Become a Certified Nesting Ambassador

The Nesting Ambassador Program facilitates mindset change in enrollees who then, through their efforts, encourage mindset changes in others. Nesting Ambassadors help others to not only shift in mindset but develop knowhow for promoting wellness. As the wisdom of the nest is promoted more widely, objectives of systems will begin to change. Nesting ambassadors empower parents, teachers, and/or professionals to take up their power to decolonize trauma-inducing systems related to child raising, adult health, institutional practices, promoting the wellbeing of All. We together promote the new/old story that we co-create a living Earth.

The Evolved Nest and the Kinship mindset that accompanies it are wellness promoting. They represent the ways all our deep ancestors lived and understood the world and their place in it. They arise from a planetary consciousness, which is sorely needed today. You can take up this consciousness, participating in the planet’s arising immune system. 

In order to shift the dominant culture from its trauma-inducing systems to wellness-promoting systems we need to: 

1.  Change mindsets. In this case, understanding our evolutionary history as cooperators who jointly raise children with love (according to evolved nest principles) is key. Also important is taking up the Kinship Mindset or Indigenous Worldview—this will be the focus of an additional ambassadorship module created later.

2.  Alter the objectives of the trauma-inducing systems. We need to move away from the Sacred Money and Markets Story that has been forced upon us and return instead to the Sacred Living Earth Story that is part of our ancestral wisdom (Korten, 2015). The objectives of the latter story are to foster wellbeing in individuals and communities, human and non-human, and to keep Life flourishing and flowing into the future.

3.  Redistribute power regarding who decides the rules that govern each system. Global efforts at localization—of food sources, investment, education, etc.—are fundamental to restore the power of decision making to local communities instead of global corporate colonialists (e.g., World Trade Organization) that hamstring nations’ capacities to self-govern towards wellness for its citizens. Evolved Nest ambassadors help grow collective efforts toward democracy and self-governance.

4.  Build knowhow for wellness promotion in self-care, relationships with humans and non-humans, and Nature’s ecological systems. The evolved nest provides the infrastructure for growing Kinship knowhow for living well with Earth’s ways of partnership and cooperation across natural systems.

5.  Change the story. Part of Kindred World’s mission is to dismantle the myths that govern our lives—e.g., that how babies are treated doesn’t much matter (they won’t remember), that children need to be punished to be good, that only research studies can tell us how to treat children, that people are naturally selfish and aggressive, that hierarchy is normal for human communities.

The Nesting Ambassador Program facilitates mindset change in enrollees who then, through their efforts, encourage mindset changes in others. Nesting Ambassadors help others to not only shift in mindset but develop knowhow for promoting wellness. As the wisdom of the nest is promoted more widely, objectives of systems will begin to change. Nesting ambassadors empower parents, teachers, and/or professionals to take up their power to decolonize trauma-inducing systems related to child raising, adult health, institutional practices, promoting the wellbeing of All. We together promote the new/old story that we co-create a living Earth.

[1] In systems change recommendations, Dana Meadows listed the chief levers of system change as the first three listed below.

Nesting Ambassadors are emissaries to the world, local and global. A Nesting Ambassador is one who has learned the principles of the evolved nest and integrates them into their lifestyle, workplace and/or community, using their enhanced skills to lead others to follow evolved nest principles. 

The first level of the program involves study and completion of the Evolved Nest Curriculum and a self-chosen course project.

Prerequisite: High school/secondary school diploma or equivalent.

Application: Documentation needed for application: (a) A resume regarding one’s life experiences and (b) a paragraph or two about what motivates you to become a Nesting Ambassador.

Material provided: Online classroom with recorded lectures, resources, and the capacity to communicate with your cohort members. Available resources include decades of resources from multiple Kindred World initiatives and projects, including Kindred Magazine, the Evolved Nest Initiative, and the Worldview Literacy Project.

Material needed: internet access for online classroom, a notebook for journaling and creative activities.

Cost: $1500

Course structure: There will be 11 online whole-group meetings, every other week. 

Cohort 1 starts January 10, 2026, and meets at 10 am ET.

Cohort 2 begins on January 24, 2026, and meets at 1 pm ET. 

On alternative weeks, participants meet with partners to discuss homework assignments and complete activities, integrating course material. Partners will report on their discussions at the online whole-group meetings.

