Meet the Community

Mac is of Cherokee descent and was a former teacher and principal of tribal schools. He founded the National Indian Youth Leadership Development Project (NIYLDP) over 30 years ago, including developing its signature program, Project Venture, the only Native American-developed program in the US to attain the highest level of evidence standards.

Mac is internationally recognized as a leader in advancing Native youth development and has served and lead numerous expert panels on suicide prevention. He is frequently sought after as a consultant and has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the Kurt Hahn Award, the Spirit of Crazy Horse Award, the Alec Dickson Servant Leader Award and the Indian Health Service Director’s Behavioral Health Achievement Award.

Mac is a graduate of the Native Teacher Education Program at the University of Washington and holds a Master’s in Education from Arizona State University.

Stas (they/them) and Leander (he/they) have been blending mindfulness and social entrepreneurship for 15 years as partners and the co-founders of Spring Up and bluelight academy of the liberatory arts. Both diagnosed with PTSD as a result of campus violence, their journey began with pursuing  personal and collective healing. They built their own cooperative social enterprise to bring together the tools of conscious social change, participatory action research, restorative justice, mindfulness, somatic experiencing, community education, and biomimicry. Now a national organization with 9 member owners, Spring Up has provided transformative online education and consulting in conflict and harm response, liberatory facilitation, and collective governance to hundreds of organizations and over 7000 alumni. Their book and podcast “Getting Free Together” shares their original tools and approach, grounded in Integral Theory and organizational alchemy.

Alia Bilal is the Chief Executive Director of the Inner City Muslim Action Network. A native of Chicago’s South Side, Alia graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a degree in International Studies and a concentration in Islamic World Studies. She studied Arabic and Islamic history in Cairo, Egypt, and was an intern for the Muslim Public Service Network in Washington, DC. Alia has given talks and conducted workshops on the connection between faith and social justice, IMAN’s community organizing model, and access to healthy food both locally and across the United States. She is an appointee of the Equity Advisory Council of the Chicago Commission on Human Relations and lives with her husband and son on Chicago’s South Side.

Suzanne Bowles is a philanthropic advisor and post-capitalist movement builder with expertise in grassroots movement building, collaborative design, finance innovations, and economic systems change. She builds impact and investment strategies that repair life affirming values held in ancestral and biocultural wisdom traditions. Her regenerative funding strategies leverage philanthropic capital as a systemic transformation tool, leading to new ways of defining and experiencing wealth in these times. Suzanne is an expert at participatory field building and impact strategies that advance the human conditions to support flourishing of life on earth.

Nichol Chase is an educator, musician, writer, and Garrison Institute Fellow working at the intersection of contemplative wisdom, the science of stress resilience, and trauma-informed care. With a long-standing career dedicated to integrative healing, she creates evidence-based programs for professionals in high-stress environments. A former opera singer and ballerina, she brings a multidimensional, artistic approach to transformation. Nichol is the Founder of the Wisdom Building Method School, where she leads a trauma-informed 300-hour Yoga Teacher Training integrating somatic experiencing, polyvagal theory, and interpersonal neurobiology. Her work spans Garrison Institute’s CBR Program, UCSF’s Climate Resilience Course, and retreats at Kripalu, Esalen, and other leading institutions.

Seasoned educator, trauma-informed practitioner, and non-profit leader with a decade of experience driving change in education and psychosocial support. Founder & Country Director of Healing Together Nepal, blending lived experience as a survivor-advocate with academic expertise to transform systems of harm into spaces of healing. Founded first NGO at age 18 and built a community school, subsequently training 3,000+ teachers, caregivers, and students in trauma-informed, child-participatory approaches nationwide. Co-founder of the global Brave Movement against childhood sexual violence, serving as a voice for survivor-centered advocacy on international stages. Passionate about grassroots empowerment, policy influence, and creating healing-centered educational environments.

Eddie is an artist, philosopher and strategic coach dedicated to nurturing social change. From grassroots community initiatives to global live music operations, he has worked with teams to create experiences and environments people enjoy and trust. His work focuses on illuminating the narratives, practices, concepts that influence the quality of our institutions and their impact.

Reverence and curiosity are at the core of his ideologies. He is a passionate and unrelenting advocate for what he calls “the reasonable expectation of a humane and sustainable planetary society.” He loves navigating with others through the ideation, clarification and materialization of ideas to enrich our lives.

