Living Systems Leadership Retreat for Women (2026)
A 6-day residential immersion in Northern New Mexico
The call of this moment is unmistakable: women are needed to lead—differently.
Not by replicating extractive models of the past, but by embodying ways of leading that are adaptive, relational, resilient, and deeply attuned to life. For nearly 4 billion years, the natural world has evolved systems that thrive through collaboration, reciprocity, and regeneration. These are the leadership practices our time requires.
This retreat is an invitation to step into that possibility.
Now in its sixth year, the Living Systems Leadership Retreat is a proven and highly acclaimed immersive experience, bringing together a diverse and committed cohort of women and non-binary leaders ready to engage the challenges of our time with depth, courage, and new ways of seeing.
Rooted in the spirit of what the Indigenous Women of Bears Ears call the rematriation of the Earth—restoring right relationship with land, life, and one another—this experience invites you into a different way of knowing, leading, and belonging.
This is for those who feel the urgency of this moment… and are ready to meet it.
Now in its sixth year, the Living Systems Leadership Retreat is a proven and highly acclaimed immersive experience, bringing together a diverse and committed cohort of women and non-binary leaders ready to engage the challenges of our time with depth, courage, and new ways of seeing.
Rooted in the spirit of what the Indigenous Women of Bears Ears call the rematriation of the Earth—restoring right relationship with land, life, and one another—this experience invites you into a different way of knowing, leading, and belonging.
This is for those who feel the urgency of this moment… and are ready to meet it.
Click below to learn more about the retreat details
What You’ll Experience & Take With You
Over six days in a stunning high-desert ecosystem, you will engage in a deeply immersive learning journey—one that integrates ecological insight, personal reflection, and collective exploration.
You will leave with:
A fundamentally expanded understanding of leadership grounded in living systems
A set of Living Systems Leadership practices, tools, and frameworks you can apply immediately in your work
Greater clarity and confidence in your unique leadership voice and contribution in this moment
A felt experience of deep connection—with the Earth, with yourself, and with a diverse community of women leaders
Relationships with a network of peers who are equally committed to meaningful change, lasting collaboration, and heartful support
Past participants share:
“I learned that what I bring to the table as a leader is valuable—and that I can't change the world on my own. Nature shows us how to create the world we want to live in.”
“I truly have never felt a community as academically, mentally, and emotionally expansive as I found here.”
“I learned that I can create change by understanding the systems that shape our shared context—and working with them.”
What to Expect
Imagine waking to the sound of elk bugling in the early morning light. Walking barefoot in a mountain creek while exploring how beavers co-create resilient communities. Sitting beneath a sky so vast and star-filled it reshapes your sense of scale.
This retreat is an intimate immersion in a living ecosystem—and in your own evolving leadership.
Our days are grounded in:
Direct, sensory engagement with the land, plants, animals, and ecological patterns of place
Practices of observation, deep listening, and inquiry
Translation of ecological insights into leadership applications
Creative expression, including Dekaaz, a poetic form inspired by the Fibonacci sequence
Small-group dialogue and whole-group learning
Coaching and facilitation from experienced instructors
You will move between solitude and shared experience, reflection and application, insight and embodiment.
““This workshop allows a closer, more informed relationship to the natural world that we can mirror in our own lives to become a creative force in reshaping the future.””
Learning Objectives
Through this experience, you will:
Practice skills to connect with nature and deepen your relationship with life
Learn directly from living systems that have sustained life on Earth for nearly 4 billion years
Translate principles of healthy ecosystems into powerful, practical leadership tools
Distill a set of regenerative, nature-inspired leadership practices relevant to your work and life
Cultivate curiosity, attention, and wonder as core capacities of leadership
Build your ability to inspire and influence others in your community and field
Who Should Attend?
This retreat is designed for women and non-binary people who feel called to contribute to a more regenerative, life-affirming world—and who are ready to deepen their leadership in service of that future.
We intentionally convene a diverse, intergenerational cohort, with a commitment to racial and cultural diversity, including 30–40% BIPOC participants.
