Our Instructors

  • Amada Santiago
    StrengthsFinders
    Amada Santiago
    StrengthsFinders

    Amada is currently the Associate Director of Advising and Student Services at NYU Steinhardt’s Department of Administration, Leadership, and Technology where she is also pursuing her Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies. Amada is also a professor for the Latin American and Latinx Studies Department at CUNY’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice. At John Jay, she teaches courses on the history of Latinxs in the United States with attention to the establishment and development of the diverse Latinx communities through migration, colonization, racialization, and integration.

    Amada is a social innovator with a wide range of experience leading and developing programs for underserved populations. Before joining NYU, Amada worked for a private education consulting firm as Director of Training and Program, focusing on programming support and training opportunities to propel underrepresented educators and entrepreneurs to excel across sectors using an asset-based lens. In addition, Amada provides consulting services in research, planning, and support on various projects that close the achievement gap and provide greater access to all vulnerable young adults in education and the workforce. Amada has worked closely with the Postsecondary Education Subcommittee of the White House Initiative for Educational Excellence for Hispanics under the Obama Administration through her consulting services. Through this work, Amada led the organizing of powerful convenings between the nation’s top scholars, policymakers, and practitioners intending to impact policy and address the deficit in college enrollment and completion for Latinx students.

    Before working in the private sector, Amada served as a Youth & Family Director for the YMCA of Greater New York. She was responsible for successfully implementing program development and evaluation of youth programs in this role. 

    A native of the Dominican Republic, Amada has a passion for supporting recently arrived young adults to achieve academically and professionally. She has led various start-up initiatives, including a small nonprofit that provided support services to New York City high schools and communities with a high immigrant population, becoming one of the city’s first immigrant peer-to-peer mentoring model at the time.

    Amada holds a Master’s in Social Work with a concentration in Nonprofit Management from Columbia University and a BA from CUNY Bernard Baruch College. Amada also served as an Education Pioneer Fellow in partnership with the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

  • Daonese Johnson-Colón
    Organizational Culture
    Daonese Johnson-Colón
    Organizational Culture

    Daonese Johnson-Colón, founder of Coaching Amplifies, LLC, is an innovative leader with 20 years of experience in nonprofit administration and workforce management. She has dedicated her career to building spaces that promote leadership, inclusivity, and equity to foster personal and professional development in education, criminal justice reform, and media. Currently, Daonese serves as the Chief Operating Officer for PushBlack, a national non-profit media organization.

    Prior to joining PushBlack, she served as the Vice President of Operations/COO for JustLeadershipUSA (JLUSA). Daonese serves her community in a multitude of ways.  She is an adjunct lecturer for John Jay College’s Accelerate Complete Engage (ACE) program and faculty mentor for the New York Giants Touchdown Fellowship and Justice Capital Initiative Fellowship.  She is a faculty mentor for the mentor for the New York Community Trust Leadership Fellows program.

    Lastly, Daonese is a trained conflict resolution mediator and a certified professional coach. A recipient of the NAACP Minority Achievement Recognition Award, Daonese graduated Summa cum Laude with a Master’s in Legal Studies from Kaplan University and holds the SHRM-CP certification.

  • Diane Johnson
    Fundraising Strategies
    Diane Johnson
    Fundraising Strategies

    Dr. Diane J. Johnson has almost 30 years experience in the business, public and social sectors in a multitude of roles. They include change management consultant, trainer and executive coach, program director, evaluator and researcher, fundraiser, communications/pr lead, and organizational culture specialist. Extraordinarily skilled, purpose-driven, highly intuitive and analytical, Dr. Johnson, Ph.D. is CEO and Founder of Mmapeu Organizational Consulting. Mmapeu is a South African name that means “woman who carries ideas.” Mmapeu Consulting, a national consulting firm has trained, consulted and worked with more than 11,500 mission-driven individuals, businesses and organizations.

    Clients include not-for-profits; colleges, universities and K-12 educational institutions; local, state, and federal governmental agencies; socially responsible businesses; multinational corporations; community based organizations; philanthropic entities; arts and culture groups; activists; volunteer associations and researchers. Dr. Johnson is the author of several books, including Proud Sisters, The Wit & Wisdom of African- American Women; Mother Love (which collectively have sold more than 170,000 copies), and The Cultural Diversity Fieldbook (with over half a million downloads).

