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OUR TEAM

Adrián Chaves

Guest Concierge

Adrián Campos is a Guest Concierge with a strong background in hospitality, tourism, and guest experience, blending operational awareness with genuine human connection.

Alexandra Pallas

Interim Chief of Operations & Programming

Heart-centered business founder, program & service operations leader, and transformational experience designer. Alexandra drives quality program implementation, operations and impact at Qasa.

Andrey Avilés

Lead Guest Advisor

Andrey Avilés Baltodano is a hospitality leader with deep roots in tourism and hotel operations. Andrey is responsible for guiding guests as they explore our hotel, events or retreats. He also helps partners with retreat center rentals.

Charlie Delgado

Culinary and Hospitality Manager

Charlie serves as Sous Chef while also providing leadership and execution across food and beverage, hospitality, and onsite operations to support exceptional guest experiences.

Eugenia Aguilar

HR Manager

Eugenia is responsible for HR which means finding the best talent and making sure we have healthy, happy and thriving people and great culture.

Leopoldo Rodriguez

Head of Operations and Experience
Polo is responsible for onsite operations specifically focused on groundskeeping, maintenance, and food and beverage, and ensuring that our team is providing a stellar, memorable guest experience.

Luis Manuel Cascante

Program Operations Lead

Luis is responsible for the seamless execution of retreat and event participant experiences, coordinating logistics, scheduling, facilitator support, administration, and digital operations.

Rafa Gondim

Head of Programming

Rafa is responsible for providing leadership across QASA’s retreat and event portfolio – advancing program excellence, building strategic partnerships, and facilitating sacred plant journey retreats.

Shelby Clark

Founder

Shelby Clark (he/him) is a certified yoga instructor, trained meditation guide, and somatic facilitator focused on helping queer people unlearn performance and return to authenticity.

Sergio Cruz

Head of Growth

Sergio and his team lead Qasa’s marketing, sales and partnerships. He’s building Qasa into the world’s leading queer wellbeing brand.

Val-Pierre Genton

Interim CEO

A conscious leader and executive with over 25 years of experience in building tech and teams and scaling businesses to sustainable growth. His last business was acquired for $150M and now helps unlock human flourishing at Qasa.

Facilitators

Alex Sloan

Alex Sloan (he/him) is a San Francisco–based kinkster, facilitator, and longtime explorer of pleasure, power, and embodiment.

Ash Ruiz

Ash Ruiz is a seasoned guide in self-realization, nonduality, and trauma informed plant medicine facilitation, with over 30 years of experience.

Dan Link

Dan Link is an internationally renowned biologist, adventurer, queer rights advocate, and primitive survivalist who brings a unique perspective to the outdoors.

Donovan McGrath

Donovan is the founder of Amplified Yoga, for which he travels the world sharing his positive vision. His motivation is to encourage you to Amplify…

Gil Bar-Sela

Gil Bar-Sela is a psychedelic guide, facilitator, and trainer working with individuals, couples and groups.

John Jacob Mubarak

John Jacob Mubarak is a passionate advocate for holistic healing and integrates the power of sacred plants, breathwork, psychology…

JoJo Bear

JoJo Bear is a Sacred Intimate, Somatic guide and educator based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Through somatic coaching, language, and embodiment…

Luke Anthony

Luke has been a Kahuna Bodyworker for over 10 years, learning this connective and energetic practice in his native Australia where Kahuna Bodywork is very popular.

Mike Peck

Mike is a Conscious Embodiment Coach based in London, dedicated to supporting others through modalities such as Tension & Trauma Release Exercises…

Paulo Rebello

Paulo was born in the Brazilian Amazon, went to College in France and England, and immigrated to the US to pursue his Master’s in Counseling. During graduate school, he was introduced…

Publio Valle

Publio’s intention is to offer grounded and heart-based support for the preparation and integration of transformational processes.

Rocky Heron

Rocky Heron is an artistic wonder – a singer, songwriter, yoga instructor, and alignment coach with an ability to weave together community through devotion and skillful embodiment.

Ready to Rediscover Yourself and Connect with Others?

Join our team for an unforgettable experience. 

Adrián Chaves

Guest Concierge

Adrián Campos is a Guest Concierge with a strong background in hospitality, tourism, and guest experience, blending operational awareness with genuine human connection.

