Charnae Sanders

Co.act Detroit

Detroit, Michigan,
United States of America

With a passion for community and a heart for service, Charnae Sanders experiences great joy in finding meaningful ways to connect with others. As Program Manager at Co.act Detroit, Charnae plays a vital role in shaping Co.act’s programming, including the Nonprofit Wellbeing Series, special events, workshops, and more. She is also the talented and thoughtful host of Co.act Detroit’s Natural Collisions podcast.

A native Detroiter, Charnae’s desire for building up her community and bringing diverse and underrepresented voices and thoughts to the table motivates her daily. She loves to curate unique and unforgettable experiences through programs that equip and empower others with knowledge and resources.

With a deep love and interest for self and community care, she strives to find a diversity of ways changemakers can tend to their wellbeing holistically. Through the Nonprofit Wellbeing Series, she also explores how nonprofit leaders can activate a culture of wellbeing within their organizations. She is a contributor to the Rest and Liberation Initiative, created in partnership with Co.act and other intermediary partners in Southeast Michigan to support cultures of rest and liberation of BIPOC professionals in our sector.

Charnae serves on the board of the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network of Detroit, a local chapter that promotes the growth, learning, and development of young nonprofit professionals. She is a current member of The Social Innovation Forum’s Community Organizations Reimagining Ecosystem (CORE) cohort, a new leadership initiative focused on place-based work and social change.

She is also a former alum of the prestigious, Challenge Detroit fellowship program where she worked among small teams to bring social impact projects to life in collaboration with local nonprofit partners. In the past, she participated as a cohort member of The Black Healing Justice Project, created in partnership with Black Emotional and Mental Health Collective (BEAM) and The Kresge Foundation.

Prior to coming to Co.act Detroit, she served as the Public Programs Coordinator at the Detroit Historical Society. She is a proud alum of Central Michigan University with a background in journalism. Charnae is a published writer and poet with work that has been published in the Wall Street Journal and Detroit Free Press among others. In her spare time, she enjoys writing, traveling, dancing the night away at concerts and exploring the city she calls home.

– What does inner wellbeing mean to you?

To me, inner wellbeing means tending to our many layers—physical health, mental health, emotional health, spiritual health, and so on—in a way that honors our humanity and capacity.

– How would you define wellbeing in one word?

Birthright
– Are there any rituals or practices you use to enhance your wellbeing?

My go-to practices include prayer, breathwork, and going on walks. My morning routine usually consists of stretching and participating in a guided meditation followed by setting my intentions for the day and affirming myself of my value. Throughout the day, I think it’s important to take a pause to check-in with yourself. So, I’ll occasionally step away from my desk and take a sacred pause to do a body scan meditation and acknowledge how I’m feeling. I also love to create a cozy environment in the evening where I burn candles while reading or listening to music and journaling.

– Why is it important that we prioritise individual and collective wellbeing?

We must prioritize our individual, organizational, and societal wellbeing to fully thrive and experience the fullness of life. When we recognize how interrelated each of these various levels are and collectively prioritize them, we can clear a more luminous path for future generations on what it means to truly love and care for one another.

– Do you have any favourite books, podcasts, or articles that you believe support, promote, or educate on wellbeing and related themes? 

I am a big fan of “The Daily Shine,” “GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp,” “This Morning Walk” and “The Hey Girl” podcasts. I love the books: “After the Rain: Gentle Reminders for Healing, Courage, and Self-Love” by Alex Elle, “Vibrate Higher Daily: Live Your Power” by Lalah Delia, and “The Self-Care Year: Reflect and Seasonal Rituals” by Alison Davies. I am currently reading, “Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto” by Tricia Hersey, which is great!

Connect with Charnae Sanders on social media :

Personal Website
Co.act Detroit

Sharon Salzberg

Meditation Teacher and Author

Sharon Salzberg is a meditation pioneer, world-renowned teacher, and New York Times bestselling author. She is one of the first to bring mindfulness and lovingkindness meditation to mainstream American culture over 45 years ago, inspiring generations of meditation teachers and wellness influencers. Sharon is co-founder of The Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA, and the author of twelve books, including the New York Times bestseller, Real Happiness, now in its second edition, and her seminal work, Lovingkindness. Her forthcoming release, Real Life: The Journey from Isolation to Openness and Freedom, is set for release in April of 2023 from Flatiron Books. Her podcast, The Metta Hour, has amassed six million downloads and features interviews with thought leaders from the mindfulness movement and beyond. www.sharonsalzberg.com

Connect with Sharon Salzberg on social media :

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Parker J. Palmer

Writer, speaker, activist, and Quaker elder

Parker J. Palmer is a world-renowned writer, speaker, activist, and Quaker elder who focuses on issues in education, community, leadership, spirituality, and social change. Parker holds a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California at Berkeley, as well as thirteen honorary doctorates, two Distinguished Achievement Awards from the National Educational Press Association, and an Award of Excellence from the Associated Church Press. Founder of the Center for Courage & Renewal, he has reached millions worldwide through his ten books, including Let Your Life Speak, The Courage to Teach, A Hidden Wholeness, On the Brink of Everything, and Healing the Heart of Democracy.

