Kimberly Brazwell (she/her), native of Columbus, OH, is the CEO and founder of KiMISTRY, which specializes in the unique intersection of trauma, justice and holistic wellness.  Through writings, art, blogs, vlogs, social media content, and community conversation forums, Brazwell creates safer spaces to use story-sharing as a healing approach for strategy and engagement.  She is the author of memoir Browning Pleasantville, her newly released trauma-informed journal workbook Jotnal Book – Phoenix Edition.  Brazwell was a contributing author of Implicit Bias in Schools with a chapter entitled, “Practical Application of Implicit Racial Debiasing” and is working on her new manuscript, The Nine Asks.  Brazwell has performed two TEDx Talks – “Over, Under, Around and Through Trauma” and “Crazy and Black and Poor”. 

“My personal and professional healing journey is a result of understanding – and living in – the intersection of justice, liberation and healing.  The shift in my career from DEI to social justice to trauma-informed social justice is grounding in my understanding and belief that I can’t contribute to or impact the healing of others unless I, too, am in a steady-state of warring for my own holistic wellness.  I can do both.  And in fact, I must. It delights my soul to be able to practice this in community with my YWCA Madison family! “

Autumn Brown (she, her) is a mother, artist, and movement facilitator. A student of Black feminism, freedom movements, and the solidarity economy, she is a worker-owner of AORTA, the Anti-Oppression Resource & Training Alliance, and co-host of the podcast How to Survive the End of the World. Autumn writes speculative fiction and creative non-fiction, and her work has been published in Parenting for Social Justice, Lightspeed Magazine, Pleasure Activism, Octavia’s Brood, the Procyon Science Fiction Anthology, and Revolutionary Mothering. Autumn lives in South Minneapolis with her three brilliant children.

Durryle Brooks, PhD, M.A, (he, him), is an interdisciplinary researcher and a scholar-practitioner from Baltimore, MD. He is the Founder and CEO of Love and Justice Consulting LLC, an organization that provides leaders with diversity and social justice learning opportunities to increase their capacity to effectively and authentically engage difference. Through dialogue, critical self-reflective practice, and compassionate communication, Durryle ‘holds space’ for others to do meaningful work that liberates and transforms the personal and collective for our common good.  

Mya Williams (she/her) is the Community Restorative Justice Coordinator at the YWCA Madison. She works with youth ages 12-17 in weekly Restorative Justice Clubs within community centers in the Madison area. Her work focuses on community building, conflict resolution, non-violent communication, and the collective sharing of experiences and stories of youth in Madison. She is passionate about creating more space for youth to have their voices heard within our communities, social justice, and restorative justice. In her freetime, Mya loves photography, film, urban gardening, and riding her motorcycle.

Bio for Rudy coming soon.

Micah-Jade Coleman Stanback (she/they) is an Assistant Professor of English at The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. Their research explores how cultural notions of childhood innocence rooted in the 19th-century impacted representations of Black childhood in antebellum American. They further explore how the legacies of these representations still affect how we discuss and care for Black children in our contemporary moment. Their work is broadly invested in confronting how constructions of innocence have been used to adultify Black children as a means of limiting their access to nurturing support, education, and other resources.

Kayla McGhee (she/they) is the arts outreach and engagement coordinator for the UW-Madison Division of the Arts. She is a poet and artivist whose work focuses on creating thriving spaces of diversity and equity through various art disciplines. Their most recent work as youth outreach coordinator for Young Chicago Authors is an example of the grassroots and community-centered approach McGhee plans to continue. In the position of arts outreach and engagement coordinator, McGhee runs the Division’s student funding programs, organizes events to build community in the arts, strengthens relationships among campus and community organizations, and fosters spaces for all individuals to have access to art as a tool for wellbeing.

Susan Raffo (she/her) is a writer, cultural worker and bodyworker with a personal practice who is living in Mnisota Makoce, on the unceded traditional homelands of the Dakota people, in the city of Minneapolis. Her interest is in looking at all of the layers of resourcing needed to support community and movements, from support for individual and collective bodies shaped by generational trauma and supremacy to support for infrastructures that are grounded in dignity, care and generational vision. In addition to maintaining an individual practice, Raffo has spent 12 years working with Cara Page on the Healing Histories Project, an abolitionist and anti-eugenics project working in solidarity with health and healing practitioners/workers by holding with dignity and respect the lives and communities they care for and by disrupting abuses of the state.  Raffo is also a core group member of REP, a Black-led network showing up to support others in moments of crisis or urgency, with care and respect for the full dignity and autonomy of those in crisis. Raffo is the author of Queerly Classed (1997), Restricted Access (1999), and Liberated to the Bone (AK Press: 2022). Find her at www.susanraffo.com

erica Kruger (she/her)
Hello all.  I am deeply appreciative of this opportunity to be in community and in practice together in this beautiful Summit space. I identify as a white, cisgender, able-bodied woman who is continually becoming more aware of how these identities shape the way that I see and experience the world around me and how I do (and also fail to) intentionally engage in ways that align with my commitments to racial and social justice.  I am, and will always be, a learner and respect that the knowledge and understanding of something will always be most held by those who are closest to experiencing it. I have been a public educator for more than 20 years, beginning that journey in outdoor education, and am grateful to all that I have learned from students, families and colleagues. I am also deeply appreciative of all that I learn daily as a friend, daughter, mother, avid reader, and tender of growing things. I seek to practice loving generously, listening deeply, learning expansively, and engaging accountably. I look forward to this time together – to learn, grow and (honoring adrienne maree brown’s principles of emergent strategy) shape change with you.

