Meet the Faculty
Scholars, practitioners, and imaginative minds teach with us.
Our faculty bring decades of experience across disciplines — designers, scientists, artists, and organizers building courses rooted in radical imagination.
Angela Montijo, LCSW
Relational Facilitator & Educator
Angela Montijo creates reflective, conversation-based spaces where people can examine their lives with honesty and care. Her work is grounded in relational facilitation, where learning happens through storytelling, curiosity, and being witnessed. She brings a background in education justice and community-based work, offering a lens that connects personal reflection with broader systems and lived experience. Rather than offering answers, she creates space for people to make meaning of their own. Through With Care Collective, Angela designs workshops and group experiences rooted in the belief that the future is relational.
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Ashira Darwish
Healer
Somatic practitioner and liberation educator guiding others to embody freedom and healing through body-centered practices. Ashira is a motivational speaker, investigative journalist, and the visionary creator of Ashira Active Meditation — a trauma integration modality rooted in embodied movement, ancestral wisdom, liberation psychology, and neuro-somatic healing. Her work is a lifeline for those navigating the impacts of war, displacement, and intergenerational trauma, particularly among Palestinian communities. Ashira’s journey into healing began after a life-altering injury in 2012 that left her paralyzed with a severed spinal cord. Defying every medical prognosis, she embarked on a personal and spiritual path of recovery that not only restored her mobility but led to the creation of a groundbreaking method for trauma transformation. Her approach blends active meditation, Sufi and Kundalini practices, sound healing, and trauma-informed movement into a dynamic, culturally rooted modality. Grounded in the principles of liberation psychology, Ashira’s work emphasizes healing as a collective, justice-centered process — reconnecting individuals not only to their bodies, but to their communities, histories, and power. Recognized for its effectiveness in treating ADHD, PTSD, and continuous trauma in both children and adults, her method transcends clinical frameworks by restoring dignity, embodiment, and spiritual sovereignty to survivors. Ashira’s pioneering research established a link between spinning movements and trauma therapy. Her studies revealed that spinning can safely activate the prefrontal cortex — a key area affected by trauma and neurodegeneration — offering a transformative tool for emotional regulation and nervous system restoration. She is a certified EFT therapist, trauma coach, and sound healer, and her healing philosophy is both deeply personal and globally relevant. In 2021, she was honored by the Indian Society for Applied Behavioural Science for her contributions to societal transformation. In 2023, she was named one of Palestine’s most inspirational women by Build Palestine. Beyond her healing practice, Ashira is known for her fearless journalism and advocacy. She has collaborated with organizations such as BBC, Internews, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch, bringing global attention to Palestinian voices, stories, and resilience. Through her initiative, Catharsis Holistic Healing, she has trained over 200 Arab-world practitioners and continues to offer free trauma support to communities in crisis — from Gaza to refugee camps, from classrooms to frontlines of resistance. Ashira’s life is a testament to what is possible when healing is embodied, liberation is holistic, and community is sacred. Her work weaves together science, spirit, and struggle — offering not just recovery, but reclamation.
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Besan Abu-Joudeh
Social Entrepreneur
Besan is a social entrepreneur passionate about creating spaces that empower people to step into their power and share their medicine with the world. She is currently building the School of Radical Imagination, a new education platform that empowers academics to teach live, cohort-based courses for adult learners across the globe—free from institutional gatekeeping. Her background spans management consulting, economic development, and nonprofit leadership, including roles at Accenture Federal Services, A.T. Kearney, and the Office of the Quartet. In 2016, she co-founded BuildPalestine, a platform supporting social innovation and changemakers in Palestine. She is also an ICF-certified coach and works one-on-one with clients through her coaching practice, Pause Impact. Besan holds degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and Wharton Business School, as well as a Master’s in Development Economics from SOAS, University of London.
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Cinthya Sopaheluwakan
Systems thinker and storyteller. Founder of The Big Picture.
