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Lystra G. Sam (She/Her/They)

Decolonized Travel & Culture | Lead Curator & Program Director

Lystra Sam is a serial entrepreneur and a lifelong learner. She is the creator and architect for “The World When Black” Anti-Racism and Allyship workshops that center on the disruption and dismantling of white supremacy culture in the Travel, Tourism & Hospitality and Wellness industry and beyond. Her two most recent program completions are TOM – Trauma of Money and SFU Community Container Building Programs which continued her trauma informed decolonizing education.

Since 2017 she has been building her business and taking up space in the travel industry with her business called “Qmooniti Travel & Lifestyle”.
After living and working internationally for a decade and traveling around the world several times she has now visited over 90 countries and considers herself a global citizen.
This experience informs her decisions for the travel business that focuses on inclusion and culture with a decolonized lens while centering Black, Indigenous, people of colour, 2SLGBTQIA+, people with disabilities and the solo female/femme traveler as she bridges the gaps in the industry that have been created by a system of white supremist culture.

A feminist, an advocate and activist in the Black community for over 30 years, she is the founder of Sisters Leading Sisters which offer tools and resources to Black & Indigenous women/femmes. Sisters Leading Sisters is grounded in healing within the intersection of Qmooniti ‘s (communities) which is based on the tenet of UBUNTU “I am because you are” and supports leadership, emerging leadership, relationship building, mentoring, and building community that makes space for us all to learn to build any table we desire to sit at and invite everyone to join us there.

@SistersLeadingSisters  |  @QmooniTi 

 sistersleadingsisters.com  |  qmooniti.com

Nikki Sanchez (She/Her)

Water & Environment Protector/Decolonize Together

A Pipil and Irish/Scottish academic, Indigenous media maker, and environmental educator.

And, she’s also so much more than this!
Nikki facilitated a truly difficult session (both in topic and in facts to cover) and her passion came across in the hard truths she unearthed for discussion with an unflinching grace.

“You are inherently precious, worthy and unique! Only you have the specific gifts and perspective you carry. It can be really easy to get caught up in all things external, but never forget that your value is internal!” ~ Nikki Sanchez

@Nikkilaes | @DecolonizeTogether

decolonizetogether.com

Devi Ward Erickson (She/Her)

Healing and Restoration | The 5 Elements of Tantric Dance

Devi Ward Erickson is the Founder of the Institute of Authentic Tantra Education, the first and only government accredited professional training institute using the Tibetan Five Element Tantric practices for holistic sexual healing. Devi is an ACS Certified Sexologist, Certified Tantric Healer, Certified Reiki Practitioner, Certified, Meditation Instructor, and has been teaching meditation and personal growth workshops for over 20 years.

Devi is an author and the Host of Sex is Medicine Podcast on Itunes and tunein.com. She has been featured as a Tantric Healing Expert in countless articles and over 30 different radio and television networks world-wide including Playboy Radio, Men’s Health Magazine, CBS, NBC, Rogers TV, and the movie Sexology with Gabrielle Anwar and Catherine Oxenberg. Devi was awarded the 2021 AASECT Live Web Series Award and was most recently featured in VH1 “Couples Retreat” (Episode 5, May 24th, 2021) and Ebony Magazine. Devi was also recently featured as a sex-positive “sexpert” for Lotus Blooms and was quoted in a sexual wellness article for Well+Good

@DeviWardTantra| deviwardtantra.com

Dr. Valerie (Vimalasara) Mason-John (They/Them)

Self Compassion (Compassionate Inquiry) Resident Counselor

Dr. Valerie (Vimalasara) Mason-John (hon.doc) M.A . is the award winning author of 10 books. Their most recent, I am Still Your Negro An Homage to James Baldwin has been short listed for several awards. They co-founded Mindfulness Based Addiction Recovery, and 8 Step Recovery which is also an award winning book. They are a founding facilitator of Dr. Gabor Mate’s Compassionate Inquiry, and work as an Internal Family Systems and Compassionate Inquiry counselor.

As a public speaker they tour internationally talking on the themes of addiction, trauma, compassion. Detox Your Heart Meditations for Emotional Trauma, is a self help book guiding people to freedom. Afrikan Wisdom New Voices Talk Black Liberation, Buddhism and Beyond, just edited by Mason-John was published this year. They are chair of Vancouver Buddhist Centre, and are a settler on the unceded territory of the Sechelt Nation.

@eightsteprecovery| valeriemason-john.com

Kim Haxton

Cross-cultural interpretation | Applied decolonization & lateral liberation | Nature & land-based education |

Kim Haxton (Potowatomi) is from the Wasauksing First Nation in Ontario. She has worked across Turtle Island and abroad in various capacities but always with a focus on local leadership.

Her deep understanding of the need for genuine restoration has far-reaching implications as leaders seek vision and all people seek direction to address the mounting pressure of a system incongruous with the values of the natural world. Kim has developed and facilitated programs in more than 8 countries, and has been working in land-based education and leadership for the past 20 years, including as co-founder of Indigeneyez.