Allison Dungan (she/her) works for Public Health Madison and Dane County and spends her non-working time kicking around Madison’s near eastside. She has been working in and around the nexus of food, racial equity and public health for several years – very much humbled by how much there is to learn each day. Allison grew-up on the Delmarva peninsula and moved to Madison a little over 10 years ago. She loves walking with her family, gardening, cooking for and with friends, as well as playing ultimate Frisbee.

Mari Gasiorowicz (she/her) is an evaluator and Systems Thinking champion at Public Health Madison & Dane County. She has worked as an evaluator for 35 years at in local, state, federal government and non-profit sectors. Her passion for systems thinking is more recent; she completed the Waters Center Systems Thinking Advanced Facilitator Credential in 2022. Mari tries to bring systems and equity lenses to her public health work (and her life, for that matter). She’s also queer, a parent, and a whitewater kayaker.

Sri Vamsi Matta, (Vamsi, he/him), is a Bangalore-based theatre actor, writer, and director. His practice is influenced by his Dalit identity, experience, and social location. The histories of his family and community inform the questions, topics, and mediums that Vamsi engages with through his work. His most recent traveling solo show performance, Come Eat With Me, – an invitation to folks from all caste, faith and race locations – has received a tremendous response in the national and regional media across India. His play, Star in the Sky about the institutional murder of a Dalit PhD scholar in 2016, often seen as a moment of reckoning for Indian academia’s inherent caste biases, won second place at the prestigious Tata Literature Live! Sultan Padamsee Award For Playwriting Sultan Padamsee Playwriting Awards. While in Madison, Vamsi is excited to engage with UW–Madison’s own reckoning with historic inequities and contributing to its present campus culture and goals of fostering a greater sense of inclusion and belonging through the arts. Instagram: srivamsimatta

Padmalatha Ravi (Paddy) is a Therapeutic Arts Facilitator and Artist from Bangalore, India. She works with communities at the intersection of caste, gender, sexuality, neurodivergence and mental health. She is naturally inclined towards the Humanistic Existential School of Psychotherapy, Feminist and Social Constructivists approach that looks at reality as co-created within a social system. 

Her unique experience and ability of combining journalism, filmmaking, photography, applied theatre with the current mental health discourses allows her to make meaning of human experiences and work closely with individuals and communities.  She is currently based in Atlanta, Georgia. Her art practice and mental health care practice are both guided by anti-caste, anti-oppressive principles. 

Maitri Gopalakrishna, PhD,(she/her) is drama therapist, counselling psychologist, community arts practitioner and researcher. She is based in Bangalore, India. Maitri works with performance, community building, preventative care, mental health support, psychotherapy, and training in a variety of institutional and community contexts. Her approach is strongly influenced by intersectional feminism and anti-oppression practice. Maitri is currently the executive director of the Foundation for Arts and Health India (FAHI) and a member of staff at Parivarthan Counselling, Training and Research centre.

Debosmita Dam (she/her) is an interdisciplinary, multimedia artist-researcher, based in Bangalore. With a background in literature and a master’s degree from Srishti Institute in Public Pedagogy and Art Practices, her practice involves creating immersive learning experiences and resources across several visual forms. She has worked in various capacities in art services, production management, and as a workshop facilitator for young people. She was a researcher for the Delhi government on their citywide cultural policy. She also designs and facilitates engagements for children, in forms ranging from exhibitions to shadow puppetry shows and stop motion animation films. She is interested in the pedagogical possibility of applied arts that draws from her experience of being a theater worker and designer, specifically in expanding a visual imagination and vocabulary of the connection between the mind and body.

Bio for Courtney Reed Jenkins coming soon.

Monica Caldwell (she/her)
Monica is a School Mental Health Consultant with the Department of Public Instruction. She has been a social worker for thirty-seven years, with half of her career in child welfare/mental health positions, and the other half in schools. She is a strong advocate for youth and family-driven practices that encourage us to have greater impact through collaboration at all levels. She is excited about all work that guides school districts and their partners to provide a comprehensive continuum of supports that will enhance the well-being and resilience of children, families, and educators in the communities where we live, work and play.