Cinthya Sopaheluwakan is a systems & strategy thinker, storyteller, provocateur, writer and speaker, focused on challenging dominant systems and narratives. Through The Big Picture, she supports organisations transitioning toward regenerative systems at the intersection of systems thinking, strategic intervention, and storytelling. With a background in physics, business, and sustainability, she brings an intersectional, intentional, imaginative and decolonial lens to her work.
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Hala Saleh
Technologist, Community Builder, and Culture Bearer working towards Collective Liberation
Hala Saleh, Founder of Future Collective Coaching, is a leadership, startup, and product management career coach. Hala is a technologist with 20+ years of experience in the Tech industry. In addition to coaching, Hala offers fractional and interim Product Leadership and Product Strategy consulting for all sizes and stages of companies and digital product development. She is a partner and advisor to multiple non-profits. Hala is a community builder who founded a community space and café called Ya Hala Seattle. Hala is also a writer, a Tatreez (traditional Palestinian embroidery) artist, a culture bearer, and most importantly, a mother.
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Hanieh Khosroshahi
Independent Design Consultant
Hanieh (she/her), is an independent design consultant, researcher, educator, and community organizer working in pursuit of people and the planet. Born in Iran and raised in Tkaronto on Turtle Island, her work is grounded in a commitment to gender equality, social justice, and collective liberation. She is co-founder of Thousand&One, a global feminist community supporting Women of Colour to thrive personally and professionally, and holds an MSc in Human-Computer Interaction from the University of York, UK.
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Josefina Venegas Meza, PhD
Food Writer
Born in Chile, I came to the UK to study Literature (PhD, King's College London). Subsequently, I trained as a baker and have since worked in various kitchens in London, including Michelin-starred restaurants and am currently authoring my first cookbook. I believe in cooking with whole ingredients and that through the food we make we can create the kind of world we want to inhabit – diverse, considered and one that connects us more to our roots, land and communities. To be conscious about what we eat puts our individual selves at the centre of a complex network of critical environmental, social and political choices.
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JuPong Lin, PhD
From the river to the sea, from mountain rainbow to darkest bed of soil, we shall all be free
A daughter of Taiwanese farmers and brickmakers, JuPong Lin invokes the medicine of art and poetics in the struggle to rekindle kincentric worlds. She resides in Nipmuc homelands in Western Massachusetts, where she co-created The PeaceBirds Project, an arts-centered, movement-building initiative that holds space for collective grief as we witness atrocities committed near and afar, in Northeast USA and in the Levant. Her first play, Phoenix in the HolyLand, links local activism for a ceasefire in Gaza with the growing international movement against genocide. Writing this play reignited a fervent desire to decolonize, decarcerate and demilitarize the state apparatus—the modern nation-state. As a member of the Land Lovers collective, she is learning to embrace darkness and revel in migratory unbelonging.
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Karina Anastasia Mathew
Writer & Independent Educator Exploring Liberation Pedagogy
I'm a Russian-Armenian and American writer, activist, and independent educator, currently completing my PhD in English at Harvard University. I taught for over three years at Harvard, including a speculative fiction course that won me my department's highest teaching prize. In my writing and scholarship alike, I love strange, magical, thought-provoking stories, especially those about women--so much so that I gave a talk, "Imagining Extraterrestrial Contact," for the Harvard Horizons 2022 public speaking award. In 2024, my climate fiction was a finalist for Grist's "Imagine 2200" contest. Currently, I live in Paris, where I am the founder of Liberation in Prose, my literary circle and workshop practice, and run The Paris Notebooks newsletter.
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Khawar Malik
Helping changemakers sustain their work 🌱
Khawar is a social entrepreneur focused on helping people build lives in social impact that last. He is currently building SOMOS, a platform creating tools to support sustainable, mission-driven work and help people navigate the relationship between energy, income & impact. For many years, he worked in M&A roles across corporate law, insurance and sales while leading Apples & Pears - a grassroots charity in London. The charity supported schools, domestic violence shelters and community groups to run programmes for children and families, reaching over 6,000 participants annually at its peak. He has also worked as an advisor to startups and social enterprises along with serving on non-profit boards. Khawar holds degrees in History and Law, as well as an MBA, and has lived and worked across multiple countries. He is also training to become a NASM-certified Wellness Coach and Pilates instructor.
