Core Team

Matthew Davis, PhD

President & Executive Director (Co-Founder). Matthew is a leading educational innovator and operations specialist with over 25 years of experience teaching and leading large-scale initiatives to help individuals and organizations move from concepts and systems to deliverables, with innovative methods for building bridges between diverse communities. This work is built on an additional twenty years of living and cultivating relationships abroad, and more than a decade of focused scholarship into qualitative worldviews, and creating the conditions for optimal learning, health, social change, and environmental justice. His home as a child moved around the Mediterranean Sea and Persian Gulf with his parents who were teachers, and classrooms became Matthew’s constant home. He has spent 20 years teaching composition, literature and critical (creative) thinking at many levels, from colleges to juvenile detention centers and corporations, and creates lessons about the activation of innate potential and the inner journey of living in the natural world, integrating ecology, design and contemplative practice.

Elizabeth Miller, PhD

Chief Operating Officer (Co-Founder). Elizabeth is an  educator, impact assessment specialist, organizational consultant, program designer, and writer/editor. She has a passion for people and synthesis that often has her working on multiple projects simultaneously. Over the past 17 years, she has contributed to nonprofit, educational, and corporate organizations with national and international reach, including Children for Change, the Redford Stories Project, and Milkweed Editions. Elizabeth brings together two decades of research and professional experience, spanning Eastern and Western medical and scientific traditions, neurocardiology, educational design, contemplative studies, and ecology. Her work focuses on life-giving approaches to evaluation, learning, innovation and community-building, with applications in schools, business and healthcare. She has collaborated with publishing houses, universities, schools, businesses, and an Apollo astronaut to explore the interplay of perception, creativity, and transformative learning. She also serves as an editor for works including I Give You the Springtime of My Blushing Heart, a poetic memoir by Dedan Gills and Belvie Rooks. 

Richard Wormstall, PhD (ABD)

Director of Community Programs. Richard is an educator, urban cosmologist, and musician with experience teaching and facilitating learning experiences for all ages, from elementary students to older adults. He previously served as Director of Communications at Meridian University and on the Admissions Team at the California Institute of Integral Studies. A guitarist and composer for over 25 years, Richard’s music spans Spanish, Middle Eastern, Jazz, Flamenco, Blues, and Hip Hop. His professional practice and research explore the intersections of music, learning, healing, and the evolutionary principles of the universe, emphasizing connectivity and shared humanity. Richard has collaborated with Matt, Elizabeth, Belvie Rooks, and Dedan Gils for over 14 years, co-creating projects and initiatives. At Pseads, he is developing the new Hope on the Rize Legacy Project, fostering communities of belonging. He drafts inspiration from his Japanese and diverse heritage and a his lifelong love of rhythm in all he does.

Jolie Jacobs Brandt

Manager of Programs and Partnerships. Jolie has spent the past 20 years supporting public school administrators, driven by a steadfast commitment to equity, inclusion, and helping every individual reach their fullest potential. She is a natural leader who values deep listening, authentic relationships, and shared understanding. A lifelong student of dance and the arts, Jolie earned a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology with a minor in Dance and is currently studying Intuition Medicine® in Sausalito. Growing up in Marin County as the granddaughter of one of the “Hollywood Ten,” she was immersed in activism from an early age, shaping her enduring passion for community and creativity. Inspired by the cosmos, the natural world, and the connections that bind us, Jolie brings her energy, heart, and vision to the Pseads team, helping cultivate a more compassionate, connected, and hopeful world.  

Zach Sovereign

Teaching Assistant and Program Associate. Zach has taught with Pseads for five years, engaging weekly in K-8 classrooms. A student of science and design, he brings boundless curiosity, creativity, and deep care for the Earth for every program. He also teaches gymnastics and parkour, exploring the dynamics of movement with the same passion he brings to learning and teaching. An inspired poet, Zach’s work delights in rhythm, rhyme, and transformation, reflecting his playful, imaginative spirit. At Pseads, he contributes to building new programs and media, uplifting students, colleagues, and communities alike. He is always thinking about new ways to care for people and the planet.

Collaborators

Jenae Casalnuovo, MS

Educator, Collaborator. Jenae is an educator, program designer, writer, and artist. She began her career teaching elementary school in San Rafael, and holds a Master’s degree in Education from Dominican University of California. Her teaching and research reflect her passion for social and environmental care, cultivating hope, confidence, voice, and agency in students through participatory action research. A skilled videographer and photographer, Jenae’s creative work has helped shape Pseads’ Hope on the Rize program. She first joined Pseads as a Fellow after participating in The Universe: Live on the Mic, later helping develop that program for first-year college students. Jenae served as the first Pseads Teaching Fellow, expanding the Blue Skies, Bright Star program into multiple new districts, and designed curriculum for Children for Change, leading an inter-district Community Engagement course for K-5 students. She currently teaches 7th grade at Sinaloa Middle School and remains a cherished collaborator of Pseads. Jenae tries to spend as much time as she can near mountains, lakes, forests, and open skies.  

Lauren Conrow

Brand Strategy and Partnerships. Curiosity and connectivity make Lauren’s world go ‘round. She is a brand manager, strategist and storyteller, extracting the essence of organizations to successfully articulate and illustrate their vision. Lauren has a wide range of brand-based experience; she has served as a consultant for multiple start-ups, and has held marketing positions at larger firms. Lauren is on a mission to fuse her brand-management knowledge, social-entrepreneurial zest and community-based experience to ignite intellectual, authentic and open-hearted conversations. She believes organizations have a unique opportunity, and a responsibility, to build community and foster genuine human relationships. Lauren’s interests also lie in art history (her niche being spirituality’s influence on the genesis of Abstract Expressionism), non-fiction literature, time spent in nature, live music, and joyful dressing.

