is a social justice educator and yoga teacher on Shoshone, Ute, Paiute, and Goshute land now known as Salt Lake City, Utah. He leads workshops and trainings around the country on diversity, equity, and inclusion. As a yoga teacher with twenty-four years of experience, he leads workshops, retreats, and segments in teacher trainings; teaches at conferences; and has been an artist-in-residence on dozens of college campuses. In 2008, Jacoby cofounded Third Root Community Health Center in Brooklyn to work at the nexus of healing and social justice. Since 2006, Jacoby has taught Queer and Trans Yoga, a space for queer folks to unfurl and cultivate resilience, for which he received Yoga Journal’s Game Changer Award in 2014 and Good Karma Award in 2016. After receiving prenatal yoga training in 2021, Jacoby now offers a Queer and Trans Cen tered Prenatal Yoga online; he also offers LGBTQ inclusion workshops in prenatal yoga teacher trainings so that queer families can be anticipated and supported in their process. Jacoby has taught in schools, hospitals, nonprofit and business offices, a maximum-security prison, a recovery center, a cancer center, LGBTQ centers, gyms, a veteran’s center, and yoga studios. He is the author of A Queer Dharma: Yoga and Meditation for Lib eration, released in 2021, a critical love letter to teachings and practitioners of yoga and Buddhism, and he serves on the board of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship. More of his teachings can be found at jacobyballard.net

Contact at: jacoby.ballard@gmail.com

is the cofounder of Yoga Service Council at Omega Institute and Urban Sangha Project in NYC. Bringing her heart, wisdom, and compassion to the intersection of Dharma, yoga, and mindfulness, she shares her offerings as a university lecturer, public speaker, and Bud dhist philosophy and meditation teacher. Leslie worked as the Director of Teacher Trainings for Lineage Project where she shared the practices of yoga and mindfulness with incarcerated and system-involved youth for over a decade. She also facilitated a mindfulness and cognitive behav ioral therapy intervention with the youth communities on Rikers Island through the Lionheart Foundation and the National Institute of Health and shared these practices with nonprofits in NYC. Leslie is also passion ate about supporting frontline communities to thrive in their work and training future leaders through the Peace Corps’ Jaffe Fellows and Teach ing Residents at Teachers College at Columbia University, as well as the Dalai Lama Fellows. Leslie is a contributor to Best Practices for Yoga in a Criminal Justice Setting, and to scholarship, books, and journals. In 2020 she was a Sojourner Truth Leadership Fellow through Auburn Seminary, and was voted by her peers as one of the twelve powerful women in the Mindfulness Movement. More of her teachings can be found at lesliebooker.com/ .

Contact at: booker@lesliebooker.com

is a trainer, advocate, and practitioner of nonviolence, restorative justice, and mindfulness. He works to support healing for individuals, collectives, and societies by combining various organizing and healing modalities, working in prisons and jails, high schools and youth groups, and with activist communities around the country. More of his teachings can be found in his book, Healing Resistance: A Radically Different Response to Harm.

Contact at: kazu@buildingbelonging.us

is a father, poet, practitioner, strategist, designer, and philanthropic and capital advisor. He is the founder and former director of the Movement Strategy Center, curator at Full Spectrum Labs, and principal at Full Spectrum Capital Partners. He is an official dance instructor at the intersection of wild possibility and urgent practicality, where play and unleashed potential find each other. Taj thrives building community around the shared questions that matter most in our lives: How can we build the relationships and express the love needed to transform our world? How do we support leaders and communities to unlock potential and possibility, see the ecosystem and the whole, and design and act in ways that bend the long arc of history toward justice? Working with transformational leaders, small teams, networks, and anchor institutions, Taj enjoys exploring what it means to nurture the community we have and create the community we need. What are our sacred responsibilities as stewards of land, capital, energy, and life to past generations and our children's grandchildren? By living into these questions together, Taj works to create space and fertile ground for seeds to be planted and nurtured, for fruit to be harvested, and for us to thrive in the web of our water sheds and relational ecosystems. Taj lives with his family as a guest on unceded Ohlone land, known by many as Oakanda (Oakland), California. He is a proud trickster, undercover mystic, aspiring Ho-Tei, long time Zen practitioner, and a son of a Baptist minister and a keeper of the Sacred Feminine.

