About Our Team of Coaches
At Liberation Coaching, our team is a dynamic collective of coaching and facilitating professionals. We bring together a wide range of lived experiences, racial identities, and geographic roots, with professional backgrounds spanning education, social work, DEI, grassroots activism, business, and the arts. While our individual paths are unique, we are united by an active dedication to personal growth and the broader pursuit of collective liberation. As lifelong learners, we approach this work with compassion, humility, and a shared foundation of radical love.
Hideko Akashi
She/her/hers
Founder & Lead Coach
Hideko Akashi is the founder and lead coach of Liberation Coaching, bringing over 20 years of experience in the educational sector to her practice. As a highly skilled facilitator, she challenges individuals and institutions to think critically about diversity, social justice, and equity. Hideko draws upon her extensive teaching background and her own self-reflective journey—navigating the complex intersections of her multiple identities—to guide others through self-exploration.
Hideko’s coaching philosophy is rooted in the belief that true transformation occurs when we peel back the layers of socialization and learn to craft our own authentic narratives and beliefs. As a parent of two teenagers, Hideko holds a deep passion for facilitating spaces for peer-to-peer parenting and caregiver coaching. Across all her work, her goal remains the same: to provide a warm, judgment-free space where individuals can hit pause, challenge their limiting beliefs or narratives, and build a life that feels deeply and unapologetically true to them.
Ariana Gil
She/Her/Hers
Consultant & Facilitator
Ariana Gil is an organizational development and DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) consultant based in Oakland, California and Washington DC.
Originally from Tijuana, Mexico (ancestral land of the Kumeyaay people), Ariana is a bi-costal, bilingual and bi-cultural bridge-builder who has lived and worked in the Bay Area since 2006. She brings over a decade of experience in community engagement and advocacy, curriculum development, facilitation and project management to her consulting practice and is passionate about cultivating inclusive and diverse environments, structures and systems.
Ariana is the founder and principal consultant of AG Consulting, and The Truing Group - a diverse network of consultants supporting organizational growth & change through an equity lens. She is also a consultant, trainer, and collaborator with VISIONS Inc, The Greater Us, Liberation Consulting, and The Latinx Racial Equity Project, and serves on the Board of Directors for Mycelium Youth Network, and Proyecto Fronterizo de Educación Ambiental.
Ariana loves dancing, thrift store adventures, and grounding herself near large bodies of water. She has an MS in Organizational Leadership & Learning at The George Washington University’s School of Education & Human Development.
Lyssa Ichikawa
They/Them
Holistic Change & Anti-Oppression Facilitator
Lyssa Ichikawa, MS, Ed. (they/them) is a multi-racial, queer, anti-binary resident of Kizh land, also known as Los Angeles, California. They are a facilitator, space-holder, coach, co-creator, co-conspirator, and consultant with a focus on liberation work rooted in relational care, healing, learning, and unlearning. Lyssa has over 18 years of experience working in schools, classrooms, and school-based communities. They have been facilitating, leading, and holding affinity-style spaces for over 10 years. Over the past two years, they have begun 1:1 coaching and are loving it!
Ellen Morrison, LCSW
She/Her/Hers
Equity Consultant & Psychotherapist
Ellen Morrison collaborates with individuals and groups in catalyzing their efforts toward equity, bringing attention to the analysis of power as a core element of interpersonal and organizational change. Her work as a DEI consultant is informed by twenty-five years of experience in community mental health and inspired by a lineage of movement work as well as an intentional personal journey in understanding her relationship to power and privilege.
Ellen is a skilled facilitator with extensive experience working across diverse groups in educational, clinical, organizational and social service settings. Her trauma informed and relational approach contributes to prioritizing the integration of restorative practices including popular education pedagogy to develop curriculum and facilitate experiential learning. She has a psychotherapy practice as well as a consultancy focused on antiracism. Learn more about Ellen at EllenMorrison.
Soerny Cruz
She/They
DEI Consultant & Health Equity Specialist
Soerny is a consultant and facilitator at Liberation Consulting and brings nearly 10 years of experience from VISIONS Inc., a national diversity and inclusion consulting organization. She has worked with clients from a variety of sectors including public and private education, social services, nonprofit, faith-based, youth, and healthcare.
Previously, Soerny worked as a sexual and reproductive health educator, providing after-school programming in Somerville middle schools. She developed curriculums in English and Spanish on consent, healthy relationships, and gender and sexuality. Soerny studied American Studies and Community Health at Tufts University with a focus on racism and health. She has interned for local organizations such as Alternatives for Community and Environment and Southern Jamaica Plain Health Center. She is a proud native of Jamaica Plain, MA.
