Co-conspirator & Circle Presenter
Dr. Elisa Diana Huerta is a Brawley born and Tejas raised organizer, educator, artesanx, and scholar. After earning B.A.s in Mexican American Studies, Cultural Anthropology, and Plan II from the University of Texas, Austin, Elisa attended the University of California, Santa Cruz to pursue a Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology with emphasis in Latin American & Latino Studies and Feminist Studies. Their scholarship and teaching focuses on expressive culture, women of color feminist praxis, hemispheric Indigeneity, radical pedagogy, and community-based research.
Throughout their professional and academic career, they have focused on intersectional practice, engaged pedagogy, and advancing and amplifying work that leads to sustainable and transformative change. Their work as the founding Director of the Multicultural Community Center (MCC) established it as a cornerstone program for UC Berkeley’s work on justice, anti-oppression, thriving, and belonging.
They are currently serving as an Associate Vice Chancellor in the Division of Equity & Inclusion at UC Berkeley. Elisa’s approach to divisional and campus-wide work is strongly rooted in generative transformation, holistic stewardship, and creative possibility.
As a practicing consultant, Elisa works with individuals and organizations, offering trainings/workshops on issues of inclusive praxis, strategic and transformational leadership, difficult dialogues, implicit bias, and storytelling, among others. They have served on several local and national advisory boards, including the National Center for Lesbian Rights and as national Chair of MALCS (Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social).
Art-making, of all kinds, make their heart happy.
Co-Facilitator & Co-Strategist
E. Guilu Murphy (she/her; pronounced: gway-loo) is the child of an immigrant, a product of diaspora, and shaped by the loss of her father as a young adult. She is always looking for ways to grow and unlearn dominant paradigms of possibility.
A skilled healing-centered ICF certified coach, facilitator, community builder, mediator, and end-of-life doula, she is interested in exploring what it means to be in right relationship with ourselves, each other, and the earth for collective liberation, the human dimensions of working together better, and the hard work of healing mind, body, and spirit. Passionate about setting people of color up for success and co-creating empowering spaces for them to lead, she hopes to center the need for liberation in the environmental and social change field with the ultimate goal of supporting a future where everyone can thrive as they deserve.
Guilu received her BA in East Asian Studies and Environmental Studies from Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT, and her coaching certificate from Blooming Willow Coaching & Training. She currently lives in unceded Catawba and Waxhaw territory (the particular part known as Charlotte, NC) and enjoys reading, learning, NPR podcasts, queer ecology, Bad Bunny, embroidery, cooking for friends, and imagining/living new possibilities.
Circle Presenters
Tannia Esparza (she, her, ella | they, them, elle) is a Queer Xicanx Indigenx grateful to have found home in the high desert mountains in Tewa People’s Land in New Mexico and proud to come from a migrant family of brave, persistent matriarchs.
Tannia is a storyteller, facilitator, doula, healing centered coach and founder of GiraSol Descendants, a beloved community making project, offering storytelling as a practice for building the world we need and deeply desire. Tannia has been growing alongside social justice movements for over 18 years working at the intersections of reproductive, gender and racial justice, and Queer liberation.
Tannia loves to run by the river, in the red earth of deep canyons, and among the mountains whenever they can. She continues to do her best to move courageously toward her sacred purpose.
Gerardo Marin (He/him/el) is an inspired leadership coach, facilitator, and DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion) trainer dedicated to strengthening the creative power and unity in social justice and health equity networks throughout Abya Yala (also known as the americas). He is from the Chihuahuan Desert, El Paso Texas, identifies as Chichimeca/Coahuiltecan/Chicano and honors his Ashkenazi and Spanish Ancestry.
Gera weaves interactive and healing centered facilitation methods that support participants with a healthy foundation for authentic communication, mutual respect, and strategic development of programs through Yolpaki Coaching and Consulting. As a member of the SanArte Healing and Cultura Clinic, he studies and practices Traditional Mexican Medicine and offers inner-resilience training to community organizers, leaders, and educators throughout Texas, New Mexico, and California.
He is in the zone when facilitating Sound Healing Power Up circles, drumming with friends, and cooking indigenous foods for his beloved family.
Rajasvini Bhansali is the Executive Director of Solidaire Network and Solidaire Action, a community of donor organizers mobilizing critical resources to the frontlines of social justice. She is a passionate advocate for participatory grassroots-led power building and a lifelong student of social movements. In a wide-ranging career devoted to racial, economic and climate justice, she has previously led an international public foundation that funds grassroots organizing in Asia, Africa and Latin America; grown a national youth development social enterprise; managed a public telecommunications infrastructure fund addressing the digital divide in the Southern United States; and worked as a community organizer, researcher, planner, policy analyst and strategy consultant.
Born and raised in India, Rajasvini earned a Master’s in Public Affairs with a focus on Telecommunications and Technology Policy from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin and a Bachelor′s in Astrophysics and Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities & Social Sciences from UC Berkeley.
Vini co-authored Leading with Joy: Practices for Uncertain Times, recently published by Berrett-Koehler Publishers. She is also a published poet, essayist, popular educator, yoga instructor and leadership coach. When not engaged with community organizations, Rajasvini can be found nesting with her family, taking long naps in the garden or plotting the next dance party with friends.