Dr. Claudia J. Ford is an African American elder and humanist; a scholar who has studied, written about, and taught the issues of environmental philosophy from spiritual, ecological, and cultural perspectives. Claudia is devoted to imparting the knowledge of how to raise human consciousness to get us through this transitional period of intense environmental and social crises. Raising our collective consciousness requires that we look to moral frameworks that instruct us about our interdependence with nature and how to be concerned for self, others, and the Earth – a triad of relationships that Claudia describes as zoetic entanglement. Zoetic entanglement demands that we expand our circle of care to the existential dimension of our planet; that we engage in planetary thinking. This begins with the recognition of the oft discussed “Blue Marble,” our miraculous and solitary existence in a vast, dark universe. Claudia has had a fifty-year career in international development and women’s health spanning all continents. She is a midwife, teacher, and visual artist with four postgraduate degrees.
