Our Team
Is What Liberation Looks Like
about us

Be the Change Consulting, LLC is a woman owned and people of color operated, racial justice centered, capacity building firm.

We specialize in equity & inclusion, youth development, organizational capacity building, and strategic planning. Rooted in Oakland, CA since 2012, Be the Change Consulting was sparked by the question- who are these systems working for?!
and we got to work
our story
Sangita Kumar and Tanya Mayo wanted to build a freedom space. Be inclusive and accessible. Be the change we want to see… right now
Sangita Kumar, Principal & Founder had worked in government agencies, private and public sector organizations. Every environment had something in common – employees felt unappreciated and were rarely set up for success. Invisible rules seemed to be in place and she wondered how to dismantle them. Sangita pursued a degree in organizational development to understand design thinking, trauma & somatics to discover how systemic oppression shapes people, and professional coaching to explore what motivates change.
These modalities fueled by social justice ideology are how Be the Change was born.
Tanya Mayo, Owner & Director of Strategic Growth had lived deeply in the world of art & activism with young people. She’d travelled with them internationally, mentored their entrepreneurship and led them to believe in their highest expression of self through artistic rigor. Working with young people in this way was nothing less than life changing. Tanya’s passion for youth development is how Be the Change became experts in crafting tools for learning & growth.
We’ve been actualizing these dreams with your teams, schools and organizations for 15+ years. Inviting your community to be the brightest expression of itself. To dismantle what’s not working and reach your antiracism goals. Our consulting, coaching and training sessions are designed to get you there.
Be the change you always wanted to be.
How We Work
Be the Change Consulting is the real deal. We create brave learning spaces and catalyze change.
Here’s how:
- Our process is intentional
- We solve problems together
- We teach by being and doing
- We encourage cascading leadership
- We combine theory with practice
- We experiment and refine ideas

Finding the right team members has been key to the success of Be the Change Consulting.
Our consultants and full-time crew bring lived experiences across race, gender, ability, body-size and immigration status. We know these diverse perspectives make a stronger, more flexible, more capable, and better able to serve our clients.
Be The Change
Staff

Amelia Lopez-Helm
HR/Operations Manager
Amelia Lopez-Helm (she/her) is the Interim Operations Manager for Be The Change Consulting, making sure the coordination of all we do happens in flow! She received her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Public Policy (2011) and Master’s Degree in Public Policy (2012) from Mills College, Oakland. Amelia previously worked in local and state government offices and non-profit organizations developing and using her skills in project management, systems development, and communications. Amelia’s speciality is attuning to client needs and synchronizing the Be the Change to meet them. She lives in Oakland on Ohlone land.

Aminta Steinbach
Director of Climate, Culture, & Equity
In her 20 years working with young people, Aminta has been a Program Coordinator, Youth Leadership Instructor and Program Director. Aminta majored in Community Studies, has studied Recreational Program Design and is a Certified Self Defense Instructor. Her areas of expertise as a capacity builder include Cultural Competency, Health and Safety Awareness and Community Building. Aminta is an enthusiastic cheerleader for her coaching clients, listens attentively, pays attention to details and acts as a compassionate guide through even the most difficult transitions. Aminta has a black belt in Kung Fu, and when not working you can usually find her kicking and punching her way to a more peaceful world.

Fong Marcolongo
Vice President of Youth Development and Education
Fong (she/her/hers) is a bridge-builder, community capacity builder, and youth development advocate dedicated to supporting communities of color to lead their own transformations. Her expertise resides in the design/implementation of experiential human-centered learning, culturally competent youth leadership development, positive youth development trainings, experiential curriculum development and collaborative team management. She specializes in creating interactive visual frameworks for group collaboration and strategic visioning. Fong has over 15 years of working in the non-profit sector. Her passion is to support the youth development and education field to build the capacities of their leaders. Fong received her BS in Political Science and holds a Master’s in Global Affairs. When she is not working, Fong is propagating plants, stumbling on roller skates, and keeping up with her energetic 8-year old while catching moments of joy with her family.

