WHAT WE ARE CONSIDERING
"As we map the last 10 years of this organization, it's clear two key questions kept coming up for me; how can we reimagine ourselves in relationship with the eco-social systems around us, what would those landscapes look like if left to our youth to imagine and further, what would those landscapes look like if they were mindfully uninterrupted?"
-Toni Anderson
SK MEMORY & RESEARCH COHORT
OUR RESEARCH COHORT IS A GROUP OF BRILLIANCE DIRECTLY IMPACTED BY THE MISSION-VISION OF SACRED KEEPERS & WILL GUIDE THE PROCESS OF PROBING & EXPLORING THE HOW THE ORGANIZATION HAS & CONTINUES TO SHAPE THOSE WHO KNOW ITS WORK
SEED LYNN
Memory Work Specialist &
Imagist Facilitator
More story-doula than teller, Lynn has served unheard communities for nearly two decades, mostly through workshops and experiential learning labs. Applying a blend of cultural and facilitative skills, his spaces feel less like operating rooms and more like story nurseries, where witnessing can prove just as powerful as participating. Here, authors surface the present, urgent, and necessary narratives threatened most by oppressive views and myths, their agents, and the institutions that uphold them.
TONI ANDERSON
SK Alchemist & Cohort Mentor
Toni is the Founder of Sacred Keepers and has spent the last 10 years dedicating herself to a codifying a conscious practice of eco-social literacy, awareness and activism that can be shared, co-created and championed by our youth. Through coaching, consulting and collaborating with communities, she has amassed a eco-social tools that inform her approaches to creating ways to live in grand harmony with people and the planet. She created SKSL in 2012 with the goal of holding the space and wisdom our youth need to fully realize their place of arrival on the planet and how to consciously explore and occupy that space.
KAREEMA BASS
RESEARCH COORDINATOR &
COHORT FACILITATOR/MENTOR
Kareema Bass is a mother, educator, lover, activist, environmentalist, and community advocate focusing primarily on youth advocacy, positive youth development, and social and environmental
justice. She is currently the Engagement Specialist at buildOn working to break the cycle of poverty, illiteracy, and low expectations through service learning at Morgan Park High school.
Kareema graduated with a bachelors in Sociology from the University of Michigan and has been pursuing a career that aligns with her spiritual and moral beliefs and helps build capacity
and bridge the gaps to resources and opportunities for underserved youth and their families. She is passionate about restorative and mindful practices, as well as social emotional learning
skills being at the center of education for all youth. In her spare time she loves having the opportunity to serve the earth and her community.
Karizma Blackburn
Research Cohort Facilitator
Karizma Blackburn is an interdisciplinary artist who focuses in activism, poetry, jewelry designing and peacemaking. She has studied Fashion Design at Columbia and Harold Washington College in Chicago. Raised with heavy influence of both art and activism, her father, a world famous jazz percussionist and performance artists, Kahil el-Zabar and her mother, Susana Sandoval, a prolific activist fighting for indigenous rights and equity, Karizma is no stranger to strong voice and expression. Ms. Blackburn is born of both African and Mexican American lineage and has a profound lens the importance of building through solidarity and cultural exchange. She is a strong believer in creating safe spaces and understanding how social and environmental justice coexist. She has been an active SKY Council Member, Fellow & Facilitator with Sacred Keepers for 7 of its 10 years of work.
EESA
Research Cohort Mentor & Facilitator
Erin-Eileen or EESA as we call her, is the inspiration for the creator and is, in many ways, its Co-Founder. Since SK's inception, she has been the youth sage and co-voayager of the organization's many efforts and iterations of work. Her current work is focused on holding the space of beauty, respite, care and unique culture of Black womyn, exploring what it means to hold the pride of black culture as it's own form of protest and self-care. EESA facilitates and uses her many gifts to impact her sphere of influcence.
NYVIA TAYLOR
Research Cohort Mentor
Nyvia is a recent graduate of American University with a BA in Sustainability & Public Health. Her commitment to understanding the role and power of Womyn of Color in shaping and empowering the future health of the BIPOC communities and the planet, Herself is a calling in her life. Nyvia has been a part of the SK family both in direct and indirect service since its inception.