Sri Vamsi Matta, (Vamsi, he/him), is a Bangalore-based theatre actor, writer, and director. His practice is influenced by his Dalit identity, experience, and social location. The histories of his family and community inform the questions, topics, and mediums that Vamsi engages with through his work. His most recent traveling solo show performance, Come Eat With Me, – an invitation to folks from all caste, faith and race locations – has received a tremendous response in the national and regional media across India. His play, Star in the Sky about the institutional murder of a Dalit PhD scholar in 2016, often seen as a moment of reckoning for Indian academia’s inherent caste biases, won second place at the prestigious Tata Literature Live! Sultan Padamsee Award For Playwriting Sultan Padamsee Playwriting Awards. While in Madison, Vamsi is excited to engage with UW–Madison’s own reckoning with historic inequities and contributing to its present campus culture and goals of fostering a greater sense of inclusion and belonging through the arts. Instagram: srivamsimatta

Padmalatha Ravi (Paddy) is a Therapeutic Arts Facilitator and Artist from Bangalore, India. She works with communities at the intersection of caste, gender, sexuality, neurodivergence and mental health. She is naturally inclined towards the Humanistic Existential School of Psychotherapy, Feminist and Social Constructivists approach that looks at reality as co-created within a social system. 

Her unique experience and ability of combining journalism, filmmaking, photography, applied theatre with the current mental health discourses allows her to make meaning of human experiences and work closely with individuals and communities.  She is currently based in Atlanta, Georgia. Her art practice and mental health care practice are both guided by anti-caste, anti-oppressive principles. 

Bio for Kai Mishlove coming soon.

Marcela Kyngesburye (she/her/ella)
For over 15 years, my career has revolved around various roles, including engineer, healer, transformational coach, and teacher. Throughout this journey, my utmost dedication has been to ignite curiosity, nurture imagination, and cultivate well-being, not just for myself but also for the individuals I’ve had the privilege to serve. My life has been a continuous adventure, greatly enriched by the presence of exceptional people. My unwavering commitment to intentional living and mindfulness led me to create the “Bliss in All the Right Places: Reinvent Yourself in 90 Days” program, aimed at helping others transform their lives. I find immense fulfillment in posing thought-provoking questions and offering choices that empower individuals to break free from judgments, opening the path to joy and ease. To learn more about my work, please visit my website at https://www.marcelakyngesburye.com/.

Shelton Evans
Currently, Shelton is a “seed” facilitator for Natural Circles of Support, a non-profit organization that partners with several school districts in the southern region of Wisconsin to provide an emotional space to support youth, as well as, designated staff who support those youth during their school day. Shelton facilitates Circles weekly for 3-12 grade levels. Shelton has been influential in consulting with the administration, staff, and communities of partnering districts with strategies to address situations of disproportionality. 

Shelton currently developed a concept of conversation called ReelTallk A.V.E. that he currently utilizes while facilitating sessions and coaching staff. Shelton utilizes “ReelTallk A.V.E.” as an avenue to affirm, validate, and empower youth and the adults who support the youth.  During difficult times when perspective isn’t present. Shelton has plans for ReelTallk A.V.E. to become a prominent entity to affirm, empower, and validate youth and adults all over the world. 

Shelton values the strength of a woman. Witnessing his mother’s journey through life was very influential in his respect for women as a whole. Shelton has always valued spirituality and family first and foremost. Spirituality has provided balance to his life’s journey!!

Julie Andersen (she/her) has worked for 40 years in social, racial, economic, and environmental justice, crossing multiple boundaries to connect people with each other, ideas, and their individual and collective power. Her career in nonprofits and philanthropy has encompassed community organizing, international development, domestic violence prevention, and the intersection of inner healing with systemic change. She has worked with youth in North Carolina and Washington, DC, with women in Kenya, and marginalized neighborhoods in Des Moines. She has served as Executive Director, Interim ED, and other roles in many organizations in the greater Madison area including WCCN, SERRV International, Wisconsin Apprentice Organizers Project, UNIDOS Against Domestic Violence, End Abuse, and CORE. She is also a professional life coach. In addition to learning from her vocational and other life experiences, Julie’s educational degrees include a BA in Elementary/Special Education, an MS in International Development Studies, and a graduate certificate in Sustainability Leadership.

Julie Swanson (she/her) is an end of life doula, systems story coach and circle host.  She started What’s Possible Now, LLC as a sandbox for her learning journeys to explore new ways of working, learning, and healing.  Julie companions people through transitions, hosts circles and co-creates learning journeys. You can learn more about Julie on Linked In, What’s Possible Now Facebook Page and  Pick My Brain.

Mouna Algahaithi (she/her) is a passionate educator and community builder. In her work with PBS Wisconsin Education, she offers playful and hands-on professional development workshops for educators and designs and facilitates family and child-centered educational programs. When she isn’t conspiring to increase a love of learning, she loves doing improv, traveling, writing, cooking, being outdoors and spending time with her precious baby boy and husband.

Kelly Saran (she/her) is a multimedia producer passionate about engaging with communities to tell meaningful stories in an authentic way.

She currently works at PBS Wisconsin as a series producer of the TV program Wisconsin Life, a storytelling series profiling individuals and organizations. She has a particular dedication to tell stories that explore cultural identity, food sovereignty and our connection to nature. Her and her team produced the Food Traditions series, a project sharing food, culture, and identity through traditional foods and recipes. Kelly has been honored with several awards including a Chicago/Midwest Emmy. She has also assisted in the production of other programs including Why Race Matters, a digital series elevating issues of importance affecting Wisconsin’s Black communities.