Jae Maldonado
Director of Business Development
Jae Maldonado is a people centric, strategic thinker, with over 15 years of demonstrated success in developing cross-sector programs that advance racial and gender equity. His unique experience as a transmasculine identified Latinx activist has enabled him to lead from the intersections of movements that center the experiences of those most impacted by institutional violence. In his role with Be The Change, Jae continues to draw from his extensive field experience to create spaces for self-care that support change agents with the physical, emotional, and mental strength to realize racial justice. Jae is a recipient of the 2017 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Award for Health Equity and has a Masters Degree in Public Administration from Seton Hall University. In his free time Jae enjoys walking his dog snoopy and contemplating the revolution.

Lauren Martinez
Manager of Racial Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Initiatives
Lauren Martinez has worn many hats in the field of education and youth development. They have specifically coached basketball for over five years for UCLA recreation department, taught chess in an after-school capacity, and now are currently working for Be the Change Consulting as their Racial Justice Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Manager both the PM for the antiracist virtual public series and a facilitator for some of the offerings. They hold a BS in Psychology and Biology and are currently pursuing two master’s degrees, a Master of Social Change and Master of Divinity at “the most progressive seminary in the United States,” Starr King School for the Ministry in Berkeley, CA. Their intentions are to remind people, in particular youth of color, through spiritual embodiment practices that center a social justice healing lens of their internal power and inherent worth whilst expanding communities understanding of ways to counter oppression and live an authentic life.

Makaena Durias
Production Engineer & ZOOM Host
Makaena joins Be The Change Consulting as a part time specialist in technology platforms like ZOOM and Google Apps. In her role, she ensures BTCC client’s have a positive user experience during a training session and supports the needs of clients pre and post session. Her past experiences working at the Kindergarten Readiness Study at Oregon State and with Portland Parks & Recreation have influenced her commitment to working to improve the lives and educational opportunities of youth and individuals in underserved communities. She earned her Bachelor in Spanish and Philosophy from Oregon State University and currently lives in Corvallis, Oregon. She is also an avid writer and singer.

Melinda Villa
Production Assistant

Sangita Kumar
Principal & Founder
Sangita Kumar is a results-based organizational development consultant and facilitator dedicated to the empowerment of individuals and our communities. Sangita’s experience over the past 15 years ranges from coaching, professional development, strategic planning, program design, and curriculum development. Sangita holds a Masters Degree in Organizational Development, is a Certified Life Coach, and completed a two-year certification in Somatics and Trauma.

Shelley Kuang
Manager of Consulting and Training Initiatives
Shelley Kuang is a multigenre artist and organizer. Before joining Be the Change Consulting as a Production Assistant, Shelley has worked as an educator enacting student-led college access programming, advising a youth-led dance team, and facilitating behavioral and mental health education. Later, she honed her mixed-methods data collection, analytic and production skills while working with an evaluations research firm. She received her BA in Human Development from UC San Diego. Shelley is the Alumni-in-Residence with Emerging Arts Professionals SFBA and volunteers with the Asian Prisoner Support Committee.
Be The Change
Consultants

Allison Kenny
Co-Founder Spotlight: Girls

Anayvette Martinez
Co- Founder & CEO of Programs and Communications Radical Monarchs

Ebony Johnson
Trainer & Coach
Ebony’s path is grounded in the integrity of Spirit and guided by her Ancestors. Her calling is to be of service to those marginalized by the brutality of oppressive systems. As a Black woman, Ebony prioritizes her advocacy, organizing, teaching, consulting, and healing guidance work to uplift Black people and Black communities. In addition to supporting marginalized people to navigate, resist, and heal from structural violence; Ebony recognizes this work is incomplete without asserting methods of accountability for abusive systems. Her practice has always been accompanied by efforts to partner with those around her to develop and implement protocols of systemic accountability to address issues of bias and discrimination. A hallmark of Ebony’s practice is challenging the status quo and inspiring people to initiate and create healthier ways of existing. Principles from the Black radical tradition like self-determination, intersectionality, collective empowerment, sovereignty, and love inform her perspective and guide her approach.

