BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Barbara Tovey, Soultype 8, President, began her career making sandwiches at The Subway Station, a small sandwich bar near Chinatown in San Francisco. She was subsequently hired to design, function as general contractor and coordinate management of The Great Freeze restaurant, as well as open up several more establishments in the area. As she made plans for the second location at Fisherman’s Wharf, she realized she wanted to do something that felt more meaningful to her and she spent some time assistant teaching for the University of California Child Care/Study Center. Following that, she took a position as Executive Director of the Bay Medical Research and Education Foundation, a nonprofit founded by physicians at the Veteran’s Administration hospital in San Francisco. Deciding to apply her administrative skills to her own business, in 1984 she created Tovey Management and Bookkeeping Services.

Treatment she received for a back problem opened up a new world, that of body-centric therapies. She loved to help people, work with her hands, and enjoyed seeing change come about quickly, so Barbara became certified in Aston-Kinetics and began practicing at The Back Clinic in Marin County, California. In 1988 Barbara and Alan Sheets opened the Self Care Center where they offered alternative physical therapies. A few years later they made their breakthrough discovery of the nine Soultypes. After several years researching this body-based phenomena they cofounded New Equations.

 

Jerry Boardman, Soultype 9, Vice President, has been a student of New Equations since 1998 and actively integrates the wisdom of the work in his private and professional life. Since 2008, Jerry has been employed with Fannie Mae as a Senior Business Manager with the National Service Organization Business Unit.

Jerry has over 35 years of experience in both management and executive leadership positions in public and nonprofit organizations. These positions include Executive Director positions with City Housing and Redevelopment Authorities of Fridley Minnesota and Bloomington Minnesota; the Minneapolis/St. Paul Housing Finance Agency; the Director of Housing for the Minneapolis Community Development Agency and the Vice President of Housing Development for the nonprofit organization, AEON.

Throughout his career Jerry has served on numerous boards and commissions, including the Minnesota Home Ownership Center Board and the Heading Home Minnesota Steering Committee. He has been a frequent speaker at conferences and provides expert testimony on major policy issues related to housing and community development.

Jerry is a certified New Equations teacher. He holds a Bachelor of Architecture Degree from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln and completed a Mini-MBA program with the University of St. Thomas.

 

Alan Sheets, Soultype 5, Treasurer, pursued a career in science, first majoring in Physics at Columbia College in New York City and then Biology while in the PhD program at the University of California in San Diego, California. He realized that he could not see himself leading the life of a university professor, so after completing his MS degree he began to look elsewhere to explore the mysteries of life. Aikido was one area of exploration and while working as a Research Assistant at Stanford University and the Linus Pauling Institute he intensively studied Aikido. After experiencing a magical throw by his Aikido teacher Alan became determined to learn how to reproduce that throw and earned his black belt in 1978.

Alan was deeply affected one night when he observed his five-year-old daughter sleeping for the first time with her hands at her sides instead of clutched at her chest. She had Cerebral Palsy and had just that day received her first bodywork session from Moshe Feldenkrais, an innovative therapist who had been recommended. Overcome at the sight of a change that was not supposed to be possible, Alan trained in the Feldenkrais Method so he could understand how to do this remarkable work and was certified in 1983. He practiced professionally as a Feldenkrais Practitioner for several years at The Back Clinic in Marin County, California. In 1988 Alan and Barbara Tovey established the Self Care Center where they offered alternative treatment modalities. Soon thereafter they made their breakthrough discovery of the nine Soultypes. After several years researching this body-based phenomena they cofounded New Equations.

 

Mary Cayan, Soultype 5, Secretary, has been a student of New Equations since 1998 and has been privileged to experience the development of the work for the past fifteen years.

Mary is a personal coach and consultant with 25 years of experience helping organizations and individuals set goals and achieve them. She has worked extensively with leaders in the non-profit, government, and private sectors doing coaching, needs assessment, strategic planning, administration, and fundraising. Since 1998, she’s been the owner and principal of Art of Life, a professional coaching and consulting firm located in Minneapolis.

Mary currently delivers coaching services through the University of St. Thomas and teaches coaching classes with the Adler Graduate School of Psychology. She has been a docent with the Minneapolis Institute of Art for 23 years and uses her artistic training in her business, including delivering workshops that use images as the source of clarity for personal and team visioning processes.

