NEOHUMANIST COLLEGE OF ASHEVILLE

Message from the NHCA President/CEO, Ricky Peterson

NHCA is Now Accredited!

The Neohumanist College of Asheville has crossed a truly meaningful and celebratory milestone. What began as a focused effort toward accreditation has culminated in the successful awarding of three years of accreditation, recognized by the US Department of Education through the Accrediting Council for Continuing Education & Training (ACCET). This achievement affirms both the quality of our work and the strength of our collective effort.

This letter represents far more than formal recognition. It reflects a journey of dedication, collaboration, and shared purpose across our entire community. During the site visit, accreditors noted that this was an atypical visit in the most positive sense, highlighting the depth of alignment, the strength of our faculty, and the clarity of our mission. For a newly accredited institution, this outcome represents the strongest possible result and a powerful validation of what has been built together.

Accreditation Team

Through this process, something important has shifted. We are no longer the same organization we once were. We are stepping confidently into a more professional, coordinated, and impactful phase. We are clearer about our capacity, more confident in our direction, and increasingly aligned in our purpose.

At the same time, we are witnessing the emergence of something larger. NHCA is becoming a living example of what a Neohumanist institution can be in the modern era, integrating values, education, community, and systems in a way that is both practical and visionary.

As a flagship project for Ananda Marga Gurukula, we now feel both inspired and responsible to deepen collaboration across the entire network.

We see real opportunities to align curriculum pathways, strengthen institutional partnerships, expand faculty exchange, co-create programs, and support a more unified local and global presence for Neohumanist Education. This moment is one of celebration, but also of invitation. An invitation to the broader Gurukula family to engage more deeply, to collaborate more intentionally, and to help shape what this next phase can become together.

With deep gratitude to all who have contributed to this milestone, we now move forward with renewed energy and a clear sense that the best is yet to come.

In service,
Ricky Peterson

Strategic Direction and Priorities

Following accreditation, we engaged in a structured prioritization process to determine where to focus our energy next. This included more than a dozen one-on-one interviews conducted by our Board Chair, Dr. Alberta Pedroja, along with the compilation of feedback from those engaged in the mission of the College. This work has helped us align our growing capacity with clear and actionable direction.

Near term priorities include expanding CEU offerings through partnerships with local school districts, deepening personal and professional development programs, offering courses on contemporary topics such as AI and mental health, creating more flexible formats including shorter and one day courses, and developing new offerings rooted in big ideas and human values, all with a more expansive understanding of our target audience.

Long term goals include expanding our public profile beyond existing circles, entering the national dialogue on education, increasing credibility and influence in the education ecosystem, and working toward a long-term endowment that ensures sustainability and scale.

Academic Programs and New Offerings

Our academic programming continues to expand with both intention and coherence. Alongside our core Neohumanist Education, Yoga and Intuitional Sciences, Wellness and Psychology, Transformative Social Sciences, and Liberating Humanities and Arts offerings, we have introduced new courses that respond to emerging needs.

Highlighted new offerings include: Homeopathy Fundamentals with Dr. Kathy Zimmerman, Prout Economics 1, led by Dr. John Gross and Dr. Mark Friedman, and Storytelling for Change with Dada Maheshvarananda. These courses deepen our curriculum into holistic health, alternative economic frameworks, and creative expression as tools for transformation.

Program Directors

We are also happy to announce updates to the leadership of our academic disciplines. Program Directors now include:
Dr. Kathleen Kesson for Neohumanist Education
Satya Tanner for Transformative Social Sciences
Ayesha Irani for Liberating Humanities and Arts
Dr. Kathy Zimmerman for Wellness and Psychology
MJ Glassman for Yoga and Intuitional Sciences

Additionally, with the retirement of our Provost, Dr. Sid Jordan, we are actively seeking a part-time Academic Dean who can work remotely and is a senior Neohumanist educator. This role will be responsible for bringing administrative and leadership acumen necessary to guide our newly formed Academic Team of Program Directors. If interested, please contact Ricky at to schedule an interview.

This reflection from one of our students captures the lived impact of these programs and the personal transformation that accompanies this work.

Publications

Publications
This year also marked the publication of a new book by Lesley Whiting, The Seven Secrets of Shiva. Kudos to our Chief Publications Officer, Nancy Gannon, for keeping this aspect of our organization alive and growing. (see ‘new publications’ section in this newsletter)

Community Engagement and Meetups

In addition to our formal courses, we held additional community meetups designed to make our learning more accessible and responsive to current needs. These included Exploring Leadership Traps in Effecting Social Change with Satya Tanner, How to Cultivate Happiness Through Self Care with Bruce McEwen and Creative Storytelling for Parents & Educators with Rutger Tamminga.