Ed Center
Trainer & Coach
Ed Center is a positive parenting coach who centers family histories and cultural wisdom to support parents to increase connection and joy with their children. From running a student support center in the basement of Balboa High School, to leading philanthropic initiatives in the education sector, Ed’s career has always focused on helping BIPOC youth and families thrive. Ed is an alumnus of the Annie E Casey Foundation Children and Family Fellowship and excels in partnership development, change management, and supporting multi-faceted groups to focus on equity. He is an expert at coaching organizations to move from planning to action, and is highly skilled at facilitating difficult conversations. In his free time, Ed plays and coaches soccer, is obsessive about watching raptor birds in the wild, and hosts an annual Spam cook-off competition. He lives with his husband and two sons in San Francisco.

Franklin Hysten
Founder, Blaze Consulting Group and Associate Director, On The Verge
Franklin Hysten is committed to creating transformative experiences that strengthen youth and their communities. Drawing on 18 years of experience developing leaders in youth development, philanthropy and government -based organizations, he supports Be the Change Consulting’s organizational consulting portfolio, which includes program design, logic modeling, and strategic planning for organizations state-wide. He also manages the youth development portfolio for high-school aged-youth, with a focus on restorative practices. His strong background in youth development has afforded him the opportunity to train and coach emerging non-profit professionals and share best practices with staff, managers and funders.

Jenjii Hysten
CEO & Founder Blaze Consulting

John W. Meade, Jr.
Sr. Program Manager-Policy AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition
John W. Meade, Jr. is an LGBTQ and HIV/AIDS prevention advocate with real-world public health experience including the designing and implementation of HIV prevention programming/community-led demonstration projects, nationwide HIV prevention strategic planning, and understanding the root causes of social determinants of health, which underpin health inequities and disparities. John currently serves as Senior Program Manager-Policy at AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition (AVAC). John has acquired over 10 years of global public health experience, focusing on socio-contextual determinants of health including addressing health inequities and stigma among LGBTQIA+ communities of color, youth, women and sex workers. In his role as Senior Program Manager, John is responsible for building capacity of community leaders to advocate for policies that benefit their communities. He holds a B.A. in Cell and Molecular Biology from Connecticut College and a Master’s degree in Public Health with a concentration in Socio-Contextual Determinants of Health from Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University.

Lyn-Tise Jones
Director of Oceanview, Merced Heights, Ingleside Family Resource Center

Naima Porter
Tech Consultant
Naima Porter is an art student from Los Angeles, California, who has been studying photography at Marymount Manhattan College in New York City for the past two years. After deciding to take a leave of absence from school due to COVID-19, Naima joined with BeThe Change Consulting as a Zoom Host to provide a successful and comfortable learning environment during training sessions. Naima spends most days utilizing her creativity through different art forms, tending to her garden, and spending time with loved ones.

Oscar Wolters-Duran
Planning and Facilitation Consultant Blue Thistle Consulting
Oscar’s vision as a capacity builder is to listen, understand and help build amazing youth-centered afterschool programs. Over the past 20 years Oscar has been an executive director, curriculum designer, coach and trainer. Oscar holds a BA in History from UC Berkeley. As a coach Oscar’s areas of expertise include project-based learning, disguised learning, literacy, management and supervision, classroom management, and stress reduction. Oscar draws on his experiences as a bi-racial immigrant from Mexico and English language learner to champion social justice values and equitable program design. Oscar has been training in Capoeira for ten years, and wrote a children’s book called Marina’s Capoeira Countdown.

