ORGANIZATIONAL CONSULTING

the landscape

Nonprofits and social impact organizations have modeled new ways of organizing—centering collaboration and community-led decision-making—to build sustainable futures. Their resilience, innovation, and unwavering commitment to liberation continue to steward more equitable and self-determined pathways for communities.

With the overwhelming undermining of the importance of equity-centered work (DEI and CRT), this time is crucial for organizations to refine their approaches to become more nimble and resilient for the work ahead. Common barriers that community-facing organizations face include:

  • Capacity struggles and burnout: lean staffing, lack of operational infrastructure: organizations struggle with sustainable growth, compliance, and impact measurement

  • Emotional labor: many BIPOC leaders and staff experience racial fatigue and tokenization, intra-community harm and intergenerational community dynamics

  • Western-centric evaluation metrics: funders prioritizing quantitative data and scalability over relational, community-driven impact that BIPOC-led orgs specialize in

how we collaborate

As a consultant dedicated to strengthening BIPOC-led and BIPOC-serving nonprofits, I help organizations navigate the internal systemic barriers that limit their sustainability and impact. With deep experience in equity-centered capacity building, I support leaders in developing infrastructure that prevents burnout, and challenging traditional impact models that fail to recognize community-driven success. My work is rooted in a commitment to supporting leaders in integrating ancestral & cultural wisdom and values, fostering collective leadership, and ensuring that organizations not only survive but thrive in ways that honor their cultural values and the communities they serve.

Strengthening operational capacity

Refining operations strategies, staffing and growth development plans, leadership coaching, adaptive & resilient planning to support during transitions (of leadership, funding, or programs)

Program sustainability

Program effectiveness and realignment, landscape and resource analysis, assessing and redefining program impact, assessing opportunities for growth and effectiveness, facilitation

culture building & conflict mediation

Defining organizational values, fostering collaborative workplaces, create rituals & restorative practices, address power dynamics, prioritize burnout prevention & community care, establish accountability and conflict resolution frameworks, address systemic issues (not just symptoms)

Community Engagement Strategy

Developing community-led decision making or feedback frameworks, Participatory Action Research, defining community responsive pillars, and deepening relationships with community and audiences

strategic planning

(in partnership with Root, Reach, Rise, Inc.) Landscape, resource, and capacity analysis, strategy development, plan implementation and support through sustainable capacity building and collaborative leadership frameworks

about me

With 17 years of nonprofit experience with community-facing organizations, executive leadership experience, and working to bridge equity gaps in our systems, I am a compassionate systems thinker that considers the relationships, patterns, dynamics, historic and environmental factors within the broader system to impact sustainable capacity building, healing intergenerational and intra-community trauma, and ultimately support organizations in aligning goals and refining how they get there.

I bring expertise in equity-centered leadership and program transformation across the Bay Area, centering ancestral and indigenous wisdom in conflict mediation and culture building, building intentional community partnerships to increase diversity of clients & community served, community-centric fundraising strategies, and integrating healing justice frameworks into leadership development.

I have served as the Co-Executive Director of an historically white-led nonprofit and successfully increased the diversity of workers and communities served from 53% to 93% through incorporating and ensuring equity and safety in organizational and community practices, correcting institutional injustices and building upon the history with a restorative mindset.

Additionally:

  • I served as the Co-Chair of the Berkeley Cultural Trust, where I co-led an equity-centered transformation of the mission, vision, & values work of a consortium for advocacy for arts funding with 35+ Berkeley arts & cultural institutions. 

  • I served as a panelist for the Zellerbach Community Arts Panel, leveraging community knowledge & relationships to ensure equitable access to arts funding, supporting $3M going directly to community artists over 3 years. 

  • I work as a Healing Justice Practitioner with the Anti-Police Terror Project, and was a 2023 LeadStrong Fellow with Leaderspring.

other, personal things things that support the work:

  • I meditate daily and am huge on mindfulness: building a stable baseline keeps me calm and grounded when changes arise

  • I maintain a snack praxis: when our bodies are nourished and resourced as we gather, our collaborations go smoother!

  • I build altars: a practice in making sure I’m always connected in where my ancestors have been, and the expanse of where me and my community can go