Equitable Horizons

Negotiating System Change Through Collective Leadership

At Illuminate, we believe that equity, systems change, and collective leadership are mutually reinforcing in powerful ways, and may even be interdependent requirements for achieving lasting systemic change. For that reason, we initiated this series to foster dialogue and knowledge on the critical intersections of these three dimensions. Through diverse content formats, including articles, audio-visual submissions, and photo-essays, we aim to illuminate pathways toward a more equitable and just future. Join us as we explore innovative approaches and insights at the intersection of equity, systems change, and collective leadership.

Meet The Authors

Equitable Horizons Editorial Collective

On Equity, Systems Change and Collective Leadership

  • This conversation centers around the origins of Illuminate and the importance of equity in the organization's focus. Members of the editorial collective (in charge of choosing and editing the pieces published) as well as the authors share their experiences and perspectives on navigating collective leadership and equity in systems change.

    The conversation examines the role of collective ladership and how it was instrumental in bringing to life the Equitable Horizons blog series.

    The discussion emphasized the importance of marginalized voices in shaping the industry as well as the importance of equity, collective leadership, and systemic change in creating a more just and sustainable future.

    • Tatenda Nzingha Mazowe

    • Fabienne Pierre-Jacques

    • Kaytura Felix

    • Luis Tapia

    • Russ Gaskin

    • Ana Lucía Castaño Galvis

Adler Yang

Under the Shadows of Popular Systems Change: How a Prestigious University Failed a Disadvantaged Student, or the Case for a Critical Realist Agent-Based Approach

  • This essay delves into the story of Wen, an economically disadvantaged student who excelled in a self-directed learning environment but struggled when she entered a prestigious university. It contrasts two mechanisms in education: Learning by Caring and Allocation Dependence. Wen's success outside traditional schooling demonstrates the potential of Learning by Caring, as her care for others and a meaningful cause facilitated the reciprocal regeneration of learning resources, benefiting her holistic development with equitable autonomy and dignity. However, her return to formal education subjected her to the rigid structure of Allocation Dependence, where she had to fit predetermined resource allocation criteria that amplified her disadvantage, followed by a vicious cycle of insufficient allocated resources due to insufficient performance, which ultimately led to her withdrawal from the university to secure her finances through "quick money." 

    Viewing Wen's story through the lens of complex adaptive systems, this essay critiques so-called "evidence-based" top-down systems change approaches (e.g., "send poor kids to [good] universities") that mechanize the new systems they create, marginalizing and harming those who fall into the systems architects' blindspots. It advocates for a Critical Realist Agent-Based Approach, which aims to increase every agent's awareness of the rules underlying detrimental emergence and empower them to shift such emergence by changing the rules they live by. 

  • Adler Yang has committed his life since adolescence to addressing systemic problems and increasing empathy in society through research and educative, peaceful initiatives. He founded the Awakening Cooperative Lab, a think-and-do tank aiming to research/design for and actualize regenerative and harmonious societies with compassion and critical complex systems awareness. The Lab has supported marginalized youths to become award-winning, impactful, and compassionate leaders of their generation. He directed the R&D for ZA Share, Taiwan’s largest educational experimentation and innovation platform, to develop programs and policy proposals for fostering progressive and equitable education ecosystems. He also pioneered the experimental higher education movement in Taiwan. He is the director of "If There is a Reason to Study (2016)", which is lauded as the “Epitome of 2016 Taiwanese Movies” and the “Most important film on Taiwanese education.” 

Kassamira Carter-Howard

A Heroine's Journey

  • The WeGovern Learning Community is a year-long experiment and collective depth practice to explore what it means to embody our values in our daily lives, and what it requires of us–individually and collectively– to commit to new ways of being, thinking, and doing together.

    The community emerged because of collective action taken by a nexus of Resonance Network practitioners, who came together because they recognized the failing systems around us, and decided to radically imagine a new way of being in the world by offering the WeGovern Principles. WeGovern is a bold re-imagining and reclaiming of governance, inspired by a rich history of Black and Indigenous practices rooted in care for land, natural resources, community, and collective well-being.

    The experiment illuminated multiple sites of governance practice, beginning with our bodies and ripples outwards. This awareness enabled us to recognize points of intervention, where making different choices had the power to transform lived experiences. This interview is with Kassamira Carter-Howard, who contributed to drafting the WeGovern principles, and held multiple roles, including program director, facilitator, and participant in the learning community. She offers her unique perspective on how she has been transformed by this experience.