Ali Goldner Troy

Consultant. Ali has more than 15 years of integrated communications and marketing experience, building cultural relevance and positive reputation for global and national consumer brands. She led teams and client relationships across Mars brands (e.g., Orbit gum, Ben’s Original), Wells Enterprises (e.g., Blue Bunny, Halo Top), Rosetta Stone and Jimmy John’s, to name a few.  Her experience across consumer PR, corporate reputation, employee engagement, partnership strategy and development, influencer relations and social media engagement, uniquely positions her to help solve business challenges with a holistic lens. Ali’s passion for people over brands led to a career transition, initially taking on an Employee Experience role and pursuing professional coaching certification. Led by the strong belief that true transformative change comes from within, Ali continues to let her desire for empowering, uplifting and transforming people fully guide her as a consultant and coach.

Eric Guarino

Co-Founder, CASALMA. Eric is a seasoned entrepreneur, real estate developer, and nature enthusiast, acting as a catalyst for change while channeling boundless enthusiasm and unwavering integrity into all of his endeavors. Eric’s journey began as a real estate broker at Terranomics and culminated in his role as the Director of Business Development at Cubix, where he orchestrated a remarkable ascent from $150 million to an impressive $700 million in assets under management. His skillset encompasses a wide spectrum, including project management, strategic analysis, public engagement, and business development. Eric’s passion for both people and the natural world has fueled his latest venture: a collaborative endeavor with his wife, Victoria, resulting in the creation of Casalma – a unique regenerative retreat with a mission to rekindle the profound connection between humanity and the Earth. 

Craig Laupheimer, MS

Marketing and Outreach Consultant. Craig is a development consultant and community organizer who integrates a natural gift for communication and facilitation with training in psychology, child development and education, and environmental restoration. Over the past 17 years, Craig has worked with thousands of youth, families, professionals and communities in a diverse array of settings including educational institutions, social service organizations, juvenile detention centers, organic farms, shelters, and nonprofits. He is a passionate activist, musician and hip-hop artist who believes in the power of narrative in creating positive social change, and is co-founder of Lyric Foundry. Six years ago, Craig transitioned from social work to teaching to become core faculty at Raoul Wallenberg High School in San Francisco. At Wallenberg he committed himself to the empowerment of every student, and also taught basketball and drama, and led Wallenberg’s Urban Debate League. In July 2023, Craig became Vice Principal of Wallenberg, and is currently pursuing a doctorate in education.

Andres Gonzalez

Media and Technology. Andres is a photographer, educator, and editor based in Vallejo, CA, whose interest in photography began during a two-year teaching stint working in Namibia with an outdoor leadership school in the Namib desert. He launched his career in Istanbul, where he was based for seven years, first as a Fulbright Fellow, then as a freelance photographer for American and European publications such as the New York Times, TIME Magazine, and the Independent Sunday Magazine. Andres taught photography at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies in Maine, and the University of Mississippi, and was an Associate Photo Editor at CNN in Atlanta. His work has been recognized by the Magenta Foundation, and Alexia Foundation for World Peace, among others. His most recent work includes American Origami, a book about the physical and psychological impact of gun violence on the contemporary American landscape. 

(www.andresgonzalezphoto.com)

Pseads Interns & Fellows

Isabella O’Brien

Pseads Fellow. Isabella, is a student, artist and activist, and enjoys spending her time writing, drawing, painting, and making short films on environmental topics in hope of bringing awareness and a deeper appreciation for our home. In 2021, her short film, Nature, was awarded distinction in the Redford Center Stories Challenge, and that summer she won a Planet 911 Youth Film Fellowship, where she made her film We the Trees to help others realize what we can learn from trees. Isabella also loves screen printing, drawing, painting, and photography. Her painting, Absent Smiles, received a national silver medal in the 2020 Scholastic Art and Writing awards, and her painting, Out the Sliding Door, in 2022 received a Gold Key, the same award as Amanda Gorman and Andy Warhol. Isabella has been participating in Pseads poetry and writing programs since her early elementary years, and is now designing curriculum and film projects with Pseads. She is a first-year students at the University of California, Berkeley. 

Lucy Bakowski

Pseads Fellow. Lucy Bakowski grew up in Fairfax, California. She’s been writing since she was old enough to pick up a pen, and has found in poetry a safe haven on her journey of self-discovery.  She is currently working on her first collection of poems for publication, which already includes more than 350 original poems, and spends two-three hours a day on the practice and craft of writing. Lucy is a creative of all worlds, from the stage, to the blank page and the camera.  She’s also a supporter, holding space for the creativity in all people, from hosting open mics to supporting feminist issues in Girl Talk Magazine.  She has a vision for the power of art to awaken the human soul and differently open hearts and minds to a just and peaceful world. Lucy is committed to social and environmental justice, and to LGBTQ+ rights. She believes in the power of reading poetry in between the lines, and has been a part of Pseads since its first years.  Lucy loves spending her time with the trees and wildflowers, and writing in the company of her cat, Lucky.  She is a freshman California State University, Chico.