Meet the Team

Mary Mackenzie, Co-founder
Mary Mackenzie is a CNVC Certified Trainer and executive director of Peace Workshop International. She is the author of "Peaceful Living: Daily Meditations for Living with Love, Healing and Compassion". Mary holds a master’s degree in Human Relations and is a trained mediator.

Mary’s first career was as a fundraiser in higher education, where her listening skills helped people realize their dreams and helped her raise millions of dollars for the universities where she worked. She ended this 15-year career to begin work with the newly formed Flagstaff Center for Compassionate Communication.

Mary’s guiding vision is to help people fully connect to themselves and their world so that they may experience more joy. Toward this end, she teaches Nonviolent Communication to children, adults, families, couples and adolescents, and she works with organizations by offering individual or group workshops and facilitating organization-wide restructuring.

Mark Schultz, Co-founder
Mark Schultz was first introduced to Nonviolent Communication in 1989 while attending the BodyMind College in San Diego, California. He has been practicing NVC and organizing NVC events ever since. Mark's first career spanned 15 years in the computer graphics industry before starting an Internet design and marketing consultancy in 1995. Mark currently lives in Sedona, Arizona where he started an NVC practice group that has been active for over ten years.

Jenny Prennace
Jenny is a retired Librarian with the U.S. Geological Survey, a position she held for more than 30 years. This job was perfectly suited to Jenny because she became the mother hen that supported the scientists in doing their research. Jenny often refers to the U.S. Geological Survey in Flagstaff, Arizona as a family.

As the NVCA Help Desk Representative, Jenny is once again working for a “family” organization and her role is to support our individual patrons and team members. Jenny leads first in support of her relationships and because of that many of us who work with her or who enjoy her service as the NVCA Help Desk Representative, enjoy the warm hug we receive in interacting with her. Personally, Jenny is now a grandmother of two adorable toddlers. She and her husband, Art, live in Austin, Texas where they enjoy their family and friends, daily interaction with grandbabies, and an ongoing pursuit to learn and grow. Jenny has attended one IIT, many NVC retreats and ongoing classes.

Rachel Garmon, Audio Editor
Rachel and her husband Bob have held eclectic positions over the years. Their last grand adventure was to own and run a Health Food Store in Phoenix, Arizona. As such, Rachel brings an amazing amount of information about the science and spiritual aspects of physical health. While some have questioned her detail-oriented manner, her perfectionistic proclivities are perfectly matched as the NVC Academy Audio Editor. Rachel brings experience running her own business, as well as clarity and passion to her work.

Personally, Rachel and her husband Bob live in a home they built themselves in Cornville, a small rural town in northern Arizona. She has two grown sons who adore her. Rachel has a strong value for community and so she spends much of her time organizing and facilitating local NVC gatherings and trainings. Rachel is a deeply spiritual person who pursues many other avenues for deeper connection with herself and others in addition to her NVC passions; she shows devotion to them all. And if you are lucky enough to get even just one of Rachel’s big smiles directed toward you, you would understand that spirituality is an inside-out experience.

Stephanie Bachmann Mattei, Telecourse Coordinator
Stephanie was born and raised in Florence, Italy, where she earned her Bachelor in Languages and a Ph.D. in Philosophy. Stephanie moved to the USA in 1993, when she married her beloved husband, who is from Naples, Italy. Together they are parenting their three self-educated children.

Stephanie’s core intertwined themes in life are: spirituality, parenting and healing. On the practical level this meant serving at a children’s hospital as a teen, studying Eastern Spiritual Psychologies and Indian Philosophies and embracing the life of a sannyasin in her twenties. Once she became a mother, she served for over 10 years as a volunteer leader with La Leche League International, became BCI Certified Parenting Educator, and has been serving as an NVC based telecourse facilitator and family coach with the Consciously Parenting Project, an organization that ties love-based parenting with neuroscience. Inbal Kashtan has been the first CNVC certified trainer that profoundly touched Stephanie, and introduced her to the practical applications of NVC and parenting.

In 2006 Stephanie graduated from the “Parent Peer Leadership Program” -created and lead by Inbal, and has been involved in this NVC program ever since  as an Assistant first and as a co-Trainer since 2009.

Stephanie is also deeply grateful to have been given the opportunity to serve both at the “NVC and Diversity Retreat” and the “New York Intensive Residential Training” as the Children’s Program founder and trainer for three consecutive years.

Stephanie is a CNVC certified trainer.

Lore Baur, Help Desk Representative and Telecourse Coordinator
Lore Baur lives in Iowa City, Iowa with her husband Steve, and sons Daniel and Chris. Lore is a Trainer Candidate for The Center for Nonviolent Communication. She has been learning NVC since 2005, and teaching it since 2008. Lore has a Masters in Science Education and has been teaching Jr. High since 1993. Much of her NVC learning has been with the NVC Academy and she is thrilled to be part of the team that contributed so much to her own growth. Lore is excited about the research that suggests we are empathic, cooperative beings, seeking connection and belonging, and that the language we use influences the world around us.

Carol Fitzpatrick, Telecourse Coordinator
Carol lives in Bensalem Pennsylvania with her dog Maizie and three cats, TJ, Buddy and Lily. For the past 20 years she has worked as a certified veterinary technician but NVC became her true passion in life since learning about it in 2004. While Carol will always love animals she says that she now deeply understands how supporting people supports the animals too.

Carol has attended numerous NVC workshops and trainings including the BayNVC Leadership program in 2007 and again in 2008 as an assistant trainer. She also attended a bi-weekly practice group from 2004 until 2009 where she progressed from beginner to facilitator. She has taught NVC since 2006 in various settings from churches to synagogues to life coaching students to domestic violence service providers. She is also a registered yoga teacher and student of Buddhist spirituality.

Carol is happy to be a part of the NVC Academy and serves as a telecourse coordinator.