Before her time at PBS Wisconsin, Kelly worked at Milwaukee PBS and several grassroot non-profits including the Milwaukee Muslim Women’s Coalition. She acquired her Bachelor of Science degree with a focus on Agricultural Journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She enjoys camping, improv, and spending time with family.

Jay Young is the Marketing & Event Manager at YWCA Madison with over 20 years of experience in marketing. Specializing in event planning and fundraising. Jay uses that experience to help bring awareness to YWCA Madison’s mission and work in the community. Jay is also a graphic designer and a self-described “Blerd” aka Black Nerd, who’s passionate about Black/Queer representation in film & television, and pop culture. Jay is also a huge Marvel/MCU fanboy and a collector of designer art toys, Superplastic, and Funko Pop! Instagram: @poplifestyle21

Kimberly Brazwell, native of Columbus, OH, is the CEO and founder of KiMISTRY, which specializes in the unique intersection of trauma, justice and holistic wellness.  Through writings, art, blogs, vlogs, social media content, and community conversation forums, Brazwell creates safer spaces to use story-sharing as a healing approach for strategy and engagement.  She is the author of memoir Browning Pleasantville, her newly released trauma-informed journal workbook Jotnal Book – Phoenix Edition.  Brazwell was a contributing author of Implicit Bias in Schools with a chapter entitled, “Practical Application of Implicit Racial Debiasing” and is working on her new manuscript, The Nine Asks.  Brazwell has performed two TEDx Talks – “Over, Under, Around and Through Trauma” and “Crazy and Black and Poor”. 

“My personal and professional healing journey is a result of understanding – and living in – the intersection of justice, liberation and healing.  The shift in my career from DEI to social justice to trauma-informed social justice is grounding in my understanding and belief that I can’t contribute to or impact the healing of others unless I, too, am in a steady-state of warring for my own holistic wellness.  I can do both.  And in fact, I must. It delights my soul to be able to practice this in community with my YWCA Madison family!”

Susan Raffo (she/her) is a writer, cultural worker and bodyworker with a personal practice who is living in Mnisota Makoce, on the unceded traditional homelands of the Dakota people, in the city of Minneapolis. Her interest is in looking at all of the layers of resourcing needed to support community and movements, from support for individual and collective bodies shaped by generational trauma and supremacy to support for infrastructures that are grounded in dignity, care and generational vision. In addition to maintaining an individual practice, Raffo has spent 12 years working with Cara Page on the Healing Histories Project, an abolitionist and anti-eugenics project working in solidarity with health and healing practitioners/workers by holding with dignity and respect the lives and communities they care for and by disrupting abuses of the state.  Raffo is also a core group member of REP, a Black-led network showing up to support others in moments of crisis or urgency, with care and respect for the full dignity and autonomy of those in crisis. Raffo is the author of Queerly Classed (1997), Restricted Access (1999), and Liberated to the Bone (AK Press: 2022). Find her at www.susanraffo.com

kristy kumar (she/her) is an experienced social justice organizer and manager working to co-create anti-violent, joyful, and equitable communities. She currently serves as the City of Madison’s first Equity and Social Justice Division Manager for the Department of Civil Rights. She is tasked with the exciting work of co-building the City’s new Equity and Social Justice Division. kumar and her team oversee a wide ranging portfolio including, the Racial Equity and Social Justice Initiative, Disability Rights and Services, Neighborhood Resource Teams, Language Access, and Environmental Justice.

Her work experience includes leadership in community and youth-organizing, higher education, coalition-building, interpersonal violence prevention, and community care. She was a Fulbright Scholar in Malaysia and has worked with a number of organizations on anti-human trafficking efforts. kumar received her M.A. in Human Rights focusing on race, gender, and equity from the University of Denver and a B.A. in Political Science and Global Poverty and Practices from the University of California, Berkeley. She’s a proud first-generation immigrant whose passions include gleaning wisdom from her ancestors’ non-recipes, day-dreaming about her next meal and who she can share it with, art-making, and exploring the woods with her partner, dog, and son.

Micah-Jade Coleman Stanback is an Assistant Professor of English at The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. Their research explores how cultural notions of childhood innocence rooted in the 19th-century impacted representations of Black childhood in antebellum American. They further explore how the legacies of these representations still affect how we discuss and care for Black children in our contemporary moment. Their work is broadly invested in confronting how constructions of innocence have been used to adultify Black children as a means of limiting their access to nurturing support, education, and other resources.

Kayla McGhee (she/they) is the arts outreach and engagement coordinator for the UW-Madison Division of the Arts. She is a poet and artivist whose work focuses on creating thriving spaces of diversity and equity through various art disciplines. Their most recent work as youth outreach coordinator for Young Chicago Authors is an example of the grassroots and community-centered approach McGhee plans to continue. In the position of arts outreach and engagement coordinator, McGhee runs the Division’s student funding programs, organizes events to build community in the arts, strengthens relationships among campus and community organizations, and fosters spaces for all individuals to have access to art as a tool for wellbeing.

