Rev. Alisa Parcells
Rev. Alisa Parcells
Interfaith Training Faculty
Rev. Alisa Parcells, MA.
Rev. Alisa brings her rich and extensive background in spirituality, academic education, and the healing arts to her practice as an interfaith minister and mentor with AFSI in the mysticism track. She is a graduate of AFSI and was ordained in 2025. She holds a BA in English and Masters in multicultural education and TESOL.
A published poet, English and ESL teacher, and former trainer with the Anti-Defamation League, Alisa is also a healing arts practitioner. In 2013 she founded Margaret Pearl Healing Arts where she provides education and training and uses a variety of modalities, energy work and alternative therapies to help her clients achieve their goals and live their lives with passion, purpose, and wellbeing.
Alisa attributes her early interest in mysticism and her devotion to spirituality and interfaith ministry to her passion for poetry which began in childhood. For her, poetry is part of her life providing constant inspiration. She sees it as a porthole for connecting with and exploring the Divine. She believes that poets are among our most powerful mystics – they are not only our bards – they are our prophets, our seers, and our teachers. Their words can help us recognize and realize our own power and potential and find our own road to the Divine.
Alisa’s decades of dedicated study and exploration of world religions, eastern philosophy and practices, and mysticism, in addition to her travels in Israel, lead her to study Kabbalah, which is foundational and influential in her life and in her work.
Her experience as a student in the mysticism track at AFSI was also pivotal as it broadened her understanding and deepened her belief in Rabbi Gelberman’s philosophy “Never instead of, always in addition to,” and that there are, as he often pointed out, many paths to the Divine. As an interfaith minister and mentor, Alisa is committed and excited to be partnering with others guiding and growing with them on their spiritual paths.
Rev. Alisa brings her rich and extensive background in spirituality, academic education, and the healing arts to her practice as an interfaith minister and mentor with AFSI in the mysticism track. She is a graduate of AFSI and was ordained in 2025. She holds a BA in English and Masters in multicultural education and TESOL.
A published poet, English and ESL teacher, and former trainer with the Anti-Defamation League, Alisa is also a healing arts practitioner. In 2013 she founded Margaret Pearl Healing Arts where she provides education and training and uses a variety of modalities, energy work and alternative therapies to help her clients achieve their goals and live their lives with passion, purpose, and wellbeing.
Alisa attributes her early interest in mysticism and her devotion to spirituality and interfaith ministry to her passion for poetry which began in childhood. For her, poetry is part of her life providing constant inspiration. She sees it as a porthole for connecting with and exploring the Divine. She believes that poets are among our most powerful mystics – they are not only our bards – they are our prophets, our seers, and our teachers. Their words can help us recognize and realize our own power and potential and find our own road to the Divine.
Alisa’s decades of dedicated study and exploration of world religions, eastern philosophy and practices, and mysticism, in addition to her travels in Israel, lead her to study Kabbalah, which is foundational and influential in her life and in her work.
Her experience as a student in the mysticism track at AFSI was also pivotal as it broadened her understanding and deepened her belief in Rabbi Gelberman’s philosophy “Never instead of, always in addition to,” and that there are, as he often pointed out, many paths to the Divine. As an interfaith minister and mentor, Alisa is committed and excited to be partnering with others guiding and growing with them on their spiritual paths.