About Us

Dr Akwasi Aidoo

Dr. Akwasi Aidoo is a Senior Fellow at Humanity United, working to deepen the foundation’s understanding of African philanthropy and strengthen advocacy to African inter-governmental institutions.

Dr Aidoo is the former executive director of TrustAfrica, a foundation dedicated to advancing equitable development and democratic governance in Africa. His previous roles include head of Canadian International Development Research Center’s health and equity program for West and Central Africa, head of the Ford Foundation’s office for West Africa, and director of the Ford Foundation’s Special Initiative for Africa. He previously served as a trustee for several international organizations, including OXFAM America and Resource Alliance.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Dr. Aidoo taught at universities in Ghana, Tanzania, and the United States. He was educated in Ghana and the United States and received a doctor of philosophy degree in medical sociology from the University of Connecticut in 1985. He writes poetry and short stories in his spare time.

Ione Ardaiz Osacar

Ione Ardaiz Osacar has experience working for various organisations in countries such as Italy, Belgium, Germany, Australia, and Spain. She worked at The Australian Centre For Social Innovation where she led and implemented initiatives alongside the Australian government and NGOs co-designing services. She then joined the Agirre Lehendakaria Center team where, based on the successful case of social transformation in the Basque Country, she applied the centre’s methodology for systems change.

Ione is currently Arantzazulab’s Projects Lead, where she designs, coordinates, and participates in Democracy Innovation initiatives. She focuses her activity on systems change, activation of innovation ecosystems, collaborative governance, and deliberative democracy. She also collaborates with several universities as a speaker and lecturer.

By training, Ione is a technical engineer in industrial design. She graduated from Mondragon University and holds a Master’s in Product Design from the Polytechnic School of Milan.

Sara Atalla

As a Vice President for Porter Novelli, Sara Atalla collaborates with social impact organizations that are tackling our world’s most complex problems. Partnering with philanthropies, NGOs, and businesses, she develops communication strategies and campaigns aimed at improving our planet and creating a healthier, more equitable world for all.

Prior to her time at Porter Novelli, Sara was the Director of Communications & Marketing for Global Washington where she worked with international NGOs, Fortune 500 companies, university leaders, and elected officials.

Sara holds a master’s degree from Virginia Commonwealth University and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Missouri-Kansas City where she captained the Division I women’s basketball team.

Dr. Tusi Avegalio

Papalii Dr. Failautusi ‘Tusi’ Avegalio, is a retired Director (2023) of the Pacific Business Center Program (PBCP) under the auspices of the Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation, and an associate professor of the Shidler College of Business at the University of Hawaii, Manoa campus.

He is traditional leader with the heir title of Papalii of Samoa. As a traditional leader and academic he is an advocate of holistic, regenerative and systems thinking and development rooted in balance, harmony and reciprocal-giving (giving back in full measure what one receives, takes or gifted) for the wellness of the Moana (e.g., Earth Mother). Under his leadership PBCP was one of the most award-winning University Centers in the nation as recognized by the University Economic Development Association (UEDA) comprised of US colleges, universities, research institutions, agencies and organizations.

According to Papalii Dr. Tusi, “The ability to weave traditional wisdom, cultural, spirituality and aloha, with modern quantum science and technology is an essential skill towards effective leadership in today’s world. Good leaders lead. Great leaders heal.” Dr. Tusi retired as a noted ‘Legend of Oceania’ by the University of Hawaii system.

Ángela M. Báez-Silva Arias

Gabrielle Beran

Gabrielle Beran is Senior Manager at the Centre for Public Impact’s Europe and Climate Action teams, focusing on the intersections of climate, economic, and social systems.

Her past work spans the not-for-profit and public sectors in climate, economic development, gender and social inclusion, democratic accountability, infrastructure, and fiscal governance. She has worked across the Pacific, Europe, Asia, and Africa.

Gabrielle holds an MSc from the London School of Economics and an LLB/BA from Victoria University of Wellington. She was brought up in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand.

Gathoni Blessol

Gathoni Blessol (she/they) is a Kenyan activist, systems strategist and co-founder of Sociable Weavers, a queer collective fostering socio-ecological regeneration. They invite others to examine the narrow ideas of what it means to be human and embrace the possibilities that emerge at the margins of these definitions. Grounded in black feminist and anti-capitalist principles, they approach disposability, loss, and the ruptures between people and systems as spaces for resilient refusal – cultivating practices that imagine alternative futures. As a visionary with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Gathoni approaches each space as a portal for ancestral wisdom, unproductive love and deep belonging within Earth’s sacred web of life.

Kelly Born

Kelly Born is the inaugural Director of the Democracy, Rights, and Governance initiative for The David and Lucile Packard Foundation. In this role, she leads the organization’s emerging grantmaking in support of a thriving, pro-equity democracy in the United States.

Prior to joining the foundation, Kelly served as the Director of the Cyber Initiative at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, overseeing a $150M grantmaking portfolio to bolster tech policy, in order to improve the impact of technologies on democracy, and society. Previously, Kelly was the founding director of Stanford University’s Cyber Policy Center, where she focused on the global impacts of technology on democracy. Before Stanford, in an earlier period of time with the Hewlett Foundation, she helped launch and lead the foundation’s U.S. Democracy Program, leveraging grantmaking to build public trust in U.S. democracy, combat disinformation, and strengthen American electoral and governing institutions.

Earlier in her career, Kelly worked as a strategy consultant with the Monitor Group where she supported strategic planning efforts with nonprofits, private sector companies, philanthropies, and governments in Africa, Asia, Europe, and North and South America. She holds a bachelor’s degree in business with a minor in economics from Pepperdine University and a master’s degree in international policy studies from Stanford University.

Suzette Brooks Masters

Suzette Brooks Masters is a social entrepreneur, philanthropic advisor, thought leader, and strategist in the fields of democracy, futures, and pluralism. She has decades of experience advising foundations, non-profit organisations, policy makers, and corporations, and serving on nonprofit boards of directors. Suzette has received numerous awards for her philanthropic vision and impact, and accolades for her incisive publications. She prides herself on seeing around corners and challenging conventional thinking.

Suzette currently leads the Better Futures Project at the Democracy Funders Network, a cross-ideological learning and action community for donors concerned about American democracy. She previously served as Senior Strategist at the Center for Inclusion and Belonging at the American Immigration Council, and as Program Director for Migration at the J.M. Kaplan Fund in New York City.

The author of Imagining Better Futures for American Democracy, Suzette is a graduate of Harvard Law School, University of Cambridge, and Amherst College. A lifelong New Yorker, she is the daughter and granddaughter of immigrants.

Alexis Cherem

Alexis Cherem is a research manager for the healthy governance project with The Omidyar Group as well as the Governance Futures Network. Prior to her time with TOG, she specialized in data driven public policy analysis and implementation.

Alexis previously worked for the office of the President of Mexico, where she was a part of the team in charge of implementing RCTs related to maternal health and financial inclusion; as a Research Coordinator at Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) Mexico, where she lead projects related to Procedural Justice, community policing and crime prevention; and at the consulting firm Data4, as a project manager and data analyst.

Alexis studied Political Science and International Relations at ITAM University in Mexico and the London School of Economics in the UK.

Tanya Chung-Tiam-Fook

Tanya Chung-Tiam-Fook is the co-founder and co-holder of 7GenCities and project co advisor at Dark Matter Labs; advisor to a number of Indigenous, foundation and non-profit organizations; and post-secondary educator in environmental, Indigenous and urban studies. She is deeply engaged in Indigenous, environmental, trans-disciplinary and trans-systemic approaches to education and research, land relationships and stewardship, climate resilience, bio-regional regeneration, placekeeping, innovation, and healing justice and mental wellness.