Contact at: taj@fullspectrumlabs.org

is a 1.5 generation Filipina-American immigrant. She holds an MA in Community-Engaged Education and Social Change from Claremont Graduate University and BA from UCLA in English. What guides her work in this research is kindness, love, and a respect for others. She wishes to conduct herself as an accompanist to the work and the community these organizations are both a part of and serve. She recognizes her privileges and positionality as a US citizen, her proximity to whiteness, and being a middle-class cisgender woman. Her values are always evolving, but at the core, there is love. There is compassion. There is protectiveness. These do not change. However, the way they present themselves and the way that she conducts herself through these values, she hopes, progresses as she continues to learn through opportunities. Nonetheless, she is grateful to work alongside the organizations and learn from their advocacy and actions.

Contact at: tjuliauy@gmail.com

is the founder of CTZNWELL, a movement that is democratizing well-being 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 twenty 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 well-being into social and political action, working in collaboration with community organizers, spiritual leaders, and policy makers to transform systems from the inside out. Learn more about her work at www.americandetox.co/ and ctznwell.org

Contact at: kerri@americandetox.com

is a sought-after speaker and trainer on the topic of trauma-informed care, embodied social justice, trauma-informed education, and resilience. She has been teaching yoga and movement for over twenty-five years and has been doing clinical work and training for fifteen years. Originally from Beirut, Lebanon, Hala has dedicated her life to the study of trauma, justice, and building resilience. She earned her BA in Psychology from Columbia University and an MA in Counseling Psychology and an MA in Community Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute. Hala is also trained in Somatic Experiencing, a body-based psychotherapy that helps resolve trauma and its symptoms. Hala is cofounder of Off the Mat Into the World, a training organization to bridge yoga and activism within a social justice frame work. She has repeatedly served as an Adjunct Professor at Pitzer College. She leads Collective Resilience trauma-informed yoga and somatics trainings nationally. Hala also trains direct service providers and educators to be trauma informed and culturally responsive. She leads a monthly online membership program called Radical Well-Being, which supports people through embodied practices and community building. She is the author of Peace from Anxiety: Get Grounded, Build Resilience and Stay Connected Amidst the Chaos.

Contact at: hala@halakhouri.com

is a neuroscientist, political and learning scientist, medical anthropologist, social entrepreneur, public speaker, and certified yoga and meditation instructor. She completed her undergraduate studies at Pitzer College, and her MA and PhD at UCLA. She is an internationally recognized thought leader in the interdisciplinary field that examines the role of social justice, art, and mindfulness in neuroscience. She specializes in researching and teaching about the relationship between mindfulness, community alternative medicine, and social justice with an emphasis on examining the relationship between individual and collective awareness as it relates to the neuroscience of well-being and the healing of intergenerational trauma. She is currently a post-doctoral fellow in Public Health at the T. Denny Sanford Institute for Empathy and Compassion in Human Health and Social Justice at UCSD. She is also the codirector of Mobius, a home for the development of Liberatory Technology, and the founder of MindHeart Consulting. She is also the founder of MindHeart Collective, a contemplative tech company that she founded to develop AI-integrated platforms, applications, and courses grounded in neuroscience, the Science of Social Justice framework, and the Systems-Based Awareness Map (SBAM), a theoretical map of human awareness she developed and launched with the partnership of MoMA NY to explore our capacity to heal intergenerational trauma and promote the well-being of collective nervous systems. In 2021, she was named “One-To-Watch” by Mindful magazine, and she made the November cover of Yoga Journal as a “Game Changer” for her work bridging neuroscience, social justice, and contemplative practices. In 2022, she was also named one of the 10 Most Powerful Women in Mindfulness by Mindful magazine.