Mya Williams (she/her) is the Community Restorative Justice Coordinator at the YWCA Madison. She works with youth ages 12-17 in weekly Restorative Justice Clubs within community centers in the Madison area. Her work focuses on community building, conflict resolution, non-violent communication, and the collective sharing of experiences and stories of youth in Madison. She is passionate about creating more space for youth to have their voices heard within our communities, social justice, and restorative justice. In her freetime, Mya loves photography, film, urban gardening, and riding her motorcycle.

Born and raised in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Stephanie (she/her) moved to Madison, Wisconsin, in 2015. She graduated with honors from Vel Phillips Memorial High School as an ESL student and from UW–Madison with degrees in Environmental Studies and Political Science and with certificates in Chicané/Latiné Studies and Public Policy. Stephanie founded the Memorial High School Green Club after awareness of the interaction of systems of oppression led her to climate justice activism. The Green Club along other high schoolers climate justice activists helped organize the 2019 Madison Climate Strike, out of which emerged the Youth Climate Action Team (YCAT), a nonprofit that mobilizes young people to demand climate justice. Stephanie was subsequently invited to join the Wisconsin Governor’s Task Force on Climate Change, which issued its landmark report in December 2020. Stephanie now works as the Madison Community Organizer for Voces de la Frontera, an organization committed to intersectional understanding of advocacy for immigrants rights and youth.

Mickey Mestiza (they/them)
Strategic Social Justice Marketing is my “career.” Teaching Community Restorative Justice Engineering is my “role.” Playing is my passion. The best way to learn is to teach; I was born determined to create community abundance. We deserve to feel Joy together. My heart is a bridge from Nezahualcoyotl Mexico to Madison Wisconsin. Through actively decolonizing I am reimagining my possibilities as a trans, DACA recipient and becoming a XicanX innovator.

Bio for Joya Headley coming soon.

Bio for Jason Rivera coming soon.

Tony DelaRosa (he/they/siya) is the son of Pampangan and Caviteño immigrants. Tony is an award-winning Filipino/x-American Educator, Racial Justice Consultant, Ethnic Studies Community-Engaged Scholar, Spoken Word Poet, and Cross-Coalition Builder.  He received his BA in Asian Studies at the University of Cincinnati and his Masters in Education with a focus on Arts Non-Profit Management from Harvard University, and now is pursuing his PhD at the University of Wisconsin Madison to help schools in PK-12 and Higher Education translate their ethnic studies policies into effective and equitable practices. His work has been featured on Hulu, NPR, CNN, Harvard Ed Magazine, and elsewhere. He is most recently the author of “Teaching the Invisible Race: Embodying a Pro-Asian American Lens in Schools” with Jossey-Bass / Wiley Publishing, which is out for pre-order today!

David J. O’Connor (he/him) is originally from and is a member of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa (Ojibwe) in northern Wisconsin. In January 2012, he became the American Indian Studies Consultant at the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI). In David’s role at DPI, he supports school districts’ efforts to provide instruction on the history, culture and tribal sovereignty of Wisconsin’s American Indian nations and tribal communities, often referenced as Wisconsin Act 31 and the education of Native American students.

David provides training opportunities and presents at conferences and workshops throughout the state of Wisconsin on American Indian education and studies. He also provides general consultation on issues related to the education of American Indian students. David serves as liaison to American Indian nations and tribal communities of Wisconsin; tribal education departments, Wisconsin Indian Education Association (WIEA), Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Council (GLITC) and the Special Committee on State-Tribal Relations.

David received both his Masters of Science (M.S.) degree in Educational Leadership Policy and Analysis (ELPA) and Bachelors of Arts (B.A.) degree in History with certificates in American Indian Studies and Chican@ and Latin@ Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is also a graduate of the School District of Ashland where he did his K-12 education and a graduate of the Bad River Tribal Head Start where he started his education and his early learning.

Cynthia Lin is a facilitator and organizer at heart who centers connection and curiosity. She has recently been Deputy Director of Movement Building at the National Network of Abortion Funds and is currently board president of local member fund WMF Wisconsin. As a consultant and strategist, she supports movement leaders and organizations to embody purpose, strategy, and their values in practice.

Lizzie Bruno is an educator and somatic coach who works with individuals and small groups to come back to the body as a wise and necessary sight of healing. Lizzie is deeply committed to listening to the land, body and rhythms of nature as a base from which to heal and develop. As a white bodied person who seeks repair, Lizzie is motivated by a commitment to dis-embody white christian supremacy and tear down systems of oppression as we build systems and technologies that meet our community needs for the sake of ending cycles of harm. Lizzie knows so much more is possible when we build collective practices of power with consent and pleasure.