Connect with Parker J. Palmer on social media :

Ana Janošev

Social Impact Award

Berlin,
Germany

Ana Janosev, in her role as the Managing Director, is leading Social Impact Award, one of the world’s largest communities of early-stage social entrepreneurs under 30, active in Europe, Africa and Asia. Ana is committed to build capacity among early-stage entrepreneurs and foster cross-sector dialogues on the topic of social entrepreneurship. Based in Vienna, Austria, she is leading a diverse team of 100+ SIA team members and is overseeing the community growth and strategic development. Moreover, Ana is an experienced workshop and event facilitator, trained in design thinking and organizational development. She enjoys designing events which bring people together and is curious about how people connect in different settings. Ana is a frequent speaker and moderator at events and conferences with a focus on social entrepreneurship, social innovation, and youth advocacy. Before she joined Social Impact Award in 2018, Ana was a Program and Partnerships Manager at Razlivalište (Serbia), coordinating Social Impact Award Serbia and other youth programs, with a strong focus on fundraising. Ana holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs. She received two scholarships from the U.S. Department of State for education in the U.S. In 2022, Ana was received a recognition as Top 100 Women in Social Enterprise by Euclid Network.

– What does inner wellbeing mean to you?

Being content from within with the life you have, finding spaces to engage and re-connect with yourself and your purpose.

– Are there any rituals or practices you use to enhance your wellbeing?

Exercise, long walks, reading

Connect with Ana Janošev on social media :

Social Impact Award

Joana Breidenbach

betterplace.org

Berlin,
Germany

Joana holds a PhD in cultural anthropology, is a social entrepreneur and author of numerous books. She is co-founder of betterplace.org and founder of the betterplace lab. Over the last 8 years, she has experimented with distributed leadership and radical self-organisation and is deeply interested in the inner competencies needed for the current paradigm shift. As an advisor and investor, she supports many digital-social innovations, such as the ReDi School, DeepL or The Next We.

– What does inner wellbeing mean to you?

To balance my basic needs between belonging and becoming and to be able to hold the inevitable inner tensions that arise in life.

– How would you define wellbeing in one word?

Selfcontact
– Are there any rituals or practices you use to enhance your wellbeing?

Meditation, self-reflections, sharings

– Why is it important that we prioritise individual and collective wellbeing?

Because the deep crisis we find ourselves in – individually, as societies and nature – can only be transcended if we include more of reality, especially the subjective, inner side of the world.

– Do you have any favourite books, podcasts, or articles that you believe support, promote, or educate on wellbeing and related themes? 

My own podcast , Iain McGilchrist: https://channelmcgilchrist.com/and free Wellbeing online courses by betterplace lab.

Connect with Joana Breidenbach on social media :

Personal Website
New Work needs Inner Work's Instagram

Reggie Hubbard

Teacher, Activist, Strategist, and Organizer

Severn, MD,
United States

Reggie is the founder/chief serving officer of Active Peace LLC. His yogic and meditative practices have served as a sanctuary of peace and perspective while navigating the stresses of being a black man in the world and serving in pressure-filled jobs at the height of US politics. His practices have also helped him navigate complicated emotions (anger, grief, disappointment) to find and nurture peace of mind and ease of spirit, which is why he now seeks to share them widely for the wellbeing of all. Reggie has taught Members of Congress, Congressional Staff, leading progressive organizations, and individuals from all walks of life – simple tools for managing stress and bringing peace to mind body, and spirit.

In addition to his yoga teaching practice, Reggie has held many senior strategic and logistical roles across a variety of fields, ranging from global marketing, digital and community organizing, government relations, and international education to Presidential campaigning. He is a featured speaker on political strategy, new consciousness, wellbeing and social justice, and civic engagement for leading publications, podcasts, and platforms including Be Here Now Network, The Hill, Mind and Life Institute, SoundsTrue Foundation, Upaya Zen Center, Wanderlust, the Wellbeing Project, Summit, Yoga Alliance, and Yoga Journal.