Ellen Tuzzolo
They/She
Equity Coach & Environmental Justice Strategist
Ellen Tuzzolo is a white, queer mama, of Southern Italian and Irish ancestry, based on Narragansett, Pokanoket and Wampanoag land. Ellen is most fired up by undermining systems of oppression and breaking down barriers that prevent people from seeing and caring for themselves, each other, and the earth. After growing up queer and nonbinary in a tiny town in Massachusetts, Ellen spent many years in the South working as part of an incredible advocacy and organizing community on numerous efforts to close youth and women’s prisons, fight mass incarceration, and stop the school-to-prison pipeline. For several years after, Ellen directed residential camp programs where young people could learn to challenge systems of oppression while connecting with themselves, others, and the natural world.
Currently, Ellen’s paid work includes training, equity assessment processes, equity coaching, and DEIJ strategy support for educators, youth service professionals, environmentalists, and other non-profit and corporate staff and boards. As a facilitator of multi-racial spaces committed to both popular education and outdoor education, Ellen has held space for thousands of youth and adults to understand and challenge systemic racism and other forms of oppression. Ellen is currently a consultant with Liberation Consulting, VISIONS, Inc. and Partners for Collaborative Change. Ellen serves on the board of The People’s Port Authority, is a proud founding member of the Providence chapter of SURJ (Showing Up for Racial Justice), and loves spending time outside with their family, learning how to tend to beautiful and edible plant friends.
Jessie Justin
They/Them
Systemic Coach, Facilitator, & Consultant
Jessie is a systemic coach who leads with a rare blend of fierce care, clinical depth, and an unwavering commitment to equity and liberation. With over 15 years of experience spanning clinical leadership, community-based advocacy, and organizational consulting, Jessie is not a coach who looks at lives in isolation. Holding a Master’s degree in Psychology from Antioch University and a training certification from Coaching for Transformation, they operate from the foundational belief that individual growth is inextricably linked to systemic awareness. As a facilitator and guide, Jessie is known for being kind, thoughtful, tough, and bold—someone who will hold a radically safe, trauma-informed space for vulnerability, while intentionally pushing clients when they are playing small or falling back into limiting, conditioned behaviors.
As a coach, Jessie serves as a collaborative partner for social change makers, educators, LGBTQIA+ individuals, professional leaders, and parents who are ready to examine how their intersecting identities—gender, race, class, ability, and institutional hierarchy, etc—affect how they move through the world. Jessie’s coaching style moves away from rigid formulas and instead honors the intuitive wisdom already present within each person. They specialize in helping clients navigate high-stress transitions, dismantle institutional power imbalances, and build deeply affirming environments at home and in leadership. Through their presence, Jessie models what it looks like to be real, grounded, and unapologetically authentic, inviting clients to do the exact same.
The experience of working with Jessie is about building the invisible muscles required for deep, sustainable growth. By integrating family and liberation systems theory with somatic psycho-education, Jessie helps clients understand their nervous system's response to systemic stress, giving them the tools to effectively organize their thinking, feelings, and actions. Jessie acts as a steady anchor through the daunting process of uncovering old beliefs, offering the precise mix of direct accountability and tender support needed to move past survival and into empowered clarity. For those seeking a coach who can hold both the tenderness of human healing and the boldness required for structural change, Jessie offers a transformative partnership where it is safe to be honest, vulnerable, and fully yourself.
Isaac Ruelas
They/She/He
Culture Practitioner & Organizational DEI Consultant
Isaac Ruelas has worked with VISIONS since 2011, first as a client at All Saints Pasadena and then as a VISIONS consultant in 2018. Their work has been adapted to meet the needs of a spectrum of communities, including bilingual Spanish speaking groups; spiritual communities challenging themselves to grow their inclusion and equity; schools and universities when it comes to belonging; as well as foundations and what the work of equity looks like and the impact it can have. Isaac's portfolio also includes work with Boards of Trustees and other organizational leaders in DEI change initiatives in their own industry; including architecture firms, who are wanting to explore new ways of designing that are inclusive to the communities around them, and streaming services that are wanting to shift their internal culture and desire to take risks on new diverse, inclusive and equitable content. Isaac has a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology with a focus on culture and adolescence from Azusa Pacific University. They independently teach meditation, emotional intelligence, and alternative spiritual practices, along with a multidisciplinary art practice.