These free online gatherings continue to create meaningful entry points for participants to engage with Neohumanist ideas in practical and accessible ways. You can watch the replays of these sessions on our website at https://www.nhca-gurukul.org/meetups.

Successful Course Launches

Successful course launches that began in January 2026, reflecting both growing interest and expanding reach across our programs, are as follows:

Teaching Eight Limbed Yoga for 3–10 Year Olds, taught by MJ Glassman, welcomed 32 students.

Child Development from a Neohumanist Perspective, taught by Ruai Rekha Gregory, enrolled 40 students.

Dr. Kathleen Kesson’s Contemplative Inquiry: The Art of Knowing the Child engaged 28 students.

Creative Storytelling for Parents and Educators with Rugter Tamminga brought together 10 participants.

Leadership for Social Change: Self Awareness and Transformation, led by Satya Tanner and Soraia Mendes, enrolled 12 students.

Prout and Neohumanism, taught by Dada Maheshvarananda, Shriraksha Mohan, Roar Ramesh Bjonnes, Dr. Howard Nemon, and Craig Runde, JD, reached 20 students.

Andy Douglas offered his third course in a series of writing courses, this one titled Hearts & Minds: Writing and Revolution, which enrolled 13 students.

Finally, Wisdom of Yoga, led by Roar Ramesh Bjonnes, enrolled 8 students, rounding out a diverse and vibrant semester of learning.

A Growing Learning Community

Our growth is not only evident in our expanding reach, it is measurable in the increasing number of students engaging with our programs.

This steady increase in total student enrollment reflects growing trust in our offerings and the widening reach of our mission.

One key measure of our success is the number of students who complete their educational journey with us. The minimum accreditation standard is 67 percent, and we exceed this benchmark across most disciplines and as an institution overall. We are also actively engaging with students who currently have incompletes to support them in successfully finishing their studies.

Behind every data point is a personal journey of growth, discovery, and transformation.

Operations and Systems for Scale

To support this growth, we have strengthened our operational infrastructure in several key ways. We have onboarded a new CRM system, Neon, to better manage relationships, data, and communications. This system enables more personalized engagement with students, donors, and volunteers and opens new opportunities for community participation.
We have also secured Zoho People, a human resources platform that strengthens how we manage our organization. This new system enables our leadership to oversee timekeeping, vacations, holidays, and employee benefits in a more consistent, organized, and professional manner.

In parallel, we have begun integrating automation tools through n8n and ChatGPT to streamline workflows and enhance the student experience. n8n is a powerful fair code automation platform that connects applications, databases, and AI agents without requiring extensive coding. Together, these tools will help reduce time consuming, repetitive administrative tasks, allowing our team to focus more fully on relationship building and creating meaningful connections with our growing community and partners.

Additionally, we have expanded facility rentals, increasing both community engagement and revenue diversification, including hosting local health systems executives from the Community Health Network of Western North Carolina and the Madison Alliance for Rebuilding Communities (MARC).

Financial Model and Sustainability

As a Gurukul aligned institution, we continue to refine a model that balances accessibility with sustainability. This ratio illustrates how tuition and community support work together to sustain operations while keeping education accessible.

Partnerships and Ecosystem Development

We have taken important steps toward building a broader educational ecosystem through drafted Letters of Agreement with Mountain Breeze Preschool, Progressive School of Long Island, and Proutist Universal.

These partnerships extend our reach across early childhood, K through 8 education, and broader socio economic and intellectual development, creating continuity in learning and shared impact. We are especially excited about the opportunity these partnerships may bring in mentoring the next generation of instructors at the NHCA.

Governance and the Path Forward

To carry forward the momentum from accreditation, our board has formed a Strategic Planning Committee. This team is focused on translating our recent learnings into clear priorities, aligned resource allocation, and sustainable growth.

Looking Ahead

The past six months have clarified something essential. NHCA is not simply accelerating its momentum, it is transforming and drawing in those inspired to expand the reach and application of Neohumanism.

With accreditation secured, systems strengthening, partnerships expanding, and strategy sharpening, we are entering a phase where our impact can extend both more broadly and more deeply.

This is a moment of alignment between vision and capacity. From that alignment, the next chapter begins.