Ricardo Perez Gonzalez
Trainer
Ricardo Perez Gonzalez (he/him/she/her) is a new coach & trainer inside our “Becoming an Antiracist Organization” series. As an improvisational actor, award-winning playwright, tv writer for Netflix and equity consultant, Ricardo tells untold stories in service of racial healing. He brings humor, play and fierce passion to social justice work and splits his time between his stoop garden in NYC and his window garden in LA. Find him engaged in sparkling cocktail conversation with his cat and partner in Los Angeles on Tongva Land.

Rooben Morgan
Trainer & Coach
Rooben Morgan is a seasoned after-school educator, trainer, and coach with a home, jobs, and friends in the Bay Area. He has worked on curriculum building, namely for afterschool spaces to focus on SEL and individualized learning. He is also a fervent advocate of collective bargaining for afterschool staff, so they can rightfully receive appropriate wages, proper training, and fair representation. When not trying to impress no one with his non-existent dancing skills, he can be seen wandering amongst the woods, wearing a contemplative look, just breathing.

Russell G. Jones
Founder Blind Spot

Serian Strauss
Trainer & Coach
Over the past 20 years, Serian has honed her facilitation skills in multiple industries with a focus on equity, social justice and team building. As a Coach, Facilitator and former classroom teacher, her passion lies in creating sustainable culture shifts within community that ultimately lead to connection and overall joy. Guided by love of experiential learning, she has a unique approach for creating courageous and playful learning spaces where challenging conversations can happen.When she is not brainstorming new ways to engage in difficult dialogue, she trains as a Martial Artist, gardens and tries new recipes. She has a Masters in Education UC Berkeley and is a certified life coach. She is also the co-director of the Self Defense program at Hand to Hand Kajukenbo Self Defense Center.

