Members

We created this page to introduce the members of Sandpoint Men’s Group and to aid the members in announcing their services. Below you will find a partial list of the members (we now have almost 30 members in 3 circles) in the Sandpoint Men’s Group. Please feel free to contact them about their services or their participation in the group.

To get an inside look at Sandpoint Men’s Group, check out the documentary film about the group, About Men. If you are interested in joining Sandpoint Men’s Group, please visit our Get Started page.

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Owen Marcus

It has been a privilege to welcome men into our Men’s Group, and an even greater honor to sit with them weekly for all these years. Each session is not just a chance for me to evolve into the man I aspired to be, but it’s also incredibly enjoyable.

Originally from Vermont, my journey took me West as a young adult. By the mid-1970s, I was practicing bodywork and Rolfing in Boulder, CO. Later, I relocated to Scottsdale, AZ, to establish a holistic medical clinic, where I spent nearly two decades. Eventually, craving a connection with nature and a more relaxed lifestyle, I moved to Sandpoint in 1997 and founded the Men’s Group in 2005.

Here in Sandpoint, I continued my Rolfing practice while expanding my role in supporting men nationwide through educational sessions. Over the past 45 years, my studies have taught me to harness what seems absent to foster profound transformation. We men have often been told we lack emotional intelligence; however, I’ve learned that our emotional intelligence is uniquely distinct from women’s.

From these insights, I authored the book, Grow UP: A Man’s Guide to Masculine Emotional Intelligence™. As a co-founder of EVRYMAN, I helped develop the EVRYMAN Method, which became integral to our retreats and trainings. In early 2024, my core team at EVRYMAN and I embarked on a new journey to advance our original vision. Our new venture, MELD (Men’s Emotional Leadership Development), builds upon the foundations of EVRYMAN and, before that, SMG.

Currently residing in Nevada City, CA, I still participate in weekly SMG meetings via Zoom with other former Sandpoint residents who continue to value the SMG experience from afar.

Discover More About My Work:

• Personal Blog: Assisting men and the women who love them at www.owencarcus.com
• Nonprofit Initiative: Offering free resources for starting your own men’s group at www.mencorps.org
• Global Platform: Explore men’s emotional leadership at www.MELD.community

Contact Me:

Email: -mail: marcus [at] owenmarcus.com (replace “[at]” with @ and remove the spaces).

Wayne Pignolet

I am a Ohio Buckeye. (Born and raised in Cleveland Ohio) I like bikes, boats, and skiing. I am passionate about my family and stretching myself physically, emotionally, spiritually and intellectually. My professional passion is to work with small, fast growing companies to create healthy teams and stable business processes.

Michael Welp

Michael Welp, Ph.D., is a founding partner of White Men as Full Diversity Partners®, www.wmfdp.com, a national culture change consulting firm that builds effective partnerships and inspires courageous leaders.

In 1996, he joined with his colleague Bill Proudman to pioneer ?white male only? 3.5-day learning labs after his dissertation research found that white men look exclusively to white women and men and women of color to educate them about diversity. For ten years white men from across all industries, varying in level from CEO to supervisor, have attended these in-depth learning labs. In 2000, his firm expanded with the addition of colleague Jo Ann Morris (and later Tim McNichol) to offer in-depth learning labs for mixed race and gender groups to build partnership skills together. In 2004 the firm began offering women-only learning labs on building partnership skills.

Today the four partners of WMFDP and ten associates offer a full range of consulting services to create organizational cultures of full partnership while simultaneously growing critical leadership skills.

Michael is also a co-author of WMFDP?s Field Guide Series- Diversity Partnership Tips for White Men, Diversity Partnership Tips for White Women and People of Color to Engage White Men, and Eight Critical Leadership Skills Developed through Effective Diversity Partnerships.

In addition to working with a broad range of industries throughout the U.S., he has facilitated interracial teambuilding for a dozen South African corporations. Michael also founded EqualVoice, an organization development consulting firm known for building collaborative work cultures and for its transformative approaches to conflict. (www.equalvoice.com) Michael has led in-depth executive development sessions of three to seven days in length for over 2,000 leaders.

Michael has served as Adjunct Faculty for University of St. Thomas, Capella University, College of St. Catherine, and Prescott College. He previously was a fellow with the U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services and also a senior staff member with Outward Bound.

Michael resides in Sandpoint, Idaho, where he loves to hike, sail, canoe, and mountain bike. He is on the board of the Bonner Country Human Rights Task Force. Michael can be reached at 208.263.6775 or welp@wmfdp.com.

