The Faculty
The Faculty have been carefully selected with the following criteria in mind:
- Time on task of at least 20 years of steady practice within their respective fields
- A significant and relevant body of work for the work of transforming society, organizations, institutions and ways of thinking
- An ethos of humility, service, generosity, love and forgiveness
- An indomitable spirit that decides relentlessly to be optimistic and filled with hope
María Estela Barco Huerta
Desarrollo Económico y Social de los Mexicanos Indígenas (DESMI)
Coordinator and Legal Representative
I joined a religious Congregation at 19 years old. In 1976 I arrived to Chiapas as a missionary to the Diocese of San Cristobal de Las Casas. As part of a missionary congregation called Franciscan Eucharistic Missionaries, which I decided to leave towards the end of 1979.
This marked my life because it was like this that I began to learn about the situation of the indigenous peoples of my country. As part of the pastoral teams, I took on responsibilities to accompany the communities and the catechists who had a clear vision of the need to organize themselves and to understand the socio-political situation. This time period was also a privileged time of a faith committed to history and a political action rooted in the lives of peoples.
This is how the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) was created and later appeared in 1994. What came to give meaning to many struggles and to many lives, especially mine. I participated in the National Commission of Intermediation (CONAI), supporting the dialogues in the Cathedral of San Cristobal de Las Casas, in the different sessions of the dialogue between the EZLN and the Federal Government in San Andrés Sacamch’en de los Pobres. Since 1996, I have been part of the founding of the Commission of Support for Communal Unity and Reconciliation (CORECO), named by Bishop Samuel Ruiz
Garcia.
I am a founder, alongside other women, of the foundation of the Diocesan Coordination of Women (CODIMUJ) in 1992, an initiative to link all the groups of women present in the diocese of San Cristobal, to strengthen the word of women, create
awareness of the patriarchal relations and violence against women, to transform them and build spaces of freedom.
Since 13, I am part of the operational team of DESMI, .A.C. giving different services: administrator, area manager, and since 2012 I was appointed Coordinator and legal representative of DESMI.
At the invitation of the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center, I participated in the Permanent Tribunal of the Peoples, as a witness to denounce impunity in the face of violence carried out by counter-insurgency groups and paramilitary organizations such as the organization Peace and Justice (Paz and Justicia), which operated in the municipalities of Tila and Sabanilla during 1995-1998.
Coordinator and Legal Representative
I joined a religious Congregation at 19 years old. In 1976 I arrived to Chiapas as a missionary to the Diocese of San Cristobal de Las Casas. As part of a missionary congregation called Franciscan Eucharistic Missionaries, which I decided to leave towards the end of 1979.
This marked my life because it was like this that I began to learn about the situation of the indigenous peoples of my country. As part of the pastoral teams, I took on responsibilities to accompany the communities and the catechists who had a clear vision of the need to organize themselves and to understand the socio-political situation. This time period was also a privileged time of a faith committed to history and a political action rooted in the lives of peoples.
This is how the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) was created and later appeared in 1994. What came to give meaning to many struggles and to many lives, especially mine. I participated in the National Commission of Intermediation (CONAI), supporting the dialogues in the Cathedral of San Cristobal de Las Casas, in the different sessions of the dialogue between the EZLN and the Federal Government in San Andrés Sacamch’en de los Pobres. Since 1996, I have been part of the founding of the Commission of Support for Communal Unity and Reconciliation (CORECO), named by Bishop Samuel Ruiz
Garcia.
I am a founder, alongside other women, of the foundation of the Diocesan Coordination of Women (CODIMUJ) in 1992, an initiative to link all the groups of women present in the diocese of San Cristobal, to strengthen the word of women, create
awareness of the patriarchal relations and violence against women, to transform them and build spaces of freedom.
Since 13, I am part of the operational team of DESMI, .A.C. giving different services: administrator, area manager, and since 2012 I was appointed Coordinator and legal representative of DESMI.
At the invitation of the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center, I participated in the Permanent Tribunal of the Peoples, as a witness to denounce impunity in the face of violence carried out by counter-insurgency groups and paramilitary organizations such as the organization Peace and Justice (Paz and Justicia), which operated in the municipalities of Tila and Sabanilla during 1995-1998.
Desmond D'sa
South Durban Community Environmental Alliance
Founding member
Desmond D’Sa is a resident of Wentworth in Durban South Africa. For 15 years
he has been a watchdog snapping at the heels of errant companies, particularly
maMor oil refineries, who have polluted their way through decades of industrial
expansion in south Durban, Durban South Africa. He is an internationally recognized environmental and human rights activist; Desmond D’Sa has dedicated the past two decades to building a collective and informed network of change-makers through the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance (SDCEA).
Founding member
Desmond D’Sa is a resident of Wentworth in Durban South Africa. For 15 years
he has been a watchdog snapping at the heels of errant companies, particularly
maMor oil refineries, who have polluted their way through decades of industrial
expansion in south Durban, Durban South Africa. He is an internationally recognized environmental and human rights activist; Desmond D’Sa has dedicated the past two decades to building a collective and informed network of change-makers through the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance (SDCEA).
