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 accomplished educator, impact assessment specialist, organizational consultant, program designer, and writer/editor. With passion for people and synthesis that often has her working on multiple projects at once, over the last 15 years Elizabeth has held leadership and consulting roles at nonprofit, educational and corporate organizations with national and international focus. She brings together two decades of research and professional experience in Eastern and Western medical/scientific traditions, neurocardiology, improvement science, educational design, child development, contemplative studies, and ecology. Her research on evaluation identifies more life-giving approaches to the valuation, activation and assessment of learning, innovation and community-building, with application to school, business and healthcare outcomes. Elizabeth has worked with publishing houses, universities, schools, businesses and an Apollo astronaut in developing worldview literacy, and the link between perception and creativity, and serves as an editor, including for I Give You the Springtime of My Blushing Heart, a poetic memoir by Dedan Gills and Belvie Rooks. Elizabeth led the pilot expansion of the Redford Stories Project, and acts as Director of Programs for Pseads partner Children for Change.

Jenae Casalnuovo, MS

Associate Director of Programs. Jenae is an educator, program designer, writer, and artist.  She began her career in education as an elementary school teacher in San Rafael, California, and received a Master’s degree in Education from Dominican University of California. Jenae’s teaching and research reflect her passion for social and environmental justice, and her commitment to the cultivation of hope, confidence, voice, and agency in students, including through participatory action research.  She also finds joy and purpose as a videographer and photographer, and her work has deeply informed Hope on the Rize at Pseads. Alongside her passion for writing, literature and digital storytelling, Jenae tries to spend as much time as she can near mountains, lakes, forests, and open skies. She met Matt and Elizabeth in her first year at Dominican and first joined Pseads as a Fellow after her participation in The Universe: Live on the Mic program, which she then helped develop and facilitate for first-year college students. Jenae served as the first Pseads Teaching Fellow in the Blue Skies, Bright Star Science and Poetry Project and now teaches across programs. She also acted as a curriculum designer and in-school facilitator for Pseads partner Children for Change, leading an inter-district Community Activism course for K-5 students. 

Richard Wormstall, PhD (abd)

Director of Community Programs. Richard is an educator, urban cosmologist and musician. He has taught and designed programs at all levels of education, from elementary school to graduate school, and most recently served as Director of Communications at Meridian University. Richard has over 25 years of experience as a guitarist and composer in styles ranging from Spanish to Middle Eastern, Jazz to Flamenco, Blues and Hip Hop. His professional work and original research connects music with learning and healing, and to the evolutionary principles of the universe toward realization of connectivity and shared humanity. He is also a sound engineer and event designer with a specialty in multimedia production and music for film and radio. Matt, Elizabeth and Richard attended graduate school together, and have been co-creating projects for more than 12 years. Richard developed Pseads with Matt and Elizabeth in its earliest incarnation, and has learned with Pseads’ mentors Dedan Gills and Belvie Rooks. He rejoined Pseads on April 1, 2024, and is excited to create new initiatives to bring people together and enrich learning at all ages. Richard draws from Japanese and diverse heritage, and love of rhythm, to help foster poetry of connection and communities of belonging.

Eric Guarino

Director of Development and Expansion. 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. 

Ali Goldner Troy

Director of Development and Transformation. 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.

Lauren Conrow

Associate Director of 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.

