The Caretakers

The Rev. Dr. Susan B. King. OOOW (Oriental Orthodox Order in the West) is both an ordained monk/priest in a monastic Christian order, and an ordained interfaith minister who has served as an educator and spiritual director for the past 30 years. Professionally, Susan has a wide range of experiences. She has been the director of a community-wide free meal program, the director of an interfaith dialogue program, a campus chaplain, a professor of religious studies at Siena Heights University, a professor in the Program on Intergroup Relations for the University of Michigan Literature Science and Arts College, an associate director of the Life Sciences and Society Program for the University of Michigan School of Public Health, as well as served as an associate minister at the Interfaith Center for Spiritual Growth in Ann Arbor Michigan. Currently Susan offers online classes and programs in the area spiritual discernment and contemplative practices and is the Prioress of the Northern Priory for the OOOW order.

Susan was introduced to Beaver Island in the late 1980’s where she had an unexpected encounter with the sacred energies residing on the island chain for many thousands of years. This experience helped catalyze a 3 decade journey of an unfolding relationship with the sacredness of the intersections of the physical and metaphysical worlds as they reside in the lands surrounding the Great Lakes.

The journey has numerous chapters/adventures. There were the times spent traveling to ancestral sacred sites in and around the Great Lakes, always including a stay on Beaver Island. Then there were times spent traveling to the British Isles to experience and learn from the ancient stone circles and sacred groves of the Celtic spiritual traditions. These experiences led to pursuing a doctorate in spiritual psychology and spiritual discernment methodologies through the Graduate Theological Foundation at Christ Church Oxford University. This followed training at the Ecumenical Theological Seminary in Michigan (Christianity) and at the New Seminary in New York which provided training to people already trained in their particular faith tradition to learn from faith leaders/teachers from other faith traditions to build bridges of understanding across the spiritual worlds great living faith streams. Her first ordination, as an interfaith minister, came from New Seminary. For the next 20 years Susan was the Co-director of the Interfaith Roundtable of Washtenaw County, facilitating dialogue across and among faith leaders from across the great living spiritual traditions.

In 2004 Susan lost her daughter to death from suicide. Healing from this tragedy led her to studying with indigenous teachers from tribal nations here in the U.S. Various apprenticeships, work with ancestral and spiritual guides eventually led her back to Beaver Island and Garden Island, where she spent dedicated time each year since 2016, and resulted in her feeling called by the land and the ancestors to the purchase of a home and full time residency in 2019.

Sharon is a faculty member at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. She is currently the Senior Associate Dean of Education and the Millicent W. Higgins Collegiate Professor Epidemiology. Her passion is being in Nature and building sustainable systems that support people and organizations. With the rising challenges of climate change, she is dedicating the last part of her career to building new educational opportunities to explore how Nature creates sustainable healthy evolving ecosystems. Her professional dream is to bring together the best 21st century tools and thinkers to begin to spec out a new, more sustainable system of living in harmony using Nature as a model of resilience, interdependence and continual growth.

She also secretly loves exploring the science of consciousness and has a growing set of physics and biology models that connect matter and spirit in everyday life.

Key collaborators

Amy Atwell

I am honored to join the team at Green Terra, and to be able to bring to Green Terra my 20 plus years of experience in grief work and the field of hospice care.  I have worked in several capacities in the hospice world, and my career in hospice care has been an incredible teacher. I studied at the University of Michigan and Concordia University, where I received my Bachelor of Science and Healthcare Administration.

I am now a certified End of Life Doula, having completed my training in 2025 with Merilynne Rush , and her incredible team at A Dying Year. Throughout my career in hospice, I saw that many of life’s most profound and meaningful moments would often be most acute as people approached their own ending.

My role as an EOL doula centers on being a support for patients and their families in a myriad of ways during this transitional time; offering compassionate support and steady presence. Often the end of life doula  can help guide patients when it's time to choose a hospice and will continue to provide non-medical support in partnership with your medical team.  It is a true privilege to be present with people at the end of their lives. I bring that  to the mission  of Green Terra. 

I am also deeply involved in the recovery community, and my journey through alcoholism and recovery has informed my life in every way. 

 Resilience, community, beloved friends, family, and the miracle of second chances have shaped me profoundly. I am so grateful to be invited to join Susan King and Sharon Kardia in their commitment to service.