Meet the Team
Staff & Board

The ILI is a community of staff, associates, advisors, and stewards living and working throughout the United States. We strive to behave as a liberatory organization in alignment with our mission and values.  

Shared Stewardship

  • Advisors

    ILI Advisors are leaders, thinkers and activists in areas related to the work of the ILI, informing our research and impact agenda, and advising us with regard to operational functions. With no legal or fiduciary responsibility to ILI, advisors are free to offer their unique experience, wisdom, and perspective as critical friends of the Institute.

  • Board of Stewards

    The Board of Stewards leads and tends to the wellbeing and integrity of the Institute, operating on the principle of shared stewardship; the Board is comprised of volunteer and employed members serving as voting co-equals. Volunteer Stewards serve as elected members, officers of the Board, and as committee chairs. ILI staff Leads serve as employed members, and are solely responsible for the core work of the ILI.

  • Associates

    ILI Associates are specialists in particular areas of our work, delivering programs and services, conducting research, and writing for our publications.

Staff

  • Lucinda leads organizational development, learning, change-strategy, programs and services for the ILI. Her role will shift as our Leadership team grows.

    Lucinda is an accomplished organizational leader, strategist, and systems change practitioner. As a writer, advocate, scholar, and educator, her focus is on liberatory social and organizational change. She was co-founder and Lead Partner of ChangeMakers Partners consulting and research group, and a leader at Goddard College for over 20 years, serving on the faculty, as Academic Dean, Chief Strategy Officer, and Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees.

    She holds a Doctorate in Leadership for Change from Fielding University, a Masters in Education from the University of New Hampshire, and an MFA in Creative writing from Goddard College. Lucinda is a Fellow of the Institute for Social Innovation at Fielding University.

    Contact Lucinda here.

  • Christina is a problem solver and innovative change maker. She thrives on actualizing goals of visionary leaders and organizations through strategic planning and execution.

    With over a decade of service in the non-profit industry, mostly in the animal well-being field, Christina has led departments and teams, staff, volunteers, and contractors. She managed numerous projects and collaborated with staff at all organizational levels - from entry-level to senior leadership - successfully creating new programs and policies and streamlining existing ones, all while focusing on the people and the value they bring to the work.

    Outside of the ILI, Christina is a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for foster youth, a steering committee member of the BIPOC in Animal Well-Being Collective, a board advisor for Atomic Hands, and a board member of SCRAP Creative Reuse.

    Christina holds an Advanced Graduate Certificate in Applied Behavior Analysis from Queens College, a Master of Arts in Biology from City College of New York, and a BA in Biology from Williams College.

    Contact Christina here.

  • From 2018-2020, as a Senior researcher for the ILI, Shelley originated the role of the K-12 Scholar in Residence in public schools.

    Shelley is now the ILI Humanity and Justice Scholar for the Washington Central Unified Union School District in central Vermont.

    Shelley has taught multicultural education, race, gender and disability studies for over twenty-five years, at Goddard College, the University of Vermont and St. Michael’s Colleges, and was a community facilitator with the Vermont Peace and Justice Center’s Racial Justice project. She has participated in restorative practice training through The International Institute for Restorative Practices, The Insight Prison Project, STRONGHOLD, and the North Dakota Study Group.

    She holds a Doctorate in Education in Leadership and Policy Studies from the University of Vermont, and MA in History from Goddard College.

Board of Stewards

The board of stewards is legally responsible for ensuring the financial stability of the institute, and alignment of Institute activities, structures and policies with its mission.

The ILI is actively seeking board members. If you are interested in our work, please contact our Director.

  • Melissa Gopnik is a financial services innovator creating financial security for low-wage workers. Melissa has worked with a diverse set of organizations to envision and implement the kind of strategic plan and new programs that make organizations work smarter and serve their stakeholders better. Throughout her career she has combined her talents in strategic planning, program and product design, research, and public speaking with a strong commitment to social change. Melissa holds a Master of Business Administration degree, with a diploma in Nonprofit Management, from Boston University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Russian and Political Science from McGill University.

  • Ana (she/they) is a project management professional based out of Seattle. Having grown up in rural Washington state in a family of social workers, they have always been dedicated to meeting the needs of disenfranchised communities. Her professional experience centers on providing administrative support for community-based organizations and non-profits. Ana currently works as a Communications Specialist at the Workforce Development Council of Seattle-King County. Ana holds a Bachelor of Liberal Arts degree from Sarah Lawrence College, where they concentrated on Public Policy and Creative Writing with an emphasis on narratives of immigration.

  • Sumeet is an advocate and strategist specializing in financial regulation and consumer protection. He has served as General Counsel for Nova Credit, a mission-oriented fintech start-up focused on helping immigrants get access to credit. He has also had prior roles as an attorney at Credit Karma and the Federal Reserve Board. He currently works as a Senior Markets & Policy Fellow at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (Sumeet is serving ILI in his personal capacity). He has a B.S. in Management Science & Engineering from Stanford University, and a J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law.

  • Lyn Chamberlin is an award-winning leadership consultant. She works with a broad range of institutions, companies, and non-profit organizations to develop the branding and marketing strategies they need to significantly increase visibility, drive revenue, and expand constituent engagement.

    She has held senior leadership positions throughout her career, acting as chief spokesperson for the institutions she represents and overseeing branding, advertising, public relations, and public affairs initiatives. She has held senior management positions at Harvard University, Radcliffe College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and Sarah Lawrence College. An Emmy award-winning television producer, she was director of television programming at The Christian Science Monitor and a senior producer at Westinghouse Broadcasting and NBC.

    Before her focus on higher ed, Lyn was the founder and chief operating officer of skyePR, a brand consultancy in Boston, advising companies such as Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Polaroid, IDG, Navigant Consulting, and Technology Review Magazine, as well as numerous emerging technology start-ups and small businesses.

  • Kris Hege (she/her) is a teacher, scholar, speaker, and writer grounded in systemic change, community justice, and feminist theory. Drawing on critical theory, reflexive practice, and decades of facilitation, Kris partners with learners to design rigorous, personalized studies that yield tangible, equity-driven outcomes in their organizations and communities. 

    Kris was a senior scholar and faculty member at the Goddard College Graduate Institute until its closing in 2024, and is a founding steward of the Institute for Liberatory Innovation. She has presented on authentic leadership and career resilience at two Society of Women Engineers’ international conferences. As a visiting Scholar at Goddard, she delivered a keynote address on intellectual freedom in higher education. 

    She completed her doctoral coursework in Education Studies with an emphasis on Education for Social Justice at Union Institute & University. She holds an M.A. in Feminist & Justice Studies from Goddard College, a Certificate of Advanced Graduate Studies in Women & Gender from Union Institute & University, and a BA in Feminist History from Vermont College.

    Kris is also an accomplished data scientist and business analyst, with business training from Rutgers University Executive Education program and certification in Project Management from the University of Vermont's Center for Leadership and Innovation. She is a Senior Data Systems Engineer for Chroma Technology, an employee-owned certified B-Corp in Bellows Falls, VT, where she helped establish their DEIB council.

  • Mark Nagasawa, Ph.D. (yonsei, he/him) directs the Straus Center for Young Children and Families at Bank Street College of Education. His academic career is rooted in being a great-grandchild of voluntary im/migrants; social safety net beneficiary; and child of a Head Start teacher-mom whose career began by volunteering in his classroom because he was “failing” in school.