Contact at: sbenin84@gmail.com

is the founder of Lumos Transforms and creator of The Resilience Toolkit, a model that promotes embodied self-awareness and self-regulation in an ecologically sensitive framework and social justice context. She is known for her unique ability to connect with people of all types by holding powerful healing spaces, weaving complex concepts into accessible narratives, and creating synergistic and collaborative learning communities that nourish people’s innate capacity for healing, wellness, and connection. Originally licensed as a nurse midwife, Nkem has extensive post-graduate training in complementary health modalities and emotional therapies and has worked in settings ranging from large-volume hospitals to mobile community clinics. She brings an abundance of experience as a clinician, educator, researcher, and community strategist to innovative programs that address trauma and inequity, build resilience, and shape liberatory change for individuals and organizations across sectors, both in her home country (US) and internationally. She regularly provides trauma-informed subject matter expertise to organizations, initiatives, and governmental agencies. Nkem is particularly interested in working alongside people most impacted by violence and marginalization. Most recently, she led a multi-year embodied diversity, equity, inclusion, and antiracism initiative for the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services. Learn more about her at https://lumostransforms.com/team/nkem-ndefo/ and https://theresiliencetoolkit.co/about/.

Contact at: info@lumostransforms.com

is a Communications Manager at Partnership for Safety and Justice. She is a first-generation Vietnamese American immigrant who is passionate about uplifting the well-being of communities impacted by structural and direct violence. Keely interned at the Inland Empire Immigrant Youth Collective, an undocumented youth-led grassroots organization in Southern California; and Start: Empowerment, an environmental justice organization in New York City, where she worked on social media campaigns to mobilize communities across multifaceted issues. Keely holds a BA in Public Health and Policy from Pitzer College.

Contact at: nguyenkeely@hotmail.com

is a white, Jewish, cisgender female with a BA in American Studies from Pitzer College. She currently works as an associate at Orr Group. As a white woman, she enters this research with the intention of learning and becoming proximate to the communities at the forefront of this project. Self-care is instilled in white people—to always feel safe and secure and to have the ability to rest in this world of injustice is a complete function of her whiteness. Dalia did not have to grow up fighting for her right to exist and be safe in this world. She comes into this research with a commitment toward establishing strong communities as a building block for social change, as well as the belief that wellness and healing are not separate from social change work; they are the work.

Contact at: dparissaper@gmail.com

is a scholar activist, dancer, and mother. She comes from multiple generations of activists, artists, and teachers who have long fought for justice, love, art, and healing. She was raised in the eclectic activist community of Venice Beach, California, and now lives with her family in the Sierra Madre foothills of Los Angeles (both of which are the original land of the Tongva people). Tessa worked for ten years with civil rights, social justice, and youth development community-based organizations in Los Angeles, then joined Pitzer College in 2006 where she has taught countless classes and directed four different community centers as Assistant Vice President of Community Engagement and Professor of Urban Studies. She has a Masters and PhD in Cultural Studies from Claremont Graduate University and a BA in Psychology and Sociology from UC Santa Cruz. In addition to being the co-editor and co-author of the Practicing Liberation anthology and workbook, she is the author of another 15 publications, and in December 2024 will launch her sixth book, Liberating the Classroom: Healing and Justice in Higher Education. Tessa’s ultimate work in the world is to engage with, teach about, learn from, and better connect healing*arts*education*justice. Learn more at tessahickspeterson.com.

Contact at: Tessa_HicksPeterson@pitzer.edu

is a social justice activist, advocate, wife, daughter, granddaughter, friend, scholar, dancer, singer, and musician. She currently works for Gente Organizada, a community-led nonprofit in Pomona, California, as their Finance and Special Projects Administrator. Vanessa also volunteers in their Pomona Rising social action group focusing on decolonizing wellness. Prior to that, she worked for San Bernardino County’s Fire Protection District as a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Technician. Vanessa obtained her bachelor’s degree from Mount Saint Mary’s University in Criminology with a minor in GIS. She then attended Claremont Graduate University and obtained her Master of Arts in Community Engaged Education and Social Change and Master of Science in Information Systems and Technology with a concentration in GIS. Vanessa’s goal is to use her knowledge to work with nonprofit organizations, and eventually start one of her own, to merge the worlds between community organizing and spatial data analysis to have a better understanding of how marginalized communities are being discriminately impacted by social and systemic injustice. The goal is to work with those communities, to uplift the voices of youth in those communities, and to use their generational knowledge to create tangible changes in our society and systems to ensure that we are doing more than surviving—to ensure that we are thriving; that we are given proper educational, occupational, housing, and food opportunities; that we are given the proper physical and mental health care in a decolonized manner.