She is passionate about reciprocal, collaborative and inter-generational pathways for learning and knowledge co-creation, practice, and partnerships in her roles within project and research leadership, academia, advising, and community building. Her Akawaio-Kapon and mixed ancestry from Guyana and the Netherlands, combined with community and international experiences across cultures, ecologies and geographies, enable her to bring multifaceted perspectives and sensibilities to her work that are both place-based and global.

She is the co-editor and co-author of Sacred Civics: Building Seven Generation Cities with Jayne Engle and Julian Agyeman and many other authors across many disciplines, knowledge traditions and geographies (Routledge 2022); and many other peer-reviewed and online publications.

Murray Clay

As president, Murray Clay oversees and manages all aspects of Ulupono Initiative. He guides the team on overall strategy and process, focusing on the best way to achieve the firm’s mission-driven goals using due diligence and analysis. He is also one of Hawaii’s leading proponents in the area of performance-based regulation (PBR) as a means to accelerate progress toward the state’s ambitious renewable energy goals.

Prior to joining Ulupono Initiative, Murray served as deputy chief investment officer of SDS Management LLC in Connecticut. He has more than 15 years of experience in managing hedge fund and private equity portfolios, and he has led due diligence, negotiated and structured direct investments in many industries including energy, natural resources, and biotechnology. Prior to his finance career, he served as an intelligence officer for U.S. Air Force special operations forces for five years.

A graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy, Murray holds a Bachelor of Science in International Affairs, with a minor in Japanese. He earned his Master of Business Administration from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Murray serves on the board of directors for the U.S.S. Missouri Memorial Association, Inc. and the Oahu Economic Development Board, and is an active member of his church. He and his wife, Jodi, have five children.

Shari Davis

Shari Davis (they/she) serves as a Co-Executive Director at the Center for Economic Democracy. They are a NYT visionary leader who brings expertise as an executive leader, community organizer and facilitator with 15 years of service in local government and ten years of leadership in national non-profits.

Shari advises and supports other leaders of color in creating and exploring shared leadership models. During her time as Co-Executive Director of the Participatory Budgeting Project, Shari worked with local government staff and community organizers on building deep decision making processes rooted in equity and people power.

Shari also creates experiential and world-building workshops facilitated around the United States that engage BIPOC communities in radical imagination using art and illustration, including comic books, to collectively envision an equitable, shared and safe future.

Shari is a graduate of Boston University’s Sargent College for Health and Rehabilitation Sciences and holds a master’s degree in anatomy and physiology. You can learn more about Shari’s work by viewing their TED talk or following their work as a 2019 Obama Fellow or 2022 Emerson Collective Fellow.

Deepti Doshi

Deepti Doshi is the Co-Director of New Public. Her work has focused on the intersection of social media, community organizing, and leadership development over the last two decades. Prior to New Public, she set up Meta’s New Product Experimentation team and established Meta’s Community Partnerships team to build products (namely, Groups), programs, and partnerships that support community leaders.

Deepti is a graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School and the Wharton Business School and holds a bachelors degree in Psychology. She is a TED Fellow, an Aspen Institute First Movers Fellow and Ideas Scholar, and her work has been featured in multiple publications.

Jake Dunagan

Jake Dunagan is an experiential futurist, political system designer, and teacher. He is Director of the Gov Futures Lab at the Institute for the Future, a research and education non-profit organization based in Palo Alto, CA. He teaches foresight in the School of Design and Creative Technologies at UT-Austin and is international mentor for the Diseño de Mañana program at CENTRO, a media and design university in Mexico City.

Jesse Eaves

Jesse Eaves is a Senior Director at Humanity United, a private U.S. philanthropy focused on cultivating the conditions that can transform human exploitation and violent conflict into enduring peace and freedom. With a background in child protection and systems change, Jesse has worked extensively in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe on issues ranging from human trafficking and child exploitation to youth-led conflict transformation.

Jesse currently manages part of HU’s peacebuilding strategy to support and accompany networks of local peacebuilders from around the world as they reimagine a system where the international response to violent conflict is defined by those living closest to that conflict and honors their vision for sustainable peace.

Coraline Ada Ehmke

Coraline Ada Ehmke is an internationally recognized tech ethicist and software engineer. For more than a decade, she’s worked on practical approaches to promoting the values of diversity, equity, and justice in the technology industry, with a particular focus on open source. She is the creator of Contributor Covenant, the first and most popular code of conduct for digital communities, and the Hippocratic License, an innovative software license designed to promote and protect human rights. Coraline co-founded the Organization for Ethical Source and serves as its Executive Director.

Jayne Engle

Jayne Engle has a background in urban and regional planning, policy, development, and governance; philanthropy innovation; and social research and participatory practice. She’s worked in diverse societal change contexts around the world and is now a mission co-holder at Dark Matter Labs, where she’s co-leading 7GenCities, the Property & Beyond Lab and collaborative governance projects. Jayne’s passionate about futures of cities, infrastructure, and institutions, and is committed to decolonizing systems and opening possibilities for what that can mean.

Jayne previously led the Cities & Places Portfolio for the McConnell Foundation, and now is working with philanthropy on mission-aligned endowment strategy. Based in Montreal, and originally from the US, Jayne has also worked extensively in Eastern and Western Europe, including as a Peace Corps economic development volunteer in Slovakia. For her PhD, she carried out fieldwork in Haiti, where she studied community-led reconstruction and locally-designed governance efforts following the devastating earthquake of 2010.

Jayne holds a PhD in Urban Planning, Policy & Design from McGill University where she’s an Adjunct Professor. She’s a Futures Fellow with the Future of Canada Project and co-authored the book Sacred Civics: Building Seven Generation Cities (2022).

Yordanos Eyoel

Yordanos Eyoel is an Ethiopian-American democracy entrepreneur who is the Founder and CEO of Keseb. Keseb is a nonpartisan organization building a transnational civil society ecosystem to advance inclusive and resilient democracies.Yordanos’ expertise lies at the intersection of philanthropy and practice, building and strengthening ecosystems for social and democracy innovation.

Prior to launching Keseb, Yordanos was a Managing Partner at New Profit, where she was the first person in the organization’s 22-year history to grow from Portfolio Analyst to Managing Partner.Yordanos is an Ashoka Fellow, a Civil Society Fellow of the Aspen Institute, and a recipient of several awards including from the Elevate Prize Foundation and Unorthodox Philanthropy. Her work and writing have been featured in TED, Fast Company, Stanford Social Innovation Review, NPR, and Harvard Business Review, among others.

A former Fellow of the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University, Yordanos earned a B.A. in Economics and Political Science, Honors, Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Florida, where she was inducted into the University’s Hall of Fame. She also holds a Master’s in Public Policy from Harvard Kennedy School.

Steve Francis

Steve Francis is a senior executive and gifted product strategist with a 30-year career ranging from hands-on software engineer to public company CEO. He has substantial experience in organizing teams and attacking new opportunities and markets while ensuring a balance between specific tasks and the “bigger picture” of a successful outcome.

After consulting for three years on various high-impact social good projects, Steve joined Tech Matters in late 2019.

Gyorgyi Galik

Gyorgyi Galik is a Copenhagen-based socio-ecological systems designer, design strategist, and environmental advocate. She is the City Transitions Co-Lead at Dark Matter Labs. She previously served as Head of Strategic Partnerships at the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose and as a Lead Advisor and the interim Head of Social Innovation at Design Council.

