Hideko Akashi is the founder and lead consultant for Liberation Consulting.  With over 20 years of experience in the educational sector, Hideko has challenged individuals and institutions to think critically about issues of diversity, privilege, social justice, inclusion, and equity. Starting with her own self-reflective journey, Hideko draws upon her own experience acknowledging her membership in historically included groups as well as her multiple targeted identities to guide individuals into their own self-exploration.  She believes in self and social transformation, and that institutions can also create positive shifts in organizational culture to help cultivate the environment of truly equitable and inclusive spaces.

Hideko is a skilled and professional facilitator with an extensive teaching background which allows her to create spaces that push participants to engage in a challenging learning process.  She enjoys exploring topics around liberation, race/racism, privilege, gender/sexism, sexual orientation, intersectionality, socialization, internalization and systemic cycles of oppression.

Beyond group facilitation and training workshops, Hideko engages institutions on strategic plans to make transformational and meaningful changes in their organizational culture.  She credits much of her training and approach to her work as an independent consultant for VISIONS, Inc.

Originally from Tucson, Arizona, Dr. Elisa Meza has worked in the Bay Area as a school social worker and community-based mental health practitioner in Alameda County for the past 9 years. Elisa graduated from San Francisco State University with her Doctorate in Educational Leadership researching how practitioners define and implement culturally responsive practices.

Throughout her years in the Bay Area, Elisa has been committed to facilitating dialogues with professionals in education, mental health, and other fields to push forward cultural humility as an experience of self-reflection and community building within agencies. Elisa is passionate about engaging in critical dialogue with colleagues across multiple organizations to push forward social justice and equity for communities that we are currently supporting.

Ariana Gil is an organizational development and DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) consultant based in Oakland, California and Washington DC.

Originally from Tijuana, Mexico (ancestral land of the Kumeyaay people), Ariana is a bi-costal, bilingual and bi-cultural bridge-builder who has lived and worked in the Bay Area since 2006. She brings over a decade of experience in community engagement and advocacy, curriculum development, facilitation and project management to her consulting practice and is passionate about cultivating inclusive and diverse environments, structures and systems.

Ariana is the founder and principal consultant of AG Consulting, and The Truing Group - a diverse network of consultants supporting organizational growth & change through an equity lens. She is also a consultant, trainer, and collaborator with VISIONS Inc,  The Greater Us, Liberation Consulting, and The Latinx Racial Equity Project, and serves on the Board of Directors for Mycelium Youth Network, and Proyecto Fronterizo de Educación Ambiental.

Ariana loves dancing, thrift store adventures, and grounding herself near large bodies of water. She is currently working towards an MS in Organizational Leadership & Learning at The George Washington University’s School of Education & Human Development.

Ellen Morrison collaborates with individuals and groups in catalyzing their efforts toward equity, bringing attention to the analysis of power as a core element of interpersonal and organizational change.  Her work as a DEI consultant is informed by twenty-five years of experience in community mental health and inspired by a lineage of movement work as well as an intentional personal journey in understanding her relationship to power and privilege.

Ellen is a skilled facilitator with extensive experience working across diverse groups in educational, clinical, organizational and social service settings.  Her trauma informed and relational approach contributes to prioritizing the integration of restorative practices including popular education pedagogy to develop curriculum and facilitate experiential learning.  She has a psychotherapy practice as well as a consultancy focused on antiracism.  Learn more about Ellen at http://www.ellenmorrison.com/.

Jeanne is part of the founding staff team of Grow Dat Youth Farm in New Orleans, Louisiana, where she began working in the VISIONS Inc model of diversity, equity and inclusion in 2013. Jeanne recently completed a PhD in Human Geography and Urban Studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science. A white woman originally from a farming family in Kansas, she holds a lifelong dedication to place-based food justice, food sovereignty, and land justice work. She lives in Louisville, Kentucky. www.growdatyouthfarm.org

Jen is a lifelong learner who has spent over a decade in K-12 schools as a parent, teacher, coach, learning specialist, and equity and inclusion practitioner. In a previous life, Jen worked in the advertising industry as an Interactive Producer where her understanding of organizational dynamics evolved. She received her B.A. in Psychology from Stanford University along with a Multiple Subject Teaching Credential and M.A. in Teaching from the University of San Francisco.

Jen has a love of stories and is passionate about creating environments that allow people to thrive in their full, authentic selves. Drawing on her own multiracial identity, she is committed to the continual exploration of the many ways in which our past informs our present and shapes our future at both a personal and collective level. Living in the Bay Area, Jen finds joy spending time in the mountains and ocean with her family and dancing unabashedly to her favorite music.

Lyssa is an educator, facilitator, and curriculum creator. Her journey into the work of social justice stems from growing up as a multi-racial and multicultural person in predominantly white spaces. With over 13 years of experience in the classroom with young children, Lyssa loves co-conspiring to empower and inspire learners from all ages and backgrounds to lift their voice and use it for the good of all. She believes that the journey to learning and unlearning begins with the self. Her work in educational leadership has focused on creating curriculum and content for workshops with faculty and staff, board members, and parents and caregivers.