Consultants & Fellows

Belvie Rooks

Strategic Advisor, Community Building. Belvie is an essayist, educator and social justice activist whose pioneering work weaves social justice and healing with environmental restoration and community-building. Her understanding of and commitment to human and civil rights was profoundly impacted by a weekend with Martin Luther King, Jr. when she was teenager. During the anti-apartheid era, Belvie was one of the first women on national steering committees and Associate Director of the Third World Fund, for which she traveled throughout Africa and was honored to serve as an election monitor during the transition to majority rule in South Africa and attend Nelson Mandela’s inauguration. She was founding faculty at SUNY College of Social Justice, and faculty at Holy Names University and Naropa University’s Environmental Studies Program. She is also creator of Hey Listen Up, a groundbreaking urban eco-literacy project, and ConverZations That Matter, featuring thought leaders from around the globe. Belvie served on the Boards of Bioneers, Ella Baker Center and the Institute for Noetic Sciences, and as a founding staff member of Wild Trees Press with Alice Walker and Robert Allen. Her writing appears in numerous publications and anthologies, and she is co-producer (with Damani Baker, Danny Glover) of the award-winning film, The House on Coco Road. Belvie and husband Dedan Gills founded Growing a Global Heart (“to plant a tree is to plant hope”), and both have essays in Global Chorus, 365 Voices on the Future of the Planet. Belvie is Editor of I Give You the Springtime of My Blushing Heart, a poetic love story between her and Dedan. Belvie’s pioneering and visionary mentorship and work on educational programs like Hey Listen Up!, Journey of the Universe, and ConverZations That Matter, and Dedan’s poetry and counsel as Founding Board Member, have been the guiding influence for Pseads.

(Photo credit: Sharon Garner)

SenSaSheri Maasera & Edie Stubblefield
Pseads Fellows

 SenSaSheri Maasera
Movement, Somatics, Social & Environmental Justice 

SenSaSheri Maasera is a junior at Dominican University of California, pursuing a BFA in Dance with the Alonzo LINES contemporary ballet program. When she graduates, SenSaSheri will be in a professional contemporary dance company where she hopes to travel and learn from many communities in the world. SenSaSheri was born in Saint Louis, and also spent a lot of her childhood in Bermuda. Her family is a part of The Organization for Black Struggle (OBS), which is committed to serving the oppressed communities within St. Louis. In elementary school she joined one of OBS’ programs called Youth Undoing Institutional Racism (YUIR). Through YUIR, SenSaSheri got the opportunity to serve many marginalized communities in St. Louis, Chicago, and Washington D.C. These communities suffer from harsh redlining, food deserts, and educational disparity. Participating in Freedom School, gardening, and school district reconciliation, SenSaSheri cultivated a driving passion for social and environmental justice, nature, and ethics. SenSaSheri’s family has a deep rooted spiritual practice that has influenced her love for the introspection of spirituality and mindfulness.

Edie Stubblefield,
Movement, Neurocardiology & Environmental Justice

Edie Stubblefield is originally from Minneapolis, Minnesota. She is a junior at Dominican University of California, where she is earning a BFA in dance with the Alonzo King Lines Ballet. Edie is working towards a professional dance career where she will dance in a contemporary dance company. After her dance career, she hopes to pursue graduate study and research in neuropsychology. She is especially interested in designing research to study learning and the body, with particular focus on dancers and how they process emotions. She is extremely curious and excited to unveil if there are notable differences between the dancers and non-dancers in the way they perceive their bodies after building a relationship with the mirror. The undercurrent of her passion is advocacy, love, and change. She feels joyous in contributing to the evolving intersectionality of writing, movement, and science, and loves to dance, swim, see concerts, lay on the beach, and paint. 

Taalib Smith & Zach Sovereign

Teaching Fellows. Taalib and Zach spent two years working as teaching instructors with the Blue Skies, Bright Star Poetry Program. Taalib is a graduate of Dominican University, studying Psychology and Social Justice. He also teaches gymnastics, and has a passion for film and media. He is a talented poet, with incredible sense for rhythm, rhyme and the power of authenticity.  Zach is a student of science and design, and has a passion for exploration and creative expression. He also teaches gymnastics and parkour, and is fascinated by the dynamics of movement. Zach’s poetry rings with rhymes and tends to turn and transform with each verse.

Andres Gonzalez

Media and Technology Fellow. 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)

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.

Pseads Interns & Junior Fellows

Isabella O’Brien

Pseads Intern, Filmmaking. 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.

Lucy Bakowski

Pseads Intern, Poetry. 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 250 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.  With Pseads, Lucy will be author of a monthly column, creator of poetry curriculum, strategic advisor, and a workshop co-facilitator.