Visionaries & Guides

Alex is a certified coach, early-stage organizational consultant, and social entrepreneur - working over a decade across 3 continents in the fields of philanthropy, social enterprises, and nonprofits, including first employee and co-founder roles. Alex grew up in England, however her earliest memories were surrounded by many cultures and nationalities living in a shared house in West Africa with her aid worker parents and team. This installed a natural curiosity and desire for shared spaces. Common threads of her work include emergent strategy, collective impact, creative and spiritual edgewalking and catalyzing shared potential. Alex feels most alive in her work when she is supporting a brave leader to reclaim their authentic power (aligning their values, vision, and well-being). She loves experimenting with bringing new paradigms and ways of being to life and finding the unlikely connections between people, ideas, or concepts. She is inspired by taking cues from ecology/the natural world or imaginal worlds as alternative lenses to encouraging growth and change within leadership or organizations. Based in New York City, Alex delights in her relationship with her tree outside of her window, deep conversations with friends, playing with art, homemade dance parties, cuddling her dog, and a regular dose of live music.

VALERIE LUNA SERRELS is the founder and spiritual leader of Shenandoah Valley Church of the Wild and co-founder / director of the Wild Church Network. She also founded Hag Sophia, offering eco-spiritual guidance through several different modalities and practices. Valerie weaves together her background in conflict transformation and restorative justice, Celtic spirituality, energy work, and integrating the divine feminine into her work.

The threads of her professional work have included executive and pastoral church leadership, workplace chaplaincy, social work, and the restaurant industry. She has been a certified professional coactive coach for over 10 years, supporting people to connect more authentically to themselves and live their life from the inside out. As a Licensed Mental Health Counselor in Washington State in private practice, she specializes in belonging and loneliness, supporting people to find home within their bodies, their lives, and the greater world around them. In the Eco-Ministry Yearlong program, she is committed to holding space for participants as they deepen into their own sense of wild belonging, tune into their own remembering, and step into their creative edges. She sees herself not as an expert, or even “guide”, but as a fellow-journeyer, a pilgrim also on the way.

The Rev. Dr. Clay Brantley participated in the first cohort of the Seminary of the Wild. He was born in Lake Charles, Louisiana and attended Texas A&;M, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary and Perkins School of Theology. He has been a Presbyterian pastor for 36 years, serving churches in Malvern, Arkansas and five churches in Texas—Sherman, McKinney, Garland, Whitesboro, and Denton. Clay’s
passion for those who are Other so that they are Other no more has taken him on mission trips to Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, the U.S.–Mexico border, Cuba, Israel/Palestine, Egypt, Lebanon, and Syria. He has participated in a Civil Rights Pilgrimage in this country and speaks and leads conversations around racism, particularly at the Retreat House Spirituality Center in Richardson.
Five years ago, Clay left the local church he was serving to follow a mystical path, a call into a deeper following of Christ. This journey has led him into deep soul work, to being a Wild Mustang and to the Retreat House. He is an artist, speaker, spiritual director, and published author. Clay serves as a participant and director of Retreat House where he is the guide for two monthly meetings – Contemplative Painting and the Writer’s Gathering. Both of these monthly meetings allow Clay’s soul to dance in unexpected ways. He serves on the board at Gilmont Conference Center. Clay is married to Crysta. They have two children, Drew and Michaela, two dogs, and a turtle.

Greg received a certificate from Seminary of the Wild after completing the first SOW yearlong. He has pastored Disciples of Christ and United Church of Christ churches for a dizzyingly long time. Serving urban congregations, he has pastored a Spanish speaking, Texas congregation of mostly undocumented people from Mexico and Central America, as well as a predominantly black church in South Central, Los Angeles. Greg has eighteen years of experience working with gang members, participating in urban peace efforts, creating micro-businesses and employment programs, and spending a lot of time just hanging out. Greg has recently received his final initiation as an Andean Paqo (shaman) in a long ancestral lineage in high Andes of Peru. His new project is found at 2treestalking.com.