  • Don Waisanen
    Communications
    Don Waisanen
    Communications
    Don Waisanen is a Professor in the Baruch College, CUNY Marxe School of Public and International Affairs, where he received the Presidential Awards for Distinguished Teaching and Distinguished Scholarship. He teaches courses and workshops in public communication—including strategic communication, executive communication skills, and seminars on leadership, storytelling, and improvisation. All of Dr. Waisanen’s research projects seek to understand how communication works to promote or hinder the force of citizens’ voices, including the recently published Leadership Standpoints: A Practical Framework for the Next Generation of Nonprofit Leaders (Cambridge University Press), Improv for Democracy: How to Bridge Differences and Develop the Communication and Leadership Skills Our World Needs (State University of New York Press), Real Money, Real Power?: The Challenges with Participatory Budgeting in New York City (Palgrave Macmillan; with Daniel Williams), Immigration and Strategic Public Health Communication: Lessons from the Transnational Seguro Popular Project (Routledge; co-authored with Robert Smith and Guillermo Yrizar Barbosa) and Political Conversion: Personal Transformation as Strategic Public Communication (Rowman & Littlefield). Previously, Dr. Waisanen worked in broadcast journalism, as a speechwriter, and on political campaigns. He is the founder of Communication Upward, an adjunct lecturer at Columbia University and New York University, and received a Ph.D. in Communication from the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School.
  • Edith Asibey
    Social Media Strategies
    Edith Asibey
    Social Media Strategies

    Edith Asibey is the Principal of Asibey Consulting, a consulting firm that helps mission-driven organizations take audiences from intention to action. She is an Adjunct Professor of Communications and Marketing at Columbia University. Prior to these roles, Edith led advocacy, partnerships and communication for UNICEF in Brazil, where she launched innovative digital work partnering with Google, Facebook and others. She was also the Chief Communication Officer at The Atlantic Philanthropies, the largest limited-life foundation in the world.

  • Erika Bernabei
    Race Equity
    Erika Bernabei
    Race Equity

    Erika Bernabei, PhD, Co-Principal at Equity & Results, connects intentions to accountability and impact in service of Black, Indigenous and communities of Color and our collective humanity. Through Equity & Results, Erika leads the strategic design and implementation of whole organization and collaborative work to achieve racially equitable results. Equity & Results uses antiracist principles, developed by the People’s Institute and elders, scholars and organizers throughout time, to transform how systems work and strategically disrupt common practices and replace them with actions that address the root causes of the problem. Erika is an expert in Results Based Accountability (RBA) and has worked with groups nationally and internationally to successfully use this tool. Prior to Equity & Results, Erika served as an Assistant Commissioner in the New York City Department of Homeless Services and nearly a decade at PolicyLink – where she developed and managed a results-driven infrastructure and support system for more than 50 Promise Neighborhood communities to produce holistic and measurable outcomes and advance equity and opportunity. Erika is a member of the Antiracist Ecosystem of practitioners who work together for greater antiracist impact. She holds an MA in Education Policy from Teachers College, Columbia University, and a PhD in Educational Leadership from New York University.

  • Jamie Lonie
    Social Media Strategies
    Jamie Lonie
    Social Media Strategies

    Jamie Lonie supports the digital communications and marketing needs of Asibey Consulting’s clients. He has several years of experience in traditional and digital nonprofit communications, amplifying social justice causes and movements for equity. After moving from Edinburgh at a young age, Jamie quickly traded his Scottish brogue for a Tennessee drawl. After college, he began his career as a PK-5 science teacher in the Houston Independent School District. As a result of his classroom experience, he has focused his career on digital communications for education nonprofits and other mission-driven organizations – especially those working to support schools, students, and families.

    In this capacity, Jamie has served as a digital media specialist for global organizations like the Education Commission and the Global Business Coalition for Education, managing digital content across these organizations’ websites, blogs, email campaigns, and social media channels. Previously, Jamie helped develop Teach For America’s national social media strategy as Director of Social Media Community and supported local communications for the organization’s Houston region as Director of Communications and Marketing.

    Today, Jamie helps a variety of clients working domestically and internationally assess their current digital presence, understand the broader online conversations around their area of work, and strategize how to best leverage digital tools to better engage supporters online.

    Jamie graduated from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville with a Bachelor of Science in Public Relations. He also holds a Master of Education degree from the University of St. Thomas in Houston, which he earned while teaching elementary science.