Let’s Be the
Change Together
How does your team want to connect theory to practice?
Lisette Ostrander
Director of Education at Beyond Differences
Sarah Wan
Executive Director at CYC
Priscilla Parchia
Program Manager, Expanded Learning
Ay'Anna Moody
Director, Social Impact & Generation Thrive
Rodd Lee
Assistant General Manager, External Affairs
Erin Gutiérrez
Director of Learning & Development
Ariana Bayer
Manager of Family Programs
Pam Connie
Jill Nielsen
Felix Caraballo
P. Marcia Brown
Deanna Grant-Curtis
Carla Williams-Namboodiri
Profesora de Inglés y Humanidades, Escuela Bilingüe Internacional Middle School English and Humanities Teacher
Mei Ann Teo
Assoc Artistic Director, Director of New Work, Oregon Shakespeare Festival
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I am the Director of Education for Beyond Differences. I worked with Fong in the late summer/ fall of 2020. Fong coached me as I prepared to launch an educator cohort series in NYC and FL for close to 70 educators. My primary goals were to build an intentional learning community, support Read More
Lisette Ostrander
Director of Education at Beyond Differences
When developing capacity for my team of 100+ staff, Be the Change Consulting is our go-to organization. Whether I need guidance for our newly hired direct service staff or non-profit veterans from our leadership team, I trust in BTCC to offer the groundwork to address all our needs. They Read More
Sarah Wan
Executive Director at CYC
We have been using the Building Intentional Communities Curriculum for a decade now and continue to come back for more curriculum, more PD, and support. We have continued, renewed, and recommended BTCC’s services because they are exactly what our communities need. Thoughtful, communal, Read More
Priscilla Parchia
Program Manager, Expanded Learning
This year we were excited to partner with Be the Change Consulting, Hellman Foundation and the Walter & Elise Haas Senior Fund to launch a virtual training series just as the pandemic hit and the shelter in place order was announced. We wanted to offer relevant and responsive training and Read More
Ay'Anna Moody
Director, Social Impact & Generation Thrive
Dynamic…diverse…engaging…extraordinary…innovative…inclusive. Those are just a few terms that describe Be the Change Consulting.
Their team of highly skilled professionals, exceptionally led by Sangita Kumar, assisted BART with extensive outreach and in-depth engagement with Read More
Rodd Lee
Assistant General Manager, External Affairs
Be the Change Consulting has been a key partner over the years providing training and support that tends to both content expertise and humanizing processes. The workshops are engaging, thought-provoking, and grounded in the latest academic research, and I most appreciate that their facilitators Read More
Erin Gutiérrez
Director of Learning & Development
Participating in Be The Change Consulting’s Antiracism capacity building series has supported tremendous growth for me professionally through the development of an anti-racist perspective and actions, from big picture project goals and assessments all the way down to how our team opens Read More
Ariana Bayer
Manager of Family Programs
Excellent and I attend a LOT of these training sessions. Well organized. Clear and courageous content.
Pam Connie
I really appreciated the hands on skills at the end of the session.
Very engaging and extremely informed – presented material in an accessible and interesting manner.
I would recommend at least 3 hours for this training.
Jill Nielsen
It’s a different facilitation style that you have but I can see how it works. It’s a much more human experience, rather than a student teacher discussion. I’m impressed.
Great Job.
Felix Caraballo
Thank you for demonstrating your passion: Be The Change; was evident. I appreciate the copy of the PP.
P. Marcia Brown
I love this organization. Their curriculum is some of the best I’ve ever used! Tried and true.
Deanna Grant-Curtis
I adapted the Lemonade activity from your Ice Breakers and Team Builders to Build Social-Emotional Skills for my advisory yesterday. Used the watering pot like a spin the bottle. After saying something they wanted to wash away from the week, they sprinkled water onto the classroom plants. I ❤ Read More
Carla Williams-Namboodiri
Profesora de Inglés y Humanidades, Escuela Bilingüe Internacional Middle School English and Humanities Teacher
I am taking away the way that capitalism and racism are inextricable in causing our micro and macro aggressions against each other. I’m sitting deeply with how the sense of urgency stems from perfectionism and also how it perpetuates how we treat each other as cogs in the wheel instead of Read More
Mei Ann Teo
Assoc Artistic Director, Director of New Work, Oregon Shakespeare Festival
Appreciate y’all Aminta & Thomas! I wish we could combine our collective superpowers in facilitating.
Anonymous
It was really helpful to have to say the actual words. Because it highlighted an issue that could have easily been glossed over- Thank you group.
Anonymous
Thank you all for an amazing learning experience.
Anonymous
Thank you so much. These strategies are really helpful and actionable!!
Anonymous
Thank you for this extremely enriching experience!
Anonymous
Thank you for a great session. This has been really informative and helpful.
Anonymous
Thanks y’all. I am leading a capacity building cohort of 49 orgs. I am definitely going to share your info with them and explore with the foundation partners funding options for this work. Thank you!!!!! Love all of it 🙂
Anonymous
Facilitating techniques are great. They are great!
Anonymous
From The Blog

How To Support Racial Equity in the Workplace
The recent racial justice movement in our country gave particular light to injustices caused to black, brown and indigenous communities. This gave rise to organizations everywhere asking themselves – are we racially inclusive? Where do our workplace practices create disproportionate stress on my non-white staff? To help organizations reflect on these questions, we launched our Becoming an Antiracist Organization initiative.

What’s Behind Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Work?
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) work begins by acknowledging different types of diversity, and what causes the difference. Most of our Becoming an Antiracist Organization trainings begin with our trainers introducing ourselves by sharing a way that we have been perceived as “different” or “diverse” from the dominant culture.

The Uncomfortable, Liberating Journey to Antiracism with Diversity Equity and Inclusion: Beyond the BLM Statements
Many organizations have shown interest, curiosity and even an openness to bring in diversity, equity and inclusion consultants to conduct a training or two. Most of us know that a statement by itself is performative and changes nothing in practice. Staff from small to large organizations and companies are demanding change, not statements.

How to Update Your Old Diversity and Inclusion Training Program For 2022
At Be the Change, we have been iterating on our approach to training and consulting design. We ask ourselves: what does it take to go from an organization that sees itself as welcoming to an organization that fosters belonging.
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