Though this work is his happy place, he loves to host friends and loved ones, support live music and travel.

Matt Co-Founded Compassion in Politics UK and Co-Edited the book How Compassion Can Transform Our Politics, Economics, and Society. He was part of the Nobel-prize winning team at the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons and successfully led the campaign for mixed-sex civil partnerships in Britain.

Kate [KAYT] Johnson (she/her) is a teacher, facilitator, writer and mother. Buddhist Peace Fellowship has been one of her most beloved spiritual and political homes – the place where she truly learned that the hard work of meaningful societal transformation can also be joyful, relational, and life-affirmingly effervescent.  

Kate began practicing Theravada Buddhism in the Western Insight tradition in her early 20’s, deeply influenced by the Thai Forest and Burmese Sayadaw lineages. She has participated in many multi-month meditation retreats and multi-year teacher trainings, and graduated from Spirit Rock Meditation Center’s four-year retreat teacher training in 2020, under the leadership of Gina Sharpe, Larry Yang and Lila Kate Wheeler. With a group of friends, Kate helped co-found the Meditation Working Group at Occupy Wall Street in 2011, and went on to help organize yoga and meditation communities in service of labor and environmental justice campaigns. She spent several years as a faculty member of MIT’s Presencing Institute, and she has spent much of the last decade working with leaders and organizations committed to equity, impact, sustainability, and the practice of wise relationships.   

Kate holds a BFA in Modern Dance from the Alvin Ailey School/Fordham University and MA in Performance Studies from NYU. She is the author of the book Radical Friendship: Seven Ways to Love Yourself and Find Your People in an Unjust World.  In off hours, Kate can be found exploring Philly with her kid, sipping tea with friends, and looking for all manner of good trouble.

Kerri is the founder of CTZNWELL, a movement that is democratizing wellbeing for all. A descendant of generations of firemen and first responders, Kerri has dedicated her life to kicking down doors and fighting for justice. She’s been teaching yoga for over 20 years and is known for making waves in the wellness industry by challenging norms, disrupting systems and mobilizing people to act. 

A community organizer, wellness activist and author of the book American Detox: The Myth of Wellness and How We Can Truly Heal, Kerri is recognized across communities for her inspired work to bridge transformational practice with social justice. She’s been instrumental in translating the practices of wellbeing into social and political action, working in collaboration with community organizers, spiritual leaders and policy makers to transform our systems from the inside out. Her leadership has inspired a movement that is actively organizing around issues of racial and economic justice, healthcare as a human right, civic engagement and more. Kerri is a student of abolition, anti-racism, ableism and decolonization. She works diligently to dismantle oppression within herself and the systems and culture she is a part of. She works in support and solidarity with BIPOC leaders and organizations to explore how to work across lines of difference to advance equity and build community resilience.

Katherine Montgomery is the co-founder of Accessibility in Real Time, an Agent of Change participant in the ENDependence Center of Northern Virginia’s Mindful Design Lab. Accessibility in Real Time is an emerging social venture dedicated to leveling the playing field for all communities by generating universal design awareness and applications, including building a mapping app for accessibility. Katherine serves on the board of Specially Adapted Resource Centers (SPARC), an organization that is creating a world of possibilities for all adults with disabilities starting at the age of 18. 

Rabbi Nate DeGroot (he/him) directs The Shalom Center, carrying forth the prophetic legacy of the organization’s founder, Rabbi Arthur Waskow. As Director, Nate is helping to steward a generational transition, seeding a Jewish post-activism in pursuit of sacred justice. Before becoming Director, Nate served as The Shalom Center’s National Organizer and Associate Director.

Ordained at Hebrew College in 2016, Nate previously worked at Hazon (now Adamah) in Detroit, IKAR in Los Angeles, and he founded Mikdash in Portland, OR. He has also held part-time pulpit roles, in addition to working with Encounter, T’ruah, AJWS, the Amir Project, and more.

Dani Padilla (she/they/elle), a first-generation child of Indige-Latinx immigrants from Durango, Tepehuán, and Baja Sur, México lineages, serves as the Co-Director of Resource Mobilization. Committed to building a solidarity economy fortified by harmonious and sacred relationships among people and with the earth, Dani brings nearly a decade of experience in organizational leadership, grassroots fundraising, program development, and social movement resourcing.

