sakon, Financial Advisor, Chicory Wealth; Moderator, Charizma Williams, COO, ACLU
- 11:00am HOW Do You Want to Shape Your Future? Intention setting for the future and exchange about how we can help each other, Somi Kim, Design Strategist
- 12:00pm Close and Lunch served
Friday, May 19 afternoon or Sunday, May 21 afternoon:
Opportunities to book a massage or participate in a field trip to the Iconic 1969 Woodstock Music Festival site available. Please let us know if you are interested.
Venue
Blue Fox Motel
Narrowsburg NY
Located at the Blue Fox Motel, a boutique motel in the Catskills, at the spot where the meandering Ten Mile River & the breathtaking Delaware River meet.
Featured Speakers
Somi Kim
Somi Kim is a design strategist who aligns business goals and human values. Most recently she was Senior Director, Healthcare Solutions at Johnson & Johnson, where she championed design solutions with real world impact for 15 years across sectors. Her passion for systemic change fuels her engagement in larger conversations about social design.
Somi received an MFA from CalArts and an AB from Harvard College. She is an Aspen Institute First Movers Fellow and lives in NJ with her husband and son.
Kendra Payne, Owner, The Herbal Scoop
Kendra Payne is the Owner and Operator of The Herbal Scoop, a discovery-based herbal farm and botanical tea shop located in Narrowsburg, NY.
Kendra’s herbal journey began when she was a child. She used to go out to find herbs, dirt, or anything she could get her hands on to make her “science experiments”. Kendra would take whatever she had, put it into a jar with water and hide them in her mother’s cabinets. She remembers several times that her mom would reach to grab pasta or something else for dinner and a jar would come crashing out! Whoops! Looking back, she now realizes that she was starting her herbalism journey and didn’t even realize it… continue reading
Throughout Kendra’s teenage years, she spent a lot of time in the doctor’s office trying to figure out what was “wrong” with her. She has been tested for everything from mono to leukemia and still never got an answer on why her immunity was always suffering. This lack of clarity and frustration with her doctors led Kendra to seek out a more natural approach to health.
On her journey Kendra has been certified as a yoga teacher, traveled to India to learn the science of Ayurveda, managed boutique fitness studios, became a juice cleanse concierge, and even taught meditation at NYU. In 2017, Kendra knew she wanted to make herbalism her career and went to school to receive a science based educational approach to herbalism. Kendra continues to study herbalism and is excited to share herbal practices from her ancestral practices that are woven into the fabric of herbalism in the U.S.
Today, Kendra offers an opportunity for people to get into the driver’s seat of their own wellness journey. She wants to empower people to embrace a sense of play and curiosity with their herbal practice. There are so many wonderful herbs to explore and The Herbal Scoop is here to get you started on feeling your best. Kendra is here to get you to Eat More Plants and Drink More Leaves.
Allen Sakon, CFP®, CPA, Financial Advisor
I am a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ and a licensed CPA with a degree in accounting from the University of West Alabama and a Master of Accountancy from the University of Alabama. My career began at Arthur Andersen where I specialized in taxation. However, a special project in change management at Andersen Consulting (now Accenture), led me to research organizational behavior and entrepreneurship at New York University and, ultimately, to build my own small business. For a decade, that kept me busy managing all aspects of marketing, sales, manufacturing, logistics, accounting, and recruiting… continue reading
At the same time, I was the primary home educator for my three girls. When they were ready, with their ability to reason firmly founded and their creativity intact, they transitioned to a traditional school where I serve in a volunteer capacity in both the Admissions and Advancement offices. As a founding member of the Planned Giving Council, I work with a panel of eleven other professionals together with the Head of School and Chancellor to recruit Legacy Society members, secure funds for the school endowment, and provide access to wise, long-term financial planning.
A life transition stirred a desire in me to serve people through holistic life planning. As a dedicated distance runner, I know the value of training with intention, and I have found that the best way to weather the storms of life is with careful planning and coaching toward goals that provide peace in the midst of change. That is my passion.
A balanced life for me includes laughing with my girls, playing with my pups, running, reading, enjoying good coffee, watching too many documentaries, and finding beauty in the world.
Charizma Williams, Chief Operating Officer, ACLU
Charizma Williams is the Chief Operating Officer at the ACLU and oversees the Finance, Human Resources, Information Technology and Business Operations functions of the organization. She also served as the ACLU’s Chief Financial Officer for three years prior to becoming the COO. Prior to joining the ACLU Williams spent nearly 15 years working to help improve educational opportunities for students in low-income communities. Most recently, she was the CFO at KIPP NYC, a charter school management organization with 15 schools in New York City. Over her 11-year tenure there she helped guide KIPP NYC through several growth phases which expanded both operational budgets and students served by more than fourfold. Prior to working in education Williams worked in the financial services industry as a securities trader… continue reading
Outside of the office Williams dedicates her time to helping mission-driven organizations achieve their goals. She currently serves as board Chair for The Knowledge House, a New York based non-profit working to educate and mentor students from low-income communities by providing them with the technology and workplace skills needed to build successful careers in the tech industry. She is also the Treasurer for the Major Taylor Cycling Club of New Jersey, which promotes cycling in New Jersey communities.
