Berwick Mahdi Davenport

CEO, Co-Founder

Berwick Mahdi Davenport, a.k.a. “M,” is a social justice, anti-racist facilitator with more than 30 years of experience. Mahdi is a pioneer in the field of Life Coaching. He is a coach who coaches coaches, facilitating and mentoring thousands of leaders from all over the globe.

M is the prodigy behind the Ego Reduction Formula, which makes possible the integration of social and political consciousness with spiritual consciousness. M is a celebrated author and loving father of three very beautiful daughters.

Dustin Washington

COO, Co-Founder

Dustin is the Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder of The Soul Focused Group. Dustin has over 25 years of powerful experience as a Racial Equity educator and social change leader. His work is grounded in the integration of social justice consciousness and spiritual consciousness. 

With unparalleled passion and dedication, Dustin serves his community as a brilliant and creative teacher, facilitator, spiritual life coach, and friend. He models relationship-first psychology, and his trademark charisma and heart-centered facilitation style inspires joy and transformational growth as he facilitates genuine connection between people.

Dustin has facilitated Racial Equity and Leadership Development workshops all across the world including at The National School of Anthropology in Mexico City, The Nobel Laurette Summit in Warsaw, Poland and at The World Social Forum in Brazil.

Dustin is a deeply spiritual and intuitive leader who strongly believes in the infinite transformational possibility and the inherent beauty and genius in every human being. Through a journey of courageous self-healing, he has recovered from a narrative of disempowerment to become the transformational leader he was always meant to be. He vulnerably shares his own experiences of recovery to inspire others to heal their toxic groundwater, move beyond their assigned Egos, and step into their authentic Light and Love.

Dustin is also the Co-Director of The Human Solidarity Project, a sponsor for Adult Children of Alcoholics, basketball coach, martial artist, writer and poet. He is the father of three incredible boys – Calin, Dominick, and Elijah – and parents from his soul as he models for them what it means live and love from a place power.

Dr. Stephanie Jupiter

Senior Consultant

Dr. Jupiter is the founder of the Science of Life (SOL) University, where the curriculum is centered around purpose discovery, self-cooperation, self-unification, and “heal-thy self.” Dr. Jupiter applies her purpose to every aspect of her life, including working as a podiatrist, where she is intentional about bridging the gap between spirituality and medicine.

Stephanie resides in Houston, Texas, and is a native of New Orleans, Louisiana. The one thing that puts the biggest smile on her face is spending quality time with her two daughters.

Martina Tam

Facilitator

Martina Tam is a resident in family medicine at Kaiser Permanente of Washington in Seattle. In her work as a physician, she focuses on self-empowerment and increasing self-awareness of our body and mind to improve our health. She is especially interested in addressing the role of systemic racism in healthcare and raising providers' self-awareness of our biases and how they affect the care we provide.

At Kaiser Permanente of Washington, she has helped initiate and lead anti-racism work in the residency. She brings a health-focused perspective to her trainings, but is also able to relate more broadly about making systemic change in a large corporation from her experiences at Kaiser Permanente.

Martin Friedman

Strategic Projects Coordinator, Senior Consultant

For the past 25 years, Martin has told the story of systemic, institutional, and structural racism with multiple anti-racist training organizations. Martin has co-founded several anti-racist organizations in Seattle, Washington, including the Coalition of Anti-racist Whites (CARW) and Seattle European Dissent.

Martin is deeply committed to assisting people in their journey toward Ego reduction and discovering their full power. Martin organizes with anti-racist, white Jewish people to further understand the relationship between Jewishness and whiteness in America. He is a martial artist, filmmaker, writer, performer, and Yogi in training. Proudly from Cleveland, Ohio, he is newly married and currently resides in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He has three beloved grandsons from a previous relationship.

Jill L. English

Facilitator

Jill is a facilitator for Spirit and Place’s "Powerful Conversations on Race" and for "Interrupting Racism for Children" at Child Advocates. She has been a guest speaker on the impact of racism on our children and community for several organizations, including the Indiana CASA conference, the Marion County Health Equity Summit, The Indiana Juvenile Judicial State conference, and the national College Mentors conferences.

Jill is the co-chair of the Equity, Inclusion, and Cultural Competence Committee of the Children’s Commission for the state of Indiana and trains individuals on facilitating difficult conversations.

Bonnie Cushing

Senior Consultant

Bonnie is a licensed clinical social worker, anti-racist organizer and educator, and a Lifecycle Celebrant. She has worked 30 years as a family-systems therapist and group facilitator. She has devoted 20 years to the movement for racial and social justice.

She received her Master’s in Social Work (MSW) from Adelphi University, her training as a family therapist from the Multicultural Family Institute of New Jersey, her anti-racist training from the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond, and her training as a Cleric Without Borders from the Celebrant Foundation and Institute of North America.