Most recently, Dani served as the Development Director for Órale, an abolitionist immigrant justice organization. In this role, Dani worked at the intersection of community care, anti-violence work, revenue generation, resource mobilization, solidarity economy, immigrant-centered and led visions for healing. By reclaiming ancestral technologies, Dani is overjoyed to enrich the waterways within Buddhist Peace Fellowship’s movement ecology, nurturing and centering liberation for all beings.

Dani holds degrees from Mount St. Mary’s University and American University and has recently trained at the Trauma Resource Institute as a certified community resiliency teacher. Dani will also be completing teacher training weaving in embodied yoga, meditation, and mindfulness from a decolonized perspective, drawing from personal experience of existing cancer survivorship. They live in a vibrant home with their partner and pup Ruda, where they immerse themselves in community herbalism, long distance mindful backpacking, and experimentation with growing food within el Cañon de Silverado, nestled in the Santa Ana Mountains.

Julian Norris, PhD, is a scholar-practitioner and wilderness guide, and founding director of the Wolf Willow Institute who has spent his life exploring the crossroads where human development and systems transformation meet. Originally trained as an anthropologist, he is a faculty member at the Haskayne School of Business where he teaches courses in leadership and complexity. Julian’s work is seasoned by a love for the bardic traditions, a lifetime spent in wild landscapes and a long-standing practice of contemplative and somatic disciplines. His past roles include Director of Systems Leadership at Banff Centre and Associate Director for Outward Bound Canada and he is a coach-advisor for senior leaders and organizations in the government, corporate and social sectors grappling with complex challenges and opportunities.

Laura Blakeman, PhD is a highly creative and strategic thinker known for her capacity to build beautiful and engaging transformative experiences. She draws from her trans-disciplinary experience in the performing arts, depth and developmental psychology, spiritual practice, wilderness guiding, and land-based living to better equip practitioners with the capabilities required to meet complex challenges. Her colleagues particularly appreciate her ability to take a systems-approach, centering learning as the core driver of change in all domains and at every scale. Laura has researched and written extensively on the state-shifting power of beauty. She is a founding director at Wolf Willow and calls the southwest U.S. canyon country home.

James Akoon Akot is a dedicated community activist with a passion for humanitarian work and social justice. He holds a degree in Christian education studies from Africa Renewal University in Uganda and serves as the national coordinator for South Sudan compassion connectors with the Global Compassion Coalition. He has a strong background in religious studies, which informs his advocacy and outreach efforts in his community. He is committed to promoting peace, reconciliation, and equality for all individuals, especially those marginalized and in need. James is  striving to create positive change and make a lasting impact in the lives of others.

Noemi is the Community Manager of the Conscious Food Systems Alliance (CoFSA). She focuses on relationship-building among several stakeholders in the agri-food sector and in the field of consciousness and inner development. She holds a Degree in International Law and a Master’s Degree in Development Economics. Prior to joining CoFSA, Noemi worked with NGOs, supporting Livelihood and Climate Resilience projects in The Gambia and Solomon Islands. She is a yoga and meditation teacher, and a musician and story-teller. She is enthusiastic about discovering self-healing practices – that can support one’s own evolution and growth – and interested in experimenting with new ways of working that enable deep connection with partners.

Rachel Bellinger is a strategist, storyteller, and yoga teacher blending mindfulness and compassion with systems change. She is the founder of Root to Rise Collective, a mindful brand communications studio amplifying the voices of women and girls to scale their impact. Rachel teaches yoga and facilitates retreats for women and rising change leaders. She serves as Strategic Advisor and Communications Lead at Black Fox Global, a woman-owned B Corp that mobilizes funding for global NGOs. Previously, she was on the founding team of DoneGood, named the “Amazon for social good” by Forbes. Rachel currently lives on Whidbey Island in the Pacific Northwest with her family.

David has extensive experience of stakeholder and relationship management, grounded in a career-long focus on partnerships and resource mobilization – working with non-profit organisations and grantmaking foundations.  He has particular grounding in mindfulness practice, having practiced insight meditation and ethical training in the Buddhist tradition since 2005. David’s main area of interest now is in supporting the uptake of inner-development and contemplative practices within social and environmental change movements.  Inner-led change, for short – including working with organisations such as The Mindfulness Initiative, Inner Development Goals, and Starter Culture.