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kirthi jayakumar
researcher
kirthi jayakumar runs civitatem resolutions. she focuses on emerging technologies and their intersections with feminist foreign policy and women, peace, and security.
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Laura Basu, PhD
Independent Scholar
Dr. Basu is an independent scholar who writes about capitalism and love. She is a Visiting Fellow at Goldsmiths, University of London, faculty at the School of Radical Imagination and is openDemocracy's former economics editor. She writes a Substack called Loveconomics.
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Lena Papadopoulos
Award-winning educator and leadership coach working at the intersection of personal and collective liberation
As a first-generation Greek-American with a family history of genocide and displacement, my graduate research centered on the role of religion and national identity in war and conflict. I spent 15 years working at the intersections of global citizenship education, leadership development, and cross-cultural community building. Over time, I came to see that the divisions between us reflect the disconnect within us. The work I do now addresses that disconnection first, because we can’t dismantle oppressive systems outside of us without confronting how they’ve taken root within us. My approach is human-centered, trauma-informed, and reflects a unique blend of my background in sociology, psychology, cultural anthropology, intercultural education, leadership development, life coaching, and somatic trauma resolution. I’ve been recognized for my commitment to personalized learning experiences and successful efforts in humanizing communities.
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Lina Barkawi
Helping you tell your story through Palestinian embroidery🪡
Formerly corporate, I now help Palestinian women learn, share, and practice Tatreez (Palestinian embroidery) in community, so that we reclaim the ancestral tradition of handmade Palestinian embroidery by us, for us, together. You can find me: 📸 Instagram / TikTok: @linasthobe 🎥 YouTube: www.YouTube.com/@linasthobe 🎙️ Tatreez Talk Podcast: www.tatreeztalk.com 💌 Email: info@linasthobe.com 🔗 Website: www.linasthobe.com
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Mayra Ruiz-McPherson, PhD(c), MA, MFA
AI Psychologist • Creative Intelligence & Visuality Coach
Through guided reflection, visual exercises, and meaning-centered frameworks, Mayra supports students in cultivating clarity, nourishing agency, and developing deeper creative awareness in their personal and professional lives. Her teachings emphasize presence over performance, thoughtful inquiry over quick answers, and creativity as an iterative force and lifelong relationship rather than a fixed identity. As a Creativity Mentor and Visuality Coach who designs immersive, multidisciplinary experiences for creators and lifelong learners, her work bridges the psychological sciences (across neuro/cognitive, behavioral, social, cyber, and AI) with visual thinking, storytelling, and reflective practice. These robust, combined domains invite students to slow down, be more contemplative and intentional in their everyday experiences, notice more deeply, and reconnect with their inner creative intelligence beyond tools, trends or productivity and innovation culture.
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Najla Abdellatif Vallander
Environmental Advocate
I’m a Swedish-Palestinian environmental advocate dedicated to preserving our planet’s beauty and driving meaningful change. My passion lies in empowering individuals with the knowledge and motivation to live mindfully and sustainably. I hold a degree in Business and Economics, complemented by studies in Peace and Conflict, Environmental Psychology, Sustainability, and Environmental Leadership. In 2017, I founded Zero Waste Palestine to champion simplicity in everyday life, equipping people with practical tools and inspiration to embrace sustainable practices. Through Zero Waste Palestine, we raise awareness on environmental issues and inspire communities across the Arab world to transition toward waste-free living and deeper connections with nature.
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Oumaima Talouka
AI What You Can. Human What You Must.™️
Oumaima is a CTI-trained Leadership Coach, AI Strategy Advisor, and Founder of The Human × Tech. She built her career across engineering, product, and Responsible AI at Microsoft, Siemens, and Air France-KLM. She has since coached 400+ professionals, advised 50+ startups globally, and spoken on 50+ stages. Oumaima is a Top 1% Techstars Mentor and also leads The AI Collective across Africa, MENA, and Francophone markets. Today, through The Human × Tech, she coaches people through professional growth, reinvention, and the identity shifts that come with them - and works with leaders and organizations to integrate AI into how they think, decide, and operate, building organizational resilience for lasting impact, without losing the human edge.
