Circles: General, Development, Operations & Learning

“If you have come to help me, you are wasting your time. If you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.” Used by Lilla Watson, Aboriginal Elder, and many other activists, these words guide my work.

Susan (she/her) is a white, working/middle class, cisgendered parent who is energized by opportunities to learn and facilitate learning; to design participatory gatherings and organize information; to tap into the power of effective collaboration and the generative potential of conflict; to connect across differences and contribute toward more equitable futures in her communities based in Poughkeepsie, NY and the wider Mahicantuck Valley.

Susan has dedicated her working life to advancing mission-driven organizations with diverse foci: Just Transition / regenerative economies, food system change, holistic adult education, anti-poverty, economic and rural development, and faith-based. Her work has involved participatory facilitation; strategic planning; program design, implementation and evaluation; resource development; financial management; and governance. She started working with the Good Work Institute in 2017 as a cohort facilitator, becoming a worker in the role of Learning Director in 2018, a Worker Trustee in 2019, and the Operations Steward in 2024. Prior to that, she served for five years as the first Executive Director of the Poughkeepsie Farm Project, coordinated the grassroots Poughkeepsie Plenty food justice initiative, and managed the cross-departmental community engagement strategy of the Omega Institute. She was awarded a Community Leadership Award from New Horizons Resources and a Compassionate Service Award from the Omega Institute. Before moving to the Mahicantuck Valley in 2008, she worked in Romania, India, Ecuador, Cambodia, Laos, Kenya, Mali, the Philippines, Ethiopia and China as a consultant to Oxfam America, director of the US Office of the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction, and Peace Corps Volunteer. She holds a graduate degree in international affairs from Columbia University and a bachelor’s degree in accounting. Partner to Chris and parent to Sebastian, she is a trained death doula and end of life navigator who replenishes her reserves alone or with dear ones over food, on trails in the woods, in meditation, in backyard hammocks, over or along the river, reading, reflecting, and journaling.

Circles: Deep Democracy, Development, Fiscal Sponsorship, General, Greenhouse Circles

I am working on expanding my definition of self, in everything I do, and in all the ways I do it, so that when I act selfishly it will be for the betterment of the whole. 

Micah (he/him) is of mixed race (black and white) and mixed religion, and grew up in two different socio-economic homes. He is a cisgendered, working/middle class parent of two living on Munsee/Lenape land in the Mahicantuck Valley, commonly referred today as Kingston, NY, working to prove possibility and to liberate the imagination in order to see a Just Transition. He serves on the board of Radio Kingston, is co-host of The Breathing Room – a radio segment discussing and leading mindfulness as well as host of Hip Hop 101 on Radio Kingston. Micah is also a workshop leader of TMI Project.

Circles: Community Fund (Kingston Common Futures), Deep Democracy, Development, Communications, General

I am a pragmatic optimist, a voracious reader, and a hope-filled instigator, working towards a vision of the future that is joyful, abundant, and equitable.

Hélène (she/her) is inspired by the values articulated by Italo Calvino: lightness, quickness, exactitude, visibility, multiplicity, and consistency. In her daily work, she fosters connection, social impact, and access to aligned funding, working with community leaders, entrepreneurs, and activists to help envision, design, and build healthier economic and social ecosystems. She is a life-long student, and is currently focused on regenerative economics and how systemic change at all levels can be catalyzed by democratizing the control of capital. Her role at GWI spans program design, organizational strategy, fundraising, and communications, in addition to her shared leadership work as a Worker Trustee, and continuing to support the launch of Kingston Common Futures (a community-designed, community-focused fund). She serves on the boards of Start.coop, an accelerator for cooperative startups, and Co-op HV, a loan fund and co-op development organization that is a project of Seed Commons. She enjoys public speaking, writing, and acting as a mentor and coach to mission-led entrepreneurs and community-based initiatives. As a side hustle, she is incubating a new project to support the emergence of place-based community investment funds. In the recent past, she co-founded and ran a cooperative coworking space, and helped launch and manage social impact startup accelerators. To this current body of work, she brings fifteen years experience in her early career as a producer, curator, choreographer, and interdisciplinary contemporary artist, devoted to nurturing creativity and experimentation in media, art, dance and theater. She is an abstract painter, a backyard gardener, a dual citizen of France and the US, a mother of two, grateful to be rooted in the Catskills Mountains.

Circles: Communications, Deep Democracy, General, Greenhouse and Operations Circles 

 I am a woman, a daughter, a sister, a wife, a mother and a friend. I am an artist, an activist, a musician, a hiker, a kayaker, a gardener, a music lover, a sports fanatic and a damn good cook. I am an agent of change, striving hard to be the change I want to see in the world.

Aja (she/her) is an Afro-Latina raising 3 daughters with her partner of 20+ years, growing food and medicine, creating art, loving hard and strengthening connections in her beloved communities throughout the Mahicantuck (Hudson) River Valley. The Just Transition is central to her work, both personally and professionally, because she strongly believes that a successful community is made up of individuals working collaboratively on all fronts to create avenues to build a healthier, thriving, more sustainable environment. 

In addition to her roles at GWI, Aja is Board President at Wild Earth, Board Chair at HUDSY, sits on the board of Land to Learn, and is a thought-partner for many initiatives and organizations throughout the region.