About the NVC Academy

Mary Mackenzie

Mary Mackenzie is a certified CNVC trainer, the executive director of the Flagstaff Center for Compassionate Communication and co-founder of the NVC Academy. She holds a master’s degree in Human Relations and is a trained mediator and member of the Arizona Dispute Resolution Association.

Mary is the author of "Peaceful Living: Daily Meditations for Living with Love, Healing and Compassion".

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 fifteen-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

Mark Schultz is a cofounder of the NVC Academy. He was first introduced to Nonviolent Communication in 1989 while attending the BodyMind College in San Diego, California. Mark's first career spanned 15 years in the computer graphics industry, before starting an Internet design and markeitng consultancy in 1995. Mark lives in Sedona, Arizona.

 

Jenny Prennace

Jenny is a retired Librarian with the U.S. Geological Survey, a position she held for 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 and many NVC retreats and ongoing classes.

Angana Shroff

Angana lives in Snellville, GA, USA, a suburb of Metropolitan Atlanta, with her husband, Uday, and a Tibetan Spaniel named Bahadur (the Brave One).

She has always had a passion for communication, language, and literature, all of which have influenced her academic, professional, and recreational pursuits. She holds a master's degree in communication Disorders, and worked with stroke patients for many years. Next, she spent ten years exploring and teaching interspecies communication and dog training, and volunteering with Betty, her naturally empathic Certified Therapy Dog at hospitals and nursing homes.

A voracious reader, Angana is currently fascinated by stories of psychological suspense, the intercultural experience, and a new genre called "magical realism". She continues to follow current writing in neuropsychology, spirituality, leadership, and communication.

Since discovering Marshall Rosenberg's work in Nonviolent Communication in 2005, NVC has become her newest passion, the element that brings all her life experience together. She has found her dream occupation as a team member here at the NVC Academy, where she has the opportunity to create quality connections with compassionate, wise, and fascinating people from all over the world and contribute to her own learning and wisdom.

Rachel Garmon

Rachel and her husband Bob have held eclectic positions over the years.  Their last grand adventure was owning and running 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, 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.

Shivani Gail Carroll

Shivani Gail Carroll lives in Boston, MA with her 13 year old daughter, a dog, and two cats. After a few years of study and practice, she attended and graduated from BayNVC's Intensive leadership program. She began teaching NVC as part of that program in 2006. Her background includes over two decades as a line producer in film and tv production, and she enjoys bringing organizing and marketing skills that were honed through decades of film production to NVC learning events and retreats. She also has a private practice in the Boston area, offering private clients/couples NVC empathy and Mediation. She deeply values her spiritual practices of meditation and seeing humanity in all, and was drawn to NVC as a strategy that provided a way to bring this part of herself into her day to day living and relationships. To her, NVC is "walking the talk". Shivani loves being a mother, dancing, laughing, community, yoga and reading.

Stephanie Bachmann Mattei

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 3 self-educated children: two biological boys, and one daughter, who joined the family through adoption.
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, as well as, -once she became a mother, serving for over 10 years as a volunteer Leader with La Leche League International, becoming a BCI Certified Parenting Educator, and serving as an NVC based teleclass 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 Trainer that profoundly touched Stephanie, and introduced her to the practical applications of NVC and Parenting:
In 2006 Stephanie graduated from the “Peer Parent Leadership Program,” –created and lead by Inbal- and has been involved in this NVC program ever since: as an Assistant Trainer (07 and 08) and as an Intern Trainer (09) under the guidance of CNVC Trainer Ingrid Bauer.
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 Trainer.
Stephanie serves at the NVCA as a teleclass Coordinator.