Our Team

Miriam Jones / Primary Consultant and Co-Founder

Miriam is known as a thought leader in the area of transformational education, cultural change, and leadership. After developing a dual interest in business and education, Miriam began designing and delivering leadership programs and change efforts for organizations across the globe. Miriam is an experienced entrepreneur who has founded and led several organizations, from not-for-profits to corporations to co-operatives.

In efforts to look for new forms that could inform her organizational work and the changes she was witnessing in the world, Miriam turned her focus to learning forms influenced by indigenous nature-based cultures and societies: circle listening and healing practices, circle governance and rite of passage, and nature-based rituals.

Miriam has worked with clients across industries and right across the Globe, including PWC, Bank of America, Snapchat, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Coates, Coca-Cola Amatil, Ernst & Young, PWC and Westpac .

Adam Rumack / CEO, Primary Consultant and Co-Founder

Adam is an entrepreneur, wilderness guide, educator, facilitator, and organizational consultant with a background in executive leadership. He is passionate about creating communities and organizations that thrive through the wisdom of the natural world (both human and more-than-human)

He has worked widely in California State prisons, training group facilitators; helped develop an on-boarding and wellness program for Snapchat and Sunny & 72 in Los Angeles; has offered training for Canva, The Rites of Passage Institute, and the Centre for Men in Australia; and worked on a wide variety of cultural change projects for organizations including: Bluegreen, Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, Illuman, Born and Bred Brands, Wilderness Torah, Kalmiopsis Wild, and Kinfolk Properties.

He has a strong business development focus with a MBA focused in International Leadership and Management from Monterey Institute of International Studies, Fisher Graduate School of International Business. He is a Minds at Work Certified Coach candidate, National Outdoor Leadership School Wilderness First Responder. He volunteers as a Curry County Search and Rescue Team Member and as Vice-chair of the Curry Watersheds Council Non-profit.

Brandon Harding / Facilitator and Guide

Brandon is a seasoned military chaplain and a leadership & relationship coach with over two decades of experience.  He is a certified Immunity to Change Coach and a long-time practitioner of healing circles.  

His passion is for assisting people and organizations in pursuing purpose and meaning, leading to greater productivity, healthier work cultures, and deeply satisfying relationships. He fuses adaptive coaching with wilderness expeditions to facilitate change in individuals, couples, and leaders.

Marisa Hebb / Facilitator and Guide

Marisa Hebb is a trainer, consultant and facilitator in the WOC methodology. As an educator and coach, Marisa’s wide-ranging skillset includes somatic trauma therapy, embodied social justice, peer counseling and community building, ecosystems thinking, and agriculture Marisa brings over a decade of experience in educational curriculum design, teaching, and workplace managerial roles to her work, as well as a deep grounding in somatic and wisdom tradition practices. Marisa is particularly excited about supporting both individuals and groups to cultivate the presence and dynamism that allows for new possibilities to emerge while in the day to day work.

Christopher Arlen / Consultant & Facilitator

Christopher Arlen is a consultant and certified facilitator in the WOC methodology. He unapologetically optimistic — he believes in people and what we can accomplish when we come together in good faith around a shared vision or goal. For nearly 30 years, he has worked in the nonprofit and government sectors to push the boundaries of possibility, creating innovative programs and novel approaches that advance health promoting behaviors. Christopher is principal consultant for The Soft Skills Company, fostering positive relational dynamics in increasingly diverse workplaces.

Gala Narezo - Consultant & Facilitator

Gala Narezo is a facilitator, educator, activist and mindfulness instructor who is committed to mindful change-making. In her groups she uses storytelling, mindfulness, art and circle practice as guiding principles. She has collaborated with a variety of amazing partners on transformational education through awareness campaigns, public art, curricula and transformational media. She has degrees from Yale University and Art Center College of Design. She recently completed an M.A. in Art Education at City College of New York CUNY. She has done extensive training and practice in circle based facilitation running weekly groups online and live retreats in the USA and Mexico.

Rebecca Bruhn / Facilitator

Rebecca is committed to delivering the best care and support for our clients, while building adaptive organizations through the Beyond Listening platform and managing We are Open Circle programs. Curiosity fuels her passion for assisting leaders and organizations in keeping their mission burning bright, as they grow and navigate changing conditions. Drawing upon her facilitation and deep listening skills, Rebecca builds bridges between clients and the work of We Are Open Circle. Prior to this, her professional experience includes leadership development, team building and client/operational management- with a focus on startups and social-profit organizations. She is also a start-up partner with We are Open Circle. When not at work, Rebecca can be found in a forest, by the ocean or tending a fire.

Will Smith / Medical Director

Will Smith, M.D. is an avid outdoorsman, emergency room physician, paramedic, and Fellow of the Academy of Emergency Medical Services (FAEMS). Currently, Will works as a full-time emergency department physician at St. John’s Health in Jackson, Wyoming, is a Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine, and runs Wilderness & Emergency Medicine Consulting, LLC, advising clients around the world on how to save lives in wilderness and remote environments.

In addition to serving as the Medical Director at WMA International, Will serves as the Co-Medical Director for Grand Teton National Park and Medical Director Teton County Search & Rescue, Jackson Hole Fire/EMS, and Bridger Teton National Forest. Will is also a Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve Medical Corps and has served several tours in the Middle East, Croatia, Egypt, El Salvador, and Panama.

When Will is not working, he loves to immerse himself in the outdoors. He has summited mountains all over the world including Mt. Kilimanjaro and Mt. Orizaba. He also scuba dives, treks, and competes in endurance races. He is married and has an 18-year-old daughter and a 16-year-old son with whom he shares his love of wild places.
You can learn more about Will’s background through his CV and his work at Wilderness & Emergency Medicine Consulting, LLC.

Gordana Markovic / Facilitator

Gordana is a WOC trainer and facilitator, as well as a Yoga and Shiatsu Therapist. She assists individuals and groups in moving towards alignment of their inner nature with the outer nature. This process is a cultivation of self-awareness, experiential wisdom, resilience, adaptability in order to respond to change with greater ease and grace.

At the heart of her work is the merging of indigenous wisdom traditions, healing arts, mindfulness practices, medicine and wisdom of the land, all expressed through experiential ways of learning.

She carries the experience of living and studying on three different continents, Europe, North America and India. Learning from diversity of studies and cultures became essential in growing curiosity and understanding of human potential, intuition, the power of adaptability and its relationship to immunity to change and compassion.

From our Clients