Gyorgyi has seventeen years of experience in policy, service, and innovation design, having worked in the public, private, and third sectors. Her specialisation spans design, behavioural, and environmental sciences, with a strong understanding of the built and natural environment. She has designed, led, and managed a variety of projects – working in organisations ranging from small startups and individual communities to large corporations and local and national governments.

Gyorgyi received her PhD in Innovation Design Engineering from the School of Design at London’s Royal College of Art where she focused on design and climate change.

Marcus Ganley

Marcus Ganley has spent the last 25 years working across government and private sector in Australia and New Zealand, including as a senior adviser to a New Zealand Prime Minster and to a Finance Minister in each country.

Marcus has written about parliamentary democracy and public participation in Australia and New Zealand, including Public Perceptions of the New Zealand Parliament, What the Australian Senate can learn from NZ’s House of Representatives, and Select committees and their role in keeping Parliament relevant. He now works for the Government of the Australian Capital Territory.

Keesha Gaskins-Nathan

Keesha Gaskins-Nathan is the director for the Democratic Practice–United States program and the Racial Justice Initiative at the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. She is dedicated to advancing measures and ideas that improve democratic systems and engage democratic culture in the United States to support full and fair democratic and economic opportunity for all residents.

Keesha is a long-time organizer, lobbyist, and trial attorney. Prior to joining the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, she was senior counsel with the Brennan Center for Justice, serving as the director of the Redistricting and Representation program. She also served as executive director for the League of Women Voters Minnesota and the executive director for the Minnesota Women’s Political Caucus. She worked for several years as a civil trial attorney and served as a special assistant appellate public defender for the State of Minnesota.

Keesha is the 2021-2022 Daynard Public Interest Fellow at Northeastern University School of Law, Adjunct Professor at Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs, 2019 Aspen Ideas Scholar, and 2008 Feminist Leadership Fellow with the University of Minnesota, Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs – Center on Women and Public Policy. She is a frequent commentator on voting rights and redistricting reform and regularly appears on numerous news and public affairs programming, including past appearances on Background Briefing, The Great Battlefield, PBS’s NewsHour, MSNBC, and Bill Moyers.

Tom Glaisyer

Tom Glaisyer is the Executive Advisor to the President at Democracy Fund, an independent foundation that champions the leaders who defend American democracy and challenge our political system to be more open and just. As Executive Advisor, Tom works with the organization’s leadership to anticipate and plan for long-term threats and opportunities.

Tom brings to Democracy Fund a background in media research and policy, as well as social media advocacy consulting. He led the Media Policy Initiative at the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute where he sought to track and influence media efforts at the local, community, and national levels. During his time at New America, Tom’s efforts centered on policies that support the open Internet and innovation in media, strengthening independent reporting on issues of public interest, and helping citizens access and engage with high-quality information. Tom also brings more than 14 years of international experience in information technology implementation and organizational change to Democracy Fund.

Tom received his bachelor of engineering and economics from the University of Birmingham, England. He holds a master’s of international affairs from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University as well as an M. Phil and Ph.D from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, where he wrote his dissertation on the future of the public square.

Jose Gomez

Jose is the executive director of the Regional Center for Responsible Business and Entrepreneurship (CREER), a Colombian think-and-action tank that promotes respect for human rights in business activities. CREER is the Latin American chapter of the Institute for Human Rights and Business (IHRB) based in the UK. Jose leads projects related to just and responsible transitions, responsible sourcing practices in the agricultural sector supply chains, conflict transformation in coal mining territories, Voluntary Principles on security and human rights, and alliance management for local governance and sustainable development.

Before joining CREER, Jose served as a practitioner and legal advisor to the public and private sector, and NGOs in issues related to transitional justice, human rights public policies, corporate sustainability, sustainable development, and indigenous people’s issues. He has relevant experience in the Business and Human Rights agenda throughout the last 18 years. Additionally, he lectures at the master’s and postgraduate levels in Colombia and Mexico on issues related to Supply Chains, Just Transitions, Human Rights Due Diligence, Forced Labor Prevention, and Corporate Sustainability.

Jose is a lawyer from the Pontifical Javeriana University (Bogotá), with a master’s degree in development studies and a specialization in human rights and social justice from the International Institute of Social Studies (The Hague, Netherlands), and a specialization in theories and experiences on armed conflicts from the University of Los Andes (Bogota).

Melanie Goodchild

Dr. Melanie Goodchild, Anishinaabe (Ojibway), moose clan, is a design and innovation strategist with over 30 years of experience working with First Nations communities. Her practice has transitioned from applied sociology to Anishinaabe, decolonial, and participatory approaches to better understand how to tackle complex systems challenges. With a Ph.D. in Social and Ecological Sustainability from the University of Waterloo, she has worked on transformative systems initiatives with other practitioners and scholars around the world.

Melanie is a contributing faculty member with the Presencing Institute’s u-school for Transformation at MIT and the Wolf Willow Institute for Systems Learning. She is passionate about utilizing complexity-aware tools together with Anishinaabe gikendaasowin (our original ways of knowing) to support innovation at scale. She is a Systems Changer in Residence with the Canadian Association of Science Centres (CASC); the Academic Director of Makwa Waakaa’igan at Algoma University; and a research associate at NORDIK Institute.

Melanie is a certified 3 Horizons facilitator and a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Awareness-Based Systems Change. She is currently an advisor to the Edge Finance Accelerator at Solvable; a member of the Measuring Systems Practice Development Group with the Social Impact Exchange in New York City; a Systems Coach with the Center for Care Innovations in California; and she serves as a member of Policy Horizons Canada’s Deputy Minister Steering Committee.

Melanie holds an MA and HBA in Sociology from Lakehead University and she was a university finalist for the Alumni Gold Medal at the doctoral level in the Faculty of Environment, 2023 recipient. She is an alumna of the International Women’s Forum Leadership Foundation’s Fellows Program (2015/16) sponsored by Harvard Business School and INSEAD. Melanie is from Biigtigong Nishnaabeg, Aroland, Couchiching and Ketegaunseebee First Nations and she resides in Bawating with her family.

Melanie Greenberg

Melanie Greenberg is Managing Director at Humanity United, overseeing the Peacebuilding & Conflict Transformation portfolio. In this role, Melanie develops, refines, and implements strategies to build peace and counter violent conflict. She also oversees HU’s office in Washington, D.C.

Melanie comes to HU from the Alliance for Peacebuilding (AfP), where she served as President and CEO. Before joining AfP, she was the President and Founder of the Cypress Fund for Peace and Security, a foundation making grants in the areas of peacebuilding and nuclear nonproliferation. She has also served as a visiting scholar at the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies, focusing on issues of justice in post-conflict peacebuilding; and as director of the Conflict Resolution Program at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

Melanie previously served as associate director of the Stanford Center for International Security and Cooperation and deputy director of the Stanford Center on International Conflict and Negotiation. In her work on international conflict resolution, Melanie has helped design and facilitate public peace processes in the Middle East, Northern Ireland, and the Caucasus. She has taught advanced courses in international conflict resolution, multi-party conflict resolution, and negotiation at Stanford Law School, Georgetown University Law Center, and the Elliott School of George Washington University. She was lead editor and chapter author of the volume Words over War: Mediation and Arbitration to Prevent Deadly Conflict, and co-editor and chapter author of Civil Society, Peace and Power.

Melanie is a member of the International Advisory Board of the United States Institute of Peace and serves on numerous non-profit boards. She holds an bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and a juris doctor degree from Stanford Law School.

Sidney Hargro

Sid Hargro (he/him) is Principal of HarLin Strategies, where he offers fractional executive leadership for strategic growth and impact and executive coaching. Rooted in the legacy of his parents, who were sharecropper kids, and his ancestors, Sid’s journey reflects a deep belief that nothing is impossible when vision, courage, and community align.

