Oriana Ides, MA, APCC, PPS (she/her)

Oriana Ides is a School Mental Health Training Specialist at CARS (the Center for Applied Research Solutions) and a Pacific Southwest MHTTC youth and young adults program lead who approaches healing the wounds of trauma and oppression as core elements of social justice. She has worked with young people across the life course from elementary school to college, and has served as teacher-leader, school counselor, classroom educator and program director. She is committed to generating equity within school structures and policies by focusing on evidence-based mental health techniques and institutional design.

Falilah “Aisha” Bilal, MA (she/her)

Falilah “Aisha” Bilal has worked joyously for over 30 years creating innovative, relevant evidence-based strategies to transform, empower and develop individuals, systems, organizations and contemporary thought.

Ms. Bilal’s work is centered in healing practices, empowering youth and families, and self-discovery. Ms. Bilal specializes in the field of youth development, healing informed organizational development, and strategic fundraising consultation.

Currently Ms. Bilal serves as the Chief of Staff for the Black Organizing Project as well as directs her own consulting company where she provides trainings, curriculum development, healing experiences, coaching, and executive leadership to local and national agencies, companies and programs. Previously, Ms. Bilal served as a Senior Trainer with the National Black Women’s Justice Institute and a Radical Healer with Flourish Agenda. Ms. Bilal holds a M.A. in Counseling Psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies and a B.A. in Theater Arts and Child Psychology from San Francisco State University.

Jen Leland, MFT (she/her/fluid)

Jen Leland is a white, queer, licensed marriage and family therapist who spent her adolescence in psychiatric, substance abuse, and group residential care programs using abstinence and high control, coercive approaches. These experiences of harm spurred her 25 year commitment to working in public systems and youth programs, organizing around harm reduction and healing justice principles to create more stories of healing and fewer stories of institutional trauma and harm. She currently works at the RYSE Center in Richmond, CA as Clinical Director, working with young people to build the health justice spaces and practices they deserve.

Noor Jones-Bey, PhD (she/her/ella)

Noor Jones-Bey is a transdisciplinary educator, researcher and artist from the Bay Area, CA with over a decade of experience working within the field of education. As a scholar and practitioner deeply interested in the liminal spaces between theory and practice, Noor has extensive experience designing humanizing programming and curriculum that is responsive and relevant to global and local communities. Noor currently serves as an equity and design consultant, providing technical assistance to a variety of professionals, organizations, and universities nationwide. Noor earned her Ph.D. in Urban Education and her M.A. in Sociology of Education from New York University and her B.A. in American Studies from the University of California, Berkeley. Noor’s interests range across disciplines from sociology, education, Black and Native studies, and visual culture to examine issues of liminality, identity, space and power as they relate to education. Her dissertation work examines intergenerational knowledge of Black womxn and girls navigating in and out of schools. In her spare time, she loves to cook, dance, run marathons, travel, and stir up good vibes.

Ras K’dee, Artist and Culture Keeper

Ras K’dee is a Pomo/African musician from Sonoma County, California, who has been compared to Gil Scott-Heron and Marvin Gaye. He is a community educator, and renowned lyricist, producer, lead vocalist and keyboardist for Bay Area-based Audiopharmacy ― a live, world hip-hop ensemble that has toured together for 16 years to local and international venues in Germany, Austria, the United Kingdom, Holland, Switzerland, France, Japan, Indonesia, New Zealand, Fiji, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Ecuador, Morocco, Oman, and Cyprus. In 2003, Ras co-founded, and is current director of, a Native youth media organization called Seventh Native American Generation (SNAG). Its annual magazine features the art, photos, music, and writing of Indigenous youth. Ras also leads summer youth workshops and is a producer and occasional co-host of a Northern California radio program, “Bay Native Circle.” He has been featured in numerous publications, such as Smithsonian Magazine and Native California News. His many awards include “Most Earnest and Up and Coming Band,” KQED American Indian Local Heroes Award, and American Indian Film Award Best Animation Short for “Injunuity.”

Jesus Solorio, LMFT

I identify as Xicano and was born and raised in Los Angeles (Tongva territory) by migrant parents from Michoacán (Purépecha territory), Mexico. I earned my Masters degree in Counseling Psychology with a concentration in Community Mental Health from the California Institute of Integral Studies in 2012. I have worked in various settings as a therapist, lead clinician, supervisor and program manager prior to starting my private practice. These include Instituto Familiar de La Raza, La Familia Counseling Service, the Community Mental Health Certificate Program at City College of San Francisco and Kaiser Permanente. I am currently a member of the Council of 13 for the Institute of Chicana/o/x Psychology and teach in the Department of Counseling at San Francisco State University. I am a member of the Latinx Therapist Action Network.

My work is culturally responsive, rooted in social justice, trauma-informed, strength-based, and is strongly infused by an indigenous worldview and liberation psychology. I utilize humor and focus deeply on the healing relationship. I incorporate multiple approaches including narrative processes and trauma healing modalities such as EMDR and Internal Family Systems.

I honor and recognize my mentors and teachers along the way beginning with my mother and older sisters who have taught me lessons in strength, resiliency and humility. I have apprenticed with Dr. Sal Nuñez in Medicinal Drumming Praxis and have been trained in Chicanx Affirmative Therapy, EMDR, Internal Family Systems and Somatics and Trauma from Generative Somatics. I am a Mexica Mitotiani and Huehuetero (Mexica Dancer and Drummer) with Calpulli Nanahuatzin. I am a husband and father to a young Huitzin (hummingbird).