    Recently, Jamie was named a member of the University of Tennessee’s 2021 Volunteer 40 Under 40 list and was awarded the 2010 Public Relations Alumni of the Year for his service to his alma mater. Jamie is the President of the university’s New York alumni chapter and on the Board of Visitors for the College of Communications & Information. During his tenure, he organized remote nonprofit internships for communications students during the pandemic and helped raise thousands of dollars in scholarships for freshmen.

  • Janet Dewart Bell
    Effective Communications
    Janet Dewart Bell
    Effective Communications

    Dr. Janet Dewart Bell, Ph.D. is a nationally recognized expert in communications and leadership. with a doctorate in Leadership and Change from Antioch University, serving now on the Board of  Governors. She is a graduate of the Baruch Executive Masters Program, She is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Baruch College Marxe School of Public and International Affairs, where she has taught since 2017  in Executive, Masters, and undergraduate programs.  She and Dr. Naomi Nightingale co-teach a course on Leadership and Strategy in Public Affairs in the Summer Session.  She is passionate about the opportunity that Baruch provides, having been among the first in her family to attend college and having worked full time while pursuing each of her degrees. She often states that she “bleeds Baruch blue.” Bell has established an endowed scholarship at Baruch.

    She has been a key strategist and senior executive at several national organizations, including, National Public Radio, the National Urban League, PolicyLink, and The Opportunity Agenda.  A lifelong social justice advocate,  Bell is a Civil Rights Movement veteran. She chairs the Women’s Media Center and is the founder and president of LEAD InterGenerational Solutions, Inc., a nonprofit organization dedicated to developing and promoting intergenerational leadership.  She is a notable national speaker,  whose most recent engagements have included Boston University’s seminal panel on Critical Race Theory.

    She is a 2022 recipient of the Frances Perkins Intelligence and Courage Award, named after the woman credited with the moral and social underpinnings of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s’ New Deal.

    Among her accomplishments are an Emmy® for outstanding individual achievement (CBS-TV affiliate in Washington, DC) and programming for National Public Radio, which was honored with a Peabody award.

    Bell is the author of the Lighting the Fires of Freedom: African American Women in the Civil Rights Movement, which was a nominee for the NAACP Image Award. She is co-editor of a book of the Derrick Bell Lectures on Race in American Society, the ongoing  series she founded in 1995 to honor her husband. Her forthcoming book is Blackbirds Singing: Inspiring Black Women’s Speeches from the Civil War to the 21st Century.

    Bell also serves on the boards of the Authors Guild and CancerCare. She is active in the Global Citizens Circle and is an ordained elder of the Presbyterian Church USA.

    For additional information: https://janetdewartbell.com/biography

  • Kary Perez
    Audience Growth and Development
    Kary Perez
    Audience Growth and Development

    Kary Perez is an impact-driven strategist with 10+ years of experience in brand strategy, audience growth, communications, and program development. She approaches her work with an equity-first lens and is deeply committed to building sustaining positive change for organizations and the communities they serve.

    She was previously responsible for growing Chalkbeat’s audience, deepening its impact, and diversifying revenue opportunities to ensure all children get fair access to education. Her work culminated in the publication of “The Roadmap for Local News,” a research report that captures 60+ perspectives to recommend solutions to the local information crisis.

    At DoSomething Strategic (the consulting arm of DoSomething.org), she worked with brands including Microsoft, ESPN, Feeding America, and Plan International to help build relationships with target audiences via social good initiatives. Before moving to the nonprofit sector, she got her start in book publishing and edited niche non-fiction titles at Penguin Random House.

  • Lakimja Mattocks
    Organization and Leadership Development
    Lakimja Mattocks
    Organization and Leadership Development

    Lakimja Mattocks brings over fifteen years of leadership in the nonprofit sector and currently serves as Chief Talent and Equity Officer at LEAP. In addition to her primary role, she also partners with senior and emerging leaders as a strategic thought partner and coach, and works with organizations to assess and co-create solutions to organizational design, culture and learning and development challenges through collaborations with Cause Effective, Penn Creative Strategy, Renew and Redesign Consulting and What’s Next Now. Prior to joining LEAP, Lakimja co-led Nonprofit New York’s internal racial equity work and how it was operationalized in our programs, specifically with the use of the Key Areas of Nonprofit Excellence. Additional roles in the sector include designing, managing, and facilitating cohort-based leadership programs as the Associate Director of Strategic Partnerships and Learning at Support Center and leading the Programs team as the Senior Program Director at Roads to Success.

