Raquel Boluda has mastered a wide range of powerful inner technologies for personal growth, leadership and innovation. Raquel is trained in several types of Yoga and mindfulness meditation, in addition to multiple dance and somatic expression modalities, such as Contemporary, African, Sufi, Middle Eastern, and Butoh.  A teacher, and a somatic therapist, Raquel is the founder of Alchemy Spinning™, a powerful and yet accessible whirling mindfulness practice providing participants with a state of expanded consciousness conducive to creative breakthroughs, innovation and personal transformation. Raquel has performed internationally for UNESCO, TEDx and other organizations, often helping audiences attain a deeper comprehension of complex envirosocial issues, such as ocean noise pollution.

Nadia Chaney believes in the everyday poetry of life and leadership. Since 2002 she has facilitated well over two thousand events and workshops using the arts for personal and social transformation. She was co-founder of Metaphor, a hip hop-based youth empowerment project; a founding member of the Transformative Communities Project Society; a founding member of the East Van Celebration Society as well as a regular facilitator and consultant for many organizations, companies, educators and government programs. She holds a postgraduate diploma in Dialogue and Negotiation and a M.A in Imaginative Education from Simon Fraser University. She specializes in engagement, creative risk-taking, process design, and participatory decision-making. She has a long history of public performance, poetry and installation art.

Brian D. Edgar is a transformative educator with a passion for education programming – learning that heeds the human need for creative expression, self-direction, collaboration and wellness. He earned his B.A. in English and Classics at Rutgers University, and his M.A. in English Education at Brooklyn College. As a NYC English teacher, Brian mentored young writers using a an individualized approach to teaching reading and writing. This experience inspired Brian to earn his PhD in Education at Stanford University, where he taught in the Science, Technology and Society program. Brian is a founding member of the Urban Assembly School for Law and Justice in Brooklyn, New York. His writing has appeared in The Brooklyn Rail, Scholarly and Research Communication and Harvard Educational Press. Brian’s most recent work, Blackboard Bodhisattvas, tells the stories of three exemplary educators and their journeys into teaching