Liberatory Practices

How we make decisions is a reflection of our values and our relationship to power. In many organizations, decision-making is often a source of frustration, conflict, and power struggles. Join Ananda Valenzuela for a session dedicated to the practice of Liberatory Decision-Making. Together, we will explore the Advice Process, a practical framework that identifies decision-makers, seeks meaningful input, uses a strategic lens to assess options, and moves toward action. By focusing on the “how” of our decision-making, we create space for transparency, trust, feedback, and collective wisdom.

• Unpack assumptions about the skill and practice of decision-making.
• Link decision-making practices to organizational values, culture, and power dynamics.
• Learn specific methods and tools for building your competency in liberatory decision-making.

This critical discussion on the intersection of AI, race equity, and liberatory leadership explored how AI tools, while increasingly prevalent, often provide responses that are harmful or fail to capture the nuanced experiences of BIPOC leaders. Alongside insights from experts like Beth Kanter, we examined how to actively mitigate risks and biases in AI usage and ensure a human-centered approach, staying true to liberatory values and centering the voices of those with lived experience.

Beth Kanter is an internationally recognized thought leader in digital transformation and wellbeing in the nonprofit workplace. Named one of the most influential women in technology by Fast Company, she has over three decades of experience in designing and delivering training and capacity-building programs for nonprofits and foundations. She is a sought-after keynote speaker and workshop facilitator. Beth was recently awarded the lifetime achievement in nonprofit technology from NTEN. She is the author of The Happy Healthy Nonprofit: Strategies for Impact without Burnout and The Networked Nonprofit.

This virtual webinar, Ericka Stallings and Trish Adobea Tchume explored how the current moment demands that we build our capacity for acting in community and with solidarity. This is not a time well served by going it alone. In this conversation, we explored ways to honor our collective humanity by adopting practices and mindsets that support collaborative action and care. In the Leadership and Race report, we discussed making a “call to each other” by moving away from “heroic leadership” models and towards collective and networked leadership that strengthens interdependence rather than isolation.

 Leadership rooted in connection, care, and reciprocity is how we build resilient, liberatory communities. Taking time to reflect on who we turn to for help and who we can support grounds us in interdependence. Identifying practices, tools, and sources of inspiration and joy reminds us that leadership isn’t just about action. It’s about sustaining ourselves and each other for the long haul. Change work is human work, and staying connected to purpose, play, and care is essential to leading towards liberation.

Trish Adobea Tchume is a first-generation Ghanaian-American, a social and racial justice advocate, facilitator, and trainer. She is the Vice President of the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation. Trish collaborates with other organizations to explore, define, and support leadership and organizational approaches that prefigure a world where all of us can thrive. Trish is a Brooklynite, a proud auntie, a beach stan, and devotes her volunteer time to cool projects like the Central Brooklyn Food Coop and the boards of Change Elemental and the New York Foundation.

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): Exploring Power Dynamics & Principled Accountability

This interactive virtual webinar Iman Mills Gordon & Shiree Teng. explored our liberatory framework, informed by critical love theory, that positions joy and love as essential drivers of resilience, connection, and meaningful change, especially when facing adversity.

Joy and love are not just emotions but essential leadership tools that sustain movements, build resilience, and create cultures of belonging and care. They are also at the core of liberatory leadership. The essence of what differentiates liberatory leadership from traditionally oppressive systems.  Systems of oppression thrive on extraction, burnout, and fear—they teach us that urgency, scarcity, and suffering are necessary for change. Choosing joy and love disrupts these patterns and reclaims our right to well-being, creativity, and connection.

“The moment we choose love, we begin to move towards freedom, to act in ways that liberate ourselves and others.” -bell hooks

Shiree Teng is a community organizer, storyteller, and healer who believes that love and courage will lead the way towards our collective liberation. An immigrant kid who grew up organizing, she has never stopped.

Grounded in Radical LOVE, Shiree challenges the burnout culture pervasive in the nonprofit sector. She is a truth-teller and healer who names what others are afraid to say, while giving leaders tools to reimagine the work together. With deep insights into race, class, gender, and power dynamics, she brings a rare lived understanding to her work, inspiring countless leaders to own their power and tell their stories.

We collectively created this Joy and Love playlist during our session — thank you to everyone who contributed! If you’d like to add your own music that brings you joy or reminds you of love, feel free to email us at [email protected], and we’ll add it to the playlist.

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.