Trained as a yoga instructor, camp counselor, and performing artist (also known artistically as Faune Nahual), Adrián brings a calm, attentive presence to every guest interaction. With over eight years of experience in hotels, retreats, and experiential travel, he has a natural ability to read group dynamics, anticipate needs, and create spaces where people feel seen, safe, and cared for.

His approach to concierge work goes beyond logistics-supporting guests through clear communication, thoughtful service, and warm presence, while contributing to the overall atmosphere of the guest experience.

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Andrey Avilés

Lead Guest Advisor

Andrey Avilés Baltodano is a hospitality leader with deep roots in tourism and hotel operations.

With years of experience managing guest services, operations, and executive support in boutique hotels and luxury resorts across Guanacaste, he blends structure with warmth-ensuring both efficiency and genuine connection. Resilient, empathetic, and bilingual, Andrey thrives in dynamic environments where guest satisfaction and team collaboration are at the center.

Outside of work, he’s inspired by travel, human connection, and creating spaces where people feel welcomed and cared for.

Leopoldo Rodriguez

Head of Operations and Experience

Leopoldo “Polo” Hospitality leader with a decade of experience in luxury tourism, wellness, and experiential travel. Passionate about crafting elevated guest experiences through hotels, retreats, and large-scale events. Polo brings together operational excellence, human connection, and a love for adventure.

When he’s not creating experiences, he’s usually exploring new destinations, practicing yoga, training gymnastics and acrobatics, or riding horses somewhere surrounded by nature. Travel fuels his creativity and movement keeps him grounded. He’s naturally curious, adventurous, and inspired by everything that brings the body, mind, and spirit into harmony.

Shelby Clark

Founder

Shelby Clark (he/him) is a certified yoga instructor, trained meditation guide, and somatic facilitator focused on helping queer people unlearn performance and return to authenticity. As the founder of Qasa – an LGBTQ+ retreat center in Costa Rica – Shelby creates spaces where queer people can reconnect with their bodies, their truth, and a felt sense of belonging.

His approach draws from somatic practice, meditation lineages (including training with Radiance Sutras author Lorin Roche), and the transformative power of queer joy. Shelby’s work lives in the body – in sensation, emotion, pleasure, and flow. With a mix of reverence and a sense of play, Shelby supports others in exploring the full spectrum of sensation, emotion, pleasure, and presence – not to become someone new, but to remember who they already are.

Shelby lives in Costa Rica, and feels most alive dancing in the jungle, laughing with community, and helping others land in their own aliveness.

Alex Sloan

Alex Sloan (he/him) is a San Francisco–based kinkster, facilitator, and longtime explorer of pleasure, power, and embodiment. For over 25 years, Alex has been deep in kink—as a bator, fister, and curious student of sensation—not just to learn the how, but to explore the why: why kink opens us, why pleasure tells the truth, and why the body remembers what the mind can’t.

Alex’s work lives where kink meets meaning. Alex is drawn to the edges—control and surrender, shame and release, intimacy and autonomy—and uses intentional touch, ethical polyamory, and embodied practices to help queer men drop performance and come home to themselves.

Outside the play space, Alex has spent decades building leadership programs and transformational learning experiences in the world of philanthropy and social impact.
Alex splits time between San Francisco and Costa Rica, and feels most alive in spaces where honesty is hot, sensation is sacred, and pleasure gets to lead.

Ash Ruiz

Ash Ruiz is a seasoned guide in self-realization, nonduality, and trauma informed plant medicine facilitation, with over 30 years of experience. From performing for millions as a teen in Menudo to experiencing deep immersions with Curanderos in the Amazonian Rain Forest, his journey has been one of profound healing and transformation.

Having lived in Peru for over 2 years in his early 20s he was welcomed into the shape shifting realms of many indigenous cultures most notably the Shuar where he got to live and absorb their teachings, traditions and magical songs aka icaros.

It was during this time his unique approach to inviting others ‘to notice how vividly awake and free they are’ began to take form. Blending his love of pristine nondual awareness and Plant Medicine Ash often says with a universe of sparkles in his eyes ‘Imaginary medicine, for an imaginary disease’.

As the lead singer of Here II Here, Ash shared stages with luminaries like Eckhart Tolle, Byron Katie, Gangaji and Deepak Chopra, offering music as a gateway to awakening. Now, through retreats, workshops, Satsangs and private mentorship, he supports others in embodying presence, radical authenticity, and the unwaveringly peaceful clarity of being. His work has been featured at The United Nations, Good Morning America, and various spiritual communities around the globe.