Reggie’s life work sits at the intersection of bringing more peace and balance to activists; guiding the wellness community toward being more engaged, concerned citizens; enhancing the well-being of all walks of life; and, shifting the world toward more justice for all. Through Active Peace LLC, he teaches and advises all walks of life to enhance well-being as a foundation rather than an afterthought, shifting culture and improving personal and professional outcomes.

In addition to advanced training in yoga and meditation, Reggie received a B.A. in philosophy from Yale University and an MBA in international strategy from the Vlerick Business School in Belgium.

What does inner wellbeing mean to you?

Inner wellbeing is the wellspring from which creativity, passion, purpose, clarity, health and justice flow from. If we hope for peace, love, grace, joy and justice in the world and do not nourish our inner-wellbeing to flourish, it will never happen. Conversely, the more we provide for and fortify our inner wellbeing, the deeper our impact in the world.

In my personal life, as I have made inner wellbeing sacrosanct and foundational, it has transformed my impact as an activist and in service to the healing and wellbeing of others.

How would you define wellbeing in one word?

Vibrancy.

Are there any rituals or practices you use to enhance your wellbeing?

Every evening and morning I play a sound bowl to make soothe my mind in preparation for sleep and to set the tone for the remainder of the day.

Why is it important that we prioritize individual, organizational and societal wellbeing?

As mentioned above, if we hope for peace, love, grace, joy and justice in the world and do not nourish our inner-wellbeing to flourish, it will never happen. Conversely, the more we provide for and fortify our inner wellbeing, the deeper our impact in the world.

Remembering that our organizations and society are made up of individuals, prioritizing inner-wellbeing in community has the compound effect of making organizations and society more structurally compassionate and human, and less bureaucratic.

Connect with Reggie Hubbard on social media :

Active Peace Yoga

Michelle Arevalo-Carpenter

Betterfly / IMPAQTO

Quito,
Ecuador

Michelle is the Global VP of Purpose and Communities at Betterfly, the first social unicorn start-up, with operations across Latin America. Before her current role, Michelle was the CEO and co-founder of IMPAQTO, a B Corporation with a mission to support impact entrepreneurs reach their goals by building the ecosystem and network they need to thrive. IMPAQTO offers coworking spaces, a business accelerator, innovation consulting services and an impact investing fund to Latin American entrepreneurs building a better world. Before her career in business, Michelle was the founding Country Director of Asylum Access Ecuador, a legal clinic for refugees that later scaled to Asia, Africa and did direct advocacy at the United Nations in Geneva.

As a consultant, has focused on paths to scaling impact for grassroots organizations, including an association of families of disappeared children in El Salvador, and communities at risk of development-induced displacement in Thailand, Cambodia and India. Michelle counts a number of firsts throughout her career: with IMPAQTO, she opened the first private coworking space in Ecuador, also the first certified B Corporation in the country. She launched GreenCrowds, Ecuador’s first crowdfunding platform. She is also the first woman under 40 to be named in the top 100 reputation ranking business leaders in the Merco Ranking.

Michelle is a recent mother of twins, and is married to tech and climate entrepreneur and writer Matthew Carpenter-Arevalo. They live in Quito, the place they have chosen as their home. She holds an Mst in International Human Rights Law from the University of Oxford and a Master’s in Public Policy, UC Berkeley.

Connect with Michelle Arevalo-Carpenter on social media :

Personal Website

Luzette Jaimes

Ashoka

Washington, DC,
United States

Luzette works on social ecosystem activation and system change through the design and facilitation of transformational learning processes. She works in the areas of human development, coaching, being-well, and awareness-based leadership development for changemakers. For two decades she has focused on social entrepreneurship through different roles at Ashoka, including launching Ashoka’s Learning & Development to deepen an organizational learning culture in support of their vision of accelerating the emergence of an “Everyone a Changemaker” world. Luzette works with CoCreative – a consulting firm that designs and facilitates Multi-stakeholder Innovation Networks to solve complex problems, from community revitalization to supply chain sustainability to education. Luzette is the founder of Alive & Thriving – a human development incubator for individuals and groups, co-founder of Consciousness Coalition (CoCo Labs*) – an ecosystem catalyst for cultural evolution and consciousness expansion, and co-founder of Weaving Lab – a network focused on creating learning ecosystems for wellbeing for all. Luzette is adjunct faculty at George Washington University Center for Public Leadership’s e-Co Leadership Coaching Program. She holds a BA in Finance & Intl Rel, a MSc in Holistic Science (whole and complex systems). Professional Certified Coach PCC, Theory U facilitator, Being-well coach and mindfulness practitioner.

What does inner wellbeing mean to you?

