Lisa Hershey Kutolowski
Founder/Co-Director
Lisa’s faith journey has led her through years of supporting others in their spiritual lives in campus ministry, to a desire to root her own life more deeply in an integrated rhythm of prayer, simplicity and work with her hands. Before meeting Mark and co-founding Metanoia of Vermont, Lisa ran her own wood-fired sourdough bread bakery. She looks forward to having her hands back in the dough when their homestead’s bread oven is completed.
Lisa serves as the liturgist and leader in sacred song for Metanoia, as well as performing with the Vermont women’s a cappella group Mellah. She has a deep commitment to hospitality, and to receiving guests at the Metanoia homestead as Christ. Lisa also guides wilderness retreats and wild pilgrimage, and is the primary author of ‘A Practical Guide to Wild Pilgrimage.’
Mark Kutolowski
Founder/Co-Director
Mark’s work with Metanoia of Vermont includes teaching, writing, spiritual direction, Systema training, pilgrimage guiding and retreat leading. His teaching and writing focuses on recovering the Christian contemplative tradition, the role of nature as a path of deeper union with God, and the integral connection between prayer and the body.
A lifelong Christian, Mark discovered the Christian monastic and contemplative traditions in 1997, and in 2001 he spent a year living in silence and solitude at a hermitage founded on the spirituality of the Desert Fathers and Mothers. He has been an Oblate of Saint Benedict in connection with the Mount Savior Monastery community since 2005. Despite his close connection to monastic communities, he never felt called to be monk. Rather, he was inspired to integrate the depth of Christian formation and spirituality found in these communities into marriage and family life.
Mark offers Centering Prayer workshops and personal spiritual direction in the New England region.
Kathy Moore
Board Member, Chair
Kathy received a BA with a double major in Religious Studies and English Literature from Albion College in 1971 and an MA in Theatre Arts from University of Iowa in 1974. She received teacher certification for grades K-8 from the Upper Valley Teacher Training Program (now the Upper Valley Educator’s Institute) in 1989. Her work life and experience include theatre lighting technician, professional stage manager, mirror ball maker, sales person in a flower shop, 2ndgrade teacher, middle school language arts and history teacher, college administrator. In 2015, Kathy retired from Dartmouth College as Assistant to the Dean and Office Manager of the Tucker Foundation, the center for service, spirituality, and social justice at the college. Important aspects of both study and work focus have been (and are) the importance of language, authentic communication, significant relationships, the value of work, and ongoing spiritual growth.
Robin Junker-Boyce
Board Member, Secretary
Robin Junker-Boyce has been pastor at First Congregational Church in Thetford, VT since 2015. Robin received a B.S. in Biology from Boston College in 1993 and a Master’s degree in Psychology and Religious Studies from Andover Newton Theological School in 1997 with an extended focus on hospital chaplaincy. In 2002, she was ordained in the United Church of Christ at Old North Church in Marblehead, MA. In May of 2014, she completed a fruitful 12 year ministerial post at Bethany Church, UCC in Randolph, VT and began a sabbatical year to write on Contemplative Prayer and to spend quality time with her husband, Sean, and her two young boys, Fritz and Ulysses (ages 11 and 8). The two greatest highlights of her past ministry were the implementation of a contemplative prayer community for adults and the creation of a vibrant youth ministry in which over 30 teens could be found meditating each Friday night in the basement of her church. If she had to narrow down her many passions, they would be preaching, community building, youth work, contemplative prayer and the study of the intersection between science and spirituality.
Simon Dennis
Board Member, Treasurer
Simon Dennis serves as the founding director of DIGS (Doorways to Good Shelter), a local non-profit that provides emergency housing for unsheltered people and to advance micro-dwellings as an enduring solution to the housing crisis in the Upper Valley. Prior to this, he co-founded COVER Home Repair (1998-2006), founded the Center for Transformational Practice (2011-2022) and worked with the Transition Town Movement (2005-2011) through various projects including the Raspberry Revolution Park, the Upper Valley Apple Corps, and the Hartford River Walk. Simon served for 9 years on the Hartford Selectboard, including two as Vice Chair and two as Chair. In these and other community initiatives, his work has been led by the notion that the root causes of our current eco-social crisis lies within human consciousness.