Culturally-Rooted Traditions in Healing and Resistance

LaSaia Wade (she/her) is an Afro-Puerto Rican Indigenous trans woman, founder Tennessee Trans Journey Project, member of Chicago Trans Gender-Nonconforming Collective and the Trans Liberation Collective, and CEO of Brave Space Alliance. Recently, she was honored at the Chicago LGBTQA Black History Recognitions ceremony and is the first trans woman in Illinois history to be celebrated in Women’s History Month for the work she’s doing, not limited to community organizing.

LaSaia graduated in 2012 with an MBA in Business Management from Murfreesboro Tennessee State University and has over 10 years of experience in organizing and advocacy work with Black, Indigenous, trans, and gender-nonconforming people around the world. Her role in organizing ranges between and beyond being a central organizer for the Trans Liberation Collective Chicago, the largest march for trans rights in Midwestern history, to being a leader in Midwest Ballroom – The International Legendary House of Moncler.

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Christina Love (she, her) is an Alutiiq/Sugpiaq woman from Egegik Village who was raised in Chitina, Alaska. Christina is a consultant, recovery coach, and civil and human rights activist who has dedicated her work and energy to systems change for targeted and marginalized populations. She is a formerly incarcerated person in long term recovery who currently works as a Senior Specialist for the Alaska Network on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault (ANDVSA), the state’s coalition of domestic and sexual violence programs. Christina’s role focuses on intersectionality with an emphasis on trauma. Christina is part of a collective movement that works to end violence, oppression, shame, and stigma through the liberation of education, community healing, and storytelling.

Reyna Ortiz is a proud Trans/Two Spirit woman who was born and raised in Chicago. Her experiences navigating through this society openly as a Trans woman for almost thirty years have given her a great understanding of the needs in her community. Reyna is an advocate, activist and author fighting for the rights of the Trans and gender non-conforming community. Reyna works hands on with her community, providing vital resources such as housing, legal, medical, and employment assistance, as well as empowerment groups, and has dedicated herself to building and working with her Trans community.

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Ji Hye Kim, JD (she/her) is the Executive Director of KAN-WIN, a nonprofit with a mission to eradicate gender-based violence especially for women and children across Asian American communities and beyond. Ji Hye has been with the agency for 12 years during which she has provided crisis intervention and legal advocacy for survivors as well as spearheaded the agency’s culturally appropriate community engagement efforts. Ji Hye graduated from Northwestern University in 2002 and received a Juris Doctorate degree from the University of Washington School of Law in 2008.

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Heain Chung, MSW, LCSW, ICDVP is the Director of Direct Services at KAN-WIN. She has worked at KAN-WIN for 7 years, providing direct services including supervision, government grants management, and counseling and therapy to domestic violence and sexual assault survivors, with vast experience working on and presenting trauma-informed services, child abuse, sexual assault, and elderly abuse. Before joining KAN-WIN, Heain spent 6 years at Heartland Alliance, where she worked with unaccompanied children at high risk of human trafficking, sexual assault, domestic violence, and community violence. She provided therapy to the elderly for two years in private practice. She obtained her Masters of Social Work and International Development degrees at the University of Pittsburgh.

Shaniqua Ford, LCSW is the lead therapist and wellness coach at Soul Werk Café LLC in the south suburbs of Chicago. Shaniqua is a clinically licensed social worker (LCSW), with a Master’s degree in Social Work from the University of Chicago with over a decade of experience in mental health and holistic wellness focused on trauma, including racial and spiritual trauma, grief and loss, identity, depression and anxiety. Shaniqua is dedicated to helping individuals harness their power to evolve and thrive in wholeness. She created Soul Werk Café LLC with a mission to help individuals remember their own intuitive knowing, cultivate self-trust, and strengthen connection with self to heal and create the fulfilling powerful life they deserve. Understanding life transitions and the fight for personal liberation, Shaniqua combines her clinical training and lived experience within mental health, social justice work, wellness and ancestral healing practices to bring a powerfully aligned therapeutic and transformative experience to clients.

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Yvette G. Flores, PhD is a Professor of Chicana/o Studies at the University of California, Davis; past President, Section 3 Interests of Hispanics and Latinas, Division 35 (Women in Psychology) of the American Psychological Association; as well as President, Division 27 Society for Community Research and Action of the American Psychological Association. For the past several decades, Dr. Flores has worked as a research psychologist, university professor, and licensed psychologist. Her research has focused on family and community health, including health psychology, substance use disorder treatment, and intimate partner violence, both domestically and internationally in Latin America. Her publications reflect her life’s work of bridging clinical psychology and Chicano/Latino studies, as she foregrounds gender, ethnicity and sexualities in her clinical, teaching and research practices.

PariseNichelle Shango didi Ogunleye is the Owner and Founder of Do The Healing Work. Do The Healing Work combines western therapy practices with traditional West African spiritual practices, as a way of healing the traumas that plague the mind and spirit. Her healing methods pay homage to the sciences, practices, and rituals that our ancestors have mastered and passed down to us. As a priestess in the Yoruba culture, PariseNichelle feels it is our responsibility to return home to ourselves and to our native traditions as a collective. PariseNichelle is dedicated to doing the healing work to break generational traumas and aid in self healing and mastery. For more information, check out www.DoTheHealingWork.com and follow on Instagram and Facebook @dothehealingwork

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Carol Cano, MA began her practice over 30 years ago at Wat Kow Tahm in Thailand and has actively engaged in building communities and teaching Dharma internationally. Carol is Founder and Executive Director of Braided Wisdom, a BIPOC-led cross-cultural mindfulness organization. She is a graduate of the 2017-2020 Spirit Rock Meditation Center’s Teacher Training Program and a teacher at Spirit Rock often.

She is a core teacher and a former board member of East Bay Meditation Center. Carol co-founded Philippine Insight Meditation Community in Philippines. Her unique teachings are deeply grounded in Basque, Native American, and Buddhist influences that braid the Dharma along indigenous wisdom and Earth-based practices. Her psychology background gives her a unique view into the human condition, which helps her hold community in a compassionate and confident manner. Carol reminds us to keep grounded in our hearts as we uphold spiritual ideals and encourages us to remain balanced within the demands of modern life. For more information, check out www.braidedwisdom.org and follow on Instagram and Facebook @braidedwisdom.