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Pavan Mano, PhD
Cultural theorist
Pavan Mano is a cultural theorist working in contemporary literature and cultural studies. His teaching and research engages with critical and literary theory, and he is interested in culture broadly speaking as a collection of systems that govern how we live. Pavan's first monograph, Straight Nation (Manchester UP, 2025) examines postcolonial nationalism in Singapore and how states can cultivate cultural ideas of "good" and "bad" members of society. He is currently working on a new project around the politics of food and cuisine.
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Ruth Osman
Writer, composer, and educator developing an inquiry into spiral structure across art, ecology, and collective life.
Described by Caribbean Beat Magazine as “a poet disguised as a songbird”, Ruth Osman is a Guyanese singer, songwriter, poet and educator based in Trinidad and Tobago. Osman was shortlisted for the Brooklyn Caribbean Festival’s 2025 Elizabeth Nunez Award for Writers in the Caribbean, and was a top-three finalist in the previous year. In 2022, she was shortlisted for the Bocas Lit Emerging Writers Fellowship. Her debut poetry collection, All Made of Longing, won Best First Book of Poetry and placed second in the Best Book of Poetry category of the Guyana Prize for Literature 2023. Her work has been published in MOKO: Caribbean Arts and Letters, Wildness, and Mulberry Literary, among others. Osman is currently developing SpiraLogics, an interdisciplinary inquiry exploring spiral dynamics and offering conscious scaffolding for creative practice, learning, community organising, and ways of living. Her speculative fiction extends these inquiries into multiversal narratives centered on transformation, hybridity, and survival under pressure. She is also co-founder and facilitator of Weaving Wor(l)ds, an online poetry community.
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Saamiya Seraj, PhD
Fierce BIPOC Coach helping individuals find their voice and thrive
Hi there! I am the CEO and co-founder of A Better Force, a leadership development company with a special focus on empowering BIPOC, immigrant, and other historically marginalized communities. For individuals, I’m a fierce and loving coach, giving equity-oriented and culturally sensitive solutions. For companies, I serve as a strategic advisor, guiding them on how to dismantle systems of oppression and grow with equity.
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Sam Passeport
Relational Coach, Education Disruptor, Feminist Killjoy
Dr. Sam Passeport (she.her.hers) is the Founder of No Borders Learning that helps schools, universities, and organizations build relational and dialogic feedback cultures through workshops, courses, coaching, and creative consulting. She is a French educator who has worked across international schools in India and in the Dutch public higher-education sector. She centers critical and relational pedagogies, treating feedback as a dialogic encounter through a critical-decolonial lens. Her doctorate (2025) explored students’ experiences of teacher feedback, using creative research methods.
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Sarah Elahi
Educator, Writer, Imaginer of Collective Liberation
Hi, I'm Sarah (she/her). I'm an educator, writer, and parent with over 17 years of experience teaching humans of all ages, from infants and toddlers to graduate students. I hold a BA in History and an MA in Child Study and Human Development from Tufts. I believe everything is political--especially the way we raise children, and consequently, the way we raise ourselves. I believe all children are capable. I believe all adults deserve community, creativity, and grace. I believe play is non-negotiable. I believe trying things and failing is an ingredient of a life well lived. I'm inspired by South Asian elders and ancestors. My first book, Apocalypse Babies, was published by Reverie Publishers in 2023. I'm currently working on my second book of creative nonfiction. When I'm not teaching or writing, I'm parenting, birding, people-watching on public transit, and trying to be the village my neighbors deserve.
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Sarah Seraj, PhD
Outspoken Psychologist. Data-Driven DEI Advisor. I help organizations become anti-racist using research-backed methodologies. I also support BIPOC in professional spaces.
