![Program Chair of Integral Counseling Psychology Anna Benassi](/sites/default/files/styles/16_9_768x432/public/2023-04/ICP-Graduation-2737%281%29.jpg.jpeg?itok=3vqjK_Pp)
Celebrating Faculty Excellence
Spotlight of CIIS' distinguished faculty's research, scholarship, and impact pursuits. Learn more about how your learning will benefit from their expertise and experience.
Scholars, practitioners, artists, and advocates, the faculty at CIIS are innovators in their fields. More than this, they are committed teachers, inspiring mentors, and conscientious advisors to students. They have a passion for integral education, a dedication to excellence, and a commitment to student-centered teaching and learning. More than anything, they are fundamental in helping our students grow in knowledge, skill, and ability to make a difference in the world.
Here’s a small sample of some of the work being done right now by CIIS faculty.
School of Consciousness and Transformation
Explore cutting-edge programs in philosophy, consciousness, spirituality, religion, and more.
![Katharina Azim](/sites/default/files/styles/2_3_1200x1800/public/2023-06/Katharina%20Azim%202_0.jpg.jpeg?itok=egRYu3LL)
Katharina Azim, Associate Professor
Dr. Azim’s current research centers around women’s reproductive health, agency, and rights in the United States, and specifically on pelvic health and experiences of painful sexual intercourse. Her most recent empirical work focuses on how women's experiences of sexuality and health are influenced by the medical, religious, educational, and other institutions.
![Alka Arora](/sites/default/files/styles/2_3_1200x1800/public/2023-06/Alka%20Aurora.png.jpeg?itok=OiADCpi3)
Alka Arora, Associate Professor
For the past decade, Dr. Arora has developed the field of integral feminist education and feminist spiritual activism, working alongside sister scholars to offer a transdisciplinary and socially engaged approach to the study of gender, spirituality, and religion.
![Jacob Sherman](/sites/default/files/styles/2_3_1200x1800/public/2023-06/Jacob%20Sherman_0.png.jpeg?itok=5rzh7Iiq)
Jacob Sherman, Associate Professor
Philosopher, theologian, and religious studies scholar Dr. Sherman is the author of Partakers of the Divine: Contemplation and the Practice of Philosophy, and editor of The Participatory Turn: Spirituality, Mysticism, Religious Studies. He is the Program Chair of Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness.
School of Professional Psychology and Health
Our school for new and alternative approaches to psychological wellness through scholarship, research, and practice. Programs include applied psychology, clinical psychology, integrative health studies, arts and drama therapy, counseling, and more.
![Elizabeth Markle, Assistant Professor](/sites/default/files/styles/2_3_1200x1800/public/2023-05/LizMarkle-14_imagecard.jpg.jpeg?itok=Vvhd-aVH)
Elizabeth Markle, Associate Professor
Dr. Markle is dedicated to multi-theoretical and multi-level approaches to individual and community health and healing. Her research has focused on social support, social capital, and social sustainability in the context of intentional community.
![Sangeeta Swamy, CIIS' Integral Counseling Psychology Program Chair](/sites/default/files/styles/2_3_1200x1800/public/2023-06/sangeeta-swamy-ICP.png.jpeg?itok=BchBXkAd)
Sangeeta Swamy, Associate Professor
As a queer, Indian-American educator, Dr. Swamy specializes in culturally responsive pedagogy, scholarship, and supervision. Through her research with Indian adults, she developed Culturally Centered Music and Imagery (CCMI), the first music therapy framework for minoritized clients to access the wisdom and power of the cultural unconscious.
![Chris Walling](/sites/default/files/styles/2_3_1200x1800/public/2023-06/chris-walling.jpg.jpeg?itok=VxkXWq75)
Chris Walling, Associate Professor
Dr. Walling's clinical interests survey the fields of somatic psychotherapy, relational psychoanalysis, human sexuality, and trauma psychology. Recently, he hosted the United States Association for Body Psychotherapy's 2023 Somatic Conference at CIIS.
School of Undergraduate Studies
CIIS' bachelor’s completion programs weave real-world experiences into academic coursework, preparing you to contribute meaningfully in your communities, field of study, or future graduate study.
