Eric Garza founded this website and its associated media platforms to help people navigate today's converging crises with thoughtfulness, compassion, and dignity. This website builds virtual community among those who are ready to ask big questions, wrestle with messy, nuanced answers, a celebrate moments of joy in challenging times. We offer a free newsletter, a variety of free and paid online events, and a collection of useful resources for those ready to do the work.
Eric lives in Vermont's Champlain Valley, in the northeast United States. His academic background spans the natural and social sciences, including ecological economics and systems thinking. He has taught more than a dozen graduate and undergraduate courses at various colleges and universities. Outside of the academic sphere Eric has trained in several martial, contemplative, relational, and subsistence disciplines. He is of mixed Basque, Spanish, and Indigenous heritage on his father's side, and mixed Scottish and Irish heritage on his mother's.
Eric owes a debt of gratitude to many teachers and mentors who have shaped him into the person he is today. The plants, fungi, animals, sun, and other elements that graciously share the land with and support him have always been and will always be his primary teachers.
He is also grateful for the mentorship of Vanessa de Oliveira Andreotti, Leah Manaema Avene, Sister True Dedication, Karl Haloj, Dai-Shihan Robert Johnson, Lyla June Johnston, Resmaa Menakem, Sherri Mitchell, Zen Master Barbara Rhodes, Francis Weller, and Jon Young.
Báyò Akómoláfé, Marimba Ali, Tom Brown Jr, Herman Daley, Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, Soke Masaaki Hatsumi, Howard Odum, Daniel Quinn, Aimee Lewis Reau, Zen Master Seung Sahn, LaUra Schmidt, Jake Swamp, Gilbert Walking Bull, and other members of the Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures Collective have provided inspiration through their writings, interviews, and teachings.