Sarah Seraj, PhD is co-founder and CTO at A Better Force, where she conducts workshops and consults with companies on improving workplace culture and systemic inequities by using the latest findings from the social sciences. In her data consultancy work, she uses computational language tools to answer social psychological questions and develop best practices for companies. As a woman of color and an immigrant, one of the main goals of her work is to have more inclusive spaces for women, BIPOC, and other underrepresented groups. Sarah got her PhD in Psychology from UT Austin in 2021.
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Sharon Attipoe-Dorcoo, PhD
Transforming Data and Lived Experiences into Strategic Clarity and Direction
Dr. Sharon Attipoe‑Dorcoo is the Principal of TERSHA LLC and an award‑winning strategist, author, and systems leader who advances narrative sovereignty through data‑informed storytelling and relational governance. With more than two decades of experience, she brings expertise in research, evaluation, systems design, language access, accessibility, and community health workforce development, shaped by leadership roles at DHS, CDC, and across philanthropic and nonprofit networks. A recognized thought leader with 70+ publications, she is a 2022 Public Voices Fellow, Global South Arts and Health Envoy, Adjunct Faculty at Texas Woman’s University, and nominee for the National Academy of Medicine Emerging Leaders Forum. Sharon holds a PhD in Health Policy and an MPH, has lived experience as a diasporic Ghanaian-American woman of faith, wife, and mom, and is deeply committed to building systems rooted in care, dignity, and inclusive impact.
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Sheila Pontis, PhD
Professor & Researcher in Imagination, Wellbeing and Design
From an interdisciplinary perspective, my work contributes to the development of a flourishing society. I am a professor, researcher, and author in Imagination, Wellbeing, and Design with extensive international experience in leadership roles in higher education and industry. After more than two decades working at leading institutions, including University College London, Princeton University, and MIT, now I empower individuals and communities from the inside out to unlock their unbound potential and experience the transformative benefits of imagination to build their dream future. My vision is a world where imagination and human flourishing are integral to each aspect of life and as high priority as work on other domains, such as climate change, AI, existential risk, politics. Through the Everyone Imagines initiative, I investigate the symbiotic connection between imagination and emotional wellbeing, and teach workshops and training worldwide. My background as an information designer, combined with my expertise in human-centered research, Creative Problem Solving, mindfulness, and positive psychology, allows me to offer a unique approach to inner growth, imagination, and emotional wellbeing.
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Shraddha Shah, PhD
Neuroscientist | Writer
Shraddha is a neuroscientist and writer, concerned with questions of trauma, diverse intelligences, complicities of the academy, and tries to embody anti-imperial and anti-colonial liberatory modes of being. Faith, skepticism, rebellion, and curiosity fuel her writing, research, organizing, and all the quotidian existences in between. As an organizer, she co-founded and runs ZinesforFalastin and Gaza Writers Series, to amplify voices of indigenous Palestinian artists through creating and promoting zines of their work. Her writing - including poems, essays, and op-eds on academia, heathcare ethics, and academia - has appeared in We The Soil, Revolute, Houston Chronicle, Mondoweiss, and Querencia Press, with forthcoming work in Writing Women. She also has editorial experience across Healthcare workers for Palestine, Science for the People, and ZinesforFalastin.
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Themrise Khan
International development practitioner
International development practitioner guiding personal inquiry into global systems and transformative change. Themrise Khan is an independent policy researcher in global development and migration, and co-editor of the book “White Saviorism in International Development. Theories, Practices and Lived Experiences,” published in March 2023 by Daraja Press.
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Tricia Douglas
Designing human development across systems, relationships, and culture
I am a research and design leader working at the intersection of human development, systems, and education. My work explores how environments—schools, organizations, and platforms—shape how people think, relate, and act. I am the founder of Bloom Collective and the creator of Development by Design (DxD), an approach that examines how development is not accidental, but produced through the conditions we create. Drawing from neuroscience, developmental theory, and critical social thought, I focus on helping people see beyond surface behaviors to the deeper systems and narratives at play. Through teaching, writing, and applied work, I aim to support more expansive ways of thinking, relating, and building in a rapidly changing world.
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