![Adeeba Deterville, CIIS Faculty](/sites/default/files/styles/2_3_1200x1800/public/2023-06/AdeebaDeterville.jpg.jpeg?itok=XbtnUfmm)
Adeeba Deterville, Assistant Professor
Dr. Adeeba D. Deterville is the Founder of the Black Psychology Project and Founding Director of the Center for Black & Indigenous Praxis. Dr. Dee's work is guided by her dissertation, Sankofa Praxis – An Africentric Meta-Theory of Sankofa and Jegnaship as a Reclamation of Africentric Episteme, Psychology, Spiritness and Personhood: A Scholarly Personal Narrative of Cultural Retrieval, Alignment and Actualization.
![Nick Walker CIIS Associate Professor](/sites/default/files/styles/2_3_1200x1800/public/2023-06/Nick_Walker_Faculty_ImageCard.png.jpeg?itok=1d_twlgc)
Nick Walker, Associate Professor
Best known for her groundbreaking work in Neurodiversity Studies and Neuroqueer Theory, Nick Walker is an author, educator, and futurist whose work explores the edges and intersections of embodiment, spirituality, queerness, and creative transformation. She is the author of the influential essay collection Neuroqueer Heresies, and senior aikido instructor at the Aiki Arts Center in Berkeley.
![Charlotte María Sáenz](/sites/default/files/styles/2_3_1200x1800/public/2023-06/Charlotte-Maria-Saenz-ImageCard.png.jpeg?itok=vZb5wOa4)
Charlotte María Sáenz, Associate Professor
Working with arts and sciences in community, Sáenz's creative collaborations question dominant narratives to build collective knowledges towards greater socioecological health and reciprocity.
![Dr. Debashish Banerji](/sites/default/files/styles/4_3_800x600/public/2023-07/Public-Programs-092822-15.jpg?h=0f47bdf6&itok=aIMxSgm8)
Meet Haridas Chaudhuri Endowed Chair, Dr. Debashish Banerji
The Chaudhuri Chair was first established in 1987 in honor of CIIS’s founder. Professors who have served in this role are charged with maintaining and enhancing the founding vision of CIIS.
![female student reading book in the stacks](/sites/default/files/styles/4_3_800x600/public/2023-02/Library%20Jan%2027-36.jpg?h=f76da157&itok=9g0T-QVQ)
![Decorative image](/sites/default/files/2023-05/Curlicue-with-Rays-Papaya.png)
55 Faculty Books for 55 Years of Transformation
CIIS professors have been prolific this year and every year, expanding their chosen fields and the world of integral education as a whole. As part of our celebration of 55 Years of Transformation, we invite you to explore 55 faculty publications, full of wisdom, inquiries and healing.
![MFA faculty and students looking at student work](/sites/default/files/styles/4_3_800x600/public/2023-04/MFA-Cindy%20Shearer%20Screenshots-1.jpg?h=d1cb525d&itok=OBMqW9J0)
![Decorative image](/sites/default/files/2023-02/featureblock-dissolvingbarriers.png)
Faculty Directory
Learn more about some of the academy's most revolutionary scholars and holistic practitioners.
![Presidio in San Francisco by Albert Dera](/sites/default/files/styles/16_9_768x432/public/2023-06/SF-Presidio-FeaturedNews.png.jpeg?itok=Pvz7L8uN)
![Presidio in San Francisco by Albert Dera](/sites/default/files/styles/16_9_768x432/public/2023-06/SF-Presidio-FeaturedNews.png.jpeg?itok=Pvz7L8uN)
Featured News
Associate Professor Christopher Walling receives the Gina Ogden Curatorial Scholarship for Integrative Approaches to Sex Research and Therapy from the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University
![Photo of colorful bricks laid in an arch pattern](/sites/default/files/styles/2_1_320x160/public/2023-06/Quick-Links-brick-colorful-stone-arch-abstract-concrete-sidewalk-pavement-background-pastels_t20_EP9LzV.jpg.jpeg?itok=oYn1nSDf)
Lots More to Explore
Learn more about how CIIS' faculty are impacting students, the University, and the world.