Uploaded January 2023 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
Debby Flickinger
Union Institute & University
Bio: Debby Flickinger, Ph.D. is an affiliated faculty at Union Institute and University (UIU) teaching doctoral courses on social justice, engaging differences, and sustainability through a caring science lens. She facilitates workshops, participates in panels, and does presentations on Caring Sustainability, Caring Science Theory, Critical Race Theory, and Social Justice around the globe. Also, a Ph.D. Enrollment and Engagement Specialist at UIU.
She has contributed a chapter in Miracles and Mysteries Witnessed by Nurses, a collection of stories edited by Jean Watson, Ph.D. Dr. Flickinger has collaborated on a book chapter for a book, Innovative Strategic Planning and International Collaboration for the Mitigation for Global Crisis published in January 2022. In addition, she is certified as a Caritas, an Eco-therapist, and a Sustainability Coach.
She received her Ph.D. from the California Institute of Integral Studies in Transformative Studies with a concentration in Consciousness Studies, a MA in Consciousness and Transformative Studies, and BA in Philosophy and Religion from John F. Kennedy University.
.
Martha Brumbaugh
Independent Scholar
Bio: Martha Brumbaugh, PhD. is an educator, writer, artist, and shaman, who has been practicing Cross-Cultural Shamanism and Earth-based Spirituality for more than five decades. She is a virtual writing, coach, mentoring theses and dissertation students by focusing on the juncture of writing and spirit. Martha received her doctorate in Transformative Learning and Change from the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) in 2006. Her doctoral dissertation, Out of the Mists: An Organic Inquiry into Sacred Ways of Knowing and the Shaping of Reality, focused on the impact of cross-cultural Shamanic practices on middle-aged, middle-class women of Celtic descent. More recently, she has published articles on her own lived experience of shamanic states of consciousness. Martha taught at John F. Kennedy University, Heald College, and served on dissertation committees at CIIS. She has presented workshops at CIIS and San Francisco State University. She currently teaches in the private sector and presents at conferences throughout the United States and online globally.
A.R.T.S (Alter Reality [to] Transform [our] Stories): Transformative Art and Storytelling through the Lens of Feminine Consciousness
Abstract: All stories are connected. Martha Brumbaugh and Debby Flickinger were brought together through the Transformative Studies Program at the California Insitute of Integral Studies, but it was not until Martha left CIIS and Debby began her doctoral dissertation work that they began to work as a team. Together they discovered, in a cosmic aha moment, that Debby’s work with Caring Sustainability, and Martha’s focus on cross-cultural shamanic practices and the shaping of reality were grounded in both Earth-Based Spirituality and Consciousness Studies. They never imagined how intricately connected their work would become and how shifts in consciousness would occur as they began to wend their way through the next seven years.
Today, their expanded vision recognizes how the cruciality of feminine consciousness and the divine feminine are linked to all they teach and all that they do. Drs. Flickinger and Brumbaugh have created an anagram for A.R.T.S which is Alter Reality [to] Transform [our] Stories. Through research, writing, and conference presentations, they offer up their discoveries about how the arts can lead to a shift in consciousness and onward to transformation.
In this twenty-minute presentation Debby and Martha will intertwine their narrative to unique, and individual experience with art as a sacred process and their research experiences. They will reveal how our stories are transformed by altering our realities through the lens of feminine consciousness with the goal of encouraging the audience to engage in storytelling as a call to action for personal and social change, as well as enlightenment.
Debby Flickinger
Union Institute & University
Bio: Debby Flickinger, Ph.D. is an affiliated faculty at Union Institute and University (UIU) teaching doctoral courses on social justice, engaging differences, and sustainability through a caring science lens. She facilitates workshops, participates in panels, and does presentations on Caring Sustainability, Caring Science Theory, Critical Race Theory, and Social Justice around the globe. Also, a Ph.D. Enrollment and Engagement Specialist at UIU.
She has contributed a chapter in Miracles and Mysteries Witnessed by Nurses, a collection of stories edited by Jean Watson, Ph.D. Dr. Flickinger has collaborated on a book chapter for a book, Innovative Strategic Planning and International Collaboration for the Mitigation for Global Crisis published in January 2022. In addition, she is certified as a Caritas, an Eco-therapist, and a Sustainability Coach.
She received her Ph.D. from the California Institute of Integral Studies in Transformative Studies with a concentration in Consciousness Studies, a MA in Consciousness and Transformative Studies, and BA in Philosophy and Religion from John F. Kennedy University.
.
Martha Brumbaugh
Independent Scholar
Bio: Martha Brumbaugh, PhD. is an educator, writer, artist, and shaman, who has been practicing Cross-Cultural Shamanism and Earth-based Spirituality for more than five decades. She is a virtual writing, coach, mentoring theses and dissertation students by focusing on the juncture of writing and spirit. Martha received her doctorate in Transformative Learning and Change from the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) in 2006. Her doctoral dissertation, Out of the Mists: An Organic Inquiry into Sacred Ways of Knowing and the Shaping of Reality, focused on the impact of cross-cultural Shamanic practices on middle-aged, middle-class women of Celtic descent. More recently, she has published articles on her own lived experience of shamanic states of consciousness. Martha taught at John F. Kennedy University, Heald College, and served on dissertation committees at CIIS. She has presented workshops at CIIS and San Francisco State University. She currently teaches in the private sector and presents at conferences throughout the United States and online globally.
A.R.T.S (Alter Reality [to] Transform [our] Stories): Transformative Art and Storytelling through the Lens of Feminine Consciousness
Abstract: All stories are connected. Martha Brumbaugh and Debby Flickinger were brought together through the Transformative Studies Program at the California Insitute of Integral Studies, but it was not until Martha left CIIS and Debby began her doctoral dissertation work that they began to work as a team. Together they discovered, in a cosmic aha moment, that Debby’s work with Caring Sustainability, and Martha’s focus on cross-cultural shamanic practices and the shaping of reality were grounded in both Earth-Based Spirituality and Consciousness Studies. They never imagined how intricately connected their work would become and how shifts in consciousness would occur as they began to wend their way through the next seven years.
Today, their expanded vision recognizes how the cruciality of feminine consciousness and the divine feminine are linked to all they teach and all that they do. Drs. Flickinger and Brumbaugh have created an anagram for A.R.T.S which is Alter Reality [to] Transform [our] Stories. Through research, writing, and conference presentations, they offer up their discoveries about how the arts can lead to a shift in consciousness and onward to transformation.
In this twenty-minute presentation Debby and Martha will intertwine their narrative to unique, and individual experience with art as a sacred process and their research experiences. They will reveal how our stories are transformed by altering our realities through the lens of feminine consciousness with the goal of encouraging the audience to engage in storytelling as a call to action for personal and social change, as well as enlightenment.
