Alta is a somatic coach and bodywork practitioner, and facilitates and teaches embodied transformation and leadership. After becoming politically engaged during the Black Power movement, Alta spent 25 years as a grantmaker supporting organizing and social movements to build political power in underserved and marginalized U.S. communities, especially in the South. As an organizational consultant and advisor, Alta focuses primarily on building high-performing, mutually nourishing teams including the Progressive Technology Project, the National Domestic Workers Alliance, the Peace & Development Fund and the Seasons Fund for Social Transformation.
A writer and poet, Alta’s publications include the introductory chapter about embodiment in the book Making and Being, a textbook for undergraduate students in the visual arts.
Ashley is an MSW and has experience working with at-risk populations addressing houslessness and unemployment, and removing barriers to and/or finding permanency solutions for children.
Ashley is the resource mobilization coordinator for BOLD. She supports fundraising strategy and donor relations through administrative and data support. Ashley also moonlights as a freelance graphic designer and uses this talent to support BOLD’s communication’s strategy and goals.
When she's not spending time with her three boys (one with four legs), she's learning to garden and grow her own food.
Cicily is a resourceful leader who has managed administrative operations for BOLD since December of 2016. Cicily is also an established performer, having appeared in roles in award winning musicals and Broadway productions - including Once on this Island, The Little Mermaid on Broadway and Rent - as well as on screen. She is proud to be a part of the BOLD team and to support the work of training Black leaders doing vital work for our community and our world.
For over 35 years of labor and community organizing & training, Denise has been a commitment to developing strong grassroots leaders, democratic organizations, and progressive social movements. She has had the opportunity to work with and create new developing organizations and projects locally, nationally, and internationally. Her work has been rooted in Black communities, women’s interest, and issues, from the local to international. She has also committed to serve on a variety of Boards to both learn and provide her support to build power.
Two-time BOLD graduate Jennifer has spent the majority of her organizing career building community and power in Ohio to dismantle the criminal justice system. With a focus on leadership development, political education, and electoral work she has been able to learn from and create change with young people, families, and returning citizens; resulting in policy and legislative changes, cultural shifts too. Jennifer has been on the BOLD training team and a teacher with generative somatics since 2017.
Jennifer has over 20 years experience teaching social dance. She is a daughter, sister, teacher, friend, aunt, creative, dancer, lover, and the mother of an amazing young person who feeds her deep commitment to our collective healing, growth, and liberation.
Jonathan was part of the first BOLD Director Cohort in 2012 and is also a founding member and National Director for the Alliance for Educational Justice, a national network of intergenerational and youth-led organizations working to end the school-to-prison pipeline. Alliance for Educational Justice played a critical role in shaping federal policy on school discipline, ending the access of school police departments to military grade weapons from the DFA 1033 program and the defense of Niya Kenny and Shakara in the #AssaultAtSpringValley. He has over 20 years of experience organizing with youth and community organizations to address injustice in education.
Jonathan is a proud father of three young adults who taught him everything he knows.
As the current Director of Finance and Operations for BOLD, Lawrence Whiting embodies the spirit of a 21st century polymath. For the past 14 years, he has held positions, both internationally and domestically, in Investment Finance, Wealth Management, Operations, Administrative Compliance and Governance, Media Distribution, and Web Development.
Mekahel is a proud sixth-generation Vodouyizan born in the heart of New Orleans who co-founded Root Story Films and SenJak Rose Media, whose movies have been featured on platforms ranging from the iconic Nasdaq & Thomson Reuters screens of New York's Times Square to viral social media campaigns.
Mekahel joined BOLD in 2023 as the Maroon Space Director of Facilities & Operations, weaving together over a decade of experience in film production, organizing, business strategy, and creative direction.
Mekahel cherishes the opportunity to infuse the living legacy of maroon communities with modern strategies for the current and next generations of the Black left.
Mina joined BOLD in early 2020 after working in philanthropy for nearly 10 years advancing grantmaking, capacity building, and resource mobilization in support of visionary movements for land, water, food, and human rights in the Global South. Mina is passionate about building out BOLD’s organizational infrastructure in service of our mission and vision.
Mina enjoys being a forever learner and spending time in the Black Atlantic soaking up internationalism.
Nikki M.G. is a veteran campaign strategist, fundraiser, trainer, coach, and organizer for workers' rights, economic and environmental justice, and inclusive democracy. She has 25 years of experience in managing operational structures having held founding, advisory, and leadership positions within a number of coalitions, grassroots political campaigns and organizations in Washington, D.C. and nationally.
Nikki is most proud of her leadership in coordinating historic coalition victories in the creation of Washington DC's Paid Sick Days, Minimum Wage Increase, and Wage Theft Prevention laws, as well as for founding the DC Just Pay Coalition. Nikki is a founding member and former director of Restaurant Opportunities Center of Washington, DC and One Fair Wage.
She is an active and dedicated BOLD alumni, a mom, writer, and avid student of philosophy, human history, fantasy and science-fiction.
Nyasha is cultivating stories that inspire transformation and connect generations. Through research, partnership design, creative production, and legal advocacy, she has led innovative campaigns to advance racial and reparative justice, women and youth leadership, and environmental resilience in the U.S., the Caribbean, Central America, and East Africa.
Nyasha’s written and produced documentary work centering afro-descendent cultures and communities has been featured in and on film festivals and media platforms around the world.
She is humbled and inspired to be anchoring storytelling at BOLD in a collective vision of liberation through maroon land.
