Erin Bresnahan
Erin Bresnahan is a bilingual (English/French) strategic advisor and facilitator whose work bridges evidence, action, and human dynamics. Over 15+ years, she has partnered with foundations, multilateral institutions, civil society organizations,and companies in more than 90 countries. Today, as Co-Founder and COO of AvoMotion Advisory, Erin co-leads a firm serving nonprofits, foundations, multilateral organizations, and private sector clients of all sizes, facilitating strategic planning workshops, board retreats, and multistakeholder convenings. What sets her approach apart is the pairing of rigorous, data-grounded strategy work with genuine facilitation craft: she builds the KPI dashboards and measurement systems a room will need after the workshop ends. Erin holds an MA in International Affairs from Carleton University with a specialization in international development and conflict studies, and a Bachelor of Business Administration.
Tarek Maassarani
Tarek Maassarani is a mission-driven attorney, program strategist, university professor, and project director with 20+ years leading federally funded initiatives across justice, equity, and climate resilience. He has litigated human rights cases, managed multi-agency partnerships, developed countless programs, published books and articles, and trained civil society and government agencies. As CEO of Sustainable Construction Solutions, he applies his legal and programmatic expertise to sustainable infrastructure, advancing fireproof, non-toxic, and low-carbon materials and methods aligned with resilience and decarbonization goals. Under his leadership, the company has delivered successful pilot projects and expanded public-private partnerships. Maassarani began his career providing civil legal services law at the federally-funded Neighborhood Legal Services Program, where he served as a Covington & Burling Westwood Fellow and later as a senior staff attorney. At NLSP’s Nani Helen Burroughs office, he represented underserved residents across housing, employment, public benefits, consumer protection, and discrimination cases, while also managing law student interns and supporting D.C. Bar legal clinics and Spanish-speaking workers’ rights seminars. He then served for over a decade as a consultant and trainer for the U.S. Institute of Peace and director of the Salam Institute, in which capacities he managed five-to-six figure USAID and State Department-funded civic engagement and peacebuilding programs across Africa, Afghanistan, and domestic military bases. He facilitated training for educators, nonprofits, African peacekeeping forces, U.S. Army units, and foreign service officers, and co-authored curricula on religious peacebuilding, conflict resolution, trauma resilience, and nonviolent action. As co-founder and technical lead of Restorative DC, Maassarani designed and scaled a citywide restorative justice initiative across Washington, D.C., delivering technical assistance to over 40 schools, coordinating a diversion program for the Department of Human Services, and advising the Office of the Attorney General on the creation of a nationally recognized in-house restorative justice unit. He later co-directed Central Virginia Community Justice, where he launched a restorative diversion program in partnership with local prosecutors, expanded referral networks, and formalized regional implementation. More recently, he served as lead trainer for the U.S. State Department–funded #Influencers4Peace initiative, which engaged 150 social media leaders across Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, and Niger to promote social cohesion and counter violent extremism.
Kāvya Raman
Kāvya Raman believes design is the use of power to shape what’s possible. She designs and facilitates spaces for change with organizations, movements, governments, and communities learning how to become good future ancestors. Her work focuses on shaping strategies, practices, and ways of working that help people and institutions cross thresholds with care, courage, and imagination. Over the past fifteen years, Kāvya has lived and worked across war zones and megacities including Afghanistan, Myanmar, Turkey, Jordan, Haiti, Egypt, Italy, and the United States, navigating cultures, languages, and ways of knowing, being, and belonging. Her experience spans social impact design, facilitation, coaching, organizational leadership, and program strategy with nonprofits, foundations, international organizations, and governments, including collaborations with The International Rescue Committee, The Gates Foundation, Oxfam International, Global Affairs Canada, and the U.S. Department of State. Her superpower is adaptation.
Ashley Johnson
Ashley Johnson is a leadership development advisor, facilitator, and executive coach with more than 15 years of experience helping leaders scale their impact when their roles grow. Through Brightwell Leadership, Ashley partners with organizations to design strategy and experiences grounded in real organizational context. Her work spans leadership development programs, team alignment, and coaching leaders through the shifts in thinking and behavior that growth demands. She is known for bringing both strategic clarity and genuine humanity to her work, helping leaders and teams move from insight to action in ways that are thoughtful, practical, and built to last. Before founding Brightwell, Ashley held senior leadership development roles at global organizations including Hilton, Levi Strauss & Co., and BioCryst Pharmaceuticals. During that time, she led enterprise leadership strategy, leadership and executive development programming, and large-scale leadership capability building. Ashley holds a Master’s degree in Organizational Leadership and is an ICF-certified coach, CliftonStrengths trainer, Korn Ferry 360 and ATD-certified facilitator.
Gautam Paul
Gautam Paul brings over two decades of international leadership experience across media, technology, and professional services. He has a proven track record of driving performance, transformation, and growth in volatile and complex corporate environments. Having revitalized underperforming teams, scaled high growth organizations, and led cross functional groups across the UK, India, and New Zealand, Gautam combines strong commercial acumen with deep insight into human motivation and leadership effectiveness. His coaching approach blends strategic clarity with practical execution, enabling senior leaders to strengthen their influence, navigate change with confidence, and build resilient, high performing teams. Gautam has advised executives in startups, established enterprises, and global firms, equipping them to align teams to strategy, manage competing stakeholder demands, and deliver measurable business impact in times of uncertainty. Known for driving growth through clarity and culture, Gautam has supported leadership teams to achieve breakthrough results by sharpening goals, strengthening communication, and embedding accountability. In one instance, he coached a stagnant leadership team to double their results within a year by focusing on mindset and collaboration rather than pressure alone. He has also guided leaders launching new ventures to assemble, mentor, and align high performing teams, enabling successful initiatives and strategic partnerships. His work consistently helps leaders turn complex challenges into opportunities for growth and impact. Across his engagements, Gautam emphasizes expanding leadership presence, deepening strategic focus, and unlocking individual potential to ensure sustained high performance and meaningful results.
