Shilpa Jain (she/her) is currently rooting herself in Oakland/Berkeley, CA, where she serves as the Executive Director of YES!. Prior to taking on this role, Shilpa spent two years as the Education and Outreach Coordinator of Other Worlds and ten years as a learning activist with Shikshantar: The Peoples’ Institute for Rethinking Education and Development, based in Udaipur, India, where she served as coordinator of the Swapathgami (Walkouts-Walkons) Network. Shilpa has researched and written numerous books and articles, and facilitated workshops and gatherings on topics including globalization, creative expressions, ecology, democratic living, innovative learning and unlearning. Her publications include A Poet’s Challenge to Schooling, Reclaiming the Gift Culture, Other Worlds of Power, Paths of Unlearning, Unfolding Learning Societies volumes one, two and three, and several issues of Vimukt Shiksha (“Liberating Learning”) and the Swapathgami newsletter “Making Our Paths of Living and Learning”. She is also co-author of “Connect. Inspire. Collaborate”, a highly sought-after facilitation manual.
Shilpa has facilitated dozens of transformative leadership gatherings in India, Jordan, Senegal, Lebanon, Egypt, Thailand, Canada, Peru, Pakistan, Puerto Rico, Turkey, and the US, working with hundreds of young leaders from over 80 countries. She was founding coordinator of the Global Youth Leadership Collaborative, a network of 15 Jam facilitators from 14 countries that has collectively produced dozens of international gatherings for young changemakers, and distributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to small-scale grassroots social change innovations worldwide.
Many years ago, Shilpa made the decision to leave the trappings of academia, Washington, DC, and the path of “professionalism” that had been laid before her to live and work in greater alignment with her soul’s calling. Today, she sees her work as contributing to the deep healing of internal, interpersonal and systemic breakdown. Shilpa is committed to using very simple human technologies – like listening, speaking from the heart, slowing down, breathing, and connecting to nature – to support authentic relationships, a deeper sense of self, an essential shift in consciousness, and aligned living practices. She is passionate about dance and music, organic and natural farming, upcycling and zero waste living, asking appreciative questions and being in community. All of her work seeks to uncover ways for people to free themselves from dominating, soul-crushing institutions and to live in greater alignment with their hearts and deepest values, their local communities, and with nature. You can reach her at shilpa[at]oldsite.yesworld.org
Jovan Julien (they/them) is the Alignment and Storytelling Integrator at YES! He currently makes home in Atlanta, Georgia, by way of Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Haiti. After 21 years being incubated in the North, he began to make his way back towards the beloved Caribbean. As a storyteller, organizer, and facilitant educator, Jovan has been working for years in the practice of building Beloved Community through the practice of radical witnessing. Whether as a part of the “Beyond Borders: Peoples of the Caribbean and Latin America” radio collective that broadcasts weekly, a regional organizer at Project South, a Ph.D student at Georgia Institute of Technology, or most important a member of his communities, Jovan works tirelessly to design elements both analog and digital to bring community closer together. Whether in the South of the United States, or the greater Caribbean, Jovan’s current work focused on transformational change by building tools for open and honest dialogue and radical democratic governance by community. As a photographer interested in education, a facilitator working to protect memory, and an engineer interested in the long term sustainability of his community, Jovan brings a particular focus to developing group practices and midwiving our most radical dreams into existence. You can reach them at jovan[at]oldsite.yesworld.org
