Sean Thomas-Breitfeld co-directs the Building Movement Project. Prior to joining the BMP staff, Sean spent a decade working in various roles at Community Change, where he developed training programs for grassroots leaders, worked in the communications and policy departments where he coordinated online and grassroots advocacy efforts, and lobbied on a range of issues, including immigration reform, transportation equity, and anti-poverty programs. Before joining Community Change, Sean worked as a policy analyst at UnidosUS, where he focused on employment and income security issues. Sean holds a Master’s in Public Administration from NYU’s Wagner School of Public Service and a bachelor’s degree in social work and multicultural studies from St. Olaf College in Minnesota.

Michelle was appointed Executive Director of HSC on May 2020 after serving as Acting Executive Director since January 2020, and previously served for many years as the Deputy Executive Director and Deputy Director. HSC advocates for the nonprofit human services organizations that provide critical services for New Yorkers such as programs for seniors, youth, and the homeless and people with disabilities. Currently, Michelle leads the #JustPay Campaign, which seeks equitable pay for human services workers. During her tenure as Executive Director, Michelle has overseen the COVID-19 response within the human services sector, coordinating with government and other external partners to ensure that human services providers are equipped to address the profound social, economic, and public health challenges facing communities and the human services workforce. Under her roles as Deputy Executive Director and Deputy Director, Michelle coordinated HSC’s government relations strategy and has led revolutionary policy changes, leading both City and State campaigns to improve the nonprofit sector’s ability to maximize social impact in communities, most notably in securing over $200 million in cost-of-living adjustments for NYC human services workers and $120 million in nonprofit infrastructure investments.

Rusty Morgen Stahl is President & CEO of Fund the People, which he founded in 2014. Fund the People works to maximize investment in America’s nonprofit workforce. The organization encourages funders and nonprofits themselves to adopt “talent-investing” -- the intentional deployment of capital to support and develop nonprofit leaders and workers. At Fund the People, Rusty has helped to develop popular resources that include: the Fund the People podcast (which he joyfully hosts); the Talent Justice Initiative, which offers ideas and research on talent-investing for racial equity; a free online toolkit of original talent-investing resources; and consulting services to help funders adopt talent-investing. Rusty launched Fund the People as a Tides Fellow and Visiting Scholar in Residence at NYU’s Wagner School of Public Service. Previously, he founded and served for 10 years as Executive Director of Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy (EPIP), the national membership network that develops young and new foundation professionals. EPIP has chapters in Minnesota and across the U.S., and celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2021. 

Alfonso drives Team Dynamics’ client engagement, working side-by-side with C-Suite executives and internal champions of cultural change efforts. Alfonso Wenker is a seasoned executive leader and facilitator of transformational organizational culture and strategy campaigns. Serving in major leadership roles within the field of philanthropy, Alfonso has been responsible for driving sector and systems wide change to diversify both perspective and personnel in order to better steward resources responsible for underwriting major movements. A Latinx, gay, cis-gender man, Alfonso was born and raised on the west side of Saint Paul, MN, to a Mexican mother and white father. Consequently, Alfonso has often been the ‘first’ or ‘only’ person on a team who is a Person of Color, gay person, or both throughout his career. He has experienced, firsthand, how the attempted diversification in the U.S. workplace has both made strides and done accidental harm. 

Trina leads Team Dynamics’ curriculum development; concretizing the tools and resources our clients need to thrive.

Trina Olson is a two-time executive director with a track record of building and retaining teams across race, gender, and sexual orientation to achieve shared goals. Trina has built an impressive portfolio of national and regional policy and advocacy experience, centering a multitude of progressive issues, including: healthcare, hunger, living wage, immigration reform, transgender inclusive non-discrimination, and more. Trina is an expert adult-educator who has supported teams around the country to both improve their workplace culture and performance. Trina is a Minnesotan who has also made her home in eighteen U.S. cities, including: Seattle, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles. A queer, white, cis-gender woman, Trina is motivated by the ways job creators could be addressing the intersection of identity and workplace more creatively and consistently to address the pervasive inequities still at play across race and gender, in particular. Trina is a frequently called upon thought leader and presenter. She specializes in all things staff management and organizational strategy.

Dr. Joi Lewis is a visionary community healer and facilitator of Healing Justice and Black Liberation. She is speaker, author, scholar and founder of two organizations Joi Unlimited (www.joiunlimited.com), where she is CEO, and The Healing Justice Foundation (www.healingjusticefoundation.org), where she is the President. Dr. Joi helps individuals, institutions, and communities heal from oppression-induced historic and present-day trauma, using Healing Justice as an on-ramp to reclaim our own humanity and each other’s. Dr. Joi’s book, Healing: The Act of Radical Self-Care, educates individuals on the framework of the Orange Method of Healing Justice. Through coaching certification, courses, and training, Dr. Joi offers support to interrupt historic cycles of oppression using both radical self-care and community care. She spent 20+ years in higher education leadership as a Dean, Vice President, Chief Diversity Officer and faculty member. While she resides in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA, her work is deeply informed by growing up in East St. Louis, Illinois. She’s an unapologetic joy instigator, radical self-care evangelist, and food prep pro.  She’s on a mission to put healing in the hands of anyone anywhere. She offers this meditation to all who believe in liberation: May The Revolution Be Healing!

Find Dr. Joi on Facebook, Instgram and LInkedin @drjoilewis

Deepa Iyer is a South Asian American writer, lawyer and activist. She is the Director of Strategic Initiatives at the Building Movement Project where she curates a project called  Solidarity Is which provides trainings and narratives to build deep and lasting multiracial solidarity.  Deepa is the creator of the social change ecosystem map framework and the host of the Solidarity Is This podcast. Deepa has worked on immigrant and racial justice issues for over two decades. She was the former executive director of South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT) for a decade, and has held positions at Race Forward, the US Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, the Asian Pacific American Legal Resource Center, and the Asian American Justice Center. Deepa’s first book, We Too Sing America: South Asian, Arab, Muslim and Sikh Immigrants Shape Our Multiracial Future (The New Press 2015), received a 2016 American Book Award. Deepa has received fellowships from Open Society Foundations and the Social Change Initiative, and in 2019, she received an honorary doctoral degree from the Chicago School of Professional Psychology. Deepa is active online @dviyer (Twitter),  @deepaviyer (Instagram) and at www.deepaiyer.com. Deepa is an immigrant who moved to Kentucky from Kerala (India) when she was 12 years old.