Omar Corona
Omar Corona has over 10 years of experience working with teams and organizations at both small startups and multi-national corporations ranging in sectors and industries such as fintech, consumer goods, entertainment, and management consulting, to name a few. Working with leadership in various stages of re-orgs and culture transformation initiatives, Omar has helped both train teams on the OKR framework for first time implementations and analyze and execute complete org-wide goal setting process improvements to better align teams toward strategic intents and, ultimately, create high performing teams and individuals through a well-balanced distribution of ownership and leadership. Coming from a product management background, Omar has the sensibility to always be aware of and balance the crucial factors of emotion, relationships, and business needs in order to get to effective decision making while never sacrificing the human experience.
Marise Mackay
Marise Mackay is a global brand and learning leader turned identity and resilience coach who supports leaders navigating change. With over a decade of experience leading global brands and driving learning and development in the beauty industry, she now empowers purpose-driven leaders to reclaim their voice, clarify their identity, and lead with audacity. As a coach, speaker, and facilitator, Marise specialises in identity, resilience, and diversity, equity, and inclusion. She works at the intersection of personal transformation and leadership, helping individuals rise through transition, loss, burnout, or reinvention with clarity, conviction, and a deeper sense of self. Her work is rooted in the belief that when people anchor into who they truly are, they lead themselves and others differently, and in doing so, change the world, one imperfect and striving human at a time. As the founder of the DreamGirls Academy Mentoring Program, Marise brings together strategic insight, a heart for service, and hands dedicated to helping and healing in community. Her approach continues to have a lasting impact.
Aru Daswani
Aru Daswani is an ICF PCC accredited leadership coach and facilitator working one to one with leaders, teams and organizations in the deep inner transformation needed for a positive impact in society and the planet. She creates safe spaces to allow for the shift of consciousness and the inner development needed for the evolution of humanity, using the Inner Development Goals framework as a catalyser for transformative change.
Elliot Corona
Elliot Corona. With over 15 years of experience supporting an industrial training ecosystem (Aramco), complemented by leadership development (QatarEnergy LNG) and leading virtual learning projects (U.S. Dept. of State), Elliot brings a unique combination of corporate and academic perspectives in developing competency-based learning solutions that address capability gaps and business goals. At Aramco, one hybrid learning project involved working with the Corporate Academy to co-design and implement a Sustainability Awareness Program targeting trainees – Aramco’s largest onboarding pipeline. As the lead designer, Elliot conducted a thorough needs analysis, co-developed the program’s learning framework with SMEs, and co-facilitated the pilot delivery. He subsequently trained 14 facilitators from seven training centers, enabling scalable implementation. Pre-COVID, he led the development of a behavioral change model for the “Quit & Win” smoking cessation program in collaboration with healthcare professionals, a smoke-free steering committee, and a dozen certified facilitators to consolidate data. In three years, these efforts resulted in 100 verified “quitters” kingdom wide. Across initiatives, Elliot has served as a bridge between learners, SMEs, facilitators, and operational stakeholders to ensure that development efforts tackle underlying performance needs rather than satisfying statistical requirements alone. More recently, Mr. Corona has broadened his talent development expertise as a Virtual Educator supporting four U.S. Department of State projects in Bangladesh. Designing integrated modules in job readiness and academic profile-building skills, Elliot scaled a synchronous VILT program from one to five in-person learning hubs. He engaged over 100 participants per cohort by linking EdTech, competency frameworks, centralized reporting, and partnerships with local support systems. In parallel, Elliot facilitated in-person workshops for QatarEnergy LNG via a regional training provider, challenging employees to apply leadership skills in emotional intelligence, creativity, time management, and technical writing in task-based simulations. Outcomes were evaluated through qualitative performance observations, L1 evaluations, and pre/post measures designed to identify competency gains and knowledge gaps using standardized methods. Elliot’s professional experience is backed by a master’s in management from Harvard University with an emphasis in organizational performance, coupled with certificates in L&D and project management. In short, Elliot is a versatile trainer who is ready to contribute to the co-design and development of learning solutions with evolving needs. He welcomes a discussion on how “we” could make a meaningful impact.
Nicolas Demeilliers
Nicolas Demeilliers is a certified professional leadership coach and strategic advisor who helps visionary founders and CEOs align their teams around bold missions, scale their organizations with clarity, and lead with purpose. With a background in investment banking and social entrepreneurship (having co-founded four companies), Nicolas partners with high-growth, mission-driven companies and organizations to unlock leadership potential, strengthen culture, and translate complexity into actionable momentum. Fluent in English, Spanish, and French, he brings a global perspective and a grounded, human-centered approach to leadership development. As a partner at &you, Nicolas combines strategic thinking with deep coaching expertise (with over 1,500 hours of coaching) to support leaders navigating fast-paced growth and change. He thrives at the intersection of vision, impact, and execution—working side by side with entrepreneurs and their teams to build organizations that not only grow but also endure.