FOUNDER

Melissa Hunter Gurney has spent twenty years interacting and researching the vast scope of educational intellect across states and countries. She is an innovative designer, writer, educator and conservationist. She has developed decolonized interdisciplinary research methodology, introduced the existential crisis as a catalyst for project creation, at national and international conferences, and problem solved with principles, leaders, pedagogues, performers and curators to reimagine education through innovative change that roots in culturally relevant, anti-racist, sustainable practices. Her advocacy work led her to co-found several organizations: GAMBA Forest—a community art space, literary lounge, one-room schoolhouse, and artist residency that provides diverse platforms for marginalized groups—Black Land Ownership—a grassroots organization put in place to combat the historical, systemic and institutionalized marginalization experienced by people of African descent when it comes to land ownership, and The OMNI Institute. Most recently, she co-wrote and published The Lo—TEK Curriculum—a digital database that contemplates ten nature-based technologies from eighteen indigenous communities around the globe—with Julia Watson, author of the renowned book Lo—TEK Design by Radical Indigenism. She believes education, art and nature are intuitively connected and her work continually empowers that connecion.

FOUNDER, RESEARCH & DEI DIRECTOR

Christopher Banks Carr attended Morehouse for undergraduate school and Columbia for graduate school. He is a historian, researcher, interdisciplinary artist and diversity and inclusion consultant for tech companies, start-ups and schools. In the past ten years he has run his own arts and creative content platform, engaged in a plethora of discussion evoking experiences with high school students across New York City and most recently collaborated on the development of a rubric and educational theory rooted in cognition, the human existential crisis, historical relevance of educational practices, the interdisciplinary approach to learning and communication between adults and young people. He’s also provided an accelerator space for connecting a diverse group of educators (college professors, teachers, students and artist in residence) to collect resources/information as well as actively discuss redefining, restructuring and re-orienting the education system at large.

BOARD MEMBER

Katya Johnson has been an advocate for sustainable, green living for over a decade. A fluent speaker of Russian, French and English she specializes in international corporate marketing and Capacity Building for global businesses, organizations and sustainable development. She was the marketing and corporate communications manager at DigitalGlobe, a global satelite imaging company with a focus on infrasturcture and natural disaster search and rescue, prior to it going public. She lobbied at the government level, as a founding member and managing director of Beautycounter, to change the skin care industry and help enforce FDA certifications for skin care products. At present she backs Green Compass Global as an advocate in their mission to provide 100% USDA Certified Organic CBD that's traceable from seed to bottle. Trained in international marketing management at the American University of Paris and International Business at The University of Vermont Katya relentlessly supports sustainability initiatives in and outside of her own industry as well as empowering the women's movement in the entrepreneurial sector.

BOARD MEMBER

Mercy Tullis-Bukhari is a long time educator, poet, essayist, and fiction writer who finds inspiration from being a Bronx-bred Afro-Latina American, Honduran and Garifuna, of Jamaican descent. She published two books of poetry titled Smoke (Blind Beggar Press, Inc.) and Mango (Ocean Taste Publications). Her third book of poetry, The Little Deaths, has just been published by Get Fresh Books. She is a Callaloo Fellow and was the Poet Laureate of the New York University 30th Anniversary Celebration Gala. Mercy was named one of the “8 Authors Bringing Afro-Latina Stories to the Forefront” by Remezcla magazine and was a Pushcart Prize nominee in 2016 for her essay, “Black Dolls for Everyone, published in the anthology All the Women in My Family Sing, edited by Deborah Santana, and also in 2019 for her poem “Dear Brother.” She graduated from New York University with a Bachelor’s in English and American Literature, minoring in English Education. She later received her Master’s from Herbert H. Lehman College in English Literature. She also received her Master’s in Fine Arts from The College of New Rochelle, in Creative Writing.

BOARD MEMBER

Kathryn Stahl is the co-principal of a unique high school in Walden, Massachusetts. She has a diverse set of experiences working in public education systems in Boston, New York City, San Francisco, and Vermont. Prior to becoming principal she served as the Assistant Department Head of Special Education, Assistant Principal and Dean of Students in Brooklyn and Queens, New York. She also served as a special education administrator and teacher for 10+ . years. Kathryn Stahl has dedicated her life to equitable education and is impassioned by institutional awareness and combatting oppressive practices within the education sector. She is the mother of two and ignites community through parenting, education and a deep love of the ocean and nature.

COMMUNICATION & OUTREACH

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Dakota Smith has spent time writing in metropolises around the world before settling in New York City. She earned her MFA in Creative Writing with an emphasis in poetry from Randolph College in 2021. She curates and performs in multidisciplinary shows in New York City and elsewhere. With a background as a creative writer, ghostwriter, editor, and journalist, she is committed to writing in a multitude of forms. Her writing can be seen in The Rumpus, WUSSY Magazine, and Willamette Week, among others.

BOARD MEMBER