Kellie Berns
Kellie Berns - International Programs Director
Kellie is a visionary leader, community organizer, and spiritual practitioner who has dedicated her life to weaving together justice, healing, and ecological stewardship. At Earth Guardians, where she has served since 2017, Kellie is a co-visionary and operational leader, managing strategic partnerships, grant writing, fundraising, and program oversight while directly shaping flagship initiatives like the Indigenous Youth Leadership Initiative, the Honoraria Program, and the Speakers Bureau.
Her leadership is rooted in over 15 years of frontline campaign organizing, spiritual study, and community building. This foundation includes deep immersion in Buddhist and Yogic practices, learning from Indigenous knowledge keepers, and direct participation in fossil fuel resistance movements.
Before her role at Earth Guardians, Kellie co-founded and co-managed the Ahimsa House in West Philadelphia (2012-2021), a community center that merged activism and spirituality by offering all programming free of charge. She is also the co-founder of Be the Medicine, a facilitator training school dedicated to uniting science, spirit, and sacred indigenous ways of life within a framework of reciprocity.
Kellie holds a degree from Smith College and is a graduate and former faculty member of the Pacific Center of Awareness and Bodywork. She integrates her diverse background, from a private healing arts practice to organic farming, into a singular mission: to foster a world where people live in harmonious balance with each other and the Earth.