Mentors & Staff

Each year, we invite a collective of academic teachers, active practitioners and community leaders to serve as mentors for our fellowship program. Some join us for a few hours, while others are a part of the whole week. Read about our core mentors below, or click here to read about mentors from past programs.

Gabriel Grant

Co-Founder & Executive Director

Michaela Cisney

Program Director

Mark Boyce

Co-Founder & President

Fellows

Emerging leaders from diverse backgrounds and disciplines, making a difference around the world.

Fellowship Alumni

Years of Byron Fellowship

Academic Fields Represented

Interested in Joining Our Community?

Find out more about becoming a Byron Fellow.

Meet Our Fellows

2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2023

Abigail Steinberg

Abigail Steinberg

Abigail is the executive director of the Eyeglasses Initiative of the Livelihood Impact Fund focused on providing reading glasses to 800 million people who need them.

read more
Aonghus Kelly

Aonghus Kelly

Aonghus Kelly is a lawyer who focuses on the rule of law, international criminal law, human rights and the intersection of those areas with climate justice.

read more
Laura Lasuertmer

Laura Lasuertmer

Laura is a writer, a mother, a co-founder of Common Home Farm (an interfaith Catholic Worker farm) and assistant creative director for Women Writing for (a) Change in Bloomington, Indiana.

read more
Noah Marsh

Noah Marsh

Noah is the vice president of operations at CompostNow, making it easy for households to turn waste into nutrient rich soil in Raleigh, Durham, Atlanta, Asheville, and Cincinnati.

read more
Bree Jones

Bree Jones

Bree is the founder and CEO of Parity Homes, an equitable development company proudly headquartered in West Baltimore that acquires and rehabilitates abandoned properties by the block to create affordable home ownership opportunities.

read more
Mahima Rai

Mahima Rai

As a scholar-activist in the field of Sociology of Religion, Mahima is committed to being curious about things she does not agree with.

read more
Jeff Stoike

Jeff Stoike

Jeff is the co-founder of Blue Action Lab, a network developing solutions for coastal communities and marine ecosystems to thrive in the face of climate change.

read more
Kyla Sokoll-Ward

Kyla Sokoll-Ward

Kyla is committed to creating inclusive and connective spaces of belonging for adults to explore their inner landscape through ritual, introspection, and spirituality.

read more
Paris Price

Paris Price

Paris recently started the Harriet Tubman Liberation Foundation to empower youth and young adults to take part in community building and responsibility.

read more
Kelley Van Dilla

Kelley Van Dilla

Kelley is a commitment to vulnerability and inner peace, and through this commitment is creating a world where making films is a healing, care-centered, accessible, and community building art-form.

read more
Mariana Vélez

Mariana Vélez

Catalyst for positive change: through dialogue facilitation, powerful storytelling and integral coaching Mariana seeks to bridge divides across inner and outer landscapes. Currently working as Maya Forest Program Specialist in The Nature Conservancy.

read more
Emil Goldsmith Olesen

Emil Goldsmith Olesen

Emil is a Software Engineer and facilitator currently exploring how these ways of being could possibly meet in order to create a world with more connection and belonging in it.

read more
Micah Kessel

Micah Kessel

As an empathic design strategist with a desire to inspire deeply human connections, Micah works to create experiences that connect immersion and science to enhance empathic communities.

read more
Calvin Eaton

Calvin Eaton

Calvin is a socially-conscious entrepreneur and founder, committed to teaching, service-learning, and education through community-engaged volunteer work.

read more
Aleister Avenmarch

Aleister Avenmarch

Aleister is a queer advocate dedicated to trauma-informed social justice, with a focus on helping cultivate other people’s strengths in order to empower them to find their own call to action.

read more
Charles Neidenbach

Charles Neidenbach

I seek to make value-adding contributions toward a flourishing and sustainable future through relational bridge building, innovative systems thinking and collaborative visioning.

read more
Jessica  Gilbert

Jessica Gilbert

As a scholar-activist, Jessica uses research to support food equity initiatives in Buffalo, NY, and their efforts to bring about social and ecological justice.

read more
Parkhat Yussupjanov

Parkhat Yussupjanov

Parkhat is an international public policy expert focused on development policy, committed to increasing support for people with disabilities (specifically those with visual impairment).

read more
Sofia  Velez

Sofia Velez

Sofia is committed to supporting women of marginalized communities through developing collaborative social and environmental enterprises.

read more
Eriqah Vincent

Eriqah Vincent

A proud native of Newark, NJ, Eriqah R. K. Vincent is the Just Energy Portfolio Manager for the Partnership for Southern Equity and is inspired by the love she has for for her family, seeing little black girls dream and dream HUGE, the Sun, and The Creating Force that runs through all of us.

read more
Elizabeth Walsh

Elizabeth Walsh

As an action researcher, regenerative designer, and professor of Community and Regional Planning, Elizabeth is committed to awakening love, leadership and wisdom to inspire collective action in service of a world where all beings may thrive.

read more