Andrea White (she/her) is a housing case manager, Artist, and Social Justice activist  with an extensive background addressing issues of discrimination, equity, and social justice. Andrea is currently the housing case manager for the Steps to Stability program at YWCA Madison, a program that offers a tenant education course and short term case management helping participants obtain/maintain housing. Andrea is also Community Service Co- Chair for the Urban League of Greater Madison Young Professional.She was also recently elected Vice President of the Urban League Young Professionals for 2023-2025 . Andrea is also a member of the Homeless services consortium(HSC).She serves as a member of the doubled up committee at the HSC. Andrea is an Alumn of the University of Wisconsin Odyssey program, and is working towards her bachelors degree in social work at UW Madison. She has been involved in anti-oppression/anti-discrimination work Since 2020, collaborating with many nonprofits in the Madison area.

My name is Roxanna Sobrevilla, a loving mother of 3 children . I recently graduated from the UW Odyssey program in spring of 2023. I found a passion in housing justice after being incarcerated and overcoming barriers and being homeless due to my background. After taking the Steps to Stability program at YWCA I was able to stabilize myself and my children and I want to use my voice to help families and anybody who is experiencing the same thing . I want to get the housing justice that everyone deserves!

Katey Nelson (she/her)
Katey is passionate about housing justice and focuses on planting seeds of empowerment and advocacy within communities. Having helped develop a tenant education program with restorative justice components, she was able to support families in obtaining sustainable housing and develop advocacy skills. As the Director of Operations at YWCA Madison, she hopes to continue to strengthen communities through education, activism, and leadership.

Katey is a mother of three great kids with very individual personalities. She loves live music, specifically hip hop and old school r&b. She is the Policy and Procedure Chair for Urban League Young Professionals group and an active member for their Advocacy Committee. She hopes to continue to broaden her community activism and make a difference in Madison.

Diane Eddings, Housing Manager at Bayview
Since January 2018, Diane has managed Bayview’s affordable housing. Prior to working at Bayview, Diane worked for 17 years in affordable housing at another non-profit in Madison.

Diane’s knowledge of affordable housing regulations combined with her Social Work background enable her to work within the restrictions of the housing rules while treating people with respect and dignity. Bayview’s model of affordable housing and supportive services at Bayview’s community center give residents the support they need to maintain stable housing while pursuing their goals.

Bayview is undergoing an exciting redevelopment over the next two years. Diane was part of the redevelopment planning team that co-created a unique community while centering resident voice.

Diane is a single mom who has raised her now 18-year-old son with help from family and friends.  She loves the water and goes there to relax and find answers.

Gabrielle, Resident at Bayview
Gabrielle is a proud mother of five children. She has lived at Bayview since 2018. Gabrielle is an active member of the community, participating in Bayview Leaders, community input meetings, and cooking meals. She is an open-hearted person that likes to help people.

Gabrielle is open to new things and is always thinking of ideas and projects. She loves to cook and has her own catering business called Gabby’s Meals and has a cookbook too.  Gabrielle has a hair business called Gabby’s House of Braids and Beauty. She has a book of all her hair designs. Her future goal is to start a podcast to keep the community up-to-date on what is happening at Bayview.

Gabrielle appreciates the housing stability at Bayview. She wants her home to be a safe haven and feels Bayview is able to provide that.

For the past 14 years, I, Terrianna (She/Her/Hers) have used dance as a creative expression of my theatric full-of-life attitude. A native of Detroit Michigan, I begin my career as a dancer studying performance arts with a focus on dance at Cass Technical High School. At Cass Tech, I danced all four years and eventually became captain/choreographer of the Cass Technical High School Marching Band Majorette Team. Following Highschool and entering college I joined the Michigan Tech Dance Team where I trained in ballet, modern dance, jazz, and hip hop. While on the dance team, I mainly performed at college basketball games and football halftime shows. In 2021, I found KLJ and began signing up for the Saturday workshops to pick up my passion for dance again. In 2022 I decided to join the company to further develop my skill in dance and start performing again. Today, I enjoy dancing and getting to know my fellow company members. My main areas of focus include hip-hop, modern dance, majorette, and jazz.

Mara Rosenberg was born in and grew up dancing in Madison, WI. She trained at the Madison Professional Dance Center from former members of Hubbard Street Dance, River North Dance Chicago and Alberta Ballet Company. She danced competitively for three years. After high school, Mara performed professionally with Madison Contemporary Dance. She attended Grinnell College receiving a Bachelor’s in Sociology, as well as completing college dance courses and performing with the dance ensemble. Mara has taught dance for the past 7 years, focusing on healthy physiology and empowerment through all styles and levels. She is now dancing for KLJ Movement and teaching dance in the community.

Kacie Lucchini Butcher (she/her) is an award-winning public historian whose work is dedicated to building empathy and advancing social justice. She is currently the Director of the Rebecca M. Blank Center for Campus History, formerly known as the UW-Madison Public History Project — a university-wide effort to uncover and give voice to the histories of discrimination, exclusion, and resistance on campus. The project culminated in the Sifting & Reckoning physical and digital exhibitions, public lectures, curricular materials and more, that give space for the Madison community to reckon with this history. The Center was opened in summer of 2023 to continue and expand upon that work. She is active in the public history community and is the co-chair of the Membership Committee for the National Council on Public History.