Inner wellbeing happens when I am grounded and present to meet life as it comes. When I have a state of okay-ness, even when facing difficult situations or experiencing difficult emotions. Inner wellbeing means freedom of mental, emotional, physical and spiritual conditioning and wounds that I no longer carry and that no longer limit my capacity to flourish and feel well in the human experience.

How would you define wellbeing in one word?

quality-of-life-experience

Are there any rituals or practices you use to enhance your wellbeing?

Mindfulness, Somatic Therapy, Positive Contribution to the World, Walks in Nature, Sabbaticals, Taking Pauses, Cultivating Friendships, Creating collective soulful spaces.

Why is it important that we prioritise individual and collective wellbeing?

All we do depends on how we feel. If we prioritize wellbeing, we prioritize our life.

Do you have any favourite books, podcasts, or articles that you believe support, promote, or educate on wellbeing and related themes? 

Wellbeing Toolkit by Ashoka

Connect with Luzette Jaimes on social media :

Personal Website
Ashoka

Ariane Luque

People & Culture Senior Manager at The Wellbeing Project

Madrid,
Spain

Connect with Ariane Luque on social media :

If we were having coffee and you asked me, I would tell Ariane is passionate. Passionate about people, traveling, nature, painting, cinema, music, and spending quality time with her loved ones.

She has a degree in Tourism and a master’s degree in Management with a specialization in International Business. Also, She has been involved in Human Resources and Strategic Coaching. Ariane has always worked and studied at the same time. She has had the opportunity to collaborate with professionals from all fields in hospitality and restaurant businesses, consulting, advertising, and banking… always in the administrative and human resources field.

She considers herself a down-to-earth person but always holds the dream and the goal of improving the world by doing her bit. She believes that all together we can achieve great things.

Nowadays, she considers well-being to be fundamental. Physical, emotional, psychological, and social well-being. For this reason, she is happy to be part of this wonderful project and to continue enjoying, learning, and contributing to it.

What does inner wellbeing mean to you?

For me, inner well-being is learning how to connect our inner life with the outer world in harmony. It is also about understanding what is going on inside us and learning to deal with it healthily.

How would you define wellbeing in one word?

Harmony

Are there any rituals or practices you use to enhance your wellbeing?

Breath exercises, mindfulness, therapy… I also try to write down in a notebook the reasons why I am grateful every day, goals and highlights of my day to day life.

Why is it important that we prioritise individual and collective wellbeing?

“Wellbeing inspires welldoing”. Not only for our health but also because if we are well, we will transmit this well-being to the people around us and this will be reflected in the way we work and live.

Do you have any favourite books, podcasts, or articles that you believe support, promote, or educate on wellbeing and related themes? 

In this field, my favorite book is “Your Erroneous Zones” by Wayne Dyer. I usually watch or listen to TED Talks and If you ask me about authors maybe I will say Susan David, Mario Alonso Puig, Fidel Delgado, and Emilio Duró, among others.

Peter Mortifee

Co-Creation Team Advisor at The Wellbeing Project

Vancouver, BC,
Canada

Connect with Peter Mortifee on social media :

Peter is a co-founder of the Somerset Foundation and has been its Chair since its inception in 2001. He engages in various capacities with social purpose initiatives where his input and interest relates primarily to governance, structure, strategy, tactics, policy and financial sustainability. He has been involved with the The Wellbeing Project as an advisor to its Co-Creation Team since 2014. He is a member of the global Ashoka Support Network and has engaged with several Ashoka Fellows. He is a member of Outward Bound International’s Global Ambassador Network and is a co-founder & Chair of the Chute Creek Stewardship Society which seeks to regenerate salmon spawning habitat.

He spent twenty five years training, practicing and teaching as a medical doctor. Following a medical degree at the University of British Columbia and a multi-year Internship in New Zealand, he became a specialist in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. In 2008, he relinquished his Clinical Assistant Professorship with the Department of Medicine at U.B.C. and retired completely from his medical practice in order to explore new ways of engaging. He is a keen photographer and explores wellbeing photographically through his social media channels and his photographic website – ReflectionsOnWellbeing.photo He also loves music and travelling. He and his wife Nancy live in Vancouver, Canada and between them they have four wonderful adult children, two delightful grandkids and at least one walking adventure every year.

– What does inner wellbeing mean to you?

It’s a fundamental personal priority.

– How would you define wellbeing in one word?

Compassion.

– Are there any rituals or practices you use to enhance your wellbeing?

Finding quiet time daily for self care.

– Why is it important that we prioritise individual and collective wellbeing?

Our future depends on it and will be shaped by it.

– Do you have any favourite books, podcasts, or articles that you believe support, promote, or educate on wellbeing and related themes? 

Anam Cara by John O’Donohue.

Personal Website
Somerset Foundation