Who We Are

Core Team

Christina Antonakos-Wallace

Lead: Transforming Narrative & Culture

Christina Antonakos-Wallace is a filmmaker, cultural organizer, facilitator and life-long activist. She is the founder of the transnational initiative With Wings and Roots, and is on the Leadership Team of the Building Belonging collaborative. Her work has centered around challenging exclusionary narratives of migration, race, and nationality; telling stories that illuminate our inherent belonging. Her films and interactive work have won numerous awards, sparked campaigns, and been exhibited in over twenty countries through festivals, schools, galleries, NGOs, and corporations, often accompanied by workshops.

Kazu Haga

Lead: Healing and Transformation

Kazu Haga is on the Leadership Team of Building Belonging, the founder of East Point Peace Academy, a key member of the Ahimsa Collective and Fierce Vulnerability Network, and author of "Healing Resistance." A seasoned trainer certified in nonviolence and restorative justice methodologies, Haga has been trained by notable figures like Dr. Bernard Lafayette and Rev. James Lawson. He educates on nonviolence, conflict reconciliation, and restorative justice across various settings, including prisons and activist communities. Starting his journey into social change and nonviolence at 17, Haga has since led countless workshops worldwide and earned accolades like the Martin Luther King Jr. award. An avid meditator and nature lover, he supports the Boston Celtics and enjoys mixed martial arts, despite its contradictions with his nonviolence principles. He calls Oakland, CA, home.

Leonie Smith

Lead: Transforming Conflict and Relationships

Leonie Smith is a first-generation Canadian with Jamaican heritage, dedicated to empowering people from traditionally marginalized communities to fully participate in their living, working, and social environments. She is on the Leadership Team of Building Belonging, and brings over two decades of experience in senior management within nonprofit sectors—spanning communications, fundraising, and human resources. Leonie has established three pivotal organizations. The Thoughtful Workplace focuses on fostering people-centered work cultures for organizations and nonprofits. People of Colour for Nonviolent Communication (POC4NVC) serves as a network for individuals of the global majority pursuing nonviolence and Nonviolent Communication. Additionally, the Necessary Trouble Collective (NTC) offers consultancy to movement and activist groups, emphasizing nonviolence, conflict resolution, and training principles. Holding certifications in Nonviolent Communication from The Center for Nonviolent Communication and Sociocracy from Sociocracy for All, this professional works from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, as an organizational consultant, restorative and transformative justice mediator, coach, and trainer.

Brian Stout

Lead: Transforming Culture and Systems at Scale

Brian Stout is a systems convener, curator, and initiator of the Building Belonging collaborative. His background is in international conflict mediation, serving as a diplomat with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in Washington DC and overseas. He also worked in philanthropy with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, before leaving in early 2016 to organize in response to the global rise of authoritarianism and far-right nationalism. He recently returned to his hometown in rural southern Oregon, where he lives with his wife and two children.

Collaborators

Abe Greenspoon*

Ada Williams Prince

Adria Goodson

Agnes Meneses

Amardeep Singh

Andre ChenFeng

Antje Fisseler*

Boting Zhang

Brandon Dube*

Bridgit Antoinette Evans

C'Ardiss Gardner-Gleser

Carol Xu*

Cassie Robinson

Chase Vallette*

Christi Tran

David Hsu

Deepika Grover

Denise Hearn*

Dorian Cave

Eddah General

Eleonore Van Wonterghem

Ellen Friedman

Evan Steiner

Evelyn Thornton*

Frank Nam

Gail Davidson*

Gautam John

Gemma Jiang

Gislaine Ngounou

Gurpreet Singh

Hadrien Froger

Iona Lawrence

Ivona Boroje

J.D. Nasaw*

Jahnvi Singh

James Baker*

Jennifer Hoos Rothberg

Jennifer Stout

Jessica Sojorne Libere

Joe Doran

John Johnson

Laureen Golden

Lindley Mease

Lorenz Sell

Lori Robinson*

Mandy Van Deven

Marcus Fung

Maria Dorthea Skov

Meg Buzzi

Melanie Brown

Michaela Ayers

Michelle Barsa

Michelle O'Grady Caballero*

Monica Guzman Preston

Motaz Attalla*

Nicole Chi

Nina George

Olive Goh*

Pankaj Shah

Ray Gonzales*

Romy Kraemer

Rowena Teall

Sara Huang*

Sarah Multidor

Sharif Azami

Stephanie Soussloff

Tatiana Figueiredo

Tighe Brown

Tracy Van Slyke

Trina Stout*

Zarko Palankov

 

Thought Partners

Our primary mechanism for identifying and connecting key practitioners in our work is through our series of Conversations on Transformation: curated conversations around the state-of-the-art in a defined domain essential to transformation at scale. Selected collaborators include:

Name, Affiliation, Topic

  • Akilah S. Richards, Raising Free People, (Re)Parenting

  • Alanna Irving, Open Collective (New Zealand), Liberatory Governance

  • Alexis Flanagan, Resonance Network, Network Weaving

  • Alicia Walters, Black Thought Project, Aspirational Identity

  • Alnoor Ladha, Emergence Network (Costa Rica), Reconnecting with the Sacred

  • Alok Vaid-Menon, Writer/Artist, Identity Formation

  • Rev. angel Kyodo williams, Radical Dharma, Societal Healing

  • Audrey Tang, Government of Taiwan (Taiwan), Democracy & Technology

  • Bridgit Antoinette Evans, Pop Culture Collaborative, Narrative

  • Ceasar McDowell, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Democracy & Technology

  • Curtis Ogden, Interaction Institute for Social Change, Network Weaving

  • David Ehrlichman, Converge Network, Network Weaving

  • Doug Hattaway, Hattaway Communications, Aspirational Identity

  • john a powell, Othering & Belonging Institute, Belonging; Bridging; Narrative

  • June Holley, Network Weaver, Network Weaving

  • Ken Cloke, Mediators Beyond Borders, Conflict Transformation

  • Lorella Praeli, Community Change, Belonging

  • Lucas Johnson, OnBeing (Netherlands), Bridging

  • Martin Wienecki, Tamera Peace Institute (Portugal), Reconnecting with the Sacred

  • Natalie Bamdad, Change Elemental, Liberatory Governance

  • Nora Bateson, Bateson Institute (Sweden), Emergence & Systems Change

  • Sadia Hameed, Thought Partnerships, Conflict Transformation

  • Sandra Kim, Re-Becoming Human, Reconnecting with the Sacred

  • Sanjay Purohit, Societal Platform (India), Emergence & Systems Change

  • Shamil Idriss, Search for Common Ground, Conflict Transformation

  • Staci Haines, generative somatics, Societal Healing

  • Ted Rau, Sociocracy for All, Liberatory Governance

  • Tim Hollo, The Green Institute (Australia), Power & Post-Oppositionality

  • Trina Greene Brown, Parenting for Liberation, Parenting

  • Valarie Kaur, Revolutionary Love, Bridging