A global strategic advisor, Sid works at the intersection of culture, technology, belonging, and experimentation. He uses human-centered AI to amplify the genius of leaders and to craft compelling, creative, photorealistic stories that expand imagination and possibility. With more than 20 years of experience, Sid has led social enterprises, advised high-net-worth families, nurtured community-led funds, and facilitated funder cohorts, all to build a future grounded in justice and belonging.

Sid is the former Executive Director of The LeadersTrust. At this pandemic-era spin-off social enterprise, he championed long-term, generational impact through investment in movement and social justice leaders and organizations. In partnership with regional and national funding partners, The LeadersTrust provided deep capacity building, accompaniment, and creative capital to strengthen the well-being and effectiveness of leaders on the frontlines of social change.

An educator for more than a decade, Sid has taught Equity-Informed Social Impact Measurement at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy and Practice and Radically Re-imagined Leadership, Governance, and Impact in London in partnership with Ten Years Time, Inc. He previously served as President of Philanthropy Network Greater Philadelphia, where he helped catalyze a regional shift toward intersectional racial equity across philanthropic strategy and operations and expanded funder participation in impact investing.

Earlier in his career, Sid was the founding Executive Director of the Community Foundation of South Jersey, a Ford Foundation-seeded startup that grew from $400,000 to more than $21 million in assets in seven years, establishing participatory, community-led grantmaking throughout Southern New Jersey.

Sid currently serves as Chair of World Education Services (U.S. and Canada) and Chair of Faith in Public Life. He holds graduate degrees in engineering and theology and executive training in Mindful Leadership Coaching.

Santiago Hoyos

Santiago Hoyos is a project lead for the healthy governance project with The Omidyar Group. Before joining TOG, Santiago finished his Masters in Public Policy (MPP) at the University of Chicago. During his MPP, he worked as a consultant for the Kroc Institute at the University of Notre Dame, monitoring the Colombian Peace Agreement.

Prior to his time at the University of Chicago, Santiago served in Colombia’s Ministry of Public Affairs where he worked for five years in the Victims and Demobilized Office as well as in the Peace and Victims Office. As a public servant, Santiago coordinated official policy reports for Congress regarding the implementation of the Victims and Land Restitution Law. Finally, he worked with a team that negotiated the provisions between the ethnic communities and national government around the Framework Implementation Plan, an essential document in the peace process between former FARC guerrillas and Colombia’s government.

Santiago holds an undergraduate degree in political science and a minor in economics from Universidad de los Andes.

Indy Johar

Indy Johar is an architect, co-founder of 00 (project00.cc), and most recently Dark Matter Labs.

Indy, on behalf of 00, has co-founded multiple social ventures from Impact Hub Westminster to Impact Hub Birmingham.
He has also co-led research projects such as The Compendium for the Civic Economy, whilst supporting several 00 explorations/experiments including the wikihouse.cc, opendesk.cc. Indy is a non-executive director of WikiHouse Foundation & Bloxhub. He was a Good Growth Commissioner for the RSA, RIBA Trustee and Advisor to Mayor of London on Good Growth, The Liverpool City Region Land Commissioner, and The State of New Jersey – The Future of Work Task Force, amongst others.

Most recently he founded Dark Matter Labs – a field laboratory focused on building the institutional infrastructures for radicle civic societies, cities, regions, and towns. Dark Matter Labs works with institutions around the world, from UNDP (Global), Climate Kic, McConnell (Canada), to the Scottish Gove, to Bloxhub (Copenhagen).

Indy has taught at various institutions from the University of Bath, TU-Berlin, Architectural Association, University College London, Princeton, Harvard, MIT, and New School. Indy is currently a Professor at RMIT University.

He was awarded the London Design Medal for Innovation in 2022 and an MBE for Services to Architecture in 2023.

Martin Kalungu-Banda

Martin Kalungu-Banda is a consultant in Leadership & Organisation Development, a designer and facilitator of innovation and organisation change processes, a trainer, coach, author, and an entrepreneur. Living between Lusaka, Zambia, and Oxfordshire, UK, Martin serves as Core-Faculty Member of the Presencing Institute, Visiting Fellow of the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at Oxford University’s Said Business School, and Co-founder of the Ubuntu.Lab Institute. He is also a member of faculty for the Global Alliance for Banking on Values’ Leadership Academy and the Mastercard Executive Leadership Program.

Previously, Martin served on the executive programs of the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, London Business School, and the Copenhagen Business School. He co-founded Impact Hub Lusaka and has served as a consultant for Mercedes Benz, the COFRA Group, Airbus, 3M, The Tony Blair Institute for Global Governance, HSBC, the World Bank, McKinsey & Company, and the United Nations.

Previous roles include Head of the Private Sector Policy Unit and Global Leadership and Capacity-Building Adviser for Oxfam GB, Special Consultant to the third President of Zambia, Regional Social Performance Manager and Corporate Affairs Manager for BP-Africa, and teaching Business Ethics at the University of Zambia. Martin’s three books include: Leading Like Madiba: Leadership Lessons from Nelson Mandela, It’s How We End That Matters: Leadership Lessons from an African President, and Driftology: How to Access Life ‘s Greatest Opportunities by Flying on the Wings of Others. All the three books run as training programs.

Lorelei Kelly

Lorelei Kelly is a research faculty member at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy, where she leads efforts to modernize Congress. In her work with the bipartisan “Fix Congress” group, she helped pass 202 recommendations to improve Congress’s effectiveness in creating a more informed and responsive democracy. Currently, Lorelei focuses on implementing these reforms, particularly those related to digital capacity, peacebuilding, and increasing public involvement in lawmaking.

Previously, she led the Smart Congress project at the Open Technology Institute with New America and worked at Stanford’s Center on International Conflict and Negotiation. With expertise in civil-military issues, she spent ten years hosting bipartisan discussions in Congress as the founder of “Security for a New Century,” a study group in both the House and Senate. Additionally, Lorelei has supported hundreds of women political candidates across the U.S., helping them develop national security platforms suited to a rapidly evolving world.

Lorelei attended Grinnell College, Stanford University, and the Air Command and Staff College of the US Air Force. She has authored many “how to” books and numerous articles.

Jessica Kiessel

Jessica Kiessel is systems and complexity-aware artist, facilitator, coach, and strategist committed to creating conditions for individual and organizational transformation in the service of a more loving, inclusive, just, and sustainable society. She founded (re)Patterning Labs with the hopes of encouraging playful experimentation and learning that may help social purpose organizations and leaders better live the patterns they hope to see in the world. Jessica shares her writing and art on this topic, and encourages others to do the same, at www.patternmaking.org, which is a community of people sharing their individual way-finding through writing and art. She also accompanies leaders and teams committed to systems and complexity aware strategy, learning and practice.

She is the former Senior Director of Learning & Impact as part of the Strategy Group at the Omidyar Network. Prior to this role, she served as the Deputy Director of Strategy and Learning at PATH, a non-profit global health organization based in Seattle. She was also the Global Chief Program Officer at Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA), a non-profit research organization, overseeing the strategy and management of IPA’s 16 country programs and 7 strategic initiatives. Before that, Jessica was the Ghana Country Director for Innovations for Poverty Action; supported USAID education projects in Egypt, Zambia, Namibia and Pakistan for American Institute for Research; and a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer, serving as a social studies teacher in Samoa.

An organizer and educator at heart, Jessica is a certified Advanced Practitioner in Emergent Learning, holds a Masters of Public Administration from New York University, and a Bachelors of Arts in Anthropology and Sociology from Kalamazoo College.