Dan Link

Dan Link is an internationally renowned biologist, adventurer, queer rights advocate, and primitive survivalist who brings a unique perspective to the outdoors. Growing up as a self-proclaimed ‘weird kid’ in a small town in Upstate New York, Dan discovered his passion for nature early in life. His love for the outdoors led him to a career as a dedicated biologist for Hawai’i’s remote Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, where he combines conservation with adventure and strives to protect ecosystems worldwide.

Dan’s outdoor expertise has been showcased in five successful primitive survival challenges on Discovery Channel’s Naked and Afraid franchise, culminating in his recent victory on Naked and Afraid competition spinoff ‘Last One Standing’. These achievements highlight his remarkable mental resilience, advanced outdoor skills, knack for adventure, and unmatched recognition as a skilled gay survivalist. As a fierce advocate for diversity and inclusion, his visibility in a traditionally rugged and heteronormative space such as wilderness survival has made him an influential figure for LGBTQ+ representation in outdoor and adventure communities.

Dan’s work is committed to pushing boundaries and breaking societal norms while fostering personal growth and promoting diversity and authenticity in outdoor spaces. His journey aims to inspire others to push their limits and explore the transformative power of connecting with nature.

Donovan McGrath

Donovan is the founder of Amplified Yoga, for which he travels the world sharing his positive vision. His motivation is to encourage you to Amplify the greatest parts of yourself, using ancient yogic technology, presented in a modern & accessible way. In 1996, at the age of 20, he took his first yoga class in New York City. Struck by the clarity, vitality and peace he felt, this ignited a lifelong passion. He immediately completed his first teacher training at the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Center, started meditating and began teaching.

Since then, he has trained and become certified in the traditions of Jivamukti, Ashtanga, Anusara, and Kundalini. He utilized all of these teachings and his years of experience to create the Amplified method which is fun, cathartic and quick in its ability to transform a person instantly. Since Amplified yoga’s recent inception Donovan has collaborated with some of the biggest names in the wellness industry including Wanderlust, Equinox, Daybreaker, Unplug meditation and Mindvalley to name a few.

Whether at a concert venue, festival, cooperate or private event Donovans wisdom, authenticity and positivity gives him the ability to take anybody on a soulful yogic journey that is extraordinary.

Gil Bar-Sela

Gil Bar-Sela is a psychedelic guide, facilitator, and trainer working with individuals, couples and groups. He trains and supervises medicine guides through his experiential year-long Psychedelic Guide Training.

Gil was initiated into the art of psychedelic healing by serving as an apprentice to a medicine woman whose lineage originated from Maria Sabina, the Mexican shaman who introduced mushroom ceremonies to the west. He spent 2 years alongside her learning and practicing the ways of the medicines.

In his practice, he prepares and leads ceremony in a way that merges ancient wisdoms with western-style psychology, weaving in modalities such as Internal Family Systems, Generative Somatics, Compassionate Listening, Core Energetics, archetypal work, and eco-psychology.

John Jacob Mubarak

John Jacob Mubarak is a passionate advocate for holistic healing and integrates the power of sacred plants, breathwork, psychology, philosophy, science and ancient wisdom teachings into his retreats to guide individuals towards profound personal and professional growth.

With a background as an Agape Licensed Spiritual Therapist, Elemental Rhythm Breathwork Facilitator, and Teacher in Residence at the Rythmia Life Advancement Center in Costa Rica, John is dedicated to sharing the Sacred Truth Principles of Acceptance, Joy & Oneness. Through his retreats, breathwork sessions, teachings, and private healing sessions, he empowers participants to unlock their Infinite potential and discover their interconnectedness with the Divine.

John Jacob’s passion and dedication to the study of sacred plants of Central and South America have propelled him on a profound journey of healing and transformation. For the last six years, he worked with thousands of clients helping them to integrate their powerful experiences with sacred plants. As a specialist in sacred plant integration, John skillfully combines ancient wisdom with modern techniques, such as somatic intelligence, diaphragmatic breathing and psychology, to help individuals anchor their experiences and translate them into life-changing shifts in consciousness and profound transformations in their everyday lives.

