ABOUT US
Our Team
Co-Lead Artist; Collaborator; Composer; Live Vocalist
Amikaeyla Gaston is an award-winning singer, activist, and executive director/founder of International Cultural Arts & Healing Sciences Institute (ICAHSI) and co-executive director of World Trust (Racial Justice Educations).
Through her work with ICAHSI, Amikaeyla partners with government, NGO and educational institutions, as well as corporations and individuals, to provide innovative programs that unlock expression through music and the arts. As an artist, Amikaeyla is the winner of eight Washington Area Music Association Awards. She sings worldwide with many accomplished musicians and has sung for the Dalai Lama at his request.
Proclaimed as one of the “purest contemporary voices” by National Public Radio, powerhouse Amikaeyla embraces the best of many types of music. MTV has described her sultry sound as “like listening to a velvet waterfall,” and her soulful, roots-jazz flavor captures the listener with dynamic passion and enchanting sincerity.
She has received national attention and a multitude of music awards, including: Best Jazz Vocalist; Best Urban Contemporary Vocalist; Best World Music Vocalist; and Best Debut Artist. She was named Washington, D.C.’s Best Female Composer (2006, 2008 and 2011) for excellence in original composition.
She has performed, recorded and traveled the world touring with many award-winning artists, such as: Take 6; Sweet Honey in the Rock; Babatunde Olatunji; Mickey Hart; Pete Seeger; Esperanza Spalding; and Sheila E.
Organizational Development; Founding member: Restructuring Worker Bee Circle
Amy McClain has a unique blend of creative and organizational mojo and a passion for courageous change-making. As a program director, instructional designer, training director and DEI consultant, she’s coached leaders and teams through both operational and social emotional aspects of creating truly inclusive cultures.
Having led, facilitated and performed for more than 30 years, Amy creates practical, engaging learning experiences to help people to build resilient, equitable and accountable spaces, engaging interactively to dismantle systemic oppression. She shares her love of transformation as a musician in concerts and workshops with a catalog of more than 100 original songs.
Amy has presented to more than 100,000 people and her curriculum has reached half a million individuals. Her clients include: Golden State Warriors; UCSF; USC; Cardinal Health; Anita Borg Institute; and Gartner.
She has a Bachelor of Arts in psychology from UC San Diego and advanced training in: organizational development; nonviolent communication; social emotional learning; somatic experiencing; contextual leadership; trauma-informed mindfulness; developmental neuroscience; and re-evaluation counseling.
Accounting
Beth … bio coming
Restorative Justice Facilitator
Bonnie Wills is a facilitator in the Restorative Approaches to Intimate Violence program in prison and facilitates Restorative Circles for families and organizations. She received her bachelor’s degree in social ecology at John F. Kennedy University, a master’s in culture and spirituality at Holy Names University, and a master’s in religion and philosophy at California Institute of Integral Studies. She is a certified diversity facilitator, and a Restorative Justice facilitator and trainer. She has facilitated Restorative Justice Circles at San Quentin Prison, and COSA (Circles of Support and Accountability) groups for formerly incarcerated youth. She has facilitated healing/training circles at California Institute of Integral Studies, Cal State East Bay and Holy Names University. She completed the Merritt College Community Mental Health Advocates certification training. She currently facilitates training for the re-entry pod at San Francisco Jail, Valley State Prison and various community organizations.
Bonnie is committed to a compassionate, just, and inclusive planet. Through her work, she strives to support the eradication of social injustice and inspire. She currently facilitates training for healing within our homes, workplaces, communities, institutions and the planet.
Organizational Partner; Restructuring Steward; Founding Member: Regenerative Circle
Chris Moore-Backman (he, him) is a community organizer, organizational consultant, and activist working at the intersection of climate and racial justice.
He is author of The Gandhian Iceberg: A Nonviolence Manifesto for the Age of the Great Turning and producer of “Bringing Down the New Jim Crow," a radio documentary series examining the movement to end the U.S. system of mass incarceration.
Chris has served on international peace teams in Colombia and Palestine, and has worked with a variety of human rights, peace, and social justice organizations, including the Fellowship of Reconciliation, Christian Peacemaker Teams, and the Alternatives to Violence Project.
His current organizational home is East Point Peace Academy.
Restorative & Somatic Facilitator
daniel jacob self (he/him); of Manhattan, the Lanapehoking of Leni Lenape people
Originally from Southern California, daniel’s work resides where the individual and the collective body meet. Co-founder of twofour.org, daniel works to surface how the interpersonal, the intrapsychic, and the systemic and communal collide in the present, embodied creative moment.
daniel received his Master of Arts in somatic psychology from California Institute of Integral Studies. During his training, daniel worked as a grief counselor at Pathways Home Health & Hospice in Oakland, California, as well as a facilitator inside prisons and in the larger community with the Berkeley-based Ahimsa Collective.
daniel now works with individuals, families, groups and organizations by phone and in person all over the country.
Board of Directors Member; Founding Member: ED Hiring Circle
Eric Garcia is co-director of Detour Dance, an immersive performance company based in San Francisco. He is equal parts devised theater artist, dance filmmaker, drag queen, and community organizer, with a penchant for queer maximalism. Eric, also known as Churro Nomi, hosts & performs all over San Francisco, especially at her staple shows in the Mission District: Clutch The Pearls and Drag Spectacular Spectacular. Eric proudly serves as Managing Director with Fresh Meat Productions and the San Francisco Transgender Film Festival.
He is on the advisory board for the Festival of Latin American Contemporary Choreographers and the Paul Dresher Ensemble, and is a founding member of Latinx/Hispanic Dancers United.