You may find yourself here if you are:
A change agent ready to deepen your commitment to Nature Positive leadership
A leader in nonprofit, business, philanthropy, education, or community contexts seeking new models and approaches
Someone who may not claim the title “leader,” but feels the responsibility of this moment and is ready to step forward in ways that are relational, regenerative, and life-serving
A sustainability practitioner looking for deeper alignment between your work and living systems principles
A woman seeking to reconnect with the natural world as a source of guidance, clarity, and renewal
This is an open and welcoming space—and also a curated cohort. We seek participants who are ready to engage fully, contribute meaningfully, and learn in community.
If you are ready to step into leadership as a living, evolving practice in service of life, we welcome you.
Limited scholarships are available for participants from under-resourced communities. You may apply for financial support as part of the registration process.
The Place
Founded in 1981, the Ocamora Retreat Center is a 265-acre sanctuary nestled at 7,500 ft on the eastern slope of the Sangre de Cristo mountains. This remarkable landscape includes irrigated organic agricultural fields, oak and ponderosa pine forests, perennial grasslands, a flowing creek, and surrounding mountain wilderness.
Though located within a high desert plateau, Ocamora sits in an unusually fertile valley—home to abundant wildlife, birds, and plant life.
More than a setting, this place is a teacher.
Removed from the noise and pace of modern life, Ocamora offers a rare opportunity to experience deep quiet, ecological intimacy, and renewal. Here, participants often rediscover a sense of belonging—to land, to community, and to the larger web of life.
Ocamora is two hours northeast of Santa Fe and an hour east of Taos.
2026 LSL Faculty Team
Toby Herzlich
Toby is Founder and Director of Biomimicry for Social Innovation. Drawing applied wisdom from the natural world and acting as a cross-pollinator among leaders working in social equity, regenerative systems change, and climate solutions, her work is dedicated to bridging with the more-than-human world to catalyze a truly regenerative society. With 30+ years of facilitation and coaching experience, Toby is an internationally recognized trainer, organizational consultant, and executive coach. Along with her role as co-creator of Living Systems Leadership, she is key faculty in Biomimicry 3.8’sProfessional Certification Program, a 20-year Senior Trainer with the Rockwood Leadership Institute, and consultant to the Volgenau Climate Initiative, National Geographic Society, and others. When not activating the emerging of collective intelligence among astounding leaders, Toby can be found in the high mountains of western North America or with her hands in the earth in Santa Fe.
Brandi Mack
Brandi Mack is a mother of three daughters, a afroecological land steward, and holistic designer, cultivating pathways for belonging, healing, and collective transformation. Rooted in holistic health, TEK. Permaculture and biomimicry(BSI)—her work weaves together land, culture, and community as essential infrastructures for liberation.
With over 20 years of experience in trauma-informed youth and community development, Brandi engages living systems as both a practice and a philosophy—supporting individuals and communities in remembering their relationship to the natural world, to each other, and to themselves. Her approach is deeply relational, bridging ancestral intelligence, ecological design, and contemporary social innovation.
Brandi is the founder of BHealthyBholistic, a collective consulting and design practice that supports organizations, institutions, and communities in developing regenerative programs, land-based strategies, and leadership experiences. As Co-National Director of The Butterfly Movement, Brandi is helping to steward the development of a land-based arts and ecology sanctuary centered on Black women, girls, and women of color—creating space for rest, creativity, leadership, and ecological connection and restoration. To learn more about Brandi and her work, Please go to www.BrandiMack.com ; www.thebutterflymovement.com
Karen Allen
Early on, Karen discovered her true passion in life is to cultivate connections with nature and restore resilience. She’s been doing just that over the past 25+ years through her business, Aequinox. Karen regularly collaborates with others on nature-based solutions that include large-scale habitat restoration, wetland, conservation planning, and biomimicry projects to help protect and restore ecosystems, generate sustainable innovations, and foster connections to nature. She brings her deep love of natural history to workshops, translating nature’s strategies for non-biologists. Karen is a faculty member in the Masters of Science (M.Sc.) in Biomimicry Program at Arizona State University, a Certified Biomimicry Professional, and an international biomimicry trainer. Her academic background includes a B.Sc. in Environmental Science from U.C. Berkeley, a M.Sc. in Earth Sciences from Montana State University, and a M.Sc. in Biomimicry from ASU.
In workshops aimed at connecting with and understanding natural systems, Karen cultivates curiosity, inquiry, and deep respect for the natural world. She hopes participants connect with nature as well as connect with themselves as part of nature. Find out more about Karen at: www.aequinoxhabitat.com