2025 Catalyst Circle Cohort

For over 25 years, Kyra has helped organizations discover and share their authentic stories while also studying the healing wisdom of plants with masters like Suzanne Fischer-Rizzi and Stephen Buhner. Kyra brings together the art of narrative, the practice of regenerative living, and the science of herbal medicine in a unique approach to communication and wellness.

Lindsay believes in healing healthcare from the inside out. As Co-Director of Healing Circles Global and holder of a Doctorate in Integrative Health and Healing, Lindsay has been transforming stressed healthcare organizations into wellbeing-generating communities since 2018, using the power of healing circles to create lasting change.

Harry Jean-Jacques, a member of the Massachusetts Commission on Correctional Consolidation and Collaboration, is a justice-impacted leader advancing equity through cannabis and criminal justice reform. He helped advance the CCC’s Social Equity Program and served as a facilitator for its first cohort, while contributing to landmark equity ordinances in Cambridge and Boston. As founder of the Big Hope Project, he has been an official partner with Boston’s Office of Returning Citizens for three consecutive years, consistently earmarked in the state budget, and honored with both a 2023 Massachusetts State Senate Citation and a Governor’s Citation. He now serves with the Fountain Fund, expanding financial and economic opportunities for his community.

Maggie is a retired USAF Lt Col and an advisor to the Whidbey Veterans Resource Center, helping guide programs and services for Veterans and their families, highlighting the unique challenges and strengths that military families bring to the community. Maggie's specialty is cultivating genuine connections and teaming across ecosystems (i.e., Private, Public, Nonprofit, For-Profit, NGO, International, More-Than-Human, etc). Her passion is nurturing human development in ways that harmonize with this amazing planet on which we live. "Traveling around the globe observing many cultures, I witnessed firsthand that when there are cooperation and mutual respect, there are plenty of resources for all species to thrive."

Tom brings lived experience as a formerly incarcerated person to the role overseeing Fountain Fund operations in Richmond, serving as the primary connector between loan applicants and community resources. Believing that "if you want a world with equity, you've gotta move with that spirit," Tom is committed to building services that truly meet client partners' needs rather than making oversized promises that set people up for failure.

Diana is a vital member of her South Whidbey community, serving on the Stewardship Council at Healing Circles Langley, as Board co-chair of the Whidbey Institute, and is a leader in pro-democracy work on the island. A founding member of Promoting First Relationships, her work supporting parents and children instilled in her a commitment to compassion and to the safety, dignity, and belonging of all.

Dana served 24 years in the US Air Force, rising to Lieutenant Colonel in the Air National Guard after enlisting in 1988. Now Dana channels military leadership experience into supporting fellow veterans, bringing the same commitment to service that defined a military career to community work on Whidbey Island.

After starting on a pre-med track at the University of Iowa, Corbin discovered a true calling in sustainable agriculture and has spent nearly a decade growing organic food and supporting young farmers. Corbin believes in creating healthy communities through thriving food systems and has channeled this passion into farm ownership, food hub management, and leadership roles with agriculture nonprofits.

Elin Stebbins Waldal plays a dual role with Healing Circles. She is the Program Director of Healing Circles Langley in Washington State. In this role, she develops programs, supports volunteers, conducts community outreach, and handles fundraising. Her position with Healing Circles Global is Integration Manager, where she manages streamlining operations across all of Healing Circles. Dedicated to community involvement, she is passionate about creating meaningful programs that unite people in ways that cultivate healing, learning, and overall well-being.

As the Fountain Fund's first client partner turned National Director of Client and Community Engagement, Martize serves as the organization's lead representative and spokesperson, traveling the country to expand access to second-chance lending while building relationships with reentry organizations nationwide. Martize ensures that programming remains informed by and responsive to client partners' lived experiences, bringing invaluable perspective as someone who is both a proponent of the mission and "a walking manifestation of the organization's success." A trained boxer for "Guns Down, Gloves Up" who also practices meditation and yoga, Martize is passionate about sharing the feeling of having someone believe in you with others who were once in that position, finding that every new city teaches something new about both the work and personal growth.

shakara tyler is a returning-generation farmer, educator and organizer who engages in Black agrarianism, agroecology, food sovereignty and environmental justice as commitments of abolition and decolonization. She obtained her PhD at Michigan State University in Community Sustainability (CSUS) and works with Black farming communities in Michigan and the Mid-Atlantic. She explores participatory and decolonial research methodologies and community-centered pedagogies in the food justice, food sovereignty and environmental justice movements. She is the Co-Executive Director of the Detroit Black Community Food Sovereignty Network (DBCFSN), board member of the Detroit People's Food Co-op (DPFC) and co-founder of the Detroit Black Farmer Land Fund (DBFLF) and a member of the Black Dirt Farm Collective (BDFC) and a Lecturer at the University of Michigan in School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS).