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Dr. Rick Medrick has been a MAP advisor since 1995, core faculty member
for MAP in Adventure Education since 1999, and is a member of the steering
committee for the new Prescott Ph.D. program. He has a B.A. in philosophy
and literature from Dartmouth (1963) and a self-designed doctorate (Ed.D.,
1985) in humanistic psychology and experiential education from the University
of Northern Colorado. He has done other graduate study in philosophy, psychology,
and organizational development, and has taught adjunct courses and mentored
students through a number of institutions. He has also pursued training
in therapeutic modalities including gestalt, Transactional Analysis, psychodrama,
bioenergetics, and various transpersonal approaches to growth and change.
Rick was the founder and has been executive director of Colorado-based Outdoor
Leadership Training Seminars (OLTS) since 1973. He has run the eight month
Outdoor Growth and Leadership Training Seminar since 1974, training outdoor
leaders in technical skills, group process and facilitation, and exploration
of issues and processes related to deep ecology, ecopsychology, and personal
transformation. He founded, owned, and operated Arkansas River Tours (CO)
for 17 years, worked as an Exum mountain guide (Tetons), and has been a PSIA-certified
ski instructor since 1963. He was a founding member of the Association for
Experiential Education (AEE) and the Colorado River Outfitters Association
(CROA), serving on numerous public agency task forces and committees. He also
served as an instructor and director for the Colorado Outward Bound School
and as a Peace Corps Volunteer teacher in East Africa. He has practiced and
taught tai chi for 25 years and incorporates Taoist perspectives, tai chi,
and meditation into teaching climbing, skiing, and leading other wilderness
pursuits. He has designed and run numerous programs and retreats for corporate
groups and other populations. He has been married for 40 years and has two
adult children.
 Rick’s
current interest and focus of study is to examine and help evolve an integral,
trans-disciplinary approach to the study of personal transformation and
planetary sustainability.
This involves an investigation of the ways in which individuals and organizations
develop and change, adapting to emerging conditions in social and ecological
environments under stress. Such transformation recognizes the continuing
need for adults to learn and grow under optimal conditions that encourage
initiative,
creativity, personal responsibility, communication, collaboration, and
collective intelligence. The role of the educator is one of mentoring,
coaching, and
facilitating a lifelong learning commitment that engages students at the
deepest level of their social, ecological, mental, emotional, physical,
and spiritual
being. This process recognizes the potential of each person, individually
and collectively, to profoundly change and create a world that honors the
potential of the human spirit to reach beyond established norms and paradigms
to generate new models to explore human potential and to enhance our connection
to the larger, more-than-human world. This is the vision of learning embodied
in MAP and in the Prescott Ph.D. program that is currently under development
Dr. Medrick’s OLTS website can be accessed at www.olts-bt.com.
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Biographical Information