Marcela Kyngesburye (she/her/ella)
For over 15 years, my career has revolved around various roles, including engineer, healer, transformational coach, and teacher. Throughout this journey, my utmost dedication has been to ignite curiosity, nurture imagination, and cultivate well-being, not just for myself but also for the individuals I’ve had the privilege to serve. My life has been a continuous adventure, greatly enriched by the presence of exceptional people. My unwavering commitment to intentional living and mindfulness led me to create the “Bliss in All the Right Places: Reinvent Yourself in 90 Days” program, aimed at helping others transform their lives. I find immense fulfillment in posing thought-provoking questions and offering choices that empower individuals to break free from judgments, opening the path to joy and ease. To learn more about my work, please visit my website at https://www.marcelakyngesburye.com/.

Sandra Rivera (Ella/She/Her/Hers)
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world,” – Nelson Mandela.  
In my 22 years as an educator with Madison Metropolitan School District, I’ve been privileged to grow deep roots in the Madison community that have helped me grow personally and professionally.  I am currently a Bilingual School Social Worker at Nuestro Mundo Community School and proud Nuestro Mundo Puma.   I am also a member of the MMSD CORE Mindfulness Team.  Education is my passion and I am committed to lifting students, staff and families.  Helping students in their educational journey by supporting home/school communication, engagement, Welcoming Schools, racial/social justice, social emotional learning, mental health/self-care and kindness.  Having a mindfulness practice has supported me in deepening my racial awareness through being present, growing compassion, kindness, love and taking action on purpose.  What I know for sure is that Racial justice and Racial healing can happen, only in community through caring for and supporting each other. 

Shahanna McKinney-Baldon (she/ her), is Clinical Program Co-Director, Evaluation Implementation Specialist, and Co-Principal Investigator for Shalom Curriculum Project at the UW’s Wisconsin Center for Education Research. She has held leadership positions focused on racial equity for large public education institutions, including MMSD Chief Diversity Officer. In addition to her work for racial equity in public education, Shahanna is also a longtime thought leader on racial and ethnic diversity in the American Jewish community. In this role, she leads Edot Midwest Regional Jewish Diversity and Racial Justice Collaborative and the Jews of Color and Allies Advisory for the Reconstructionist Movement, one of the major denominations of the Jewish faith. Shahanna’s community activities include sitting on the Board of Governors for Reconstructing Judaism and a research and performance project on Madame Goldye Steiner, the pioneering Wisconsin African American vocalist who sang Jewish liturgical music in the 1920’s and 1930’s. She lives in Madison.

My name is Isaac Trussoni (he/him) and I am a local reporter with Madison365. I have been in Madison since 2015 when I came to attend UW-Madison. I have a passion for music, culture, and discussions around social ecology. This is what drew me into studying Human Development and Family Studies before moving onto African American Studies in graduate school. I especially love to imagine ways Hip Hop can be continuously used as a revolutionary tool while also exploring the barriers both natural and artificial to that goal. 

Growing up in rural Wisconsin made me aware of my identity very early on and helped shape my perspective on racial experiences. I try my best to consistently expand my perspectives and commit to change and philosophy that centers the wellbeing of people in both practical and conceptual ways. I look forward to continuously growing with people while centering those often left on the margins. 

Bill Baldon (he/him/his)
I’m a husband and father of two children. I have enjoyed coaching youth sports and when there is time connecting with nature through fly fishing.  I am a leader in restorative justice, specializing in the circle process and racial and gender justice facilitation. As a manager for the YWCA Madison Restorative Justice in Education Program I have implemented programs in the schools and in the community. My work includes coordinating programs to dismantle the school to prison pipeline in the Madison Municipal Court and schools throughout Dane County.  

In addition to managing and implementing programming, I have conducted adult and youth training in a diverse range of communities from urban and rural school, juvenile justice, religious communities settings. Prior to joining the YWCA I advocated for youth, adults and families in both the civil and criminal justice system. Through my past work and current work, I bring my values of personal and systemic transformation and co-liberation. I will also bring to this partnership experience co-creating spaces for learning and unlearning racial justice centered on contemplative, and somatic practices.

Eugenia Highland Granados (she/her/ella)
Born and raised in Mexico City, Eugenia is a Mama, a creative, a cook, and  lover of her roots and Cultura. She has a BFA in Graphic Design from Mexico and a Masters in Life Sciences Communication from UW Madison. Eugenia is the Restorative Justice Program Director for the YWCA Madison and has been a Restorative Justice practitioner since 2011. Since Eugenia migrated from Mexico to Madison in 2008, she has become an impassioned advocate for youth of color and joined the Restorative Justice movement as the medicine to disrupt cycles of systemic harm and violence and birth cycles of healing. Eugenia was part of the M List awardees in 2016 for teacher and mentors, was recognized by Madison 365  in 2019 as one of the Si Se Puede list of the most influential Latinx in Wisconsin” and recently was honored as one of the recipients for the 2022 International Women’s Day Trailblazer Award.

