Our Team
Debi Medeski (President)
Debi started on her healing path twenty-five years ago in New York City with an in-depth Yoga and Yoga philosophy training course which included asana, meditation, breath-work, vedanta study and Sanskrit. She moved to Woodstock, NY in 2000 when her daughter was born and opened the first official Yoga studio there. Debi ran certified Yoga teacher trainings as well as workshops and retreats abroad.
Soon after she began to study plants and plant-spirit medicine. This led her to South and Central America where she met her current teachers. Along with her husband John, she leads retreats to work with local healers in the Amazon, the Andes and Mexico. They also run sweat lodge ceremonies on their land and work in a variety of earth-based traditions. Debi also leads women’s circles and teaches women’s wisdom classes online and in person.
The dedication to the land, the plants and the teachings of those who came before, led Debi and John to start Star Fire Fellowship in 2017 with a few dedicated community members. In 2018 they became a 501(c)(3) organization. Their mission is to create a safe space for people to gather and be supported by the ways they have learned from their teachers, to enable transformation and healing so that we can rise above our stories and show up to fulfill our souls's agreements and be the spiritual warriors we have come here to be.
Debi resides on the lands of the Esopus-Munsee, Mohican and Lenni-Lenape peoples in what is now called the Hudson Valley. She lives with her husband John, their daughter, two dogs, a cat, some bees and some powerful guardian spirits to whom they are very grateful for.
John Medeski (Vice President)
John is a musician, composer, and producer best known for his work with the groundbreaking trio Medeski Martin and Wood. Collaborating with many artists over his 40 year career he has toured the planet working in a wide variety of genres. Through his focus on sound and music as a universal language of healing and transformation he has cultivated a deep understanding of ancient sound traditions that facilitate healing both in private practice and group ceremonial settings.
John’s passion for the earth finds him happiest in the garden honoring the spirits of the plants growing food and medicinal plants. He and his wife Debi lead retreats and work in a variety of earth based traditions at their home on the lands of the Esopus-Munsee, Mohican and Lenni-Lenape peoples in what is now called the Hudson Valley.
Nikki Lewitan (Board of Trustees)
Nikki is certified in both Hatha Yoga and Yoga Therapy. She received her Yoga Therapy certification for Yoga Vidya Dham in India and her Hatha Yoga teacher’s certification from Ananda Ashram in Monroe, NY. She has lived and taught at Ananda since 2007 while studying Yogic scriptures and practicing meditation with several teachers who have deeply influenced her life.
Nikki is the Director of Ananda Ashram Yoga and is co-director of their annual Yoga Teacher Training program. She also serves as Program Coordinator for Star Fire Fellowship. Her countless travels throughout India and Peru and brought her heart and soul closer to the teachings of ancient sages and medicine healers.
Allison Hoots
Allison Hoots is an attorney practicing employment, employee benefits, and corporate law. She has practiced law for nearly 9 years with small boutique law firms and an Am 100 law firm, with 2 years interspersed as she investigated violations of the law for the U.S. Department of Labor. She has worked for several federal and state government agencies, including with the U.S. Department of Labor and the anti-discrimination law agencies in Pennsylvania and New York. She currently works remotely for a firm in Washington, DC and operates her own firm, Hoots Law Practice PLLC. She is on the advisory board of the Alliance for a Viable Future and is a founding trustee of and serves happily as secretary and all-around minder for Star Fire Fellowship Inc.
Allison lives in the Hudson Valley of New York with her husband, Sean, and her two children, Vera and Archer, and her dog, Nellie. She grew up in the suburbs of Washington, DC and returned there after college in Rochester, NY, only to follow a handsome musician she met one night at the beach on July 4th weekend to Philadelphia, PA where she stayed and went to attend law school and married that handsome guy. After giving birth to their first child, Vera, she and her husband picked up and moved to the mountains.
Eva Miskiewicz (Creative Director)
Eva is a passionate and dedicated artist with ever brighter dreams to fulfill. She has always followed her natural rhythm of self-expression which led her to explore various creative mediums, such as mosaic art, painting, drawing, fiber art, music, graphic design, and most recently intuitive hand-poked tattoo art.