    Lakimja has leaned into and leveraged professional certifications to build on her MPA from Baruch College, MS in Counseling from Long Island University and BA in Psychology and Criminal Justice from Temple University. She is active in her local community, through the New York Urban League and Brooklyn chapter of the NAACP and is a regional leader with her undergraduate alma mater, Temple University. She is also an experienced coach, mentor, and facilitator.

  • Lisette Nieves
    Leadership and Planning
    Lisette Nieves
    Leadership and Planning

    Lisette Nieves is a Partner at Lingo Ventures, providing consulting services to the nonprofit and public sector on growth, talent recruitment/retention, professional coaching and change management. For the last three years, she has also served as the Commissioner for the White House Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics, and currently co-chairs the Subcommittee on Higher Education. Prior to her tenure as Commissioner, Ms. Nieves was a Belle Zeller Distinguished Visiting Professor in Public Policy at the City University of New York at Brooklyn College and a Social Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Blue Ridge Foundation.

    Previously, she served as the founding Executive Director for Year Up NY, a workforce and education program for young adults.  From 2002 to 2004, Ms. Nieves served as Chief of Staff at the Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD) for the City of New York.  Earlier in her career, she held several positions in the New York City educational sector. Ms. Nieves has been both a Rhodes Scholar and a Truman Scholar. Her awards include the Robin Hood Hero Award (John F. Kennedy Jr. Hero Award) from the Robin Hood Foundation and El Diario’s Mujeres Destacadas Award from La Opinion.

    Ms. Nieves received a B.A. from Brooklyn College and an M.P.A. from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University.

  • Marti Fischer
    Communications
    Marti Fischer
    Communications

    Marti Fischer is a NYC based consultant and executive coach specializing in strategic positioning, communications and business development for individuals, young companies and nonprofit organizations.

    The first decades of her career were spent as a professional negotiator in the television industry. In 2006 Marti turned her business development, relationship building and negotiating experience to help individuals with career and professional advancement, nonprofits tell their story, raise money and become sustainable and first stage companies articulate their value proposition and strategic point of view.

    In addition to her work with Marti Fischer Group, Marti is a co-author of The Nonprofit Consulting Playbook, adjunct professor at Baruch College, instructor at NYU and frequent trainer for umbrella organizations and foundations in the areas of communication skills, professional development and nonprofit fundraising. Marti serves as a strategic advisor to YASI (Young Advocacy Service Corps) and Necessities INC.  Marti is an active member of Women in Development New York, the Association of Fundraising Professionals, American Marketing Association and The Communication Network.

    Marti received a B.A. in Art History and Economics from Sarah Lawrence College.  She is currently working on a book to help young adults position their skills for meaningful employment.

  • Melissa Shillingford
    Organizational Culture
    Melissa Shillingford
    Organizational Culture

    Melissa Shillingford is the visionary founder of Make Ideas Work, a boutique consulting company dedicated to empowering organizations committed to positive social change through human-centered management training and capacity-building services.

    With over a decade designing, managing, and facilitating cohort-based programs, Melissa has an acute ability to inspire and elevate teams. Her passion lies in supporting organizations with ambitious goals and helping staff reach them work smarter, not harder.

    As a certified Wiley DiSC Authorized Partner, Melissa deeply understands team dynamics and communication strategies. Her academic background includes a Project Management Certificate from CUNY Baruch, a joint Masters in Human and Community Development and Urban Planning for Social Justice from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and studies in Deviant Behavior and Social Control at CUNY John Jay College, where she also earned a certificate in Dispute Resolution.

    Melissa’s dedication to social change, combined with her vast experience and expertise, makes her a powerful ally for organizations looking to make a lasting impact.

  • Mette LouLou von Kohl
    Social and Emotional Intelligence
    Mette LouLou von Kohl
    Social and Emotional Intelligence

    Mette Loulou (she/they) is an educator, facilitator and artist dedicated to popular education, art-making and storytelling in service of justice and social transformation. She is committed to breaking cycles of violence through creating spaces of brave exploration and healing for the self and the collective. Born of Lebanese/Palestinian and Danish ancestry, Mette Loulou has lived in Romania, Denmark, Morocco, England, and the land now colonizied as the US. She received her Bachelors in Theatre and Gender & Sexuality Studies from Bard College, and her Masters in Applied Theatre from The University of London, Goldsmiths College. Mette Loulou has worked as a Social-Emotional Learning facilitator with CUNY’s Creative Arts Team, PowerTools for Progress, Sadie Nash Leadership Project, and Women for Refugee Women (to name a few). 

