Six men who have said yes to walking alongside the first Fire Keepers cohort. They are not teachers, instructors, or facilitators. They are men who have done their own interior work, walking alongside boys who are doing theirs.
“What we ask the boys to do, we do first.”
Chris Cobb has spent thirty years as a senior technology leader guiding high-performing teams through complex challenges, while simultaneously doing the interior work that Fire Keepers asks of the boys. He completed the New Warrior Training with the Mankind Project and sat in weekly men’s circles for seven years working with Robert Bly’s Iron John framework. He has done deep wilderness immersives with the Animas Valley Institute under Bill Plotkin, trained as a somatic leadership coach under Richard Strozzi, and maintains ongoing monthly men’s circles and a dedicated weekly embodiment practice.
Chris is the steward of Moonrising Wild, a nine-acre redwood stream-filled land in the Santa Cruz Mountains that serves as a gathering place for Fire Keepers. He is a practicing sacred artist whose large-scale redwood installations explore threshold, beauty, and our relationship with the living world. He believes boys become men not through instruction but through experience, challenge, and the presence of men who have done their own work. He is honored to walk alongside your son this year.
Paul Rubio has spent over 35 years walking the Red Road, serving alongside Lakota medicine men and Sundance Chiefs including Leonard Crow Dog, David Swallow Jr., and Warfield Moose, as well as elders across Turtle Island. He has worked with the American Indian Alliance as an artist and curator, helped present the American Indian Holocaust exhibit, and collaborated with allies to support the Amah Mutsun Ohlone Tribal Band in gaining recognition as the original inhabitants of Santa Cruz County. Mentoring First Nations youth through art has been a constant thread throughout his life.
Paul and his wife Erica are stewards of Generational Gardens, a 21-acre property in the Santa Cruz Mountains that is home to a living community of 21 adults and 9 children. His daily life is rooted in providing a safe, sustainable environment for children to grow up close to the land, with access to organic food and clean water. It is from this ground that Paul comes to Fire Keepers, believing your sons are at a pivotal crossing, and considering it an honor to walk alongside them through it.
Stuart Abel’s love of nature and the outdoors took root early in life, shaped in large part by the male mentors who took him under their wing and guided him through meaningful rites of passage. He holds a Master’s degree in Ecopsychology and has spent years teaching nature awareness, wilderness survival skills, and ecopsychology to children, teens, and adults alike. Stuart remains deeply committed to the ongoing journey of becoming a good man, one who lives with purpose, presence, and a spirit of service.
Stuart is the steward of Little Refugio, a 62-acre piece of land in Bonny Doon that has been his deepest sense of home since the age of seven. His relationship with this land spans decades, and among his greatest passions there is fire-resilient forestry, the practice of tending the forest so that it may weather wildfire as vigorously as possible. He looks forward to welcoming Fire Keepers to Little Refugio as one of the program’s home bases. It is an honor to walk alongside your boys in the year ahead.
Glenn Kazmierski has spent over 25 years as a practitioner of Chinese medicine in Santa Cruz, specializing in sports medicine and seasonal alignment. He holds a Master’s degree in Chinese Medicine and has taught at both Five Branches Institute and the American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Alongside his clinical work, he is the founder of Tao Quests, where he leads nature-based retreats integrating Chinese medicine, seasonal wisdom, and eco-awakening practices.
He is a certified Wild Mind Guide through the Animas Valley Institute and has trained in ritual, expressive arts, and nature-based mentoring. Glenn has also been engaged in men’s work for nearly a decade, including initiation through the Mankind Project, with a focus on accountability, integrity, and embodied growth. He is a co-founder of the Santa Cruz Storytelling Festival, where he deepened his work with story, myth, and the role narrative plays in human development. In Fire Keepers, Glenn tracks each boy’s journey over time and reflects back their strengths, efforts, and milestones. He is honored to stand at the fire, helping each boy see and carry the story of who he is becoming.
James Kovacs has worked in the field of personal and spiritual growth for over 30 years. He is dedicated to supporting internal growth, mental and emotional wellbeing, and self-discovery with everyone he works with. Over the years, James has taught Sacred Masculine Initiations workshops, meditation, qigong, and martial arts. He has a holistic medicine practice focusing on Classical Chinese Medicine, acupuncture, bodywork, and a form of somatic therapy that addresses trauma and emotional healing.
James’s life is influenced by the teachings and practices of Buddhism and Andean spiritual traditions rooted in nature connection and heart-based living. For over 30 years he has been committed to his own internal growth and spiritual practice. He brings warmth, compassion, and deep listening to all his work with others. James lives in Bonny Doon with his fiancée Amy and their dog Tommy. He is honored and excited to be walking alongside your son in the year ahead.
Brian Britton grew up outside Boston, Massachusetts, where he was diagnosed with dyslexia early and found his footing not in classrooms but in movement, craft, and the company of others working toward something real. In high school, an outdoor program called Bounders became one of the most formative experiences of his life, pushing physical limits, building wilderness skills, and teaching him how to trust a group, speak up for the safety of others, and find out what he was made of when things got hard. After high school he went into the trades, building and painting with his hands. He moved to Santa Cruz in 2005, where he has built a life rooted in land, craft, and community.
Brian and his partner Michelle are raising two children, Zola and Abel, in Corralitos, homeschooled, off grid, close to the earth. For years Brian has been learning the ways and ceremonies of the Lakota people and the ways of the chanupa. He was called to Fire Keepers through Jodi Jackson, and felt the pull immediately: this is a piece modern culture has forgotten, and these boys are at exactly the crossing where it matters most. He brings bushcraft, outdoor skills, and the hard-won knowledge of a man who has always learned best by doing. He is honored to walk alongside your son this year.
Steve advises the mentor council from deep experience in ritual and men’s work. He is not present with the boys directly. His role is to hold the council itself, offering the elder perspective that keeps the mentors honest, grounded, and supported in their own formation. Every initiatory circle needs an elder who stands behind the guides.
“I see you. I am with you. What we do here matters.”The Brotherhood Vow — spoken at every gathering by every man and every boy