Hello! I’m Lisa Domenech. I just tuned 40 in March, and celebrated my 21st. Wedding anniversary with my beloved husband, in February. I am the mother of 2 teen daughter’s and currently taking a short hiatus from finishing my PhD in International Psychology. I work with Specially Adapted Resource Centers (SPARC) here in Northern Virginia. I was born and raised in New York City, but lived in South Korea for 12 years. I am a huge bibliophile and love all types of food and music from around the world. I adore animals, and currently have 2 dogs and 2 cats that we rescued. I believe deeply in universal design being utilized around the globe and that everyone should be respected and included in all facets of society.

Richard Goerling is a certified mindfulness trainer, a retired police lieutenant and military veteran who believes in your innate resilience, humanity and capacity to show up and thrive amidst hard circumstances. Richard specializes in training health, resilience and human performance skills to first responders and other high reliability professionals. Richard has developed a training specialization in training mindfulness skills to support an adaptive stress mindset, health, resiliency and human performance among high reliability professionals. Over the last decade, he spearheaded the introduction of mindfulness skills training into policing as part of a larger cultural transformation toward a compassionate, skillful and resilient humanitarian ethos.

Richard served in civilian law enforcement for twenty four years and has extensive experience in patrol operations and criminal investigations. He retired from policing in 2019 at the rank of lieutenant at a police agency in Oregon. Richard also served as a member of the United States Coast Guard for 27 years, both active and reserve, and retired in 2015 at the rank of Commander while assigned to Coast Guard Sector Charleston, SC. Richard is a co-investigator and trainer in ongoing National Institutes of Health funded research on the impact of mindfulness training for police officers. He holds an affiliate assistant professor appointment at Pacific University in the School of Graduate Psychology. Richard also holds an adjunct faculty position at Portland State University in the Hatfield School of Government where he teaches leadership ethics in the Criminology and Criminal Justice program.

Richard has earned an undergraduate degree in economics and a graduate degree in business administration. He has completed a year-long mindfulness training program at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience & Human Behavior at the University of California, Los Angeles and is a certified mindfulness facilitator (CMF). Richard also completed an intensive training in the Foundations of Interpersonal NeuroBiology at the Institute for Health Professionals at Portland Community College.

Richard completed the Evidence-Based Coaching training program through the School of Leadership Studies at Fielding Graduate University in Santa Barbara, CA and is a certified coach through the International Coaching Federation.

Marisela B. Gomez is a community activist, author, public health professional, and physician scientist. She is also a meditation teacher in the Plum Village Community of Engaged Buddhism. She received a BS and MS from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, a PHD, MD, and MPH from the Johns Hopkins University. She spent 17 years as an activist/researcher or participant/observer in East Baltimore during and after training at the Johns Hopkins Schools of Medicine and Public Health. Past and current writings address social determinants and health, social capital and urban health, disparities in mental health care in incarcerated populations, disparities in substance use treatment, mental health care in the primary health care setting, community organizing and development, and mindfulness practices in organizing. She spends her time between the city and counties of Baltimore, Maryland.

Claudia Horwitz supports grounded leadership, community organizing and movement-building.  She serves on the Leadership Development Faculty for the Annie E. Casey Foundation and supports the Jewish Left. Claudia is the author of The Spiritual Activist: Practices to Transform Your Life, Your Work and Your World (Penguin Compass 2002) and numerous articles.  She teaches yoga and is passionate about helping people integrate a results-focused approach with thoughtful process, racial justice and the sacred.

