Guest speaker for the University Forum Lecture Series, which provides opportunities for university students, faculty, and staff and for people in the surrounding region to hear some of the most stimulating speakers in the country.
The Better Food Policy Fund piloted a new model of participatory grantmaking. I facilitated a process that reduced burden, built trust, and shifted the tone of philanthropy toward fairness, joy, and shared ownership.
The Wave Effect was a seven-month collaborative leadership development program. With reflective practice, trauma-aware facilitation, and emergent design, participants shifted from cautious leadership to collaborative, adaptive approaches, building resilience, confronting power, and embracing systems thinking to shape healthier community patterns.
In complex work, passion isn’t enough. In this piece, I share how the 4Ps - People, Purpose, Process, and Presence - became a compass for navigating systems change.
Attending to people means more than who’s invited. Here I share stories of inclusion, leadership, and how creating space for others makes collaboration possible.
Without shared purpose, groups stall. In this piece, I reflect on how co-creating and tending to purpose brings clarity, momentum, and resilience in complex work.
Process shapes how groups move from talk to action. Here I reflect on how thoughtful design and adaptation build trust, ownership, and lasting collaboration.
Presence is the ground upon which other aspects of group facilitation depend. In this piece, I reflect on how attention, listening, and pace bring life to collaboration and make change possible.
Pace shapes the rhythm of change. Here I reflect on urgency, patience, and how sensing the natural cadence of groups helps trust and collaboration grow.
A story of quiet leadership and complex systems. In a coastal North Carolina community shaped by deep pride and layered trauma, I helped seed conditions for connection, healing, and change - by holding a container, honoring resistance, and working gently at the edges of what could be spoken.