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THE DIRECTORS OF SEKHEM INSTITUTE

Together,  Renee Levant and Sedgwick Heskett have over fifty years’ combined experience in the religious life, spiritual direction, teaching, workshops,  and forms of prayer and ritual. They are expert and inspiring teachers, who use movement, sound, ritual, and other experiential exercises to help participants find their core strengths and the roots of their connection with the divine.

Renee Levant, PhD

An experienced educator, spiritual director and coach, Renee is well known for workshops, papers, ritual work  an classes on Catholic theology and theologians, for scholarly work on Ancient Egyptian and Ancient African Religions,  as well as for talks on St Augustine and Aquinas and  comparative religion and culture. She received her doctorate in Philosophy of Religion and African thought from Penn State University. She holds a Masters Degree (with honors) from DSPT (Graduate Theological Union) and a BA with highest honors in both Religious Studies and Philosophy. Renee has lived in a number of religious communities (including a convent) , beginning in childhood, and has a lifetime’s experience in the dynamics of the religious life. She has extensive training in Catholic theology, Interfaith dialogue and in articulating the way humans open to experiencing the divine in their lives. She is certified NLP Trainer and coach.  She has taught undergraduate classes and graduate courses at various schools including at Penn State University, University of Wisconsin-Parkside, Fort Hays State University, Empire State College, Cochise College and Florida Community College at Jacksonville.

Renee has a passion for recognizing and aiding others to recognize and develop their gifts and to realize their potential contribution to the world. Enabling communities and organizations to live the values they aspire to manifest and to change unjust social structures are central themes in her life and work linking spirituality and social activism.

She co-founded and directed the Anawim House of Hope a  Catholic center of prayer, ministry and advocacy for immigrant youth and their familes in Oakland California  for over a decade.

Sedgwick Heskett, PhD

Sedgwick Heskett has been teaching and writing about spirituality and growth work for over 30 years.  She received her doctorate in Religious Studies and Anthropology of Religion at the Union Institute.  Her worked focused on the experience of religion especially in Catholic Mystical Traditions and on the respectful comparison of different religious traditions. Earlier she completed all work but the dissertation in Religious Studies at Northwestern University, where she concentrated in comparative Buddhist studies and ancient Near Eastern religions. She has a BA in Intellectual History and Art History. Sedgwick teaches undergraduate and graduate classes online at Florida State College at Jacksonville, Fort Hays State University, Ashford University, and several others. Sedgwick first remembers a conscious connection with God at around age four, and has been on a religious path since then. She has taught clases and acted as a spiritual director for people from various paths for over two decades.  She has co-lead a number of therapy and spiritual growth groups in State College,Pennslvania with local therapists.  She is a Master Practitioner and teacher of NLP and especially loves NLP work with perceptual positions, parts, and time lines.

Her special interests are in reflection on her Catholic faith tradition, writing to open oneself to God and one’s call and task,  and in the use of sound and movement for the same purposes. Sedgwick is highly skilled in ritual and contemplative and  other deep prayer work and teaching them to others  She has taught nonviolence and conflict resolution to many organizations , is a master teacher trainer.