John leads workshops and retreats that catalyze individual transformation, fostering a harmonious world that thrives for the highest good of all.

http://www.sacred-truth.com/ 

JoJo Bear

JoJo Bear is a Sacred Intimate, Somatic guide and educator based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Through somatic coaching, language, and embodiment practices, he empowers individuals to transition from their ‘heads’ to their bodies, fostering a deeper connection with themselves.

Dedicated to cultivating a safe space, JoJo welcomes male-identified individuals (cis, trans), as well as non-binary individuals assigned male at birth, whether single or in relationships, to freely explore their needs, desires, and sexuality.

In addition to his teaching role at the Body Electric School and facilitation of the Wheel of Consent at the School of Consent, JoJo serves as a mentor for teachers, sacred intimates, sex workers and somatic professionals.

https://somaticguide4men.com/

Luke Anthony

Luke has been a Kahuna Bodyworker for over 10 years, learning this connective and energetic practice in his native Australia where Kahuna Bodywork is very popular.

After years of practicing the style Luke wanted to share this beautiful bodywork with other gay and queer men, with the intent to help create intimacy and connection.

The past few years Luke has been hosting men’s retreats where he teaches Kahuna and also Tetra breath work, allowing gay and queer men to connect and share energy in a dynamic transformative way.

Luke has hosted retreats and workshops in Los Angeles, NYC, Australia, Costa Rica and Portugal.

Nude retreats and workshops have become a popular part of the teachings; allowing connection, freedom and intimacy to happen in a safe and energetic space.

Luke is excited to be part of Qasa’s programming, sharing his knowledge and bringing his own enthusiastic, fun and joyous vibe to the mix inspiring gay and queer men to live their best lives!

Mike Peck

Mike is a Conscious Embodiment Coach based in London, dedicated to supporting others through modalities such as Tension & Trauma Release Exercises (TRE®), Yoga, Classical and Neo-Tantra, Breathwork, Meditation, and Somatic Movement Therapy. With over 850 hours of training, he works closely with his clients and community to understand their needs, offering a safe, attuned space for movement, play, connection, healing and transformation.

Known for his grounding presence and deep intuition, Mike skilfully weaves together multiple practices to help people experience greater inner peace, freedom, and empowerment. His retreats, workshops and sessions are described as powerful, nurturing, and insightful-held with professionalism, empathy, and a commitment to helping others shine and thrive.

Paulo Rebello

Paulo was born in the Brazilian Amazon, went to College in France and England, and immigrated to the US to pursue his Master’s in Counseling. During graduate school, he was introduced to the main models, ideas, and concepts that led him to pursue training in Psychedelic Assisted Psychotherapy. He has been trained in the MAPS protocol to work with MDMA and in the Mazatec tradition to work with psilocybin mushrooms.

He is a Mindfulness, Integral Psychotherapy, Somatic Resourcing, Somatic Attachment Therapy, and Parts Work practitioner. He likes to offer the Enneagram of Personality as a map to support his clients in a non-judgmental perception of themselves.

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Publio Valle

Publio’s intention is to offer grounded and heart-based support for the preparation and integration of transformational processes. Through deep listening, awareness and compassion, he aims to support retreat participants in listening more deeply to themselves, reaching the core of their issues, reawakening the innate wisdom of their bodies and the depths of their breath.

Combining different techniques, he designs a specific collection of practices that can be easily integrated into daily life according to specific needs.

With over 12 years of experience in this area, Publio has a sincere commitment to promoting health and well being in all dimensions of human life. He is based in Brazil, and offers support o people all over the world. He has a degree in Yoga Therapy, and studied meditation in several lineages while living in Asia. He is currently studying the Compassionate Inquiry approach with Dr. Gabor Mate.

Rocky Heron

Rocky Heron is an artistic wonder – a singer, songwriter, yoga instructor, and alignment coach with an ability to weave together community through devotion and skillful embodiment.

Known for his open-minded approach to synthesizing ideas and communicating wisdom pertaining to human movement, anatomy, and subtle body physiology, Rocky’s teaching is informed by years of study in many yoga styles and modalities.

Rocky’s passion is in helping others integrate their innate gifts, and live authentically in ways that best honor their true potential. As the founder of Awakened Spirit Coaching, Rocky uses Human Design, in conjunction with yoga, meditation, and other energy modalities, to assist his clients in tapping their innate creative power to construct a life that supports their unique brilliance.

Join Rocky as he unites audiences worldwide with the beauty of his music and his gift for enriching the abundance of spirit in all he does.