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About the Facilitators
Michelle Cassandra Johnson (she/her) is an author, activist, spiritual teacher, racial equity consultant and educator, and intuitive and shamanic healer. She approaches her life and work from a place of knowing we are, can, and must heal individually and collectively. Michelle facilitates workshops and immersions, leads retreats and transformative experiences nationwide, and offers an array of healing services for individuals and groups. For over 25 years as a racial equity educator, she has worked with large corporations, non-profits, and community groups. Michelle is a five-time published author, and In May 2025, her sixth book, The Wisdom of the Hive, published by Sounds True and co-written with her best friend, Amy Burtaine, comes out.
Michelle was a TEDx speaker at Wake Forest University in 2019 and has been interviewed on several podcasts in which she explores the premise and foundation of Skill in Action, along with embodied approaches to racial equity work, creating ritual in justice spaces, our divine connection with nature and Spirit, and how we as a culture can heal.
Michelle leads courageously from the heart with compassion and a commitment to address the heartbreak dominant culture causes for many because of the harm it creates. She inspires change that allows people to stand in their humanity and wholeness in a world that fragments most of us. She lives in North Carolina with her husband, sweet dog, Jasper, and her honeybees.
Rebby Kern (they/them) builds community through connection, care, and a steady belief that people deserve to belong exactly as they are. They are a nonbinary, biracial, hard-of-hearing leader based in Charlotte, NC, and much of their work grows from lived experience and a deep commitment to collective wellbeing. Rebby serves as Deputy Director of Welcoming Schools at the Human Rights Campaign Foundation. They spend their days supporting educators, families, and young people and helping schools create spaces where LGBTQ+ students feel seen, safe and supported. Across all their roles, Rebby focuses on building relationships, strengthening communities, and making more room for joy and possibility in the lives of young people and the adults who care for them.
Stephanie Ghoston Paul (she/her) is an internationally recognized speaker, racial justice facilitator, organizational development consultant, life coach, and recovering lawyer. Her sweet spot is helping movement-makers bring to reality a radically transformed world through wholehearted coaching and consulting. With individuals that looks like self-care and boundaries work to help leaders balance their lives by coming back home to themselves. Within community, Stephanie holds space for collective healing through truth-telling, and explores what it means to be a living ancestor. In organizations, she co-designs pathways to name harm, imagine liberatory ways of being, and engage in the messy culture and people work needed for that transformation. Stephanie believes that when people, communities and ecosystems fully align and embody their purpose, we move toward a future where all human beings are free, whole, and enough.
She’s been described as a purpose-whisperer, an ecosystem connector, and a culture alchemist. Stephanie is also a best-selling author,the podcast host of Take Nothing When I Die, a documentarian and aTEDx speaker. She centers ease and care in her life and her work, making sure to practice what she preaches. When she's not "working" Stephanie enjoys cooking spicy dishes with her partner, finding new flavors of delicious tea, and witnessing her small humans discover the world.
Tema (she/her) has spent over 40 years working with and for organizations, schools, and community-based institutions as an educator, facilitator, and coach focused on issues of racial justice and equity. She currently facilitates, consults, coaches, and offers talks for and with leaders and organizations nationwide. She also offers spiritual guidance and coaching to activists interested in spiritual grounding - you can find out more at the website FierceLove.info. She is an artist, poet, and writer and is the author of the widely used article White Supremacy Culture. She has published a revised version of this article on an extended and expanded website at www.whitesupremacyculture.info. Tema is a long-time Palestine solidarity activist and a member of the Triangle Chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace. She sits on the boards of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee and Solidaire. She belongs to the Bhumisphara Sangha under the leadership of Lama Rod Owens. She lives in Durham NC where she is fortunate to reside among beloved community. Her current project is deepening her ability to love her neighbor as herself. She is finding the instruction easy and the follow through challenging, given how we live in a culture that is afraid to help us do either or both.
Amy Burtaine (she/her) is a facilitator, anti-racist trainer, teaching-artist and coach who is committed to collective liberation. She has worked nationally and internationally as a community-based theater educator specializing in theater for social change, and is a facilitator of the work of the Theatre of the Oppressed. She believes that the arts can help us envision a world that is socially just, equitable, and free of oppression, where everyone can find and use their voice and where all voices are heard equally. Her greatest passion is working with groups and communities to use the tools of play to find connection, collaboration and healing. She currently works in collaboration with BIPOC partners to bring anti-racism training and equity processes to organizations. She co-authored a book on facilitating white affinity spaces as anti-racist practice with Robin DiAngelo that was released in 2022. Amy lives on an island in the Puget Sound with her husband and son, two dogs and two beehives.