Dedan Gills

Emeritus Advisor

(1945-2015) considered himself a "soulutionary."

He and his wife Belvie Rooks were co-founders of Growing A Global Heart, a project and vision that inspires and encourages the ceremonial planting of trees for enslaved and forgotten ancestors and victims of violence as both a way of honoring and remembering and also to help combat catastrophic climate change. Their vision is to inspire the ceremonial planting of millions of trees as an act of collective and planetary healing. His poems, writings and reflections have been published in the internal journal Sufism, An Inquiry, Global Chorus: 365 Voices on the Future of the Planet and The Power of Love: A Transformed Heart Changes the World. Belvie and Dedan are co-authors of I Give You the Springtime of My Blushing Heart: A Poetic Love Song, a posthumous honoring of Dedan through his poetry. He was a poet, writer, and active member-for the last eight years of his life-of one of the first urban intentional environmental communities in the country--the L.A. Eco-Village. Certified in permaculture, he was a founding member of the Los Angeles Permaculture Guild. Dedan worked to integrate principles of permaculture design, sustainability, environmental awareness, and the greening of the inner spirit.