  • Michael Seltzer
    Navigating Organizational Change, Resource Mobilization
    Michael Seltzer
    Navigating Organizational Change, Resource Mobilization

    Michael Seltzer is a Distinguished Lecturer at the Austin W. Marxe School of Public and International Affairs at Baruch College. Prior to joining Baruch, Michael Seltzer served as president of Philanthropy New York and as a program officer at the Ford Foundation where he was responsible for its work in strengthening the nonprofit sector and promoting organized philanthropy worldwide. He also founded and led a sustainability in business initiative at The Conference Board.

    Seltzer chaired the master’s degree program in Nonprofit Management at the Milano School of the New School University. At Baruch, Professor Seltzer redesigned the core master’s degree course in fund raising and resource mobilization for nonprofit organizations, and teaches Advanced Public and Nonprofit Management in the Executive MPA program, as well as a variety of different topics in the executive certificate programs. He holds a B.A. from Syracuse University in International Relations and African Studies.

  • Muneer Panjwani
    Partnerships
    Muneer Panjwani
    Partnerships

    As the VP of Foundation, Government, and Corporate Partnerships at The Trevor Project, Muneer’s team focuses on building impact centered long-term partnerships with some of the world’s largest companies and Foundations to help end LGBTQ youth suicide. As a senior leader on the development team, Muneer helped to grow Trevor’s annual revenue from under $10M to over $35M in three years, enabling the organization to grow from a staff of 50 to 225+ during that time.

    Muneer secured Trevor’s first seven-figure partnership that launched a new, holistic corporate partnership model for the organization. In 3 years, this model has 6X’d corporate revenue for The Trevor Project and established partnerships with 150+ national and global companies. Notable partnerships include award-winning cause marketing campaigns with Abercrombie & Fitch, Macy’s, Google.org and an $8M partnership with PwC Charitable Foundation – the largest in Trevor’s 22-year history. Muneer’s partnerships have won 10 Halo Awards presented by the industry’s premier award for excellence in cause marketing.

    Muneer is an expert in high-growth fundraising, cause marketing, for-profit/not-for-profit partnerships, institutional fundraising, and corporate social responsibility. Muneer is also a trained D&I facilitator having designed and led hundreds of anti-bias and inclusion trainings globally. Prior to The Trevor Project, Muneer led corporate partnerships at a high-growth tech not for profit, DoSomething.org, the world’s largest social change organization for young people; and served as a director of youth programs at The National Conference for Community and Justice, one of the oldest anti-racism organizations in the country.

    An avid traveler, Muneer lives in New York City, but is often found planning his next trip abroad to reach his goal of exploring 40 countries by his 40th. Muneer’s pronouns are he/him.

  • Naomi Nightingale
    Effective Communications
    Naomi Nightingale
    Effective Communications

    Naomi Nightingale, PhD began her work withcommunity-based organizations during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. In response to a call for summer projects from the U.S. Department of Labor after the Los Angeles Watts Riots in 1965, she wrote a grant to fund employment and job training for residents in the predominantly Black neighborhood of Venice, CA. Those years began her career in social justice advocacy and activism that remains a driving force in her life today.

    Dr. Nightingale worked in public and government organizations for well over 30 years before creating her management consultant business, Nightingale & Associates, in 2010. Her professional career includes: Twelve years as an adult education teacher and teacher-adviser in the Los Angeles Unified School District; serving as Administrator of  Senate District Operations for California State Senator, Diane E. Watson known nationally for her advocacy of desegregation  of schools; Deputy Executive Officer of  Human Resources at theLos Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority and, as Chief of Staff/EEOC Officer concurrently as Director of Taxicab Administration for SunLine Transit Agencyin Coachella Valley, CA.As President of Nightingale & Associates, LLC, she works with nonprofit, government, and corporate organizations to achieve organizational development and leadership goals through systemic change.

    Since June 2017 Dr. Nightingalehas taught Leadership Strategy in Public Affairs along with Dr. Janet Dewart Bell, at Baruch College, MarxeSchool of Public and International Affairs.  In addition, she teaches with the Antioch University, Women In Leadership Online Management Training Program.