Dr. Jeanne Firth
She/Her/Hers
Food Justice & Land Equity Consultant
Jeanne is part of the founding staff team of Grow Dat Youth Farm in New Orleans, Louisiana, where she began working in the VISIONS Inc. model of diversity, equity and inclusion in 2013. Jeanne recently completed a PhD in Human Geography and Urban Studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science. A white woman originally from a farming family in Kansas, she holds a lifelong dedication to place-based food justice, food sovereignty, and land justice work. She lives in Louisville, Kentucky.
Toyin Augustus
She/Her/Hers
Transformational Leadership Consultant & Olympian
Toyin Augustus, MS Ed. (she/her) is an educator, DEI practitioner, and former Olympian utilizing her skills and experience to invest in transformational social justice. In her 17 years of experience in private and public schools, Toyin has created equitable policies, encouraged inclusive practices, and facilitated educational opportunities for students, educators, and adult caretakers. In addition, she has designed frameworks, training, workshops, and student affinity leadership programs to facilitate equity and inclusion in organizations.
Toyin is an independent consultant for Across The Tracks Consulting, Liberation Consulting, and VISIONS, Inc., using her engaging and empathetic style to guide adult learners through transformative processes.
Toyin has a Masters in Education from the University of Pennsylvania and is the founder of Just Heroes, a non-profit that integrates athletics and social justice work to inspire and empower youth athletes as change agents through education and community initiatives.
Jennifer Heifferon
She/Her/Hers
Learning Specialist & Organizational Consultant
Jennifer Heifferon is a researcher, educator, and coach whose work has always centered on what helps people thrive. As Child Well-Being Program Director at the California Partners Project, she leads research and cross-sector initiatives exploring how technology, family systems, and community environments shape adolescent well-being.
Jennifer's path has been anything but one-dimensional, with roles as a classroom teacher, learning specialist, equity leader, youth sports coach, and interactive producer. What connects all of it is a genuine curiosity about people: who they are, what shapes them, and what becomes possible when they feel truly seen. That range has allowed her to meet people where they are, whether she's working with a parent, an educator, a young person, or a leader navigating complexity and uncertainty.
She is drawn to coaching because she believes the work of becoming more fully yourself is some of the most meaningful work there is—and that genuine support, at the right moment, can change the trajectory of a person's life. Jennifer holds a BA in Psychology from Stanford University and an MA in Teaching from the University of San Francisco.
Yoojin Lee
She/Her/Hers
Social Movement & Capacity Building Strategist
Yoojin Janice Lee is committed to building social movements that are effective, compassionate and life-giving. She has over twenty years of experience in leadership development for social change, community organizing, and nonprofit management.
She draws upon this experience in her current work as an independent consultant, trainer, and facilitator. She is also a consultant with the diversity, equity, and inclusion consulting group, VISIONS, Inc. Previously, Ms. Lee was Senior Trainer and Manager at Health Resources in Action, a Boston-based, national non-profit capacity-building organization, where she provided training, facilitation, and capacity-building services to nonprofits, coalitions, and government agencies. Earlier on, Ms. Lee was Executive Director & Lead Organizer of the Boston-area Youth Organizing Project, which unites low-income communities of color to build political power for justice in their schools and neighborhoods.
She graduated from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government with a Master’s Degree in Public Policy and holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Smith College. A long-time resident of the Boston-area, she grew up in and around New York City, and has lived abroad in Seoul, Korea.
Jasmin Banaei
They/Them
Healer & Somatic Liberation Facilitator
Jasmin is a mad, queer, gender non-conforming, West-Asian person, based in Brooklyn and from all over. They labor as a healer, trainer, and organizer and especially feel called to facilitate group healing spaces and peer support trainings. In addition to their counselor education, Jasmin is trained in various somatic modalities. They believe systemic oppression is a distribution of trauma and that healing is necessary for our individual and collective liberation. Jasmin is always thinking about / feeling out / practicing-to-embody what it means to live with integrity, build community, and cultivate relational culture to skill-up movement builders with the hope of another world.
Rachael Reichenbach
They/Them
Anti-Racist Culture Facilitator & Coach
Motivated by a desire for all beings to be free as quickly as possible, Rachael is passionate about culture - how we see it and articulate it so that we can choose how to shape it. Rachael loves supporting individuals and groups to create liberatory cultures that shape the world we want and so desperately need. With a special attention to understanding, healing from, and creating alternatives to white supremacy culture, Rachael supports anti-racist praxis for white-identified individuals and small groups, as well as anti-oppression training for multicultural groups. Rachael is a facilitator, cultural worker, clown, and interreligious chaplain who brings all of these influences to bear in their work to get free and support the liberation of all beings. Born, raised, and rooted in the Southern United States, Rachael calls Durham, NC home.