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.

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 has an MS in Organizational Leadership & Learning at The George Washington University’s School of Education & Human Development.

Lyssa Ichikawa is a multi-racial, queer, anti-binary resident of occupied Tongva land in what is now Los Angeles, CA. Lyssa has over 16 years of experience leading, creating, and facilitating diversity, equity, inclusion projects that are based in social justice and anti-oppression practices. With a heart-centered, collaborative approach, Lyssa uses their background in education to support holistic and humanizing processes of change within organizations. Lyssa loves to focus on personal identity work, healing, reclaiming collective memory, and holding space.

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/.

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.

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.

Based in Providence, RI, Jessie Justin is a diversity, equity and inclusion consultant and educator, and a certified personal coach/equity coach. Through life experience and educational pursuits, Jessie has learned to weave social justice consciousness into everyday life. Jessie brings a keen awareness of the intersectional identities that affect who we are and how we respond to our surroundings. As a transgender/gender non-binary, queer white person, Jessie is dedicated to helping communities become aware of and challenge systemic oppression and racial injustice. They are a founding member of the White Noise Collective RI and a member of the Providence SURJ chapter. Jessie has been consulting for over 10 years. Jessie earned a B.A. Skidmore College, M.A. in Psychology from Antioch University and CPC (certified personal coach) from Leadership that Works.

Isaac Ruelas has worked with VISIONS since 2011, first as a client at All Saints Pasadena and then as a VISIONS consultant in 2018. Their work has been adapted to meet the needs of a spectrum of communities, including bilingual Spanish speaking groups; spiritual communities challenging themselves to grow their inclusion and equity; schools and universities when it comes to belonging; as well as foundations and what the work of equity looks like and the impact it can have. Isaac's portfolio also includes work with Boards of Trustees and other organizational leaders in DEI change initiatives in their own industry; including architecture firms, who are wanting to explore new ways of designing that are inclusive to the communities around them, and streaming services that are wanting to shift their internal culture and desire to take risks on new diverse, inclusive and equitable content. Isaac has a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology with a focus on culture and adolescence from Azusa Pacific University. They independently teach meditation, emotional intelligence, and alternative spiritual practices, along with a multidisciplinary art practice.

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. 

Toyin Augustus, MS Ed. (she/her) is an educator, DEI practitioner, and former Olympian utilizing her skills and experience to invest in transformational social justice. In her 17 years of experience in private and public schools, Toyin has created equitable policies, encouraged inclusive practices, and facilitated educational opportunities for students, educators, and adult caretakers. In addition, she has designed frameworks, training, workshops, and student affinity leadership programs to facilitate equity and inclusion in organizations. 

Toyin is an independent consultant for Across The Tracks Consulting, Liberation Consulting, and VISIONS, Inc., using her engaging and empathetic style to guide adult learners through transformative processes. 

Toyin has a Masters in Education from the University of Pennsylvania and is the founder of Just Heroes, a non-profit that integrates athletics and social justice work to inspire and empower youth athletes as change agents through education and community initiatives.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Jasmin is a mad, queer, gender non-conforming, West-Asian person, based in Brooklyn and from all over. They labor as a healer, trainer, and organizer and especially feel called to facilitate group healing spaces and peer support trainings. In addition to their counselor education, Jasmin is trained in various somatic modalities. They believe systemic oppression is a distribution of trauma and that healing is necessary for our individual and collective liberation. Jasmin is always thinking about / feeling out / practicing-to-embody what it means to live with integrity, build community, and cultivate relational culture to skill-up movement builders with the hope of another world.

Rachael Reichenbach lives in a solar-powered log cabin on 200 acres of collectively owned land, the unceded land of the Muscogee and Cherokee, in a part of Alabama delightfully known as the toenails of the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. This land is their wisest teacher. Rachael realized they were a facilitator (and began their personal journey of racial justice & healing) in 2012 in Washington, D.C. when they organized and facilitated a participant-driven consciousness raising group with and for women navigating homelessness and addiction. They have been facilitating and collaborating with others to raise our consciousness and shape change ever since. Their calling is to support white people in the process of becoming our most effective Selves towards our collective liberation through recovering & rehumanizing our Selves; facing & accepting how we have been shaped by systems of oppression; and co-creating anti-racist culture that is sane, loving, & relational. They coach individuals and support groups through the processes of disrupting internalized white superiority; furthering organizational justice, equity, diversity, & inclusion goals; and operationalizing social justice values both internally and externally. Their clients have included regional, national, and international non-profit leaders, national networks, and philanthropic institutions. They previously organized with the Poor People’s Campaign in Florida and are currently a leader in the Birmingham chapter of Showing Up for Racial Justice.