staff

Program Director

Kassamira (she/her) is an artist, facilitator, healer, organizer, and advocate with a decade of experience in social justice movements. Using an intersectional framework, she explores ways to practice reimagining a world free from violence. Kassamira combines her creative art practice with her commitment to ending violence against black women and girls to create trauma-informed, survivor-centered healing spaces.

Most recently, Kassamira served as the project manager for the “Black Freedom Beyond Borders: Reimagining Gender Anthology.” In collaboration with Wakanda Dream Lab and Resonance Network, the anthology explores the theme of gender liberation and encourages black folks from across the diaspora to practice imagining the liberated world we wish to create. In 2018, she developed the Youth LEADS initiative, a nationwide project to engage young people in honest discussions around their experiences with gender-based violence and solutions for creating change. She published the “Youth LEADS: Cultivating Young Leaders in the Fight to End Gender-Based Violence” report and has presented her work at several conferences, including the 68th annual United Nations Civil Society Conference and the National Conference on Domestic Violence. She graduated magna cum laude from Santa Clara University with a B.S. in Political Science, Ethnic Studies with a minor in Gender Studies.

Co-Director

Aimee (she/her) brings a passion for network organizing, participatory research, storytelling, and collaborative learning. Prior to her role with Resonance Network, Aimee was the founder/executive director of Close to Home, where she pioneered mobilization strategies to foster community-wide responsibility to prevent domestic and sexual violence in Boston, which is currently being replicated in California.

Aimee was a Movement Maker in NoVo Foundation’s Move to End Violence Program, and has been recognized by Ashoka: Innovators for the Public, the Social Innovation Forum, and Facing History and Ourselves. Prior to Close to Home, Aimee managed the development of coordinated community responses to domestic violence in seven cities in Russia, Ukraine, and the Republic of Georgia, and has since provided trainings in the United States, Europe, and Africa.

Aimee’s commitment to community-driven approaches began when she was a community health worker seeking to improve access to health care, prevent youth violence, promote racial justice, and increase neighborhood civic participation through grassroots organizing.

Director of Strategic Initiatives

Ariel (she/her) collaboratively anchors Resonance Network’s Mending the Arc Circle and program offerings. She is an Aries introvert bibliophile, whose people are scientists, farmers, teachers, foresters, artists, mathematicians, and storytellers.

Ariel’s work toward liberation, especially focuses on art/story, narrative, spirit practice, and resource mobilization as pathways to a future where violence is no longer the norm. She has always lived in cities with rivers, currently on occupied Mahican lands along the banks of the Mahicannituck (aka Hudson River, in Albany, NY). 

Program Manager

Yesenia (they/them) lives and learns in East Oakland || Huichin, with family roots stretching back to the 70’s. The Pacific Ocean links their folks along the lands of California, México, Tonga, and back. Their experiences as a youth organizer, data nerd, ops wizard, plant guardian, and culture worker form a spider’s web pattern, weaving space for healing and thriving.

They believe that in our bodies and communities, we already hold the answers we seek, and as a budding historyan, they are dedicated to recording and sharing those recipes. Along their path, they’ve come to consider ruby-throated hummingbirds and redwoods as mentors. Yesenia is grateful to contribute to Resonance Network as Program Manager. 

Project Manager

Megan (they/them) is a fierce advocate for effective policymaking to build an impact economy. A firm believer that economic inequalities affect women more, thus, more women need to participate in politics and spaces that promote women’s roles in democratic advocacy since politics largely determines how resources are distributed. 

Megan is a policy and governance practitioner with a project management background. They have hands-on experience in strategic planning, project design, implementation, and tracking results. Megan leads cross-functional strategic projects to impact while applying skills gained from different engagements. Before joining Resonance, Megan worked with both private sectors and NGOs, including as an administrator at DBK Publishing Co., and project manager at Wisconsin Right to Life et al. Megan has championed the rights of women and children through working with organizations such as Action for Human Rights and Women Aid Foundation through the formulation of grants/project proposals. In collaboration with Badili Africa, Megan participates in the ongoing Feminizing Political Spaces campaign.  

Digital Manager

Lola Ibrahim (she/her) is the Digital Manager at Resonance Network. Prior to joining Resonance, she served for over two decades in various capacities in the the nonprofit sector, including social justice philanthropy, community organizing, youth work, and arts-based activism.

Throughout her career, she has taken an advocacy role on behalf of youth, immigrants, and refugee women both in her native Sudan and while working with immigrant communities in Boston and New York. Lola holds a B.A. in International Relations from the Schar School of Government and Policy at George Mason University, and a Masters in Government from Harvard University—where she researched the relationship between urbanization and democracy in the African context. Lola currently lives and works in Cairo, Egypt.