She was the co-director of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee for 2019-2020 at Westside Neighborhood School and served as member of the board advisory committee for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for the 2019-2021 school years. She now teaches fourth grade at Oakwood School in North Hollywood, the land of the Chumash, Fernandeño Tataviam, Kizh, and Tongva people. Lyssa’s passions are gender justice, inclusive language practices, Indigenous rights, and transracial solidarity, specifically within the AAPI and Black communities. She loves to garden, collect rocks and house plants, and go for walks in nature.

Soerny is a consultant and facilitator at Liberation Consulting and brings nearly 10 years of experience from VISIONS Inc., a national diversity and inclusion consulting organization. She has worked with clients from a variety of sectors including public and private education, social services, nonprofit, faith-based, youth, and healthcare.

Previously, Soerny worked as a sexual and reproductive health educator, providing after-school programming in Somerville middle schools. She developed curriculums in English and Spanish on consent, healthy relationships, and gender and sexuality. Soerny studied American Studies and Community Health at Tufts University with a focus on racism and health. She has interned for local organizations such as Alternatives for Community and Environment and Southern Jamaica Plain Health Center. She is a proud native of Jamaica Plain, MA.

Toyin Augustus (she/her) is a former Olympian and physical educator with experience in integrating sports and social justice work to inspire athletes as change agents. In her 15 years of experience in private and public schools, she developed justice-based experiential education trips for high school students; designed diversity and anti-bias reading programs for elementary schools; led workshops on community connections across difference; and fostered student leadership development.

Toyin is a skilled facilitator and independent consultant for VISIONS, Inc., using her engaging and empathetic style to guide adult learners through transformative processes. She has a masters in Education from the University of Pennsylvania and recently became the new Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging at Oakwood School in Los Angeles, California.

Yoojin Janice Lee is committed to building social movements that are effective, compassionate and life-giving. She has over twenty years of experience in leadership development for social change, community organizing, and nonprofit management.

She draws upon this experience in her current work as an independent consultant, trainer, and facilitator. She is also a consultant with the diversity, equity, and inclusion consulting group, VISIONS, Inc. Previously, Ms. Lee was Senior Trainer and Manager at Health Resources in Action, a Boston-based, national non-profit capacity-building organization, where she provided training, facilitation, and capacity-building services to nonprofits, coalitions, and government agencies. Earlier on, Ms. Lee was Executive Director & Lead Organizer of the Boston-area Youth Organizing Project, which unites low-income communities of color to build political power for justice in their schools and neighborhoods.

She graduated from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government with a Master’s Degree in Public Policy and holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Smith College. A long-time resident of the Boston-area, she grew up in and around New York City, and has lived abroad in Seoul, Korea.

Ellen Tuzzolo is a white, queer mama, of Southern Italian and Irish ancestry, based on Narragansett, Pokanoket and Wampanoag land. Ellen is most fired up by undermining systems of oppression and breaking down barriers that prevent people from seeing and caring for themselves, each other, and the earth. After growing up queer and nonbinary in a tiny town in Massachusetts, Ellen spent many years in the South working as part of an incredible advocacy and organizing community on numerous efforts to close youth and women’s prisons, fight mass incarceration, and stop the school-to-prison pipeline. For several years after, Ellen directed residential camp programs where young people could learn to challenge systems of oppression while connecting with themselves, others, and the natural world.

Currently, Ellen’s paid work includes training, equity assessment processes, equity coaching, and DEIJ strategy support for educators, youth service professionals, environmentalists, and other non-profit and corporate staff and boards. As a facilitator of multi-racial spaces committed to both popular education and outdoor education, Ellen has held space for thousands of youth and adults to understand and challenge systemic racism and other forms of oppression. Ellen is currently a consultant with Liberation Consulting, VISIONS, Inc. and Partners for Collaborative Change. Ellen serves on the board of The People’s Port Authority, is a proud founding member of the Providence chapter of SURJ (Showing Up for Racial Justice), and loves spending time outside with their family, learning how to tend to beautiful and edible plant friends.

Stella is passionate about moving the racial justice work of white and privileged folks beyond conversation and comfort zones and into one of action and risk-taking. Stella identifies as a white-presenting queer working-class woman. She holds a Masters in International Law from the University of London where she concentrated on human rights law, immigrant-community-led liberation, and the critical work of building enduring indigenous land rights. In addition to being a Co-Founder and the former Director of the Anti-Racism Cooperative, she is a co-founder of Freedom Beyond, a nationwide network of contemplative action circles, she is also a trainer with the Boston Public Health Commission's Training Institute for Youth Workers on Trauma and Resilience Awareness. She is a founding organizer with the Boston Chapter of Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ). Stella works at the intersection of capacity building, community building, and transformative justice. She also volunteers her paralegal skills to immigration and housing legal clinics in her community.