Gary Carlson, PhD, was a co-founder in 2004 of the Sage-ing Guild (former name of Sage-ing International), former Coordinating Circle Chair and Treasurer, former Outreach Committee chair, Development Committee Chair, former Training Faculty, and former Webmaster of Sage-ing® International.  He served on the Board of the Spiritual Eldering Institute and was a co-founder and leader of the Conscious Aging Network of New Mexico.  In 2010 he received the first Reb Zalman Leadership Award from Sage-ing International,recognizing many years of service.  Gary retired in 1997 after a 31-year career as a research scientist and technical manager.  For 30 years he has participated as a leader and participant in human potential activities, including 20 New Mexico Men’s Wellness conferences, seven New Mexico Conferences on Aging, five Sage-ing International conferences, and various other local and national conferences.  Gary has been married since 1981 to Charlotte Carlson, PhD.  They have three children and six grand-children.

Lynne Iser is an activist committed to empowering those in the second half of life to use their resources and wisdom to create a world that is sustainable, just and fulfilling.

Lynne is the founder of Elder-Activists.org, an online community of individuals inspiring, educating and supporting each other to become activists – transmitting their wisdom and legacy to future generations.

She was the founding Executive Director of the Spiritual Eldering Institute, where she where she learned about the opportunities and blessings of becoming an elder in her work with Reb Zalman.

She facilitates symposium for The Pachamama Alliance, along with the work of Joanna Macy, and, teaches conscious aging and community building both locally and regionally.

Bahira Sugarman and Rabbi Shaya Isenberg are co -founders and co-directors of the ALEPH Sage-ing Mentorship Program and senior faculty emeriti of the Spiritual Eldering Institute where, at Reb Zalman’s request, they designed and implemented its leadership training program. They have been leading life transforming Sage-ing Workshops for almost 3 decades.  They have been teaching and living the couple relationship as a spiritual path for even more years.

Reb Shaya is past Chair of the Department of Religion and Emeritus at the University of Florida.  He is Co-Founder and past Co-Director of the UF’s Center for Spirituality and Health.  Rabbi Emeritus and Co-leader with Bahira of Gainesville, P’nai Or Congregation, he has served on the faculty of the ALEPH Ordinations Program and remains on the faculty of the ALEPH Spiritual Directions Program.  He is a licensed Massage Therapist and a recent initiate as Traditional Reiki Master.

Bahira, in her 21st year as a traditional Reiki Master, is ordained as a spiritual guide by Rabbi Zalman Schachter Shalomi and has been celebrated as an Eyshet Hazon (Woman of Vision) v’Rofet Neshamot (Healer of Souls) by the ALEPH International community. She is retired as Co-Leader of Gainesville P’nai Or.  She combines psychotherapy and transpersonal healing work in private practice.  Licensed as a Clinical Social Worker and Marriage and Family Therapist and as a Massage Therapist, Bahira teaches  Reiki and  beginning Tai Chi Chuan to women. Bahira and Reb Shaya are available for Spiritual Direction consultations and Sage-ing Mentorship Programs.

Robert Atchley, Ph.D. (Deceased) is an award-winning teacher, scholar, author, and mentor to many who manifest spirituality in their lives. He has presented numerous lectures and workshops to a wide variety of audiences and has written more than a dozen articles for general audiences on this subject. His knowledge of the subject comes from extensive interviews and research, being part of several working groups of researchers, writers and lecturers focusing on spirituality, being involved in several organizations promoting “conscious aging” and/or spiritual growth, and his own 30-year conscious spiritual journey. In addition to doing many workshops on his own, he has been co-presenter of workshops with Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi on “From Age-ing to Sage-ing” and with Ram Dass on “Conscious Aging.” Since 2000, he has published entries on spirituality for three different encyclopedias. His next book, Spirituality and Aging: Expanding the View, is forthcoming from Johns Hopkins University Press. He has received more than a dozen awards for his teaching, writing, and service, including the Distinguished Career Achievement Award from the Gerontological Society of America and the Benjamin Harrison Medallion, Miami University’s highest honor given to a faculty member. He received the American Society on Aging’s award for Distinguished Contribution to the Education of the Nation.

H. R. (Rick) Moody is the author of over 100 scholarly articles and book chapters, as well as a number of books including: Abundance of Life: Human Development Policies for an Aging Society (Columbia University Press, 1988); Ethics in an Aging Society (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992); and Aging: Concepts and Controversies, a gerontology textbook now in its 3rd edition. His most recent book, The Five Stages of the Soul, was published by Doubleday Anchor Books (1997) and has been translated into seven languages worldwide.  Dr. Moody taught philosophy at Columbia, Hunter College, New York University, and the University of California at Santa Cruz. From 1999 to 2001 he served as National Program Director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Faith in Action and, from 1992 to 1999, was Executive Director of the Brookdale Center at Hunter College. He has also served as Co-Director of the National Aging Policy Center of the National Council on Aging in Washington, DC.   Rick Moody is known nationally for his work in older adult education and recently stepped down as Chairman of the Board of Elderhostel. He has also been active in the field of biomedical ethics and holds appointment as an Adjunct Associate of the Hastings Center.

Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, better known as “Reb Zalman,” was the founder of the Spiritual Eldering Institute and a mentor to all members of Sage-ing International. In addition to his ordination, he had a Masters of Arts in Psychology of Religion from Boston University and a Doctor of Hebrew Letters from Hebrew Union College. He  taught at Universities and, in 1995, he accepted the World Wisdom Chair at Naropa University in Boulder Colorado from which he retired in 2004. He was the founder of Jewish Renewal, an active teacher of Hasidism and Jewish Mysticism and a participant in ecumenical dialogues throughout the world. His belief in the universality of spiritual truth has led him to study with Sufi Masters, Buddhist teachers, Native American elders, Catholic monks and humanistic and transpersonal psychologists.  He was the author of From Age-ing to Sage-ing: A Profound New Vision of Growing Older and numerous other books and articles and continues to speak at world conferences both in person and electronically.  He died in 2014 after a life filled with service to others.