Meet The Cohort

Many approaches. One Goal.

Each member of the cohort is committed to anti-racist work and education bringing their heart, soul, experience, and expertise to every training they engage in. Facilitators from the cohort are listed below in alphabetical order by last name, left to right and top to bottom. Click the "email/envelope" image below their image to get in touch with the facilitator(s) of your choice!

Jordan Battle

She/Her

"My work is done in a highly collaborative environment with clear communication and input from the individuals and organizations that participate with the intent of building stronger relationships with the community."

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Jordan Battle is a California based actor, theater maker and consultant. She has provided training on microaggressions, de-escalation, and customer service for various theaters in the Bay Area. Some of her most recent consultation clients include Aurora Theatre and Berkeley Playhouse. Jordan has worked and managed front of house teams at venues in the SF Bay Area, including California Shakespeare Theatre and Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture. In her personal life, she is one of the co-founders of Black Vent Space, a virtual community space for Black-identifying folx to vocalize being Black.

HumairaHeadShot_Brandon2 - Humaira Ghilzai.jpg

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Humaira Ghilzai

She/Her

"As a cultural producer, writer, speaker, trainer, refugee and immigrant Humaira is committed to advancing a culture of equity and inclusion in the arts by uplifting stories of marginalized people, places and people. Humaira is an Anti-racist working to highlight systemic oppression for the BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities."

Humaira focuses on projects that bring positive social change. She is a sought-after cultural producer who has worked with universities, companies, theaters, authors, and playwrights. Humaira was born and raised in Kabul, Afghanistan but her family fled the country after the Russian invasion of 1979. She co-founded Afghan Friends Network and instituted the Sister City relationship between Hayward, California, and Ghazni, Afghanistan where she has done extensive work to improve education for girls, boys, and women. Humaira made her Broadway debut in 2022 with the stage production of the Kite Runner. Her other recent notable projects include Selling Kabul, A Thousand Splendid Suns Opera, and Apple TV’s Little America. Humaira has a B.S. in International Business from San Jose State University. She sits on the board of Golden Thread Productions and is a member of the MENA Theater Makers Alliance.

Maya Herbsman

She/Her

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Nicky Martinez

They/Them

"To achieve towards a more equitable, diverse, and intersection organization I like to lead this work with an intersectional frame, and to remind those who I work with that this is an ongoing learning and that it is layered. There is no such thing as completing your learning with EDI work, it is constant check in within yourself and others to be actively learning from our past, present, and future."

Nicky Martinez is a Latine genderfluid theatre activist who was born and raised in San Francisco. They received a BA in Performing Arts and Social Justice from the University of San Francisco in 2016. They are a solo performing artist, poet, published playwright, director, dramaturge, EDI consultant, and visual artist. In their art they focus on social issues like having queer and trans identities, being Latine in America, racial inequities, mental health, and femme rights. Currently, they are a Development Coordinator at Berkeley Repertory Theater while being a part of several artistic and consultancy projects.

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Mina Morita

She/Her

"As a facilitator, I seek to thoughtfully and intentionally cultivate a time and space where each person is invited to bring as close to their whole complex self to the conversation as they feel able to do;
--with the goal of connecting with others in the room in a mutually beneficial, vulnerable, and learning relationship,
--centering the most vulnerable among us."

Mina Morita artistically leads Crowded Fire Theater Company. Previously, she served as the Artistic Associate at Berkeley Repertory Theatre and its center for the creation and development of new work, The Ground Floor. She has also served as Board President of Shotgun Players; as a 2014 Lincoln Center Director’s Lab participant; as one of the founding members of Bay Area Children's Theatre; as panelist with the Zellerbach Family Foundation, San Francisco Arts Commission, and Hewlett Foundation; panelist for the Getty Leadership Summit; lead facilitator for the Lotus Playwriting Retreat with Playwriting Australia; and Guest Artist at UC Berkeley and Stanford University. In 2016, TBA awarded her the 40@40 distinction for her impact on Bay Area Theater. In 2015, Mina was honored to share her story on TEDx, and in 2016, she was chosen as one of the YBCA100, for "asking questions and making provocations that will shape the future of culture."

Cathleen Riddley

She/Her

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Tierra

She/Her

"My joy is supporting BIPOC to build power, embody our sovereignty, and create the world we need in the future through how we live day to day. I facilitate through a decolonial, abolitionist, cash poor community-rooted Black queer feminist lens, deepened by solidarity work for collective liberation."

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Tierra Allen contributes to movements for collective liberation as a theater maker, teaching artist, cultural producer, and more. She’s co-created spaces braiding performance, activism, healing, and critical consciousness-raising at community-based organizations, schools, and parks, behind prison walls and in the streets. She’s won an Isadora Duncan "Izzie" Dance Award, earned nominations from Theatre Bay Area, and performed with House/Full of Black Women, the Black Choreographers Festival, Campo Santo, the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, and others. Her activism has included alternatives to displacement, homelessness, and the housing crisis; defunding police terrorism; and co-organizing a transformative justice intensive to address sexual and identity-based violence in Bay Area theater — check out THE REAL WORK: A Podcast About Theater Culture & Transformative Justice, co-produced with We Rise Production. Tierra’s speculative abolitionist short film THE REMEMBERING TIME screened at the 18th International Queer Women of Color Film Festival.