Leader Bio: Seabhac Fionn - ADF Neopagan Druidism

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My name is Rob Barber-Delach, a.k.a. Seabhac Fionn, which roughly translated from Gaelic is Fair Hawk. I am 36 years old, happily married to Aimee Delach (a.k.a. Sylvan), with whom I now have a 4 month old son, Kieran.

I have a bachelor's degree in Environmental and Forest Biology, and have 3 years of Graduate Biology education and research. I worked professionally as a field ecologist for several years since I got my B.S., then found a that I really like working with geographic data. I worked at the USGS for a couple of years and am now the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Training Division Manager at the Army National Guard's national office. My hobbies include computers, hiking, trail running, bicycling, archery, birding, and home brewing beer and mead.

Although raised as a Baptist (fully recovered, I think), since I was a teenager I have been intrigued with wild lands, animals and plants, and the beauty and harsh reality of nature. I spent much time out in the woods, climbing mountains and hills, and enjoying what Nature has to share. It was on the road of learning more about Nature, using this informal approach, that I really began to question my relationship to the land. Through these experiences I have come to radically change my outlook on the world, and along this path found ADF. It is my personal goal that the Earth Mother, Nature Spirits, the weather and the the cycling of the seasons, should be a major part of my life experiences.

I was first introduced to pagan ritual on Samhain 1994 at Muin Mound Grove in Syracuse, NY. Sylvan and I attended High Day rituals at Muin Mound for a couple of years. In 1996, we moved to Virginia and helped charter the Little Acorn Grove in Fredricksburg, VA, and Sylvan is now the Senior Druid. This coming Spring I am looking forward to the 3rd Annual Trillium: ADF Spring Gathering, in Northern Virginia. It is Little Acorn and Mugwort Groves' festival, which meets at a wonderful site in the Prince William Forest Park cabin camp.

I am an originating member and officer in the Naturalists Guild, a member of the Warriors Guild, and have been Oak Leaves Editor since the Summer of 1999. I am nearing the end of my first term as Non-Officer Director on the ADF Mother Grove, and am planning to run again. The last year-and-a-half of my term have gone by fast.

I am a strong advocate of providing learning opportunities. I taught a workshop at the Wellspring Gathering 2 years ago on Environmental Monitoring, and led one at this past year's Wellspring on the French Creek, an ecologically significant stream that just happens to border Brushwood (the site of Wellspring). I have also taught an Orienteering and Map Reading workshop at Trillium the last two years, and have co-taught Mead-Making workshops with Sylvan on several occasions.

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