Meet Our Advisory Council of Women
We have gathered women from the San Miguel community and beyond to work with us on developing an inspiring 3-days.
Meet these artists, writers, doctors, and teachers who share their expertise in creating this unique and wonderful event.
Lena Bartula is an artist, writer, curator, and gallerist. Her work, textile and mixed media, is rooted in social conscious-ness, environmental awareness and a deep appreciation for women’s work. In her studio practice, reclaimed fabrics and found objects become transformed into imaginary garments, inspired by cultural and traditional clothing. Her book, Whispers in the Threads, published in 2019, celebrates 15 years of a series of contemporary huipils, an indigenous blouse in the Mesoamerican tradition.
Paulette Shanklin is a conceptual artist with a degree in bronze sculpture. Paulette followed in her grandmother's footsteps as an entrepreneur, with five successful businesses over five decades. As a Mother, Grandmother, and Great-grandmother - cultivating independence and entrepreneurship by example and guidance is one of her many passions. She is currently the Site Director and facility coordinator for the SMA Literary Sala and San Miguel Writers’ Conference.
Dr. Ratka Mira Popovic
Dr. Ratka Mira Popovic has been an initiated Priestess since 1985 and holds a Doctorate degree in Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine. Her passion is the intersection of magic and medicine as she stewards women in their Sacred Feminine journey. She has had a complimentary medicine and massage practice in California, since 1991. She has taught as a professor, lecturer and workshop facilitator, within institutions, i.e., Univ of CA San Francisco School of Medicine, Univ of CA Berkeley, Kaiser Hospital and De Anza College, Kinesiology Department.
Emily C-D is an artist, activist, eco-feminist, single mother and musician. Originally from Maryland and based in Mexico for the past decade, she collaborates with diverse communities on both sides of the border to paint murals, dig gardens and dream a more inclusive, vibrant world into being. She is grateful that her projects have brought her into direct contact with a wide web of women who have guided her personal feminine quest. In San Miguel de Allende she collaborates with the Somos Semilla Seed Library, continuing an ancestral tradition of female seed stewardship.
Bobbi Van is a painter/sculptor in San Miguel de Allende who relocated from NYC 5 years ago. She has had over 30
years of marketing and creating strategic alliances with companies, helping people connect with their vision. She was a TedX curator and facilitator for 6 years in NYC and studied transformational options to live a richer life for twenty years. She has spent the past 10 years coaching and examining the ways of women in different stages of their lives and facilitated 'Courageous Conversations' in NYC and San Miguel.