The Power of Humanity in a Digital World
The purpose of the Academy of Imagination is to weave emerging capabilities of new technologies with the alchemical magic of Imaginal Intelligence to reveal new stories that inspire innovative solutions to humanity’s most urgent challenges.
Four Pathways to Imaginal Intelligence
Technology
Grounding emerging technologies in Imaginal Intelligence to help us better understand and manage accelerating change.
Natural Wisdom
Applying ancient wisdom sourced in nature and indigenous cultures to expand our minds, heal our bodies, and address our most urgent environmental problems.
Neuroscience
Unlocking opportunities presented by the latest scientific research on consciousness and our brain to promote personal growth.
Dream and Story
Using the magic of myth, meaning and mattering to promote holistic wellness for all of us, at all ages.
About Us
Stephen Aizenstat
Co-founder
Stephen Aizenstat is a professor of depth psychology with a PhD in clinical psychology, author, and a licensed marriage and family therapist. He is Founder and Chancellor Emeritus of Pacifica Graduate Institute, the Founder of Dream Tending and co-founder of the Academy of Imagination. For more than 35 years, he has explored the power of dreams through depth psychology. He has collaborated with Joseph Campbell, Marion Woodman, Robert Johnson, James Hillman, and Native elders worldwide.
Dr. Aizenstat has served as an organizational consultant to leading tech companies and a content advisor to Hollywood filmmakers. He has lectured extensively on the experiences of dreams and the deep imagination. He is affiliated with the Earth Charter International project through the United Nations. He conducts dreamwork and imagination seminars throughout the US, Europe, and Asia. Dr. Aizenstat is the author of Dream Tending: Awakening to the Healing Power of Dreams and The Imagination Matrix.
Tom Steding
Co-founder
Dr. Steding has been CEO of over 12 high tech companies including two AI startups. He is a member, Board of Trustees, Pacifica Graduate Institute and co-founder and member of the Academy of Imagination. He was co-author of Built on Trust – How to Gain Competitive Advantage in Any Organization, Contemporary Press, 2000 and now author of Real Teams Win: What Smart Leaders Need to Know Now About Achieving Peak Performance, Humanix Books, December 2020.
He has a MS in Management (Sloan Fellow) Stanford University Graduate School of Business; Ph.D., Electrical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, California; and MS and BS in Electrical Engineering, University of Michigan.
Carol Grojean, PhD
Co-founder
Carol A. Grojean, PhD is a social systems scientist passionate about unlocking the human potential in us all. Working internationally, Dr. Grojean has over 20 years extensive organizational strategy, human system design, and product leadership built on three Master degrees and a PhD with an emphasis on human behavior in organizational systems, transformational learning, cultural anthropology, and rites of passages.
When not working, Dr. Grojean’s time is split between working with a tribe of Kalahari bushmen and COO of a tech company startup with the goal of connecting people and nature for greater well-being worldwide.
Linda Hayes
Co-founder
A major award-winning strategic marketing and brand expert, Linda Hayes has over 30 years of senior executive experience. Leading world-wide organizations as Chief Marketing Officer, Chief Operating Officer, and Chief Executive Officer, she has proven exemplary leadership in both Fortune 500 companies and high-tech startups. Her expertise includes quadrupling in one year the traded share value for a publicly trading company, tripling revenue in one year for a private company, and creating top brand awareness for a high-tech start-up. She has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, as well as in many other publications.
She graduated from Kansas State University and from the Communications Executive Program at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.
Frank McMillan
Co-founder
An award-winning author, educator and speaker, Frank N. McMillan has taught Physical and Cultural Geography at the college level for over 30 years. An Honorary Member of the International Association for Analytical Psychology (IAAP), he founded the McMillan Institute for Jungian Studies in Houston, Texas. He currently serves as a trustee for Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, California, and the Jung Center in Houston.
His novel The Young Healer won the 2012 NAESP Foundation’s Children’s Book of the Year contest and was a 2015 Mark Twain Readers Award finalist. His nonfiction work Finding Jung is a rich and deep exploration of one man’s personal encounter with the objective psyche. And it all began with a dream lion that came in the night …
Contact Us
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