Eva believes in arts as a healing modality, tools for self-discovery, opportunity to cultivate connection to the natural world around us, and an important way of keeping culture and old traditions alive. She holds a bachelor degree in Art Therapy and her goal is to integrate her creative skills, experience and ancient teachings into an offering, which she eventually hopes to share with those in need. She currently lives in a small intentional community upstate NY, where she works from home, tends to her garden and survives the 2020 pandemic.
Jessica Caplan (Board of Trustees)
Jess is a singer and a vocal coach. She works with voice and sound as gateways for transformation and healing. Known for her voice-infused soundscapes, and open-hearted approach to embodying the voice, Jessica leads immersive workshops, retreats, trainings, and 1:1 mentorships in the art of therapeutic voice and sound.
Jessica grew up singing and performing, but it was in her 30’s, through journeys in yoga, sound healing, and deep listening that she discovered her authentic voice. She’s is passionate about cultivating connection, compassion, and curiosity to guide students to their own unique expressions. Jess is a graduate of the Open Center’s Sound and Music Institute, completed Silvia Nakkach’s Yoga of the Voice program, and currently studies classical Indian music with master vocalist Samarth Nagarkar. She lives in the Hudson Valley with her husband and daughter.
Sean Hoots (Board of Trustees)
Sean Hoots is a musician/composer/recordist living in the Mid-Hudson Valley of New York with his wife Allison and their two little elves, Vera and Archer. He has toured the country many times over with his folk-rock band Hoots & Hellmouth (est. 2005) and has eaten lots of good food along the way. He really likes good food.
Formerly a long-time resident of Philadelphia (itself home to lots of good food), Hoots has always felt a little bit country and a little bit city. If there is a harmony to be found in life, he is after it. Sean also holds BA degrees in Philosophy, Religious Studies, and Peace & Conflict Studies from West Chester University, but who gives a rat's patoot about college anymore?!
Aja Hudson (Board of Trustees)
Aja is a mentor, a teacher, community organizer, developer of ecosystems and a conduit to the earth. She is a landscape designer by trade with a focus on ecological restoration and resilience. Co-creating interactive and regenerative environments for people and the earth is what inspires her.
Aja was the founder and sole proprietor of an environmentally friendly landscaping company since 2001. In 2014 she offered her employees an opportunity for shared ownership in the company. A year later that company was transitioned into a worker owned cooperative. Until her resignation in January of 2020, Aja served as the Executive Director and Board president. As a mentor and teacher to the team, she played an important role in both conceptualizing the trajectory of the Cooperative and supporting its growth. That company continues to thrive, supporting the wellbeing of over 20 employees while continuing to use earth friendly practices.
Currently Aja is doing freelance design, continues to be a mentor and serves on multiple boards. Most importantly she is sitting quietly in the possibilities of what the future might hold.
Aja says, “Shifting the way humans relate to the earth is only possible if we can start to shift the way we relate to ourselves and our communities. Mother Nature models this paradigm, and in essence provides us with a universal tool that can facilitate this shift. If we as humans can tap into this ancient wisdom, a deeper awareness will begin to open up. Then real change will have an opportunity to manifest.”
Florencia Farias (Treasurer)
Florencia is passionate about the ways of the people who came before us, the healing arts and the earth and her offerings, as a way to open our minds, hearts and potential as human beings. Originally from Argentina, she moved to New York 13 years ago after living in Rio de Janeiro for a short time.
She currently works at an Investment company while pursuing the path of her heart which is studying and learning about the healing power of plants. She has been doing this with various teachers throughout the Americas for the past 18 years. Florencia completed the Sound and Music Program at the Open Center in 2012, and continues to practice Sacred Sound and Vedic Chanting. She also studied Creative Arts Therapy at New School and Contemplative Psychotherapy at Nalanda Institute. While her studies were begun mainly to understand herself, her aim now is to offer all that she has learned to being in service of others.