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 | 2024

Lové Lemon

Lové Lemon

Lové is deeply committed to bridging social justice and healing by ensuring that every person has access to community healing centers.

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Braxton Allen

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.

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Kai Cash

Kai Cash

Kai envisions a world where human collaboration mirrors the symbiotic relationships in a rainforest, fostering support and growth across diverse communities.

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Alejandro Baquero-Sierra

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.

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Yom Fox

Yom Fox

Yom seeks to transform independent schools into environments where students can thrive and actively contribute to society.

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Arpitha Peteru

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Calvin Eaton

Calvin Eaton

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

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