Nandita Batheja (she/they) is the Cultivator of Community Learning and Partnerships at YES! A can’t-even-pretend-to-fit-in-a-box-er, Nandita is a facilitator, artist, question-asker and community weaver who works across sectors, advocating for justice, liberation and creative being. They believe imagination is crucial to change-work and that play is freedom’s underdog. Traveling between the worlds of education, nonprofits, artist residencies and decentralized movement spaces, Nandita has followed a life-long desire to tend to these questions: How do we build ecologies of right relationship and spiritual bravery in our relationships, actions, systems and creations? What is it to live the world we are dreaming, to every-day-it into existence? What is transformation, and how is it wound up with alchemy, healing, justice, grief and love? These questions and more are what guided Nandita to YES! and their current work in the world. Nandita has been jamming since 2015 and has been a facilitant for the U.S. Arts for Social Change Jam since 2016. Jams continue to be one of their greatest sources of support, transformation, growth, wild learning and blessed challenge. In addition to Jams, Nandita studies and practices the somatics of living, aging & dying to help herself and others navigate these tumultuous times. Outside of YES!, Nandita works with individuals, groups and organizations to support personal/collective healing, conflict transformation, leadership development, and finding new ways forward. She also facilitates with Equal Justice USA, leads InterPlay, and recently co-founded (with two other Jammers!) the Stingray Virtual Artist Residency – an international community art residency that encourages individuals to stand strong in their not-for-capital creative intelligence, and to mutually support each other’s artistic journeys. Currently based in San Diego, with roots reaching to New York, India, Indonesia, the-in-between and the sky, you can reach Nandita at nandita[at]oldsite.yesworld.org
Joy George (she/her) focuses on Collective Wisdom and Communications at YES! Born and raised in the Bronx as the daughter and sister of Nigerian diaspora, Joy has found herself at the intersections of love, transformation, restoration, human rights and social change in her work and activism. After graduating from Swarthmore College with BA in Political Science and Black Studies, Joy also works in the state of Maine at Mindbridge and the Restorative Justice Institute of Maine where she is working towards planting and watering the seeds of restorative culture. While at Swarthmore, Joy co-founded and organized the Womxn’s Leadership Summit, as well as the restorative, healing and transformative justice rooted program Communities of Care. Her work in Maine continues to build upon a vision in a larger arc towards liberation: this currently looks like shaping Community Coalitions where restorative culture can be organized around, as well as conducting research around racial trauma, healing modalities and resilience building. Joy’s journey includes the 2019 North America Leadership Jam, 2020 North East Changemakers Jam, & 2021 Re-Storying Justice Jam, and many other spaces where she continues to find herself blessed with radical healing, truth and community. She now adds breath to the Education Transformation Jam as a co-facilitant, as well as Raise Your Voice Labs as a team member. Joy considers herself a student of Octavia Butler, Prentis Hemphill, Mariame Kaba, Iya Funlayo Woods-Menzies, and countless other Black and African siblings walking in the radical existence of cultivating right relationship with joy. Joy most enjoys connecting with African diasporic arts, culture and religion, learning about herbs and flowers, looking at stars, traveling, dancing, writing, and laughing deeply with friends. You can reach her at joy[at]oldsite.yesworld.org
Joanie Smalley is the part-time Operations Manager at YES!, joining the team in July 2015. She brings with her a passion for supporting people. This passion took her to Australia in 2008, where she studied Holistic Kinesiology, earning a diploma from the Australian College of Complementary Medicine, in 2010. Today, she has a Holistic Kinesiology practice based in Oakland, CA. Prior to moving to Australia in 2008, Joanie worked for eight years as an assistant in the Executive Offices at Pixar Animation Studios. You can reach her at joanie[at]oldsite.yesworld.org
Elias Serras, Associate, is an organizational consultant, event producer, and facilitator who is passionate about systemic transformation. He works with a variety of communities and practices that are grounded in creative resilience, intercultural collaboration, and ecological wisdom. Having spent part of the past decade living and learning in radical Eco-Communities around the world, he is always seeking ways to apply lessons learned on the fringes to more mainstream and urban contexts. He has also followed interests and done work in the realms of Men’s Work, Rites of Passage, Mindfulness and Humanistic Psychology. Originally from upstate New York, he has lived in many places picking up stories and perspectives. During free time, Elias can be found getting lost in the woods, jamming out on the piano, or reading a book in his hammock. He has made home in Western Washington state for about 6 years and lives on a small island near Seattle. Elias has found a deep love for the trees, mountains, rivers, and peoples of this region. You can reach him at elias[at]oldsite.yesworld.org