Luam Kidane
Thousand Currents
Regional Director, Africa
An African of Eritrean origin, Luam Kidane’s curatorial work, research, and writing examines movement building at the intersections of Indigenous governance mod-
els, cultural production and articulations of self-determination. Prior to joining Thousand Currents, Luam worked for over a decade as a researcher and strategist
on food sovereignty, political economy, gender, sexuality and cultural production.
She received a Master’s from McGill University, focusing her thesis on the liberatory value of cultural production. Luam is also the co-curator of NSOROMMA, a pan-African arts initiative, and has written several publications and articles on radical transformation in Africa.
Regional Director, Africa
An African of Eritrean origin, Luam Kidane’s curatorial work, research, and writing examines movement building at the intersections of Indigenous governance mod-
els, cultural production and articulations of self-determination. Prior to joining Thousand Currents, Luam worked for over a decade as a researcher and strategist
on food sovereignty, political economy, gender, sexuality and cultural production.
She received a Master’s from McGill University, focusing her thesis on the liberatory value of cultural production. Luam is also the co-curator of NSOROMMA, a pan-African arts initiative, and has written several publications and articles on radical transformation in Africa.
Kayhan Irani
Artist / Cultural Activist
Kayhan Irani is an Emmy-award winning writer, a performer, a cultural activist, and
a Theater of the Oppressed trainer. She creates art to build community, healing, and to re-connect audiences into their desires to effect change. 6he works internationally and in the U.S. with NGOs, government agencies, and community organizations using theater and story-based strategies for organizing, engagement, and education.
Kayhan was one of ten artists named by President Obama’s White House as a 2016
White House Champion of Change for her storytelling work. Her one-woman show,
We’ve Come Undone toured nationally and internationally, telling stories of Arab, South Asian and Muslim-American women in the wake of 9/11. She has trained hundreds of groups in Theater of the Oppressed and participatory storytelling tools over the years, both nationally and overseas, in Afghanistan, India, and Iraq. Her published work includes a volume of essays, telling stories to change the world: Global Voices on the power of narrative to Build Community and Make Social Justice Claims (Routledge, 2008), chapters in Culturally Relevant Arts Education for Social Justice: A Way Out of No Way (Routledge, 2015) and Storytelling for Social Justice: Connecting Narrative and the Arts in AntiRacist Teaching, 2nd Ed. (Routledge, 2019).
She is currently presenting There is a Portal, a participatory, multimedia one-woman show which asks: Can the story of an Iranian-Indian immigrant create networks of belonging with audiences across the U.S.?
Kayhan Irani is an Emmy-award winning writer, a performer, a cultural activist, and
a Theater of the Oppressed trainer. She creates art to build community, healing, and to re-connect audiences into their desires to effect change. 6he works internationally and in the U.S. with NGOs, government agencies, and community organizations using theater and story-based strategies for organizing, engagement, and education.
Kayhan was one of ten artists named by President Obama’s White House as a 2016
White House Champion of Change for her storytelling work. Her one-woman show,
We’ve Come Undone toured nationally and internationally, telling stories of Arab, South Asian and Muslim-American women in the wake of 9/11. She has trained hundreds of groups in Theater of the Oppressed and participatory storytelling tools over the years, both nationally and overseas, in Afghanistan, India, and Iraq. Her published work includes a volume of essays, telling stories to change the world: Global Voices on the power of narrative to Build Community and Make Social Justice Claims (Routledge, 2008), chapters in Culturally Relevant Arts Education for Social Justice: A Way Out of No Way (Routledge, 2015) and Storytelling for Social Justice: Connecting Narrative and the Arts in AntiRacist Teaching, 2nd Ed. (Routledge, 2019).
She is currently presenting There is a Portal, a participatory, multimedia one-woman show which asks: Can the story of an Iranian-Indian immigrant create networks of belonging with audiences across the U.S.?
Matt Kolan
PhD, University of Vermont
Matt is the director of the University of Vermont’s Leadership for Sustainability Master’s Program. He teaches courses on ecological leadership; power and privilege catalyzing change and field ecology. His research with the crossroads Leadership Lab explores endangered and emergent leadership practices that align with the wisdom of nature; engage complexity, mystery, and multiple ways of knowing; challenge forces of domination and oppression; and center love, well-being and learning. Matt was the winner of the University-wide Kroepsch-Maurice Excellence in Teaching Award in 2016 and the Outstanding Ally Award for working across difference sin 2013. Matt also partners with and provides advising, coaching and consulting to a variety of organizations that are committed to deep equity and creating conditions for all life to thrive. He is also a trainer for Rockwood Leadership Institute.