Ashanti Kunene

Ashanti Kunene is an epistemic activist, slam poet, decolonial dialogue facilitator, published writer, and the founder of Learning 2 Unlearn. She is interested in how cultural narratives are reflected through big data and technology; and how pedagogical design and dialogical narrative change work can be used as decolonial tools to create social change.

Jeff Kwasi Klein

Jeff works at the intersections of social justice, political innovation, and collective imagination. As co-founder and Executive Director of imagineers lab, he designs spaces and processes that help organizations, communities, and initiatives alike to explore new forms of leadership, reciprocity, and transformation.

Previously, he directed the May Ayim Fund and established Germany’s first anti-discrimination counseling center, specifically for Black people, at Each One Teach One (EOTO). Later, as Co-Director of the Multitudes Foundation, he led Europe-wide funding programs supporting organizations and communities in developing innovative political approaches. Today, Jeff contributes his experience to various committees and expert groups, advocating for democracy, anti-racism, and just futures. His particular interest lies in how collective imagination can serve as a tool for inner change and societal transformation.

Ouassima Laabich

John Paul Lederach

Dr. John Paul Lederach is internationally recognized for his pioneering work in the field of peacebuilding. He received his bachelor’s degree in history and peace studies from Bethel College and his doctorate of philosophy degree in sociology, with a concentration on social conflict, from the University of Colorado.

Dr. Lederach currently serves as Senior Fellow for Humanity United and Professor Emeritus of International Peacebuilding at the Joan B. Kroc Institute of International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame. He works extensively as a practitioner in conciliation processes active in Latin America, Africa, Southeast and Central Asia.

Dr. Ledarach is widely known for the development of culturally based approaches to conflict transformation and the design and implementation of integrative and strategic approaches to peacebuilding. He considers himself a practitioner-scholar who seeks to bring integrity, curiosity, and wholeness to the understanding of conflict transformation and peacebuilding.

Clare Lockhart

Clare Lockhart is the Director of the Institute for State Effectiveness (ISE), which works to advance citizen-centered governance and economic reform. She has worked in over twenty countries on reconstruction, recovery and institution building processes. ISE creates frameworks, tools and courses, and supports reform-minded leaders at open moments for reform.

Clare is the co-author of the book Fixing Failed States and numerous book chapters and articles. She regularly contributes to the media on issues of security, peacebuilding, and development. She was named by Foreign Policy Magazine as one of the “100 Most Influential Global Thinkers” and was nominated as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. She served on the faculty at Yale University teaching classes on governance, citizenship and the application of new technologies in governance.

Clare serves on the board of the Asia Foundation and has served on several advisory boards including for the Alliance for Peacebuilding, Global Dignity, and Equality for Peace and Democracy.

Júlia Martins Rodrigues

Júlia Martins Rodrigues, PhD, serves as a governor-appointed commissioner at the Colorado Employee Ownership Office. She is a Research Associate at the University of Colorado Boulder, where she serves as the Associate Director of the Media Economies Design Lab (MEDLab). Her areas of expertise include cooperative law, multi-stakeholder cooperative networks, shared ownership and collective governance. Júlia earned her PhD in Legal and Social Sciences from the Università Degli Studi di Camerino, Italy. She also holds a Master of Law in Human Rights and Innovation from the Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora, Brazil, where she received her Juris Doctor and served as an Assistant Professor of Law. Additionally, she has obtained a professional certificate as a “Third Sector Operator: Serving Nonprofit Causes & Communities” from the Bottega del Terzo Settore in Ascoli Piceno, Italy. As a Latin woman born and raised in Brazil, she is dedicated to advancing economic democracy and social justice, viewing both as essential pathways to achieving shared prosperity and sustainability.

Annie Maxwell

As Omidyar Network’s executive vice president, Annie Maxwell leads the firm’s worldwide operations and presence in the Bay Area, as well as a range of key strategic initiatives.

Prior to joining Omidyar Network, Annie worked with the Skoll Global Threats Fund for seven years, initially serving as Chief Operating Officer and later as President. Previously, she was a White House Fellow in the Office of Vice President Biden, where she focused on the implementation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Annie has also served as Chief Operating Officer for the humanitarian aid organization Direct Relief. During her tenure, she was seconded to the United Nation’s Office of the Special Envoy for Tsunami Recovery, led by President Bill Clinton.

Annie is currently a board member of Muso, a Trustee of the German Marshall Fund, and a member of the Dean’s Committee at the University of Michigan’s Ford School of Public Policy. She is also a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Annie received her Masters in Public Policy and B.A. in English and political science, Phi Beta Kappa and Magna Cum Laude, from the University of Michigan. She attended the university on a full athletic scholarship and was captain of the university’s Division I volleyball team.

Myriam Méndez

Myriam Méndez-Montalvo is the founder and CEO of Brave is to Dialogue – Valiente es Dialogar, a national platform fostering consensus among diverse leaders on Colombia’s most pressing governance challenges. A lawyer from Pontificia Universidad Javeriana with a master’s in public administration from Harvard Kennedy School, she brings over 25 years of international leadership across public, philanthropic, and multilateral institutions.

Her previous roles include Deputy Attorney General for Territorial Affairs and Social Dialogue in Colombia; Director of the Ford Foundation for the Andean Region and Southern Cone; and senior leadership positions at UNDP, where she managed the Global Governance Practice and Trust Fund. She has also worked with the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

Myriam founded the Dialogue Group on Mining and Sustainable Development in Colombia (GDIAM) and currently serves on the Peace and Reconciliation Commission of the Catholic Church in Colombia. Her work has focused on bridging divides in polarized environments, advancing democratic governance, and promoting inclusive development. She is widely respected for her ability to convene multisectoral actors, design strategic programs, and facilitate social dialogue in complex contexts. A committed advocate for women’s political participation and the inclusion of marginalized communities, she brings a deep understanding of conflict, peacebuilding, and institutional reform.

Having lived and worked across Latin America, Europe, and the United States, she offers a rich global perspective and a grounded approach to governance futures. Through GFN, she seeks to contribute to new thinking on democratic resilience, inclusive leadership, and collaborative governance in divided societies.

Dini Merz

Nandini “Dini” Merz earned a degree in international relations from Cornell University and then a J.D. from the George Washington University National Law Center. After completing her formal schooling, she became an environmental-policy consultant for Public Sector Consultants, where she worked on issues related to sprawl and contamination remediation. Next, she served as program director for the Tremaine Foundation, where she focused her energies on grant-making programs in the areas of learning disabilities, arts, and the environment.

In 2003, Dini served as a board member for the New England Grassroots Environment Fund, a grant-making program which seeks to energize and nurture long-term civic engagement in local initiatives that create and maintain healthy, just, safe, and environmentally sustainable communities in the New England area. That same year, Dini joined the Proteus Fund where she currently serves as Director of Peace & Security Programs and works closely with Proteus Fund founder and president Margaret Gage.

In addition to her work with the Proteus Fund, Dini guides the work of the Colombe Foundation, a family philanthropy that focuses on creating a more peaceful world through changes in U.S. policy. Dini also sits on the steering committee of the Peace and Security Funders Group along with Cora Weiss, among others.

Tatiana Mosquera Angulo

Tatiana Mosquera Angulo is the Director of the Strengthen Capabilities Center, Transforma, at Fundación Ideas para la Paz (FIP), a Colombian think and do tank (www.ideaspaz.org). She accompanies and supports the FIP team in designing educational experiences and facilitating dialogue processes and addresses methodological challenges innovatively.

Tatiana has 20 years of experience in education, facilitation, peacebuilding, dialogue, and direct stakeholder engagement. She has also been involved in numerous projects that strengthen capacity and research, especially in social and community projects within fragile contexts in Colombia and Latin America.