Contact at: clvane18@gmail.com

has been a scholar, speaker, activist, workshop facilitator, writer, and meditation practitioner for more than twenty years. Her interdisciplinary scholarship and teaching center Black feminism, decolonial theory, indigenous spirituality, literature, visual arts, media, libertary somatics, and embodied social justice. She is from South Central LA, went to public school, and was taught to honor education and collaborative work supporting young people. In grad school at UC Berkeley as a neurodiverse, working-class, single parent and first-generation college student and grad student, Valorie taught in the English, Native American Studies, and African American Studies departments. She is currently Phebe Estelle Spalding Professor of English and Africana Studies at Pomona College, where she has been on the faculty for twenty-three years. She has chaired Gender and Women’s Studies and American Studies and has taught at Claremont Graduate University and the California Institute for Women. Valorie’s courses include Healing Narratives, Literature of Incarceration, and AfroFuturisms, and all emphasize social justice and decolonial mindfulness. Her publications include “‘A Kind of Restoration’: Psychogeographies of Healing in Toni Morrison’s Home” in Toni Morrison: Memory and Meaning (2014) and “Unenslaveable Rapture: Afrxfuturism and Diasporic Vertigo in Beyoncé’s Lemonade” (2018). She also organized a biannual student- and community-centered interactive week on decolonial and interdisciplinary healing education and the arts, called Healing Ways: Decolonizing Our Minds, Our Bodies, Ourselves. She is currently working on a manuscript about her theory of cultural and racial vertigo. The 2023 conference, Thinking Its Presence: Racial Vertigo, BlackBrown Feelings, and Significantly Problematic Objects, was informed by her scholarship. In 2015, Valorie curated the art exhibition and semester symposium, Vertigo@Midnight: New Visual AfroFuturisms & Speculative Migrations. More of her teachings can be found at https:// valoriethomas.com/.

Contact at: vthomas@pomona.edu

is the codirector and system architect of Mobius, an artist and composer working with many Grammy-winning and -nominated talents, a world-bridger and serial tech impact entrepreneur recognized by Google, who cultivates visions and systems that value and respect all forms of life. Born in the Chumash lands of Santa Barbara, CA, and raised as a global citizen between Oakland, CA, Atlanta, GA, Jackson, MS, South Africa, and elsewhere, Zi Ziere is a person who focusex on being present and practices holistic embodiment of the world we wish to live in. Zi was the oldest of nine kids and had a range of talents at an early age; he attended Emory University at age sixteen, was recognized by the US Congress, and was a member of California Golden Boys’ State, a program in which many bright talents and future presidents often begin learning more about leadership and practicing it in real-time with peers and federal and state officials. Zi would go on to self-produce and release his first album in his dorm room, which landed him major record deal offers, as well as found numerous initiatives seeking to help us align people with pathways that truly enable us to be who we are and do what we love in life. Upon completing college, Zi went on to become a bartender, as well as the #1 North American Sales Advisor for TESLA. He was then invited to develop training at TESLA and received congratulations from Elon Musk himself at the age of twenty-one. Once he left TESLA, he went on to write Rites of Passage programs for middle schoolers of Atlanta Public Schools, was recognized by the mayor of Atlanta and the state of Georgia for producing substantial economic development for traditionally marginalized communities, successfully generate millions of dollars in revenue for his startups (Culturebase and Origyn), and turned down millions of dollars from investors who were not aligned with his organization’s values. He has successfully empowered organizations, artists, students, and many more to be their best self not only when measured by traditional metrics of success, but also in alignment with their values.

Contact at: davionziere@gmail.com