Matt is the director of the University of Vermont’s Leadership for Sustainability Master’s Program. He teaches courses on ecological leadership; power and privilege catalyzing change and field ecology. His research with the crossroads Leadership Lab explores endangered and emergent leadership practices that align with the wisdom of nature; engage complexity, mystery, and multiple ways of knowing; challenge forces of domination and oppression; and center love, well-being and learning. Matt was the winner of the University-wide Kroepsch-Maurice Excellence in Teaching Award in 2016 and the Outstanding Ally Award for working across difference sin 2013. Matt also partners with and provides advising, coaching and consulting to a variety of organizations that are committed to deep equity and creating conditions for all life to thrive. He is also a trainer for Rockwood Leadership Institute.
Sayra Pinto
Moon Jaguar Strategies
Strategy Consultant
Dr. Sayra Pinto is the Chief Practitioner for Moon Jaguar Strategies LLC, a consulting company supporting cross sector organizations build strategies and cultures to transform themselves and the world. She founded and is a strategic advisor to the Restore Circles Initiative through her role as the Chair of the Crossroads Leadership Lab at UVM. In a 30-year career devoted to cross-sectoral social transformation, Sayra has worked with numerous human service organizations, colleges and universities, public schools, and philanthropic organizations. Sayra is an adjunct faculty member of the Graduate College at the University of Vermont’s Rubinstein School where she teaches in Master’s of Leadership in Sustainability program. Sayra holds an undergraduate degree from Middlebury College, an MFA from Goddard College, and a PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies from the Union Institute and University. She has published two chapbooks and a doctoral dissertation to date: Pinol : Poems (2012), Vatolandia (2012), and the dissertation The Ontology of Love: A Framework for Re-Indigenizing Communities of Color in the U.S (2015), among other publications.
Strategy Consultant
Dr. Sayra Pinto is the Chief Practitioner for Moon Jaguar Strategies LLC, a consulting company supporting cross sector organizations build strategies and cultures to transform themselves and the world. She founded and is a strategic advisor to the Restore Circles Initiative through her role as the Chair of the Crossroads Leadership Lab at UVM. In a 30-year career devoted to cross-sectoral social transformation, Sayra has worked with numerous human service organizations, colleges and universities, public schools, and philanthropic organizations. Sayra is an adjunct faculty member of the Graduate College at the University of Vermont’s Rubinstein School where she teaches in Master’s of Leadership in Sustainability program. Sayra holds an undergraduate degree from Middlebury College, an MFA from Goddard College, and a PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies from the Union Institute and University. She has published two chapbooks and a doctoral dissertation to date: Pinol : Poems (2012), Vatolandia (2012), and the dissertation The Ontology of Love: A Framework for Re-Indigenizing Communities of Color in the U.S (2015), among other publications.
Katherine Zavala
Thousand Currents
Director of Grassroots Partnerships
A native of Peru, Katherine Zavala has journeyed through years of learnings, strategic shifts, experimentation, and relationship-building in global philanthropy since 2006. Katherine has spent the majority of her career at Thousand Currents, starting as an intern at the organization (formerly known as IDEX) and working her way through several iterations of program positions and directorships, all with a focus on channeling funds to grassroots organizations and social movements in the Global South. Currently as Director of Grassroots Partnerships, she supports the Regional Directors and Grants Manager to model long-term engagement and commitment to not just individual organizations, but whole eco-systems of grassroots actors working towards collective self-determination and social transformation. Katherine has been invited to spend significant time with Indigenous organizations and social movements in Latin America, including with AFEDES, an Indigenous women-led organization in Guatemala (and a long-term Thousand Currents partner and the Movement of People Affected by dams,
also a Thousand Currents partner) in Brazil. As a writer, Katherine’s work champions Indigenous cosmovision and activism, and highlights how Indigenous women’s leadership and resilience is at the heart of dignified livelihoods and sustainable ecosystems. Katherine earned a Master’s in International Relations from San Francisco State University and a Bachelor’s in Hospitality Management from Florida International University. Always curious to learn more about the world, you can find Katherine planning her next travel adventure.
Director of Grassroots Partnerships
A native of Peru, Katherine Zavala has journeyed through years of learnings, strategic shifts, experimentation, and relationship-building in global philanthropy since 2006. Katherine has spent the majority of her career at Thousand Currents, starting as an intern at the organization (formerly known as IDEX) and working her way through several iterations of program positions and directorships, all with a focus on channeling funds to grassroots organizations and social movements in the Global South. Currently as Director of Grassroots Partnerships, she supports the Regional Directors and Grants Manager to model long-term engagement and commitment to not just individual organizations, but whole eco-systems of grassroots actors working towards collective self-determination and social transformation. Katherine has been invited to spend significant time with Indigenous organizations and social movements in Latin America, including with AFEDES, an Indigenous women-led organization in Guatemala (and a long-term Thousand Currents partner and the Movement of People Affected by dams,
also a Thousand Currents partner) in Brazil. As a writer, Katherine’s work champions Indigenous cosmovision and activism, and highlights how Indigenous women’s leadership and resilience is at the heart of dignified livelihoods and sustainable ecosystems. Katherine earned a Master’s in International Relations from San Francisco State University and a Bachelor’s in Hospitality Management from Florida International University. Always curious to learn more about the world, you can find Katherine planning her next travel adventure.