Her academic journey is a testament to her commitment to continuous learning and professional development. Tatiana holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology and anthropology from Universidad de los Andes in Colombia. She further honed her skills with a specialist degree in regional development management from the same university and a master’s degree in Collaborative-Dialogic Practice.

Irene Mwendwa Muchomba

Irene Mwendwa Muchomba has over nine years of experience in policy advocacy and partnerships, focusing on data and technology policy, especially from an Afrofeminist perspective. She is skilled in policy analysis, research, project management, stakeholder engagement, and partnership development, and has a legal background and a certificate in gender and public policy studies.

As the current Executive Director at Policy, a feminist collective of technologists, data scientists, creatives, and academics, Irene leads a cross-functional team of five, building unique programs that empower people to achieve more using gender data and a safe and feminist internet. Irene has brokered and strengthened long-term external partnership engagement with over 60 multinational non-profits, tech companies, governments, and academic, philanthropic, and civil society partners, generating nearly $1 million in revenue.

Irene also contributes to the proposal writing and project management of several grants and projects on Afrofeminist Data Governance, AI, Data Policy, Sustainability, and IoT. She is passionate about creating impactful and trusted programs that shape better African policies on technology and data.

Anna Muoio

Anna Muoio is a social impact leader and system change strategist. As Founder of The Theory of We, she continues her work helping groups build shared strategies, coordinate action and shift systems, aligned behind a shared vision for what’s possible and a smart plan for moving towards it. In 2020, Anna launched and is now Co-Lead of the New Capitalism Project (NCP), a system change effort to reimagine capitalism by shifting the norms, behaviors, rules and practices of business and financial sector leaders. NCP’s Economic System Change Lab now serves as a space for supporting leaders in incubating and implementing systemic interventions as members of a powerful change collaborative.

For eight years, Anna led the Aligned Action practice at Monitor Institute by Deloitte where she pioneered large-scale collective problem-solving methods which integrate network theory, systems change and collective strategy. Anna’s work draws on a range of professional experiences—from being a Senior Writer (and 14th member of the startup team) at Fast Company Magazine, and launching the Social Innovation practice at Continuum, a global design and innovation firm. Her first job out of school was as filmmaker Jonathan Demme’s story editor where she learned the alchemical art of storytelling.

Anna speaks regularly at conferences on the power of aligned action and innovation to drive social change. She has been a guest lecturer at Yale School of Management, Harvard Kennedy School, and Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her writing has appeared in the Stanford Social Innovation Review and Chronicle of Philanthropy. She is the author of several field-shaping pieces such as GATHER: The Art and Science of Effective Convening; ENGAGE: How Funders Can Support and Leverage Networks for Social Impact; PARTICIPATE: The Power of Involving Business in Social Impact Networks; and Shifting a System: the Reimagine Learning network and how to tackle persistent problems. Her most recent pieces focus on “Rethinking How to Finance System Health” and “Financing System Health: The Pando Fund”.

Gugu Nonjinge

Gugu Nonjinge is a South African communications specialist, policy advocate, and social entrepreneur whose work focuses on climate justice, gender equity, and social cohesion.

She currently serves as Advocacy Specialist and Communications Manager at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR), where she leads projects addressing the intersection of human rights and environmental policy, with a particular emphasis on the gendered impacts of climate change in Africa.

Her written work has appeared in various national and international platforms, contributing to critical discourse on inclusive sustainability and equitable development. Gugu is also a member of the Executive Committee of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation’s Now Generation Network (NGN), a pan-African platform that brings together emerging African leaders committed to good governance and sustainable development. In recognition of her contributions to climate literacy and advocacy, she was named one of News24’s “100 Young Mandelas” in 2023.

Beyond her policy and advocacy work, Nonjinge is the co-founder and Director of Operations at Asana Beauty, a premium natural hair salon in Cape Town that promotes Black cultural identity and self-expression. Through both her professional and entrepreneurial pursuits, she continues to shape conversations around justice, representation, and systemic change on the African continent.

Reanne Olivier

Reanne Olivier, of Haitian descent, has lived and worked in countries in Africa, Europe, and North America. With over a decade of experience in nonprofit program management and instructional design across Africa and other parts of the Global South, she specializes in designing and developing highly effective learning materials to enhance knowledge retention among young people, talent management, and relationship building.

Reanne is the co-founder and CEO of Africa Matters Initiative, a youth-led organization dedicated to empowering and upskilling African youth. As the CEO, she has led successful youth programs promoting transformative leadership and community advancement across 23 African countries. Beyond her leadership roles, she is a gender activist, facilitator, problem-solver, and mother. Her international exposure and travels have given her a global perspective, earning her the reputation of being a global think tank.

Reanne will earn an MSc in Africa & International Development from the University of Edinburgh in November 2024. In 2024, she was awarded the Top 25 Women in Management Africa award.

Pam Omidyar

Pam Omidyar’s life is oriented towards perpetual learning and to be of service. Alongside her husband, Pierre, they have established several organizations and supported initiatives across various philanthropic areas, with an overall commitment to supporting conditions for healthier societies.

Pam prioritizes a community-centric approach, grounded in both local and indigenous wisdom, and prefers to work so that a multitude of voices are included in governance. Guided by values of integrity, human rights, restorative justice, and kindness, Pam aims to support relationships based on mutual stewardship and clear, aligned visions.

Pam holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Tufts University and a Master of Science in plant molecular genetics from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Outside of her family and philanthropic work, Pam enjoys quilting, baking and cooking, ocean time, and learning Hawaiian and Micronesian seafaring and navigation.

Dorcas Owino

Dorcas Owinoh is a technology ecosystem builder and Co-founder and Executive Director of LakeHub Foundation, where she leads strategy, partnerships, and innovation programs that expand digital opportunity across Kenya. She also oversees a world-class, tuition-free software engineering academy created through a public-private partnership with the County Government of Kisumu and global 01 Talent. Under her leadership, the program has grown into a leading pipeline for in-demand tech talent, with apprentices contributing to AI, fintech, agriculture, and digital public infrastructure projects. Dorcas’ work focuses on governance, equity, and the future of digital communities designing models that enable youth and women to participate meaningfully in Africa’s innovation economy. She has been recognized with major honors including Forbes 30 Under 30, Mandela Washington Fellowship, and Top 40 Under 40 Women in Kenya. Her practice blends systems leadership, community-building, and strategic partnerships to shape long-term, sustainable impact.

Amaury Padilla

Amaury Padilla is a peacebuilder and human rights defender, with extensive experience supporting organizational processes, political advocacy, and the defense of the rights of victims of the armed conflict. He has worked in radio and print journalism and has been a university lecturer. He served as an advisor to the Bolívar Department Government on peace issues and was the founder and coordinator of the National and International Cooperation Unit from 2000 to 2002. He has provided planning and organizational strengthening advice to Indigenous peoples in Putumayo, the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, and La Guajira, as well as to Afro-Colombian communities in the Caribbean region. Since 2004 and to the present, he has been a co-founding member of the Caribbean Agenda Network of Social and Human Rights Organizations. Since 2012, he has been the Director of the Cesar – La Guajira Development and Peace Program and was a founding board member of the Redprodepaz Foundation.

Aaron Pereira

Aaron Pereira recently came across an old and slightly dusty high school paper and was more than a bit surprised to see it explored the connection between inner lives and social change. It was lovely to (re)discover that his work in the Project touches on a life long interest alongside other wonderful things in life like travel, meeting people, reading, and hosting dinner parties or other gatherings.