    From August 2014 to March 2022, Dr. Nightingale served on the Los Angeles County Civil Service Commission, a quasi-judicial bodydeciding grievance appeals for employees. During her tenure sheserved as President Pro Temp from 2018 to 2020 and President for the year 2021.

    She is known for her grassroots activism,and support of people and causes marginalized educationally, economically, and socially by discriminatory practices of social, political, and legislative actions. She created the Oakwood Preservation Coalition organization after working with the community over a four-year period before successfully achieving the historical and cultural designation of the First Baptist Church of Venice.

  • Odell Mays
    Budgeting and Finance
    Odell Mays
    Budgeting and Finance

    Odell is the founder and Principal of Mays2 Consulting LLC a specialized management consultancy focused on working with non-profits, foundations and social enterprise ventures on strategic fiscal management and operations projects, in addition to governance issues centering on social justice and equity. Odell works with arts organizations on building and sustaining organizational cultures that are inclusive and thriving.

    Odell has over 30 years of management experience in nonprofits and board leadership including serving as the chair and co-chair of the board of Gay Men’s Health Crisis and as treasurer of the NYC LGBTQ Community Services Center.

    He is currently serving as the Board Treasurer for the Proteus Fund; a leading social justice and civil rights grant maker. He is a founding board member of The American LGBTQ+ Museum based in New York City. Odell has served as a visiting faculty member for the New York Community Trust Fellows Program in conjunction with Baruch College and has conducted extensive workshops on best practices in nonprofit management.

    He is also an adjunct faculty instructor at Columbia University School of Professional Studies and the Columbia University School of Social Work.

    Odell received his B.A. from Stanford University in Psychology and his M.B.A in Finance/Taxation from New York University’s Graduate school of Business (now known as Stern School of Business).

    Odell is passionate about the arts, in particular dance. He is an avid reader and enjoys power walking and yoga.

  • Richard Rivera
    Tools In the Midst of Change to Use
    Richard Rivera
    Tools In the Midst of Change to Use

    Richard Rivera is President of Renew & Redesign Consulting an organizational consulting firm, specializing in leadership development, strategic planning, and human resource training for nonprofit, government, and healthcare organizations. Mr. Rivera’s expertise includes specialized services around racial equity, leadership development, organizational change, strategic dialogues, executive coaching, strategic planning, team building, and employee engagement.

    Richard has been facilitating participatory strategic dialogues for over 20 years, bringing together unlikely allies to co-create more life affirming stories for their communities and organizations. Richard is a global steward of the Art of Hosting Conversations that Matter and has facilitated these trainings at the NYU Wagner School, Austin W. Marxe School of Public and International Affairs, the Center for Social Innovation and numerous child welfare and school programs in NYC. Richard currently serves as facilitator/coach on race conversations for the New York Community Trust Leadership Fellows Program at the Austin W. Marxe School of Public and International Affairs. Rich also teaches “Participatory Practices and Race Conversations” at the co-lab, NYU Wagner School of Public Service. Rich currently serves as lead facilitator/coach for the College of Staten Island, Equity and Belonging Conversation for Change Project. Rich has led organization race equity conversations with larger organizations such as Good Shepherd Services and Phipps Neighborhood and with smaller nonprofits such as the Women Against Abuse, and CORA in Philadelphia. At the Adelphi University School of Social Work, Mr. Rivera served as an organizational change strategic plan consultant and executive coach for affiliated nonprofits. He also served as coach/facilitator for Columbia University’s Management Development Program. Richard has provided organizational change services to larger organizations, including Montefiore and Bellevue Hospitals, Verizon, Big Brothers and Big Sisters National and the Hispanic Federation.

    Mr. Rivera received his M.S.W. degree from Columbia University, School of Social Work. Mr. Rivera’s professional background includes ten years of service at NYC Health and Hospital Corporation as assistant HR Director, Special Assistant to the Executive Director, and Senior Manager of Organizational Development services and three years as a Senior Planner for the Office of the Mayor, City of New York and as Associate Director of the East NY Tap Center. Richard also served as National Corporate Management Trainer, for Nationwide Savings and Loan Bank in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. This varied experience has served as his foundation for his consulting work with complex organizations.

  • Sequoya Hayes
    Integrative Wellness
    Sequoya Hayes
    Integrative Wellness

    Organizations have a responsibility to cultivate change from within. RLM has secured contracts that support organizations that are seeking diversity, equity, and inclusion and organizational employee wellness support. Since 2020, Red Linen Moon has established partnerships with 9 organizations across the country and continues to grow.

