Liberatory Practices

This session is hosted by Ananda Valenzuela, in partnership with Resilience Initiative and Leadership Learning Community.

Ananda Valenzuela (any pronouns) provides interim executive director leadership, facilitates organizational transformation, and coaches values-aligned leaders. He is passionate about nourishing joyful organizational cultures, supporting equitable self-management, and building liberatory practices. They have served as interim executive director at multiple organizations, provided capacity-building support to nonprofits for over ten years, and currently sit on the boards of Change Elemental and Hampshire College. Ananda grew up in Puerto Rico and slowly made her way across the United States, holding a variety of consulting, governance, and activist roles along the way.

Audio Only (Spanish): La Práctica de Dar y Recibir Retroalimentación

Click here to access the session’s resources and transcript.

We are deeply thankful for the invitation to connect with Social Insights in this session. Thank you to all who joined us.

Social Insights Research held a timely panel discussion featuring organizational leaders who are navigating today’s turbulent social and political climate with commitment, vision, and resilience. Facilitated by Social Insights Founder and CEO Zuri Tau, this conversation featured Ericka Stallings and Nikki Dinh, co-executive directors of Leadership Learning Community. Inspired by Social Insights’ 2025 motto, “More Than a Phase”, this discussion was a reminder that our presence and what we value and care about are not temporary.

This session explored:

• How do we stay rooted in vision and purpose when the future feels uncertain?
• How are we innovating to meet the moment with courage and creativity?
• How do we care for our people—our teams, communities, and ourselves—while leading change?

• Mizan is the Co-Creator of Spearitwurx, an organization that inspires Intergenerational Wellness and Racial Healing through cultural arts, community events, strategic consulting and transformative educational experiences. Mizan is also a certified Healing Centered Engagement Trainer with Flourish Agenda and has a master’s degree in public health. She is an experiential and Installation artist and has exhibited work throughout California. She is the artist and curator of the Experience Sankofa Project Living Museum. See more of Mizan’s artHERE.  Certified Therapeutic Yoga instructor by Niroga, Mizan incorporates creative expression and dynamic mindfulness into her work for social transformation.

• Sizwe is an Educator, Radical Healer and Mentor and has worked throughout the Bay Area. He has supported African American Wellness through the National Campaign for Black Male Achievement, Oakland Freedom School, Flourish Agenda’s Camp Akili, Oakland Unified School District’s Manhood Development Program, and Determination Black Men’s Group at United Roots, to name a few. As Co-Founder and Director of Cultural Engagement at Spearitwurx, he approaches the work with passion and insight. Sizwe believes that connectedness is our currency and that building authentic intimacy is key to our relationships. The practice of being vulnerable with each other can help us get to a place of transformation and liberation. Sizwe utilizes his skills as a performer to build awareness and connection and open doors to self-mastery. Sizwe, also known as Spear of the Nation, is an MC and producer. Spear has released 11 studio albums, both as a solo artist and with the groups Lunar Heights and Potliquor, and has been featured on a host of songs over the past 20 years of his career. To see more about Spear of the Nation music, see www.spearofthenation.com

• Brittni Chicuata is the Director of Economic Rights at the San Francisco Human Rights Commission. Her work focuses on policies and programs to eliminate wealth apartheid, build economic equity, and uplift economic opportunities that improve the quality of life for the most marginalized in San Francisco. Her policies have provided guaranteed income payments for Black mothers in San Francisco, improved housing protections, developed standards for citywide racial equity and cannabis, supported the local, state, and national reparations movements, and successfully led first-in-the-nation campaigns.

• Ericka Stalling, Co-executive director at Leadership Learning Community.
  
• Nikki Dinh, Co-executive director at Leadership Learning Community.

• Jessica Marquez is the maker behind Miniature Rhino, a handmade business named after a young cousin’s imaginary friend, a dentist called Dr. Rhino. Miniature Rhino became a symbol of creativity and imagination and seeks to inspire and teach hands-on skills through a line of embroidery kits, patterns, classes, and books. Jessica has taught throughout the country, internationally, and online in classes covering all things hand stitching, from embroidery, mending, sashiko, big stitch quilting, refashioning, and also photography. She earned an MFA in Imaging Arts from Rochester Institute of Technology. Her work has been featured in publications including Grace Bonney’s (Design*Sponge) bestselling book, In the Company of Women, Real Simple, Bust, Country Living, and InStyle magazine. She’s written two books, Make and Mend (Ten Speed, 2018) and Stitched Gifts (Chronicle, 2012).
  
  

• Aida Cuadrado Bozzo, based in Lansing, MI, by way of Puerto Rico, is a queer Taina/Boricua, a cultural, transformational organizer, facilitator and trainer. For over 15  years, she has worked for social justice across a spectrum of cultures, communities, movements, and sectors. She specializes in designing and implementing leadership development and capacity-building initiatives in organizing, strategy, leadership development, generative conflict communications, racial equity, and innovative program and curriculum designs to serve local, regional, and national organizations, networks, and campaigns. Aida is an auntie, middle child, amiga, and partner.

• Marquita James’s work as a conflict transformation consultant and coach is animated by her passion for empowering people to be agents of their own change. Her consulting practice ranges from helping organizations design healthier dispute-resolution systems to helping individuals navigate murky situations. Marquita provides impact-driven, equity-immersed consulting services using innovative solutions to help social change organizations transform the world. Her work centers on the growth, learning, and development of organizations and the individuals within them. Marquita delights in helping organizations embrace healthy, sustainable approaches to conflict transformation, strategy, organizational change, leadership development, and deep exploration of “why are we here doing this thing in this place at this time?” She has facilitated difficult conversations and provided training and coaching since her time with the Harvard Mediation Program at Harvard Law School. When Marquita is not elbows deep in the consulting and coaching worlds, you’ll find her hunting for live music, attempting to dance bhangra, or pining for gumbo from her home state.
  
  

• Ericka Stallings and Nikki Dinh

• Vu Le and Belma Gonzalez