ABOUT THE LOVE & POWER INSTITUTE
The Love and Power Institute was founded in January 2025 by Marsha Hudson, Ph.D., and Norman Brown, Ph.D., with a mission to support the evolution of human consciousness as a critical path toward resolving the global climate crisis. They recognized a missing link in most environmental and justice movements: the inner emotional world of human beings.
While many organizations work to protect land, water, animals, and skies, few address the emotional patterns that shape how we relate to each other and the planet. Love and Power was created to help bridge that gap—by deepening emotional understanding as a foundation for collective stewardship.
The Institute began with small, regular group sessions focused on building empathy around challenging social and relational issues. Marsha and Norman also brought decades of experience leading weekly dream interpretation groups, offering an intimate path into the unconscious layers of emotional life.
In 2025, Love and Power formally incorporated as a nonprofit and plans to launch its flagship course on Emotional Versatility, rooted in Silvan Tomkins’ Affect and Script Theory and other key psychological frameworks. This course—and the Institute’s broader offerings—invite participants into a fuller relationship with their emotional selves, one another, and the living world.
Our nature-based programs further explore the vital connection between inner emotional life and our outer relationship with the Earth, encouraging a more loving, embodied, and sustainable way of being.
Our Board members
Open Recruitment
Secretary
Marsha Hudson, PhD
Chairman of Board
Experienced in teaching, financial services, and gender relations.
Figen Ezer
Treasurer
Accounting, Economics, CPA
Amitav Mallik
Environmental
Energy, Environment, and Climate Change Policy, Scientist, Technology Advisor
Dr. Jennifer Choate
Medicine
Oncologist, Author, Researcher, Medical Director
meet Our staff
Juliana Bruno
Executive Director
Daniel Bilog
Marketing Director
Devin Masterson
Teacher
Ajoy Mallik
Grants, Finance
Open Recruitment
Executive Adminstrator
meet our founders
Norman M. Brown, PhD
CO FOUNDER OF THE Love and Power Institute for Planetary Sustainability
Norman Brown Earned a Ph.D. in Humanities and German Studies at Stanford. During his first professorship he found a calling as a leader in experiential education, both in dramatizations of folklore, literature and dreams and in summer backpacking courses in the Sierra. He also cofounded his first of many men’s groups, where he focused on emotions many years before this gained popularity.
His second calling was to psychotherapy, leading to an M.A. in Clinical Psychology, an MFT license in 1976 and 41 years of practice ending in 2017. His second professorship included both humanities and psychology, where his central teaching focus was on love relations and led to a Psychology Ph.D. and writing the textbook “Love and Intimate Relationships” (2000) that combines current research and clinical and practical understanding. He has studied scientific approaches to understanding and changing emotions for over 30 years, which has led to his present endeavor to develop an effective program for improving our emotional versatility and thus stimulating the evolution of our species.
He is a feminist and has been a member of the Millennial Association for Humanity and the Biosphere, founded by Paul Ehrlich, the International Association for Relationship Research, the Silvan Tomkins Institute and the Pachamama Alliance.
Marsha Hudson, PhD
CO FOUNDER OF THE Love and Power Institute for Planetary Sustainability
Marsha Hudson earned a Ph.D. in comparative literature at UC Berkeley with a focus on poetry. During her academic career she taught composition, critical thinking, and women’s studies at colleges in California, ending with UC Santa Cruz. As a graduate student she was active in the women’s movement, which included leadership in the development of the Women’s Studies Department at UC Berkeley. In the 80’s she entered management in the financial services industry and rose to the level of senior vice president with responsibility for a $11 billion portfolio. In 2002 Dr. Hudson earned a certificate as a gestalt practitioner and in 2005 she was certified as a dream work practitioner.
Dr. Hudson is active in the Association for the Study of Dreams, the Pachamama Alliance, The Human Awareness Institute, the Sierra Club, and the Milllenial Alliance for Humanity and the Biosphere. In 2013 she co-founded Next Stage Productions in Santa Cruz, California, and in 2018 with her partner Norman Brown, she co-founded the Love and Power Institute for Planetary Sustainability. She was Editor-in-Chief of the Berkeley Literary Women’s Revolution: Essays From Marsha’s Salon (2005).
