Gina Loree' Marks, in addition to being mom to four outrageous, wonderful boys, and married to their totally hip and handsome dad, is a graduate of the International School of Shiatsu in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. She's traveled a circuitous route to get here, beginning in Philadelphia to receive a degree in Visual Communications from the Art Institute of Philadelphia, and then working at Essene in 1986. (It was there that she first experienced shiatsu as a receiver.) She then had a brief stint canvassing for Greenpeace, which, while not immediately resulting in saving the world, did bring her to cross paths with her future husband, Louis.

Gina and Louis then went on to start a business based on her greeting card designs, which led to opening a store just off South Street, specializing in hippie gear, local and indigenous art & crafts, and activist propaganda. That small store, Banzai,  (named after the best flick ever, Buckaroo Banzai) eventually morphed into a trend-setting tie-dye business, and now specializes in merchandise production and branded ecommerce for independent musicians and record labels.

Throughout those years, four boys came into their lives... three of those via homebirth, the last one in water... all the while, Gina immersing herself in all things 'natural': attachment parenting, macrobiotics, homeschooling, organic gardening, herbalism,  Then, in 1999, 12 years after her first shiatsu treatment, she found herself at Beginner's Weekend at ISS. It would be another 4 years until she was able to go back for the full course, due to the arrival of boy #4. During that time, however, she explored Reiki, took Sue Hess' very first Homestead Herbalism class (highly recommended!!), and began herbal studies through the East West School of Herbology.

Gina continues her explorations of bodywork (currently immersed in Eric Dalton's Advanced Myoskeletal Therapy course), as well as mindfulness meditation, and she remains in a state of perpetual amazement and gratitude by the presence of serendipity and grace in her life.