  • Kassamira is a healing arts practitioner, community facilitator and dreamweaver living bi-coastally between Washington, DC and Portland, OR. At her core, she is a multidisciplinary artist who deeply understands that art is where we practice critical thinking, radical imagination, habit interruption, and self discovery. She integrates creative healing arts practices with over a decade of facilitation experience to curate trauma-informed, survivor-centered healing spaces for BIPOC communities around the world. Kassamira is the founder of Dream Within, a creative consulting practice that engages individuals and communities in collective dreaming to unlock pathways toward liberation. She graduated magna cum laude from Santa Clara University with a B.S. in Political Science, Ethnic Studies, with a Gender Studies minor. Kassamira currently serves as the Director of Programs with Resonance Network a decentralized network of people committed to building a world beyond violence.

Johanna Luz Shorack & Juan Andrés Ortiz Villa

Desafíos para el cambio sistémico: perspectivas desde realidades Latinoamericanas

  • Este blog explora las tensiones presentes a la hora de facilitar procesos de cambio sistémico en un contexto como el latinoamericano, con recurrentes situaciones de colonialidad, inequidad y conflicto. A través de testimonios tanto en video como escrito, compartimos las experiencias de personas comprometidas con la transformación de sus comunidades en países como México, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala y Honduras.

    Abordamos cuatro tensiones principales en el proceso de cambio: Honrar el pasado y construir el futuro, analizando cómo las dinámicas de poder coloniales continúan influenciando la equidad; Sanar y Resistir, debatiendo la necesidad de curar traumas colectivos mientras se lucha contra la opresión; Individualidad y Colectividad, discutiendo el papel del individuo en los procesos colectivos y cómo las prácticas culturales y un liderazgo compartido pueden fortalecer la comunidad; y la tensión entre Atender necesidades urgentes y Ponernos de acuerdo, reflexionando sobre cómo reconocer las realidades de los otros para mejorar las decisiones apremiantes.

    La conclusión de nuestra imdagación subraya que la integración de estas tensiones no solo facilita un cambio más ágil y profundo, sino que también permite enriquecer y profundizar las relaciones humanas y no humanas en el proceso.

  • Johanna es licenciada en Estudios de Desarrollo Global por la Seattle Pacific University y tiene una Maestría en Derecho Ambiental y Política Pública de la Universidad del Medio Ambiente en México. Como docente y facilitadora, se especializa en gobernanza y justicia ambiental. Ha facilitado procesos colectivos en más de 20 proyectos en México, Estados Unidos, Centroamérica y Venezuela y ha trabajado en contextos diversos, desde barrios periurbanos en Caracas hasta movimientos sociales en Quetzaltenango durante la pandemia de COVID-19. Fundadora de dos proyectos socioambientales, Johanna explora continuamente los desafíos de los procesos participativos y las injusticias en dinámicas de poder. Su trabajo se centra en el impacto de las acciones humanas sobre el planeta, promoviendo la justicia ambiental y el cuidado de los bienes comunes.

  • Juan es un ecólogo especializado en Proyectos Socioambientales con más de 8 años de experiencia en la investigación, facilitación y asesoría estratégica en América Latina. Dedicado a explorar cómo revitalizar los tejidos de vida de los territorios rurales y periurbanos, trabaja desde una perspectiva de sistemas socio-ecológicos y enfoque territorial, abordando las transformaciones sistémicas y el diseño regenerativo. Actualmente, Juan colabora con ARARE, una organización comprometida con transformar la gestión territorial en América Latina. Esta labor implica reconsiderar los sistemas de gestión territorial, promoviendo la participación justa y la articulación de redes de instituciones y actores locales, buscando reconocer y representar las diversas realidades de estos territorios y fomentar una redistribución de la agencia, los espacios de enunciación y los procesos de toma de decisiones, con el objetivo de desarrollar condiciones que mejoren la vitalidad, dignidad y bienestar de las comunidades, reflejando su valor como sistemas vivos.

Michaela Crunkleton Wilson

Deepening Local Roots to Transform Global Systems

  • Recently, the notion of inviting those without power and privilege to “a seat at the table” has become considered good practice for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) commitments and finding inspiration for doing things differently. This animation uses storytelling to explore the intersection of equity, systems change and collective leadership by elevating the challenges that make giving others “a seat at the table” an ineffective strategy for power-sharing and true systems change. If systems are created by people and their relationships to each other, changing systems requires dedicated resources to reconfigure not only who we interact with, but also how. The story uses the relationship between the food system and the financial system to highlight that instead of inviting people into the systems we seek to change , we should engage in more conversations about how to intentionally and appropriately find ourselves at the tables of others in order to build the relationships and understandings necessary for true systems change.