Patricia (Tish) Jennings, Ph.D., is an internationally recognized leader in the fields of social and emotional learning (SEL), mindfulness in education, and teacher well-being. A Professor of Education at the University of Virginia’s School of Education and Human Development, her research focuses on how teacher stress impacts classroom climate and student outcomes. Her highly cited theoretical article, The Prosocial Classroom, has shaped the field’s understanding of the central role teachers play in fostering healthy classroom environments. Jennings led the development of CARE (Cultivating Awareness and Resilience in Education), a mindfulness-based professional development program proven to improve teacher well-being, classroom interactions, and student engagement developed at the Garrison Institute when she served as Senior Director for the Initiative on Contemplation and Education. CARE is the focus of two large, federally funded studies: Project ENGAGE, an $8 million effort to develop and evaluate a scalable model across 66 schools, and Project CATALYZE, a $4 million study examining how CARE enhances SEL curriculum effectiveness. CARE was recently recommended by the CDC as a key strategy to promote mental health in schools. Jennings is co-author of Flourish: The Compassionate Schools Project curriculum and co-investigator on its $11 million randomized controlled trial, which found positive outcomes in SEL and attention skills, particularly in high-poverty schools. A former teacher, school director, and teacher educator with over two decades of practical experience, Jennings brings deep insight to her work. She has authored numerous peer-reviewed publications and several books, including the bestselling Mindfulness for Teachers. Her contributions have been recognized with multiple honors, including the 2024 Joseph E. Zins Award from CASEL, the 2023 UVA Distinguished Researcher Award, the 2018 Cathy Kerr Award for Courageous and Compassionate Science from the Mind & Life Institute, and recognition by Mindful Magazine as one of “Ten Mindfulness Researchers You Should Know.” She also served on the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Fostering Healthy Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Development.

Ouyporn Khuankaew is a Buddhist feminist activist. She has been teaching diverse social justice and peace issues in South and southeast Asia region since 1995. The issues include feminist counselling, feminist and socially engaged Buddhism, gender and sexuality, gender based violence, trauma and well being, collective leadership, peace building and non violent actions, and training of trainers. She also leads meditation and well being retreat for activists.

In 2002 she co-founded the International Women’s Partnership for Peace and Justice (IWP). IWP’s framework integrates feminist anti-oppression work, non-violence and spirituality with a focus on personal and structural change.

Francis Kumakech is a grassroots peacebuilder from Gulu, Northern Uganda. His work is deeply shaped by his own experience of war and displacement, which ignited his commitment to healing inner wounds as a path to lasting change. He founded Resilience From Within (RFW), a community organization that integrates mindfulness with entrepreneurship training. Through RFW, Francis helps women and youth cultivate emotional resilience and create sustainable livelihoods. As a Conscious Social Change Practitioner trained by Global Grassroots, he believes that true community transformation begins with the strength and peace we build within ourselves.

Fleet Maull, PhD, CMT-P is an author, meditation teacher, consulting, coach, seminar leader, motivational speaker, social entrepreneur and peacemaker. He is the founder of Prison Mindfulness Institute, National Prison Hospice Association, Windhorse Seminars & Consulting, the Center for Contemplative End of Life Care at Naropa University and co-founder of the Engaged Mindfulness Institute, Center for Mindfulness in Public Safety and the Upaya Zen Center’s Buddhist Chaplaincy Training Program. He is a senior teacher in two venerable Buddhist traditions as an Acharya (senior Dharma teacher) in the Tibetan Buddhist Shambhala lineage and a Roshi (Zen master) in the Zen Peacemaker Order and Soto Zen lineage. Dr. Maull taught socially engaged Buddhism, Buddhist psychology, and contemplative approaches to peacemaking and social action at Naropa University from 1999 – 2009 and is a frequent guest lecturer and conference presenter at other universities like Harvard, Brown, Emory and the University of Colorado. He is the author of Radical Responsibility: How to Move Beyond Blame, Fearlessly Live Your Highest Purpose and Become an Unstoppable Force for Good and Dharma in Hell: The Prison Writings of Fleet Maull along with numerous book chapters and articles in peer reviewed professional journals.

Inès Mazas brings over a decade of social innovation expertise, primarily across Latin America where she has empowered hundreds of entrepreneurs and organizations through incubation programs and strategic consulting. As founder of Micelio Impact, a social impact consulting firm, she is now launching Hilos—a community that weaves together inner work, ancestral wisdom traditions, and mindful leadership to foster deep personal and collective transformation. Inès also collaborates with forward-thinking organizations at the intersection of spirituality and social change, including the Wise Innovation School, Sacred Design Lab, and the Garrison Institute. Originally from France, she is currently based in southern Bahia, Brazil, where she cultivates a holistic approach to life and social change by integrating Buddhist meditation, transpersonal coaching, somatic practices, and martial arts.