    Red Linen Moon Wellness and Consulting (RLM) is founded by an individual proprietor that identifies as a QTBIPOC (Queer Trans Black Indigenous Person of Color). RLM centers and prioritizes subcontracting with individuals that identify within a community of opportunity.

    ● RLM has experience advising and consulting throughout counties across Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, New York, Georgia, Alaska, Rhode Island, and Washington. These experiences inform her approach.
    ● RLM has provided organizational capacity building to individuals, collectives, and organizations for over ten years. This includes strategic planning, SWOT analysis initiatives, and DEI related efforts in a variety of settings.
    ● RLM has facilitated more than 300 hours of organizational wellness supports including but not limited to executive coaching, workplace wellness cultivation, and psychological safety concepts and interventions.
    ● 2021, RLM advised a local, Anchorage based community organization on an accountability process that reflected restorative and transformative approaches.

    One of RLM’s goals is to assist organizations with an access gap for culturally responsive services through employee wellness and strategic direction.
    RLM’s approach is based upon a combination of experiences, both clinical and organizational. These experiences have allowed RLM to observe first hand how power structures affect change from boardrooms, to classrooms, to social services.

    RLM provides the supportive nudge needed to move organizations’ conceptual frameworks to full implementation. Most importantly, we offer feedback and tools to ground the work in reflection. RLM works with organizations to establish equitable practices and accountability systems, so that everyone has a voice. Through assessment, RLM guides clients through the process of identifying issues that are most detrimental to the health and growth of the organization.

    Often these issues arise unnoticed, and are in direct conflict with the organization’s mission and goals. RLM assists organization members with learning how to name and address these conflicts in a holistic way that honors everyone within the space, and beyond.

  • Sevonna Brown
    Sankofa Self-Care
    Sevonna Brown
    Sankofa Self-Care

    Sevonna Brown is the Co-Executive Director at Black Women’s Blueprint.  She leads the Safer Childbirth cities initiative in Brooklyn through Merck for Mother’s. She dedicates her work to maternal health around the globe and strategies for women’s health in Ghana and the U.S. she is also the founder of Sanctuary for Integrative Medicine. She is also recognized as a Ms. Foundation Public Voices Fellow for her writing  through the Op/Ed Project. Her work has been published in Ebony, TIME Magazine, ForHarriet, and Rewire News. She serves on the board of Children of Combahee, which mobilizes against child abuse in Black churches using womanist pastoral and theological methods. She is a reproductive health advocate and doula. Her organizational affiliations include Spirit of a Woman Leadership Development Institute and Standing in Our Power: A Women of Color Transformative Leadership Institute. She has been featured in the documentary “The Business of Birth Control” directed by Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein.

    Sevonna received the ELLA Fellowship through the Sadie Nash Leadership Program where she brings reproductive justice to young women of color through grassroots organizing. Through Sadie Nash Leadership Project, Sevonna has engaged in youth advocacy and young women’s organizing.

    Sevonna Brown has lived in NYC and worked in New York City alongside human rights agencies, non-profit organizations, the New York City Council, the New York City Commission on Human Rights, and many other agencies. Her work has intersected with many local businesses and agencies that offer reproductive and holistic health.

  • Toby Thompkins
    Leadership
    Toby Thompkins
    Leadership

    Toby is a Founding CEO of SAFIOO Inc. and a Trusted Advisor to CEOs and senior non-profit, government, and philanthropic leaders and donors. Toby advises, speaks, vlogs and writes on social impact on the Blockchain, leadership, sustainability and DEI. SAFIOO Inc. is the socially conscious home for the Blockchain ecosystem. It provides data intelligence, leadership development, recruitment, personal and professional development for the growing community of talented professionals that are building their careers in Blockchain based organizations. Earlier in his career, Toby held Chief Diversity roles at Baxter Healthcare, and Amoco Oil. He has held senior roles in international development, multi-national corporations and global non-profit organizations including USAID, Accenture, Kraft General Foods and Tides Foundation. In 2016, he was selected as a Bellagio Fellow by The Rockefeller Foundation. Toby splits his time between Lisbon, Portugal, Miami, Florida, and New York City.

    You can reach him directly at:
    toby@safioo.com
    www.TobyThompkins.com
    www.SAFIOO.com