@indigeneyez| indigeneyez.com

Flory Young (She/They)

The Rested Revolution | IMTA CMT-P

Flory Huang (she/they) is a deep feeler, seeker and seer with diverse gifts, experiences and skill sets that enable her to establish containers for deep inquiry, relation and being. In these spaces are many gifts to receive and share in reciprocation: from belonging in community and exploration, to deep healing and transformation. With joy and connection, as well as space for acknowledging grief and pain.

She is a creator, guide and facilitator trained and certified as a professional mindfulness teacher, restorative yoga teacher, conscious energy medicine worker and former personal training coach. 

Flory is a second generation settler of Taiwanese and Dutch ancestry. Born on Tongva Territory (Los Angeles), she is also an uninvited guest continually learning on Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh lands on the Pacific Northwest Coast. She is currently based between the two locations supporting people individually and in groups all over the world.

@therestedrevolution| therestedrevolution.com

Kendra Coupland (She/Her)

Trauma Informed Yoga and Meditation Coach

Kendra Coupland is a queer Black yoga and meditation coach and multi-disciplinary artist living and working from the unceded traditional lands of the kʷikʷəƛ̓əm and Stó:lō people. After studying and practicing yoga for 7 years, in 2017 Kendra was initiated into the yogic tradition by Swami Vidyanand while studying Transformational Yoga in Kuilapalayam, India. Kendra is certified and registered with Yoga Alliance International as a Yoga Grandmaster (500+ hours) and T.I.M.E. Meditation Teacher.

@kendracoupland| kendracoupland.com

Minniejean Brown-Trickey

Elder in Residence | Retreat Blessing and Wisdom Sessions

Minnijean Brown Trickey has lifelong experience and commitment to peacemaking;
environmental issues; developing youth leadership; diversity education and training;
cross-cultural communication; gender and social justice advocacy. Minnijean Brown
Trickey is one of the nine African American students who collectively resisted opposition
to desegregate Little Rock Central High School in 1957, with protection from federal
troops.

Minnijean’s teaching experience in social work includes Carleton University, and
community colleges in Canada. She served in the Clinton Administration as Deputy
Assistant Secretary for Workforce Diversity at the Department of Interior. She was the
Shipley Visiting Writer for Heritage Studies at Arkansas State University. For the past
twenty-two years she has been a nonviolence and antiracism facilitator for Sojourn to
the Past, a ten-day interactive history experience for high school students. She
continues as a teacher, writer and motivational speaker. She is the mother of three
sons and three daughters.

Brown Trickey is the recipient of numerous awards for her community work for social
justice, including Lifetime Achievement Tribute by the Canadian Race Relations
Foundation, the International Wolf Award for contributions to racial harmony. With the
Little Rock Nine, she received the NAACP Spingarn Medal and the Congressional Gold
Medal. She is a member of the Little Rock Nine Foundation that awards nine
scholarships bi-annually.

She holds a Bachelor of Social Work in Native Human Services from Laurentian
University and Master of Social Work from Carleton University, in Ontario Canada. She is
the recipient of four Honorary Doctorates.

She is the subject of a documentary, Journey to Little Rock: the Untold Story of Minnijean
Brown Trickey, which has received critical acclaim in international film festivals in Africa,
England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, the U.S., South America and Canada. She was featured
in People Magazine, Newsweek, the Ottawa Citizen, the BBC, the Canadian Broadcasting
Corp, Donahue, CNN, the History Channel Turning Points in History, the HBO
documentary, Little Rock Central: 50 Years Later, and a variety television, radio and print
media. She appeared with the Little Rock Nine on Oprah, Today and numerous other
Media.

In 2016, Minnijean donated more than 20 personal objects to the Smithsonian’s National
Museum of American History. The collection includes a Little Rock Central High School
yearbook, a graduation dress, a personal letter from President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a
notice of suspension and photographs. She is a proud mother and grandmother who still
travels globally spreading a message of antiracism, nonviolence, peace and reconciliation.

May Globus (She/Her)

Certified Sound Therapist

Inquisitive and supportive are May Globus’ natural states. A former fashion/lifestyle journalist, she followed her curiosity into marketing, branding, and communications for over a decade, working both with and within social impact companies and corporations across North America.

She is now a certified sound therapy practitioner, educated at the Institute of Traditional Medicine in the areas of sound, cymatics, Traditional Chinese Medicine, trauma-informed practice, and more. Her practice, oto healing, is based in Vancouver though she has facilitated sound immersion events in Toronto, with plans to host more in cities worldwide. May’s wide range of clients include BIPOC, corporate teams, professional athletes, creatives & musicians, Gen Z collectives, expectant mothers, cancer patients, and more

Her natural curiosity also led her back to what she loves most about journalism: connecting with subjects. Out of intimate and inspired life conversations she has  egularly with creatives and entrepreneurs in her world, her podcast The Craft came into being, with new episodes released every Wednesday.

May has been featured in numerous articles and podcasts, including Vitruvi’s magazine Our Natural Habitat, Alive Magazine, Up We Go, A Little More Good, The All Sorts podcast, and Do That Well.

She holds her vision of sound, voice, and deep connection as vessels for bringing people home to themselves and in harmony with humanity.

@mayglobus| mayglobus.com