Nesting Ambassador Program Dates for Fall 2026

Course structure: There will be 11 online whole-group meetings, every other week on Saturday morning’s from 10 a.m. ET to 11:30 a.m. ET.

The NAP Classroom Tour and Program Orientation will be held on August 8 at 10 a.m. Eastern. The orientation is is required.

Holistic Science Sessions, with Darcia Narvaez, begin on August 1 at 10:00 a.m. Eastern. The Holistic Science Sessions with Dr. Narvaez are mandatory for course completion.

Praxis Gatherings, facilitated by Lisa Reagan, are intended to provide support, networking, socializing, and strategizing. NAP graduates share presentations or “Field Reports.” The Praxis Gatherings are not mandatory.

The Program Orientation will be held on August 8 at 10 am Eastern and is required.

Holistic Science Sessions and Praxis Gatherings are held bi-weekly on alternating Saturday mornings at 10 a.m. Eastern Time.

Here is the schedule (*=mandatory sessions):

*August 1 – Topic: Introduction to Kinship Worldview. Before August 1: Read introductory text and watch Dr. Darcia’s opening lecture, Human Pasts, Global Futures: Trauma or Wellness?

*August 8 – Mandatory Course Orientation and Classroom Tour

*August 15 – Topic: Nature Immersion and Partnership, Evolved Nest Component 1

August 22 – Praxis Gathering.

*August 29 – Topic: Restorative Healing, Evolved Nest Component 2

September 5 – Praxis Gathering.

*September 12 – Topic: Free Play, Evolved Nest Component 3

September 19 – Praxis Gathering.

*September 26 – Topic: Responsive Relationships, Evolved Nest Component 4

October 3 – Praxis Gathering.

*October 10 – Topic: Positive Touch, Evolved Nest Component 5

October 17 – Praxis Gathering.

*October 24 – Topic: Welcoming Social Climate, Evolved Nest Component 6

October 31 – Praxis Gathering.

*November 7 – Topic: Multiple Mutual Nurturers, Evolved Nest Component 7

November 14 – Praxis Gathering.

*November 21 – Child-Directed Breastfeeding, Evolved Nest Component 8

November 28 – Praxis Gathering.

*December 5 – Soothing Perinatal Experiences, Evolved Nest Component 9

December 12 – Praxis Gathering.

TBD: Graduation Session.

After Graduation and Certification, Expectations for Certified Nesting Ambassadors:

1.  Stay in touch with ongoing online meetings. Report periodically on your initiatives, challenges, efforts, and outcomes. Use and share Nesting Ambassador Tools.
2.  Bring in others to learn about the Evolved Nest who perhaps even train as a Nesting Ambassador. 
3.  After a year of your presence on the Nested World Ambassador Directory gratis, pay an annual fee ($50) to maintain your certification and your presence.

Darcia Narvaez is a Professor of Psychology Emerita at the University of Notre Dame. She is the president of Kindred World.

In 2024, Dr. Darcia received the Presidential Citation Award from Division 24, the Society for Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology, of the American Psychological Association (APA). 

The 2024 award is the second time the APA has recognized Narvaez’s work. Her book, Neurobiology and the Development of Human Morality: Evolution, Culture and Wisdom, won the APA’s 2015 William James Book Award.

A trilogy of films featuring the science of the evolved nest, narrated by Dr. Darcia, are: Breaking the Cycle, The Evolved Nest: Nature’s Way of Raising Children; and Reimagining Humanity. All films are subtitled in 15 languages. The films have been translated into German, Spanish, and Turkish. 

In 2022, Narvaez was elected a fellow to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the largest international body of professional scientists in the world

In a 2020 analysis of top scientists, Narvaez emerged in the top 2% of scientists worldwide. Of the approximately eight million scientists in the world.

In 2017, Narvaez won the inaugural Expanded Reason Award for research, beating out more than 360 total entries from 170 universities and 30 countries.

In creating coherence for the transdisciplinary, holistic science of the Evolved Nest, she held four symposiums at the University of Notre Dame in 2010, 2012, 2014, and 2016.

Read Darcia’s full bio here.

Visit her University of Notre Dame page for publications.

Watch the Nested World film, shot at Notre Dame, here.

Read Darcia’s posts on Kindred here.