Rick Evans

My name is Rick Evans, and the ‘animal name’ I identify with is ‘Loving Lion’. First and foremost, I am a father of two amazing kids: my boy, Trace, age 5, and my girl, Emory, age 2.  They have taught me so much about my capacity for love, something that I am learning to bring into all areas of my life.  I started Evans Brothers Coffee with my brother Randy in 2009, shortly after moving here from Santa Barbara. Along with my kids and business, I am most passionate about backcountry skiing, followed by any powder skiing, mountain biking, beach volleyball, and other active pursuits.

I joined Sandpoint Men’s Group in the Summer of 2012, very much in pain.  I was starting the process of separating from my wife of 10 years, was struggling financially, with all the associated doubts and fears of starting a business and raising kids.  Through the support and modeling of others in the group, I learned to truly ‘Show Up Fully’ at group every week, which soon translated into showing up fully in my life and relationships. I learned to face my fears and insecurities, to bring them into the light, rather than stuffing everything down and trying not to feel. Through all of this, I’ve learned to truly love myself.  I have my own back now, and I know that my brothers in SMG also have my back.  I’ve literally died in many ways to an old way of being, so that I could be transformed to a confident, loving, and passionate man.

Brad Golphenee

Brad’s experience in Sandpoint includes his wife of 20 years, Maria and their two boys Cole and Reid. Family is everything, and so is safety, so our household has been the hangout for our boys and their friends for many years. Having acreage just outside of town, Brad and Maria also provide comfortable accommodations for 3 playful labs and 3 horses.

Brad has been involved with mens groups for over 6 years.  During that time, Brad has completed other trainings through The Garden Company, The Mankind Project, and The Four Winds Society.  “Sitting in a Men’s Circle has enhanced my life in a variety of ways, I am more open and aware of my emotional state, I take more vulnerable risks in my life, and I have a powerful sense of belonging”.  Brad’s passion for what a Men’s Circle experience can do for men has driven him to facilitate men’s workshops over the past two years.  “The experience I receive in Men’s Circle cannot be taught and is even difficult to explain…it is a powerfully unique environment that has to be experienced”.  From healing to creation, the journey of sitting in circle provides men the safety and freedom to develop a new relationship with their emotional states and to build a new level of personal awareness to take into the world.  Brad holds a foundational truth that, as men, we are reframing the definition of what it is to be a man in today’s world.  “This is actually part of our personal, and collective, evolutionary process and we need the support of others to grow into who we really are”.

 Tim Corcoran

Tim is an agent of cultural change, a nature based mentor, and facilitator of inner transformation.  Tim currently serves as co-Director of Twin Eagles Wilderness School, an organization he co-founded with his wife, Jeannine Tidwell, in Sandpoint, Idaho in 2005 as a vehicle to support his life’s work of facilitating Deep Nature Connection Mentoring, Cultural Restoration, and Inner Tracking.  Since 1999, Tim has dedicated his life towards furthering this vision of living in balance with the Earth.  Men’s Work, permaculture, primitive skills, holistic Rites of Passage for boys, healing the cultural rift between the white and native cultures, consciousness, the spiritual journey, and being a husband and father are all deep, heart centered commitments in his life.

Every once in a great while we come across threshold moments in our lives that change the very way we experience life itself.  These moments stand out like great landmarks in the journey of life.  We measure time by them, speaking about our life before this time and our life after this time.  Joining the Sandpoint Men’s Group was one such transition for me.  It has positively impacted every aspect of my life.  The brothers I sit with support me to live a full, conscious life of integrity.  My family benefits from this, as I am a better husband and father.  My organization benefits from this, as I am a better mentor and director.  My community and the Earth benefit from this, as I am better steward.  Sandpoint Men’s Group supports me to live the life of my dreams.

John Edwards

I moved to Sandpoint in 1989 after graduating from the University of Idaho with a degree in Wildland Recreation Management. After years of working in the natural resource and outdoor education field, I founded Misty Mountain Furniture. I have two beautiful children (Dezon and Shonna) and a passionate and loving wife (Mesha). We’ve built a beautiful passive solar home complete with solar power, garden and wood fired hot tub. I treasure my community and serve on the board of the Rock Creek Alliance and the Eureka Institute. My passions include: backcountry skiing, fly fishing, woodworking, permaculture, mountain biking, and creating and playing music.

I joined the Sandpoint Men’s Group to find deeper connections with my family, friends and community. SMG is helping me reach these goals through the tools I’m learning and the support I feel.