Presenters
Laura Chávez Silverman, Founding Naturalist, The Outside Institute
Laura Chávez Silverman is a writer, creative director and the founding naturalist of The Outside Institute, which connects people to the healing and transformative powers of Nature through guided hikes, sustainable foraging education, wildcrafting workshops and botanical mixology. By nurturing humanity’s innate affinity for the wild, she inspires joyful awareness and an essential reciprocity between all beings. The Outside Institute, based in the Catskills, has published three volumes of its Field Guide to the Northeast and recently opened its first outpost in Callicoon, NY.
Amanda McCormick, Embodied Movement Specialist, Alchemical Sound Mediation Guide
Amanda hails from a two-decade long performance career, most notably performing as a Rockette at Radio City Music Hall in New York City for 9 years. She began expanding her interest into the health and wellness industry first through personal training, then holistic health coaching, yoga, and meditation. She feels like this last piece of the mind/body/soul puzzle has allowed for the biggest deep dive into her own healing, love, acceptance, and growth… continue reading
Amanda is now recognized as an Embodied Movement Specialist with over 300 hours of Yoga Alliance certifiable training in Vinyasa, Restorative, and Bhakti, and likes to incorporate her dance background into expressive movement workshops.
She is an Alchemical Sound Meditation Guide where she paints soothing soundscapes with singing bowls, Koshi chimes, a steel tongue drum, and her velvet voice which leads participants on a channeled reconnection journey into themselves. She is an Intuitive Empowerment Coach, helping clients shift thoughts, beliefs, and habit patterns to ones that are more supportive of their desired outcome, and a Reiki Practitioner, incorporating chakra balancing for the client’s active participation in their own healing.
Amanda aims to facilitate a safe space—no matter the modality—for others to strengthen their own mind/body/soul connection in hopes of bringing the collective back to its true, balanced, Divine nature where we all recognize our power as students, teachers, and healers.
Susan Mendoza, Founder and Co-Owner, The Chi Hive
Embodied Movement Practitioner, Meditation Facilitator, and Ayurvedic Wellness Coach with over 20 years of experience, practicing and training in yoga and mindfulness. I have over 30 years of combined professional background in movement, voice, film, and theater which supports my approach around self-expression, release, and embodiment. Some of my health and wellness training encompasses Ashtanga, Vinyasa Yoga, Prenatal Yoga, Restorative Yoga, Aerial Yoga, Somatic Embodiment & Regulation Strategies, Trauma Informed Teaching, Yoga 12 Step Recovery for those living with and affected by addiction and trauma recovery, Ayurveda and Marma Therapeutic Technique, Integrated Embodied Anatomy, Mindfulness for Children & Teens, Trauma Sensitive Yoga and LGBTQ(i) competency training, to name but a few… continue reading
My own path towards self-actualization has taught me so much about self-love, compassion, and forgiveness. I am passionate about building strong and healthy relationships and over the last 2.5 years have been deepening my studies around intersectionality. I continue to work on how to serve my community better and support people on their journey into self-inquiry in order to live better in their bodies mentally, physically, emotionally and sexually; individually and collectively for we are all a mirror of each other.
Born on the hearty Island of Newfoundland, Canada, I now reside in Narrowsburg, NY with my cherished family and beloved animals.
Meg Sullivan, Founder, Quorum Initiative
Meg Sullivan is the founder and board chair of Quorum Initiative, an international organization focused on accelerating the advancement of executive women in business. Chapters exist in New York, Washington, D.C., London and Chicago, connecting executive women across borders to share ideas and create systemic change. Meg is passionate about diversity and inclusion being a driver of business innovation and women’s role in helping to shape our future global enterprises… continue reading
In 2019, Meg won the Financial Times’ Innovative Lawyer Legal Intrapreneur of the year award and is a Fellow of the Aspen Institute’s First-Mover Fellowship program that focuses on the development of corporate social intrapreneurs.
As the Chief Business Development, Marketing and CSR Officer at Paul Hastings, Meg was responsible for strategy, growth and innovation in legal services. She oversaw business and client development programs, public relations, brand management, and communications that promoted the firm’s international reach and commitment to client service. She also led the Diversity & Inclusion and Corporate Responsibility efforts of the firm.
Before joining Paul Hastings, Meg was based in Europe for ten years. During that time, she was the Director of Marketing for the EMEIA region at Andersen. In addition, Meg held director positions in business development, marketing and export for a major French clothing manufacturer, the largest French shoe manufacturer, and an American venture capital firm.
Meg is a Co-owner of the Blue Fox Motel. She is also an advisory council member for Child HELP Partnership and serves on the steering committee for The Aspen Institute Socrates Program.
Special Appearance
Liz Austin, Standup Comic
Liz practiced Commercial Law and Bankruptcy for close to 40 years. She recently retired from the practice of law to pursue her dream of being a standup comic. She regularly appears at comedy clubs in New York City.
Transportation
Driving distances:NYC: 100 miles
DC: 290 miles
Nearest airports:Newark (1 hour, 35 minutes)
NY Stewart International Airport (1 hour, 10 minutes)
Wilkes/Barre (1 hour, 8 minutes)
Sponsors
To ensure the health and safety of all participants, the retreat is making use of the Blue Fox’s plentiful outdoor spaces. Use this link for additional information about safety precautions taken by the Blue Fox.
For additional information about the retreat or to discuss sponsorship opportunities, please contact Diane Silverman.
