Elke Loepthien


Elke’s life vision is to support the creation of thriving, resilient and diverse regenerative communities. She initiated her action learning towards this goal by participating in the nine month RDNA Cultural Mentoring Program at the Regenerative Design Institute in California. There she practiced tools and techniques for facilitating (learning) communities, like designing gathering spaces, collaborating effectively, mentoring others, creating work and life flows and much more. She investigated alternative ways of leadership and developed an understanding of the magic that connection brings to our lives. After graduating from RDNA and Gaia University,  Elke returned to her home-base in Northern Germany where she is now integrating her learnings into her community there and advising Gaia U associates.

During her time with Gaia University Elke also explored the realms of sustainable entrepreneurship and has been preparing the start-up of her own business, which will offer ideas, designs and services around nature connection based community-building and personal transformation. You can read some of her research at her blog. Prior to her enrollment in Gaia U, Elke immersed herself in theory and practice mainly in the fields of education, (permaculture) design, psychology, knowledge of place and nature connection. Her research and writings have received awards from the German Körber-Foundation, the zis Foundation for Study Travels and others.

Along with her Gaia University studies, Elke is also a graduate student of Holistic Environmental Education at the University of Applied Sciences in Eberswalde, Germany. In her final thesis she will develop an advanced nature connection based training for community building. Elke is a scholarship holder of the prestigious German National Academic Foundation, which supports her general academic studies as well as her association with Gaia U International. She lives with her husband and son in Eberswalde, a small town North-East of Berlin.

Gaia U allowed me to slow down and catch up with what was at the core of all my studies and projects – me. Having the chance to fully integrate my personal with my professional and academic life caused a quantum leap for the quality, depth and integrity of who I am being in the world. The program also opened the door for me to participate in an ongoing conversation with world changers from all over the planet, a conversation that is transforming us, our contexts and communities along the way.