Aaron’s mom got him involved in social change work (some time before the high school paper) and it stuck. The key thread in much of his work is exploring the way we live together. Sometimes that’s taken the form of pop up experiments, boards, or running an organisation. A few other times he’s been a co-founder such as with CanadaHelps. CanadaHelps, one of Canada’s leading charities, engages over 3 million Canadians to raise over $400 million a year for social causes across Canada and around the world.

Taking time for a morning cup of tea helps his day start out gently and well. It started as a (gentle) daily ritual sometime during a 7 year walk-about which was all about taking time for and re-centering his inner life. Something the cup of tea helps with every day. Aaron loves being based in Paris and continuing to spend a lot of time in India.

James Plunkett

James Plunkett is the Chief Practices Officer for Nesta and the Behavioural Insights Team. He has worked for a decade in digital transformation and public policy. Before joining Nesta, James led digital technology and policy at Citizens Advice and before that he held roles at 10 Downing Street, the Cabinet Office, and leading policy at the Resolution Foundation think tank.

James’s book, End State, explores how we reform the state for a digital age. He formerly sat on the advisory board of the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation and writes regularly on technological change and its implications for the way we govern society.

Ashcharya Prabhu

Ashcharya Prabhu is a space-holder and community weaver who brings people and ideas together with deep care and clarity. At the heart of her current work is the Leaders’ Lab Network at Centre for Exponential Change —a living, breathing cohort of System Orchestrators across the globe who are creating impact at scale.

Ashcharya’s work is rooted in a cross-sectoral journey spanning film-making, creative entrepreneurship, social-impact education, and programmatic ecosystem design. As a founding member of Artflute, she led marketing, customer success, and design to scale global art-tech platforms empowering 2000+ fine-artists and sculptors. At Udhyam Learning Foundation, she shaped large-scale public education programs across Indian states—enabling 800K+ first-generation entrepreneurs and students to build self-efficacy and economic independence. With UNICEF & three State Governments in India, she led curriculum thought leadership for mass-adoption entrepreneurship for students from Grade 6 to UG positively impacting 2M+ learners. Through her creative design studio, she continues to design brand stories and experiences that centre people, culture, and purpose. Across it all, her instinct has been to hold the emotional undercurrent of systems work—to blend story with empathy, processes, joy and care with clarity.

Eruera Prendergast-Tarena

Eruera Prendergast-Tarena believes in rangatiratanga where we can determine our own path and create the future we want. This inspires him to create mana motuhake solutions and grow the next generation of Māori leadership to lead what comes next.

Making Māori futures is Eruera’s day job and that’s about as inspiring as it gets for him. It’s a mix of removing what’s holding us back whilst simultaneously designing and creating new ways of thinking and doing. This is challenging but rewarding mahi. Eruera never does the same thing twice so, despite its complexity and challenges, his job is his passion and he never finds it to be boring.

Rob Ricigliano

Rob Ricigliano is a Systems & Complexity coach with The Omidyar Group. In that role he supports social change organizations and initiative teams drive deeper impact in the complex environments in which they work. Rob constantly explores how to use systems and complexity thinking in accessible and practical ways.

Prior to joining The Omidyar Group, Rob worked on peacebuilding in complex environments and violent conflict zones around the world – from Iraq and Afghanistan to Cambodia, Colombia, and South Africa, among others. In that role he worked with leaders of governments, non-governmental organizations, armed groups, and political parties. He co-founded the Alliance for Peacebuilding and the Master of Sustainable Peacebuilding program at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM).

He also serves as an Emeritus Board Member on the Alliance for Peacebuilding. He wrote, Making Peace Last: A Toolbox for Sustainable Peacebuilding (2012).

Julia Roig

Julia Roig has more than 30 years of experience working for democratic change and conflict transformation around the world, and is best known for her ability to convene diverse coalitions and her facilitative leadership of global networks. An organizer at heart, in her role as Chief Network Weaver at The Horizons Project, Julia is committed to bridge-building across sectors, disciplines, and cultures. Throughout her career she has been called upon to translate between theory and practice, while seeding new approaches, organizing principles, and mindset shifts for social change.

After serving for almost 14 years as the President and CEO of PartnersGlobal, in 2022 Julia launched The Horizons Project to focus on the intersection of peacebuilding, social justice, and democracy in the United States. She is a renowned public speaker, facilitator, and trainer able to connect deeply with different constituencies within civil society, social movements, governments, and corporations. Julia is the main architect of ground-breaking new research and approaches for more effective Narratives for Peace, working with front-line peacebuilders, social scientists, filmmakers, advertising industry leaders, and other creatives to bring peacebuilding into the mainstream. She works with philanthropists, non-profits, and movement leaders to incorporate narrative competency as an essential tool for restoring societal relationships and democratic values.

Julia was licensed as an attorney in the state of Maryland and brings to Horizons her many years of diverse international experience and practical field work in more than 30 countries. Prior to joining PartnersGlobal, Julia spent two years as the Country Director for the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative in Belgrade, Serbia. She is also a recognized expert in community justice and dispute resolution in Colombia having spent five years living and working from Bogota, promoting a national expansion of the Equity Conciliation and Justice Houses programs.

Julia is currently the Chair of the Board of the Alliance for Peacebuilding. She also serves on several Advisory Boards including: Nsquare, the Corruption, Justice and Legitimacy Program at Tufts University, and Scripps College Laspa Center for Women’s Leadership. Julia’s roots growing up in the Pacific Northwest are an important part of her identity, and you can always count on her to lead a group in song around the piano or a campfire.

Liz Ruedy

Liz Ruedy is the Senior Advisor to the President at Democracy Fund, an independent foundation working to ensure that our political system is able to withstand new challenges and deliver on its promise to the American people. She focuses on systems and strategic foresight, seeking out critical insights to support the field and organizational leadership in making strategic decisions in uncertain contexts.

Liz was previously the Director for Strategy, Impact and Learning at Democracy Fund. Prior to joining Democracy Fund in 2017, Liz was the director of the Office of Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning at the International Republican Institute, a non-profit, non-partisan organization that advances democracy and human rights worldwide. At IRI, Liz oversaw an evaluation practice that emphasized the use of evidence to both assess and inform programs to support responsive political and government institutions, engaged citizens, and inclusive political and civic processes, with a focus on complexity-aware approaches and participatory methods.

Liz has more than 20 years of experience in democracy assistance in program management, evaluation, strategy, and learning. She taught a graduate-level course on monitoring and evaluation for foreign assistance programs at the George Washington University from 2011-2017. She holds a master’s degree in European and Eurasian Studies from the George Washington University and a bachelor’s degree from the College of William and Mary.

Gabriela Saade

Gabriela Saade is an Advisor with BIT Americas where she works with city governments and organizations to apply behavioral insights and embed evaluation practices across a wide range of policy areas.

Before joining BIT, Gabriela worked at Mathematica Policy Research, The Economist Impact, and La Mejor Venezuela, where she used data and evidence to design policies and programs. She holds a Master of Public Policy from the University of Chicago and a BS in Economics from the Universidad Metropolitana of Venezuela.

Gabriela is the co-founder of two NGOs in the humanitarian sector and a Global Shaper of the World Economic Forum.

Otto Scharmer

Otto Scharmer, a Senior Lecturer at MIT and Founding Chair of the Presencing Institute, has dedicated the past 20 years to helping leaders embrace cross-sector systems transformation. Through his bestselling books Theory U and Presence (the latter co-authored with Peter Senge and others), Otto introduced the groundbreaking concept of "presencing" — learning from the emerging future.