Shirin Kestin (she/te/heyya) – Restorative Justice Coach
Shirin (pronounced she-reen) has been a Restorative Justice Coach with the YWCA for over six years. Her pronouns are She/Te/Heyya. Te and Heyya both mean “she” in the Coptic (ancient Egyptian) and Arabic languages, respectively. Shirin is a Non-Black Person of Color parent who previously worked for  the Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD) for several years and has been a MMSD parent since 2005.
Shirin’s lived experience informs her role as a YWCA Restorative Justice Coach. Born in Egypt and growing up in New York, Shirin faced the challenges most first generation immigrants face – “who am I?” These challenges were exacerbated after transferring to a predominantly White high school in Wisconsin. After many years of struggling with “being unseen,” Shirin now embraces her identity as a deaf/hard of hearing, Coptic, Egyptian, American, Woman of Color. She used to hide her identity just so she would fit the “norm” and be accepted by others. Today, she recognizes her  identities as assets and not deficits.
Shirin’s role as a Restorative Justice Coach gives her the opportunity to take her experience of “being othered” to empower and uplift people. Support them in finding their voices in a society that does not see them, and often does not want to see them. She works with adults to help them see their students and each other. With her conflict management skills, empathy, compassion, and (lots of) hope, Shirin coaches adults and youth with tools to pause before making assumptions that can result in othering others.

Shirin believes that Racial and Restorative Justice allows people to see each other, not only as individuals, but also as part of an interconnected community. Affinity Circles are such community spaces which offer healing for people to find and uplift their voices among those who share the same experiences. Today, we will hold an affinity space for parents who specifically identify as Black, Indigenous, People Of Color. 

Ginger Francis, MSW, CAPSW [she/hers] is the owner and psychotherapist with Shifting Current, LLC, a private mental health practice located in Madison. As an equity-focused social work professional, she embodies an active commitment to dismantling racism and other intersecting forms of oppression and their impacts on mental health and wellbeing within her spheres of influence. She has over seventeen years of broad social work experience ranging from intensive support services to complex program and policy administration, multi-disciplinary team development and facilitation, personnel management, strategic planning and implementation to leading anti-racism training and organizational change management efforts. Working at a multitude of levels over her career has strengthened her ability to see individual experiences within the greater context of societal structures. Ginger is a healer, change agent, and lifelong learner who believes in cultivating the potential in people and harnessing the power of the healing process. To learn more, please visit: https://www.shiftingcurrent.com/.

Dani Rischall has been working in the field of community mental health for over 15 years. In her current role as Executive Director at Chrysalis Inc. a non-profit in Madison, WI, Dani supports the organization’s mission to promote mental health and substance use recovery by supporting work opportunities that encourage hope, healing, and wellness. Dani is a strong believer that social and racial justice efforts are vital to all system change efforts. With a background in Social Work, Dani places a strong emphasis on holistic wellness, creating communities of care, and centering the voices of those with lived experiences with mental health and substance use challenges.

Erika Rosales is an undocumented immigrant and a DACA recipient. She is also an immigration activist, an artist and dancer who believes that art is medicine that heals us. Currently, Erika serves her community and the world toward collective healing in multiple ways. Erika is the Director of the Center for Dreamers at UW-Madison where she supports undocumented individuals. She also currently works at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research leading organizational social justice work. Additionally, Erika is a 4W Director of Immigration and Human Rights.

Erika is also passionate about supporting folks, especially BIPOC folks, with their individual healing and decolonizing journey through a community-centered approach. She is an Infinite Possibilities and Consciousness Guide and Somatic Healing Practitioner weaving her somatic healing practices, mind-body knowledge, spirituality and social justice expertise to support others through their healing and expansion. She most recently joined the nINA Collective as an affiliate to enhance this work. 

David J. O’Connor (he,him) is originally from and is a member of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa (Ojibwe) in northern Wisconsin. In January 2012, he became the American Indian Studies Consultant at the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI). In David’s role at DPI, he supports school districts’ efforts to provide instruction on the history, culture and tribal sovereignty of Wisconsin’s American Indian nations and tribal communities, often referenced as Wisconsin Act 31 and the education of Native American students.

David provides training opportunities and presents at conferences and workshops throughout the state of Wisconsin on American Indian education and studies. He also provides general consultation on issues related to the education of American Indian students. David serves as liaison to American Indian nations and tribal communities of Wisconsin; tribal education departments, Wisconsin Indian Education Association (WIEA), Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Council (GLITC) and the Special Committee on State-Tribal Relations.

David received both his Masters of Science (M.S.) degree in Educational Leadership Policy and Analysis (ELPA) and Bachelors of Arts (B.A.) degree in History with certificates in American Indian Studies and Chican@ and Latin@ Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is also a graduate of the School District of Ashland where he did his K-12 education and a graduate of the Bad River Tribal Head Start where he started his education and his early learning.