Hanne Marstrand Strong

Hanne Marstrand Strong is President of the Manitou Foundation, a non-profit organization founded in 1988 to assist Mrs. Strong in her philanthropic interests, chiefly to establish the most complete ecumenical and sustainable community in North America, set in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Over the past twenty years, she has travelled to over 90 countries where she has frequently been an invited speaker at seminars and conferences on the subject of sustainable communities and spiritually based environmental education.

In 1992, during the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), Mrs. Strong organized and sponsored two conferences attended by spiritual leaders from around the world. In 1977, she organized three conferences for children, youth and the handicapped that paralleled HABITAT, the UN Conference on Human Settlements in Vancouver, B.C. It was the first time ever that children addressed the world in the United Nations Plenary with their views and recommendations.

Mrs. Strong has founded numerous non-profit organizations for Native Americans, handicapped and homeless children. She has worked extensively with Native Americans and other indigenous peoples in their struggle for the preservation of their spiritual and cultural values, and she has received spiritual training from North and South American Shamans, Tibetan Buddhist Lamas, Hindu masters and other indigenous Shamans from around the world.