Otto also co-authored Leading from the Emerging Future, which outlines eight acupuncture points for transforming our economy from egocentric to ecocentric. His most recent book The Essentials of Theory U (2018) summarizes the core principles and applications of awareness-based systems change. He co-founded the MITx u-lab, which has activated a vibrant worldwide ecosystem of transformational change involving more than 250,000 users from 186 countries. In collaboration with colleagues, he co-created global Action Learning Labs for UN agencies and SDG Leadership Labs for UN Country Teams in 26 countries, which support cross-sector initiatives for addressing urgent humanitarian crises.

Born and raised near Hamburg, Germany, Otto’s early experiences on his family farm profoundly shaped his vision. From his father, a pioneer of regenerative farming, Otto learned the significance of the living quality of the soil in organic agriculture, which inspired his thinking about social fields as the grounding condition from which visible transformations emerge. Like a good farmer who cares for the soil, Otto believes responsible leaders must nurture the social field in which they operate. He emphasizes that shifting our economic operating systems from extractive to regenerative requires innovations in leadership support structures for shifting mindsets from ego to eco. Building that infrastructure is the purpose of the u-school for Transformation.

Otto earned his diploma and his PhD in economics from Witten/Herdecke University in Germany. He is a member of the UN Learning Advisory Council for the 2030 Agenda, the Club of Rome and the World Future Council. He has won the Jamieson Prize for Teaching Excellence at MIT and the European Leonardo Corporate Learning Award. In 2021, he received the Elevating Humanity Award from the Organizational Development Network.

Nathan Schneider

Nathan Schneider is an assistant professor of media studies at the University of Colorado Boulder, where he leads the Media Economies Design Lab and the MA program in Media and Public Engagement. He is the author of four books, most recently Governable Spaces: Democratic Design for Online Life, published by University of California Press in 2024, and Everything for Everyone: The Radical Tradition that Is Shaping the Next Economy, published by Bold Type Books in 2018.

He edited Vitalik Buterin’s book Proof of Stake: The Making of Ethereum and the Philosophy of Blockchains and co-edited Beautiful Solutions: A Toolbox for Liberation and Ours to Hack and to Own: The Rise of Platform Cooperativism, a New Vision for the Future of Work and a Fairer Internet. Recent scholarship has been published in New Media & Society, Feminist Media Studies, the Georgetown Law Technology Review, and Media, Culture & Society, among other journals. He has also reported for publications including Harper’s, The Nation, The New Republic, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The New York Times, The New Yorker, and others, along with regular columns for America, a national Catholic magazine.

He has lectured at universities including Columbia, Fordham, Harvard, MIT, NYU, the University of Bologna, and Yale. He serves on the boards of Metagov, Start.coop, and Waging Nonviolence. Follow his work on social media at @ntnsndr or at his website, nathanschneider.info.

Gael Surgenor

Gael is an experienced leader and social innovator whose career is rooted in community and economic development, social justice, and human rights. She has worked across central and local government and grassroots organisations to enable positive social change. As Director of Community and Social Innovation at TSI, an Auckland Council initiative focused on place based social and economic change. From 2021-2023 she was a panel member on a ministerial review of the future for local governance and government in New Zealand. She has a law degree and a post graduate diploma in reflective social practice.

rahel mekdim teka

rahel mekdim teka is an organizer, facilitator, and writer based in Oakland, CA. she is passionate about building power, storytelling, and Ethiopian food. A member of BYP100 (Black Youth Project 100), she strives to bring a Black Queer Feminist lens to all aspects of her life.

rahel is the Communications Manager at the Participatory Budgeting Project, a national organization that creates and supports opportunities for communities to decide how public money is spent. In her spare time you can find rahel watching movies, reading, and exploring new cities. If you ever need to buy her favor, books by Black women authors and tequila based cocktails are the way – don’t worry, she’ll drop hints.

Latasha Troflianin

As an Executive Assistant at The Omidyar Group, Latasha Troflianin ensures the seamless execution of high-level operations and strategic initiatives, managing complex calendars, coordinating global travel, and organizing impactful events. In her role, Latasha supports executive leadership with precision and discretion, contributing to the group’s commitment to navigating complex systems for meaningful societal impact.

An expert in executive support, Latasha has managed high-stakes logistics and confidential projects, drawing from her extensive experience across multiple sectors. Prior to joining The Omidyar Group, she served as Executive/Personal Assistant to the CEO/Founder at VantagePoint Capital Partners, where she oversaw executive schedules, travel coordination, and personal estate management, demonstrating her adeptness in both professional and personal spheres.

Lily Tsai

Lily Tsai is the Director and Founder of the MIT Governance Lab (MIT GOV/LAB) and the Ford Professor of Political Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), as well as the former Chair of the MIT Faculty. Her research focuses on accountability, governance, and political participation in developing contexts, particularly in Asia and Africa.

In 2014, Lily founded MIT GOV/LAB, a group of social and behavioral scientists and design researchers who develop and test innovations in citizen engagement and government responsiveness. By focusing on how and why citizens become active in engaging their governments, Lily aims to bridge researcher and practitioner communities by developing learning collaborations that can respond to governance challenges using empirical evidence in real time.

Lily has written two books, When People Want Punishment: Retributive Justice and the Puzzle of Authoritarian Popularity and Accountability Without Democracy: Solidarity Groups and Public Goods Provision in Rural China, as well as articles in The American Political Science Review, The Journal of Politics, Comparative Political Studies, Political Behavior, Comparative Politics, and World Development.

Cat Tully

Cat Zuzarte Tully leads the School of International Futures (SOIF), a global non-profit transforming futures for current and next generations. SOIF has worked with national governments, the United Nations, NATO, and organizations such as Omidyar Network to make the world fairer for current and future generations. SOIF also supports a growing network of Next Generation Foresight Practitioners.

Previously, Cat served as Strategy Project Director at the UK Foreign Office and Policy Advisor in the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit.

Aruna Venkatachalam

As the Curator of the Leader’s Lab Network at the Centre for Exponential Change, she is deeply engaged in thinking, sensing, learning, and co-journeying with systems orchestrators leading efforts in exponential change. In addition to this role, she continues her teaching journey as an Adjunct Professor.

Jacob Ward

Jacob Ward is a veteran technology journalist, most recently an on-air correspondent for NBC News, covering the intersection of technology, human behavior, and social change for Nightly News, The TODAY Show, and MSNBC. He is the former editor-in- chief of Popular Science magazine, and was Al Jazeera’s science and technology correspondent from 2013 to 2018.

Ward is a lecturer at the Stanford d.school, and was a 2018-2019 Berggruen Fellow at Stanford University’s Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, where he began writing The Loop: How AI is Creating a World without Choices and How to Fight Back, out now from Hachette Book Group. The book explores how artificial intelligence and other decision-shaping technologies will amplify good and bad human instincts.

Ward has written for The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Wired, and many other publications. In addition to hosting documentaries for Nat Geo and Discovery, he’s the host of the landmark four-hour PBS television series, “Hacking Your Mind,” about human decision-making and manipulation.

Resla Wesonga

Resla Wesonga is a project and research lead with The Omidyar Group.

Previously, Resla worked as outreach coordinator for Princeton in Africa where she managed all the West Africa-based fellows, revamped and diversified the organization’s communication strategy, and organized fundraising campaigns that gathered over $250,000. She has also held internships at the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center in Bangkok, Thailand where she helped include rights- and gender-based approaches in disaster risk management policies across Asia; the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington D.C., where she conducted an impact assessment of the Zimbabwe grants program; Fidelity Bank in Accra, Ghana, where she worked to expand the bank’s financial inclusion programs; and Keepod in Tel Aviv, Israel, where she helped diversify Keepod’s partners in the Kenyan educational market.

Resla holds a BA in Political Science and African Studies and an MA in Global Affairs from Yale University.

Aniyia Williams