Guide Details
Santa Monica California 90404 USA
Sheila always wanted to be “outside” ever since she can remember. Growing up in New England she was lucky to make frequent forays into nearby woods and help in her grandparents large veggie garden. Sheila has guided Forest Therapy walks in Temescal Canyon State Park and assisted at Esalen Institute and Multi-versity 1440 week-end Forest Bathing workshops.
Sheila's passion for nature led her to become a producer/director of films, mostly on the environment. She was the Associate Producer of Love Thy Nature, narrated by Liam Neeson and Executive Producer of Who Bombed Judi Bari?
The Last Stand, Laffey’s Ballona Wetlands series, hosted by Ed Asner with songs by Joni Mitchell, won many awards including a Telly Award for Natural Heroes, the Public Television series in which it aired. Her doc South Central Farm: Oasis in a Concrete Jungle also aired on this Emmy Award-winning series. These films are distributed by Green Planet Films as well as We All Need the Forest and In the Middle of the Sea (under the title Hawaii Eco Stories) as well as Walden, filmed on location.
Other docs include Hawaii in Transition: Vision for a Sustainable Future and Geo-Thermal: A Risky Business in Hawaii’s Wao Kele O Puna Rainforest. She was producer and co-director of Show Me The Way with Oscar nominated William Gazecki.
Laffey has taught Film Studies at Santa Monica College since 1999 where her fav course and film series is Green Screen: Films on the Environment and Transformation. . She has a Ph.D. in Cinema Studies from N.Y.U. and was Program Coordinator for the National Audubon Society in Hawaii.
Sheila loves seeing walk participants connect with Mother Earth and her beings in memorable ways that call to them.
