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.
Elizabeth Walsh
Mentor
Gabriel Grant
Michaela Cisney
Program Director
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 | 2024 | 2025
Janet Xiao
Janet Xiao (she/her) is committed to helping purpose-driven teams and organizations thrive through relational care, clarity, and authenticity. Janet serves as the Operations Director at the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance (IRMA), an equally-governed...
Marina Christo
Marina Christo (she/her) is an entrepreneur from Brazil committed to transforming healthcare and creating a more inclusive future for women in tech. As the founder of Lina Saúde, she spent six years building one of Brazil’s most innovative health tech startups, driven...
Marcus Kornegay
Marcus Kornegay (he/him) is committed to transforming lives through affordable housing development and community empowerment. As an executive at Novant Health and the driving force behind Prosperity Alliance, he is dedicated to expanding homeownership opportunities as...
Molly Josephs
Molly Josephs (she/her) is committed to helping young people feel seen, heard, and empowered to express themselves authentically. As the founder of This Teenage Life (TTL), a youth dialogue and storytelling program, she has created a platform where teens transition...
Hatim Hussain
Hatim Hussain (he/him) is committed to bridging social and economic inequalities through education, legal reform, and financial inclusion. Growing up in one of India’s largest Muslim minority ghettos, he witnessed firsthand the struggles of marginalized communities,...
Karina Nagin
Karina Nagin (she/her) is the Executive Director of Bridging Voice, a nonprofit that is committed to ensuring that people with ALS regain their voices and connections through assistive technology. Her work is driven by a deep passion for collaboration, advocacy, and...
Loris Adams
Loris Adams (she/her) is a dedicated educator and advocate for youth empowerment, diversity, equity, and ethical leadership. As the Head of DEI and Ethical Leadership at a girls' school in Washington, D.C., and a long-time leader in independent schools, she is...
Gerry Sikazwe
Gerry Sikazwe (he/him) is a Zambian social accountability activist, poet, and creative curator committed to using art as a catalyst for civic engagement and democratic change. Through protest poetry and advocacy-centered performances, he amplifies the voices of...
Mariah Hachmeister
Mariah Hachmeister (she/her) is committed to cultivating spaces where relationships, sustainability, and personal growth thrive. As the People Operations Manager at CompostNow, she fosters a workplace culture where individuals feel supported, valued, and connected,...
Kane Jackson
Kane Jackson (he/him) is committed to reshaping the financial industry into a force for collective good. As the founder of Maslow, an Australian social impact startup, he is working to transform consumer finance into the world’s largest collectively owned utility,...
Oluwapelumi Alesinloye-King
Oluwapelumi Alesinloye-King (she/her) is a passionate advocate for women's sexual and reproductive health, committed to breaking taboos and challenging societal norms. As a feminist, researcher, and holistic sexuality educator, she creates spaces for Black...
Gerald Hodges
Gerald Hodges (he/him) is a changemaker, builder, and connector dedicated to empowering individuals and transforming communities through education and entrepreneurship. Gerald has spent over 14 years leading initiatives in Liberia that support youth development,...
Truzaar Dordi
Truzaar Dordi (he/him) is a sustainability transitions scholar and changemaker committed to catalyzing systemic transformation. As an Assistant Professor and Director of Partnerships and Engagement at the University of York, UK, his work explores how networks of power...
Genevieve Patenaude
Geneviève Patenaude (she/her) is the CEO and co-founder of Earthblocks, where she works to build a more sustainable future for both nature and society by making it easier for companies to understand their environmental impact and risks. A former academic with a PhD...
Yash Garje
Yash Garje (he/him) is dedicated to transforming engineering education into an inclusive, interdisciplinary, and accessible space for all learners. Pursuing a Ph.D. at Purdue University, he is committed to designing informal education programs that integrate arts,...
Abubaker Sekatuka
Abubaker Sekatuka (he/him) is a dedicated advocate for youth empowerment and mental health, committed to creating inclusive opportunities for young people, particularly those with disabilities across Uganda and beyond. As the founder of Sharing Circles, he leads...
Maya Bullock
Maya is committed to making housing more affordable, and is passionate about ensuring that community voices are heard.
Jasmin Barco
Jasmin is committed to creating environments where individuals can embody their highest selves and co-create their ideal world.
John Kern
John is a co-founder of SOS Fund, which disrupts and dismantles predatory housing systems in Baltimore.
Andrea Martinie-Eiler
Andrea finds joy in sharing life with others and creating vibrant, intentional communities.
Benjamin Ray
Benjamin believes in the transformative power of music to create meaningful community and facilitate personal and communal healing.
Lové Lemon
Lové is deeply committed to bridging social justice and healing by ensuring that every person has access to community healing centers.
Braxton Allen
Braxton is an Operations Manager for CompostNow, where he draws from a diverse background in community outreach, urban farming, and AmeriCorps to drive the company’s mission of recycling food waste nutrients back into the soil.
Kai Cash
Kai envisions a world where human collaboration mirrors the symbiotic relationships in a rainforest, fostering support and growth across diverse communities.
Genesis Granados
Genesis fosters partnerships and guides advocacy efforts to address the public health impacts of air pollution and climate change.
Alejandro Baquero-Sierra
Aspiring to create more equitable and inclusive classrooms, Alejandro hopes to collaborate with educators and institutions to combat racism in schools and promote compassion and collaboration.
Yom Fox
Yom seeks to transform independent schools into environments where students can thrive and actively contribute to society.
Arpitha Peteru
Arpitha is committed to leveraging collaborative policy and governance to address complex challenges, especially at the intersection of emerging technologies, security, and harm mitigation.
Patrick Buggy
Patrick is a purpose-driven business leader focused on helping create a more flourishing world.
Eli Hernández
Eli is committed to creating communities where Black and Brown communities thrive together.
Eleanor Harry
Eleanor is committed to combatting child labour by harnessing the power of AI.
Kristine Lorenzo
Kristine finds joy in helping people expand their awareness of the natural world and ecological processes in everyday life.
Manuela McDonough
Manuela is committed to creating a world where mental health is not stigmatized.
Peter Kobak
Peter is a human rights advocate, community organizer, and local gov nerd.
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.
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.
Isioma Nwayor
Isioma is a researcher, a teacher, a student representative, and a fitness content creator.
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.
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.
Meaghan McSorley
Meaghan is committed to contributing to a future where everyone can thrive.
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.
Heera Sharma
Heera is the founder and CEO of Go Laadli and believes deeply in the vitality and dynamic potential of young women.
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.
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.
Cristian Vargas-Ordóñez
Cristian is committed to cultivating an engineering ethos rooted in compassion and shaking the prevailing profit-centric paradigm. .
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.
Gunil Chung
Gunil builds various executive communities of purpose where leaders are brought together to collectively tackle complex challenges.
Paris Price
Paris recently started the Harriet Tubman Liberation Foundation to empower youth and young adults to take part in community building and responsibility.
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.
Rebecca Burton
Becky is committed to creating a global economy that relies more on experience, learning, and being than consuming.
























