Susan Olesek is an unapologetic idealist dedicated to growing in our greatest human potential. Born near Boston and raised in Hong Kong and Japan, she earned a BA in Sociology from Occidental College, where she received the Alumna of the Year award in 2025. With 15 years experience developing self-awareness training for Fortune 500 executives, she became known for her compassionate approach to the Enneagram. In 2012, she founded Enneagram Prison Project, a nonprofit organization delivering self-awareness training to those incarcerated. In 2021, she launched The Human Potentialists, a Benefit Corporation focused on doing business for good, with a vision to democratize the Enneagram.

Ames Paulson (she/they) is the founding Executive Director of Healing Together Global, a global nonprofit advancing mental health equity through trauma healing, cultural practice, and social justice. Rooted in Healing Justice and Transformative Justice, they train BIPOC community leaders in the U.S., Uganda, and Nepal as peer Healing Advocates, integrating contemplative, somatic, and ancestral practices to disrupt cycles of trauma and violence. Ames also co-founded Resilient Together Farms, a land-based healing, growing, and climate justice sanctuary in California’s Central Valley.

Eva Pomeroy is Research Lead and Senior Faculty at the Presencing Institute, and Affiliate Faculty in the Department of Applied Human Sciences, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada. Her work centers on supporting the burgeoning field of awareness-based systems change through capacity-building, research, and publication. Eva is Co-Founder and Managing Editor of the Journal of Awareness-Based Systems Change, a trans- and multidisciplinary open-access journal providing a platform for creative scholarship in this emerging field. Her own research focuses on the dynamics and properties of the social field – the less visible dimension of collective experience key to transformative systems change.

Ben Powell is an entrepreneur, investor and writer. Currently he is a co-founder and Head of Investor Relations at Leyden Analytics, a fintech startup focused on accelerating the clean energy transition. He founded Agora Partnerships in 2005 to strengthen the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Latin America and led it until 2020. He is an Ashoka Fellow, Board Treasurer at NY Sun Works and a member of the Advisory Board of the Masters in Foreign Service Program at Georgetown University. He lives in Washington DC.

Radha Ruparell is a global cross-sector expert in personal transformation and collective leadership, having worked with CEOs, Fortune 500 executives, social entrepreneurs, and grassroots leaders around the world. She heads the Global Leadership Accelerator at Teach For All, a growing movement spanning 60+ countries and tens of thousands of locally rooted, globally informed leaders committed to ensuring all children can fulfill their potential.  Radha also serves as a Chief Learning Officer for the Global Institute for Shaping a Better Future where she focuses on inner leadership and system-wide change. 

Previously, Radha was a consultant at McKinsey & Company, advising CEOs and senior executives on growth strategy, organizational transformation, and innovation. Her work in global health included pioneering public-private partnerships that expanded access to essential medicines for millions of children across Asia and Africa. She is also the co-founder of Y2Y (Youth to Youth), the largest movement of young leaders bringing innovative ideas to the World Bank. Radha holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and an MPA from Harvard Kennedy School.  She sits on the Board of Directors of the Open Future Institute and has served on the Nationswell Council, a nationwide network of changemakers and thought leaders. Radha also hosts a monthly talk series with global leaders the People First Community, a cross-sector coalition advocating for a new paradigm of leadership to advance sustainable development. 

Radha is the author of Brave Now and co-editor of What Leadership We Need Now?  Her ideas have been featured in publications such as Forbes, CEO World, OECD Forum, & Greater Good Science Center. She speaks frequently on topics of personal transformation, system change, collective leadership, healing & leading for a new future.

Aqeela Sherrills is a spirit-centered organizer and activist who has worked for three decades to promote community ownership of public safety and facilitate healing from violence in marginalized communities. A nationally recognized expert in victim service and community-based public safety, Aqeela has created and led multi-million-dollar nonprofit organizations focused on reducing violence and fostering safety in urban communities and advised hundreds of organizations.

