About
About Tapestry
Tapestry is a unique 501(c)(3) nonprofit research and education organization, founded by a Native American (Choctaw) scientist to operate within Indigenous worldview. We help people reconnect to the earth by integrating different ways of knowing, learning about, and responding to the natural world. We carry out our work in community, through collaborative efforts among groups of people from highly diverse backgrounds, cultures, areas of expertise, and experience.
About the Staff
Joanne (Jo) L. Belasco, Esq. is Founder and Director of Tapestry’s Horse-Human Relationship Program and the organization’s President. She is a Classical Dressage and Horse-Human Relationship Trainer, currently based on Plane View Farm in Erie, Colorado. A life-long rider who trained in dressage under advanced-level event rider Adrienne Iorio, Jo’s work has included researching the impact trail riding has on group meeting process, gentling wild Mustangs, creating and managing the Mustang Freedom Project (which provided a home for wild Mustangs at Tapestry’s former ranch in Nebraska), conducting extensive literature research on the horse-human relationship, and co-directing the Voice of the Horse Conference. She is also a retired attorney, having received a J.D. from Suffolk University Law School in Boston in 1993 and worked as an attorney for the Boston Police Department for five years. She is a trained criminal profiler. Her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology (1990) is from Boston College. She was Vice President of Tapestry from 2001-2007, accepting the mantle of President in September of 2007.
Dawn Adrian, Ph.D. (Choctaw) is Tapestry’s Founder, Vision-Keeper, and Senior Scientist. She was the first President (1998-2007) and has been Principle Investigator on all of Tapestry’s National Science Foundation Grants. She holds a doctorate in vertebrate paleontology from the University of California, Berkeley (1989) with a specialty in large animal locomotion and biomechanics. She was a college and university professor for 15 years, has served on numerous federal science committees, is a sought-after speaker for public and academic events at the national level, and has received awards and honors for outstanding teaching of science in relationship to art, religion, and the humanities.