Our People

Shawna is committed to cultivating joyful, trusting relationships that create true collaboration. She is a facilitator, strategist, and leader who has worked on gender, racial and economic justice for 25 years, increasing feminist leadership, transformative programming, and cultures of care and equity. Shawna has been a Gender at Work Associate, Oxfam International’s Senior Gender Justice Lead, Oxfam Gender Advisor for Southeast Asia, Researcher with Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU) in Afghanistan, Program Specialist with UNIFEM, and a yoga instructor in Brooklyn, NY. She weaves her dedicated practices of Buddhism, yoga and somatics, and love of nature into her support of activists’ and survivors’ wellbeing.

Kristen is committed to bringing about a world rooted in our fundamental interdependence. As an artist-storyteller, strategist, coach, and facilitator she has three decades’ experience integrating creative and mind-body-spirit practice into movement building, community, and social transformation efforts. Kristen co-founded groundbreaking projects including Movement Strategy Center, Community LORE, Youth In Focus, and Decolonize Race. She trains in Zen Buddhism, storytelling and nature-based practices, and her son Jonah helps her keep it real. Home are the places she’s experienced beloved community, including the redwoods near San Francisco Bay, the shores of Lake Michigan, and the foothills of the Himalayas.

Rufaro is committed to a world animated by unhu (ubuntu) – the understanding that collective and individual well-being are one and the same. She is a writer, facilitator, and organizer, with 10+ years working for gender justice, migrant rights, African-led solutions for Africans, and utilizing art and cultural expression as conduits for healing, liberation, and joy. She co-founded ThriveAfrica.us, Wakanda Dream Lab, and reset, and worked at organizations including CAMFED, Global Fund for Women, Africa Speaks 4 Africa, and Power California. Rufaro is home in Zimbabwe, Oakland and Sacramento, California, with Sangha, on the dance floor, and among creatives and those who strive for liberation of all peoples.

is a queer feminist advocate, organizer, facilitator, and writer from NYC, who works at the intersections of labor rights and immigration justice.

is a young Dominican-American who accompanies social movements, via learning exchanges and connections between US and international allies.

is a Cambodian-American who supports feminist funding and creative processes for social change. Formerly she was co-Executive Director at FRIDA Young Feminist Fund.

is a Tewa traditional potter from San Il-de-fonso Pueblo in northern New Mexico, and the Grandmother’s Circle Coordinator at Tewa Women United.

is a feminist practitioner whose work is situated politically in Pan-African feminism, women’s rights to pleasure, and resourced activism.

is a Ugandan feminist activist with decades of experience at the intersections of organizational development, health, and well-being.

is a Zimbabwean feminist, activist, popular educator, and JASS’ Executive Director.