Currently, Aqeela is the Founder and leader of the Community-Based Public Safety Collective. This work builds on his work with The Newark Community Street Team NCST) community-based violence reduction initiative which he co-created and directed at the request of Newark, NJ’s Mayor Ras Baraka in 2014. In the five years Aqeela led NCST, Newark’s homicide rate went from 104 in 2015 to 51 in 2019. Aqeela’s dedication to ending violence and promoting community-based public safety began in Watts, Los Angeles, where he joined the Grape Street Crips before fleeing the violence in his community to attend college. At age 19, Aqeela and Hall of Fame NFL star Jim Brown co-founded the Amer-I-Can Program, Inc. to heal gang violence in cities across the country by empowering individuals to overcome behavior that negatively influenced their lives. During that time, Aqeela was a chief architect of a historic truce between the Crips and Bloods in Watts. That ceasefire began to fray because of the deep underlying conditions that bred crime, drugs, and violence. Aqeela and his brothers created the Community Self-Determination Institute in 1999 to tackle those personal and social issues, including healing communities’ post (and present) traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Aqeela launched The Reverence Project in 2007 to make meaning from his own son’s death. TRP brings together activists, healers, and artists in urban “war zones” to shift the culture from violence, shame, guilt, and fear into one rooted in forgiveness, compassion, reverence, and truth. 

In 2012, Aqeela became a lead organizer for Californians for Safety and Justice, building a network of 10,000+ crime survivors in California to improve public safety by placing more responsibility for public safety in community hands. In 2017, he became the National Training Director of The Alliance for Safety and Justice’s Crime Survivors for Safety and Justice Initiative. Aqeela serves as the Senior Advisor to the Alliance for Safety and Justice’s Shared Safety Initiative, and is a member of the Board of Directors of The Alliance for Safety and Justice, and Chairman of the Board of the Newark Community Street Team.

The Reverend Dr. Liz Theoharis is a theologian, author, pastor, and anti-poverty organizer. She is Founder and Executive Director of the Kairos Center for Religions, Rights, and Social Justice, an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA), co-pastor of the Freedom Church of the Poor, and visiting professor at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. Author of five books including You Only Get What You’re Organized to Take: Lessons from the Movement to End Poverty and We Pray Freedom: Rituals and Liturgies with the Freedom Church of the Poor and recipient of recognitions of including the Freedom Award from the National Civil Rights Museum and the Women of Spirit Award from the Presbyterian Church (USA), she has been engaged in faith and justice organizing for more than 30 years.

Gyslaine Uwitonze is a Rwandan conscious social change practitioner and the Founder and Executive Director of Umurage Growth. With a background in law and certification in Breath-Body-Mind (Level 2), she has over a decade of experience empowering women and communities in East Africa through leadership, trauma healing, and personal transformation. Formerly an East Africa Senior Program Officer at Global Grassroots, she integrates Coherent Breathwork and trauma-informed practices to support survivors of violence and social injustice. A board member of Friend Indeed, she advocates for teen mothers’ rights and facilitates cultural exchange through Roots-Expedition. Passionate about inner work, she believes personal transformation is key to meaningful social change.

Sunita has worked for over 30 years in women’s rights and human rights organizations. Sunita co-founded Hindus for Human Rights in June 2019. In 2001, Sunita co-founded the international women’s human rights organization, Women for Afghan Women (WAW), and served as Board Chair of WAW until January 2022. She has been an advisory board member to Unfreeze Afghanistan since its inception in September 2021, and cofounded Abaad: Afghan Women Forward in August 2022. Sunita has edited “Women for Afghan Women: Shattering Myths and Claiming the Future” (Palgrave McMillan, 2003), a book of essays. For her work with WAW, Sunita was awarded the Feminist Majority Foundation’s Global Women’s Rights Award in 2011.  Sunita co-founded Sadhana in 2011 in order to mobilize Hindu Americans to connect their faith to social justice and human rights, and serves on Sadhana’s Advisory Board. She was honored by President Obama at the White House in 2015 as a “Champion of Change” for her work with Sadhana. In 2021, Sunita was recognized by Center for American Progress as one of 21 “faith leaders to watch.”  Previously, Sunita worked with The Sister Fund and Funders Concerned About AIDS. Sunita is a board member of Amnesty International-USA. She is an advisory board member of Population Media Center, which uses entertainment-education and mass media to promote social and cultural change. Sunita is a board member of Dalit Solidarity Forum. Sunita served on faith advisory committees during the tenures of both NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio and Mayor Eric Adams. Sunita lives in Brooklyn, NY.