Albert Gay

Facilitator

Albert Gay, M.S., has worked with young people of color for more than 20 years. Albert found his calling as a youth pastor at a local church in Gary, Indiana. He has continued to work with youth groups through his roles in the Urban Scouting program, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Northwest Indiana, and urban coalitions for the prevention of substance use and violence.

Albert currently serves as the Education and Training Specialist and Research Associate within Indiana University’s School of Public Health. He recently joined the Interrupting Racism for Children workshop as a trainer.

Annie Hostetter

Facilitator

Annie has worked on social justice issues for more than a decade, moving from post-Katrina New Orleans, to the mountains of North Carolina, to Tanzania, and to Vermont, before returning to her native Indianapolis.

She is currently an Interrupting Racism for Our Children project coordinator at Child Advocates. In her spare time, Annie wrangles two beautiful children and continues to organize with Showing Up for Racial Justice Indy (SURJ) and other local organizations.

Nicole Auffant

Facilitator

Nicole Auffant is doctoral candidate in Urban Systems at Rutgers University. Her research is guided by social justice and anti-racist practices. Nicole began her Soul Focused journey in Summer 2018, after realizing that she was blocking her own growth.

After training with the Soul Focused Group, she wanted to share these practices with others. She is dedicated to projecting the voices of youth and women of color, and helping people feel comfortable in their own bodies.

Dr. Arlene Coleman

Facilitator

Dr. Arlene Coleman serves as an Interrupting Racism For Children Project Coordinator for Child Advocates. Her career in education spans four decades as a classroom teacher, administrator, and associate professor.

She has dedicated her life to advocating for social and racial justice. Arlene is the proud mother of two daughters and three granddaughters. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, listening to music, and traveling.

Kelly Edwards

Facilitator

Kelly Edwards is the founder and CEO of Local HOOPS Training Academy, the largest basketball academy in Washington State. Kelly started Local HOOPS in 2012 with the vision of developing and training young athletes to become future leaders of our society. Kelly holds a BA in Psychology from Lewis & Clark College.

He is a practitioner of Soul Focused Psychology and believes Ego reduction work allows each of us to fully embrace our power and live as our highest selves. Kelly is committed to the belief that “Success is a Habit”. Kelly is a wise leader, charismatic public speaker and visionary thinker. He is the proud father of three and a devoted husband.

Stephany Ashley

Facilitator

Stephany Ashley is a writer, organizer and advocate working to reduce the immediate harms of poverty, stigma, and criminalization, while transforming the conditions that create them. Currently a trainer with the Soul Focused Group and Board Chair for the TGI Justice Project, she believes it is possible to solve homelessness, end racism, and radically reimagine the world we live in.

Maya Savage

Facilitator

Maya Savage is a natural educator who is deeply committed to helping humanity reach the next level. For more than 5 years, Maya has worked with students and school leadership to end systemic oppression in the education system. She has served as a classroom educator, dean, Youth Undoing Institutionalized Racism facilitator, and instructor.

She currently serves as the Director of Programming at YogaRoots on Location, where she has established new partnerships with organizations that want youth and staff to learn the 8 Limbed Path of Raja Yoga with an anti-racist framework. She also mentors and trains new yoga teachers to work with incarcerated youth in the juvenile justice system. She is a truth-teller and seeker.

Tirza Barnes-Griffith

Facilitator

Tirza is the CEO of Tirza Motivates, LLC., a professional training, personal development, and coaching company.

With nearly two decades of experience, Tirza has trained, consulted, and coached thousands of non-profit professionals. She facilitates organizational change initiatives and develops strategies to strengthen program design and services. She also develops and conducts workshops on a wide range of topics that improve employee performance and increase engagement, including group dynamics, wellness in the workplace, DEI, unconscious racial bias, and its effects.

Her methodology is founded on the belief that when well-being, harmony, kindness, and self-expression are encouraged at work, individual and team performance are optimized, and help build a successful organization that achieves goals and outcomes.

Juanita Molana Parra

Facilitator

Juanita is an Engineer and MBA turned Life and Leadership Coach. She is originally from Colombia and moved to the US almost ten years ago, first to New York and then to Indianapolis.

For a decade, Juanita worked in Corporate Finance: geeking out on spreadsheets, optimizing processes and connecting people. Now, as a coach, Juanita leads clients to recognize that their power lies in the intersection of seemingly disparate domains and she works with them to cultivate an inner compass based on their values, desires and purpose in order to stop shoulding on their lives and start living them.

Juanita coaches both in English and Spanish which allows her to support a wider range of leaders across the continent and generate the ripples of impact she is committed to creating.