Mary is a certified New Equations teacher. She completed her Master’s Degree in Social Planning at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, completed coaching training through the Coaches Training Institute, and is certified through the International Coach Federation.

 

Gerina Gaffney, SoulType 1, has been a student of New Equations since 2000 when she co-sponsored New Equations’ introduction to the Boston, Massachusetts area. This event had a life-altering effect and has led her to pursue training with New Equations right up to the present moment.

Gerina is the owner of Gaffney & Company, a consulting firm that offers business, career and life coaching to executives and entrepreneurs. She integrates New Equations practices into her work with clients. Additionally, Gaffney & Company provides personal and professional image consulting to help clients express their inner essence through their appearance and surroundings.

Gerina is a certified coach through The Coaches Training Institute, where she also completed their Leadership Training program and is a member of the International Coach Federation. She is also a certified image professional and a member of the Association of Image Consultants International where she has held international office.

Gerina is a certified New Equations teacher who brings her knowledge of New Equations not only to her clients, but to her husband, her family of 3 married children and 6 grandchildren as well as to her mother, brother, sister and their families. Almost all of them know their soultypes as do many of Gerina’s friends and colleagues.

She is an accomplished musician, having earned a BA in music, magna cum laude, from Wilkes University in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania. She also attended the graduate school of the New England Conservatory in Boston, Massachusetts.

 

Hillary Werhane, Soultype 9, was introduced to New Equations in 2004 and that experience changed the course of her life’s journey. She joined the New Equations Professional Training Program in 2006 and has been an active member in the development and training stages of the organization since that time.

Hillary is an accomplished horsewoman with over 43 years of experience working with a variety of horse breeds in several disciplines. She currently owns and operates HW Horse Services Inc., a company she created in 1998. HW Horse Services Inc. combines Hillary’s love of horses with her business expertise by specializing in horse barn management and consulting to equine related enterprises. In 2000 Hillary joined forces with a partner; she designed and oversaw the construction of a state-of–the-art equestrian facility. Equinox Equestrian Center opened its doors in 2006 in Sun Valley, California, with Hillary as the Operations Manager.

Prior to owning and operating her own business, Hillary gained valuable experience over twelve years working for a variety of companies including a large nonprofit, an electronics start up venture, a management consulting firm, and a large bank.

Hillary is a certified New Equations Teacher. She earned her MBA in Marketing and Entrepreneurial Studies from the University of California in Los Angeles, and her AB in French and Italian Literatures from Stanford University.

 

Theresa Fricke, Soultype 4, was introduced to New Equations in 2000, has been active in its development since 2003, and is a certified New Equations teacher.

Theresa is a holistic nurse with over 30 years experience as a registered nurse and healer in medical/surgical, public health and hospital settings.

In 1994, after working in both hospital and public health settings, she began a study of complementary and alternative therapies. It was here that she picked up threads of what had been missing for her in the mainstream medical model, primarily the rich connection between our body, mind and spirit. Theresa’s initial foray into the realm of energy medicine was through the Healing Touch program, becoming certified in 1997. She continued to study over the years with other healers and teachers, developing her unique healing style. Theresa owns and operates her own company, Sacred Body Healing Arts.

Theresa holds a Bachelor of Science in nursing from the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire (1978) and a Masters Degree in Human Development from St. Mary’s University of Winona, Minnesota with an emphasis on counseling, spirituality and energy healing (2000). She is certified in Guided Mental Imagery from the Psychosynthesis Institute of Minnesota. When her private energy-healing clients began requesting that she accompany them into hospitals and surgery, she used her nursing experience to assist them in navigating the complex medical system focusing on their own strengths to co-create healing plans with them.

From 1999 to 2009 Theresa worked as a nurse/healer at St. Joseph’s Hospital in St. Paul, Minnesota. While there, she assisted with research and co-authored a published research study using Healing Touch with patients undergoing coronary artery bypass surgery. This developed into a hospital-wide holistic therapies program which she helped to found and administer.

Theresa integrates her New Equations training and practices into her private practice, using New Equations music in all her client sessions. She passionately supports and teaches New Equations as it moves out into the world.