  • Michaela’s work the last 5 years has been motivated by systems change for climate justice. In her current role as Programme Manager for Climate Safe Lending Network – a global multi-stakeholder organisation working to decarbonise the banking industry – she leads on programmatic design and delivery for stakeholder engagement efforts to ensure members increase their influence on the transition to a new economic system that prioritises all people and planet. In parallel, Michaela balances her engagement in global conversations on climate and the environment with practical land-based work in regenerative agriculture and urban environmental horticulture. Prior to Climate Safe Lending Network, Michaela worked with Camber Collective, a social sector strategy consulting firm dedicated to improving climate resilience, public health outcomes, economic mobility, and the effectiveness of the philanthropic sector. Michaela graduated from Stanford University with an MS in Sustainability Science and Practice, a BA in International Relations, and a minor in Modern Languages.

Sebastian Giraldo

Mujeres Manglar: Una respuesta colectiva a la ausencia

  • Este artículo académico analiza la experiencia de Mujeres Manglar, un grupo de mujeres en Buenaventura que se unen en busca de verdad, justicia y dignidad frente a la violencia en su territorio. Ubicado en un contexto marcado por la desigualdad, la violencia armada y la desaparición forzada, el relato destaca cómo estas mujeres encuentran en la organización colectiva una forma de procesar su dolor, construir comunidad y trabajar por condiciones de vida dignas. A través de acciones políticas y la autogestión económica, especialmente a través de oficios como la costura, Mujeres Manglar aborda preguntas cruciales sobre solidaridad, ausencia y liderazgo comunitario. El artículo también explora conceptos teóricos como las comunidades emocionales y los entramados comunitarios para comprender mejor la relación entre la organización colectiva y la transformación social. Además, destaca el valor de la construcción de memoria y la terapia a través de oficios como herramientas para la resistencia y la reproducción de la vida en medio de la violencia estructural.

  • Antropólogo, investigador y comunicador comunitario, ha trabajado en los cruces entre la investigación y la cocreacion de narrativas comunitarias desde la construcción de pedagogías colaborativas. Su trabajo se nutre de los procesos de construcción de memoria, los conflictos territoriales y los procesos de incidencia política en torno a la criminalidad estatal y la violencia sociopolítica en casos de ejecuciones extrajudiciales y desaparición forzada en el Valle del Cauca. Hace parte del Movice Capítulo Valle del Cauca, participó como investigador en el informe Falsa Proclama: el grito fulminante del Estado donde se presenta un análisis de los patrones de criminalidad estatal asociados a las ejecuciones extrajudiciales en el Valle del Cauca. Hizo parte de la Comisión Interétnica de la Verdad para el Pacifico en los informes de Buenaventura y el San Juan

Dr. Elizabeth A. Brown, Dr. Sharon Attipoe-Dorcoo & Dr. Kimberly Harris

Interrogating Erasure in Systems Change by Centering the Stories of Black Women as Collective Power in Weaving Equitable Experiences

  • The paper is written from the perspectives and experiences of three Black women in the United States who explore how operating from the margins in a country that constantly erases our stories fuels our work. Systems change and equity are embodied and connected through the various work examples highlighted to advance the current practice in the fields of equity, systems change, and collective leadership. We each express how erasure in our lives is connected to equity, systems change, and leadership from the perspectives of our work. We invite our readers to explore how the systems Black women like ourselves are poised to change are in fact, the ones that tend to cause harm by continuously stripping the very pieces of us that the systems need.

  • Dr. Elizabeth A. Brown, PhD, MPA, CPH is an academic educator and health services researcher who focuses on social determinants of health (SDOH),particularly race/ethnicity, access to primary care, health care policy, and chronic conditions. She also examines privilege as a SDOH and the effects of racism with health care providers, students, faculty, and staff. She has over 15 publications, three book chapters, and various presentations at national conferences in these areas. Dr. Brown was a 2022-2023 Public Health Voices Fellow under Academy Health and The Op-Ed Project. In 2023, Dr. Brown completed Pardee RAND Graduate School’s Faculty Leaders Program and received a Certificate in Public Policy Analysis. Dr. Brown was a Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) Fellow (2015-2018).

  • Sharon Attipoe-Dorcoo, Ph.D., MPH, Principal of TERSHA LLC, is first and foremost grounded in her cultural identity as a Ghanaian-American and embraces her other intersectional facets of being a wife and mom in her work. She is a former board member and sits on the Education Council of AcademyHealth, author of a children’s book, designer, poet, and consultant. As a community scholar-activist, she found her path from engineering to public health and her work involves engaging national mobile clinic programs. The vision for her work is rooted in culturally responsive and equitable tools for co-designing research and evaluation initiatives with communities. As a speaker and facilitator, Dr. Attipoe-Dorcoo has also presented at several conferences, published several articles, chairs and serves as an advisor for a number of entities, and facilitated a number of trainings.

  • Dr. Kimberly Harris, MBA, PhD, is the founder and principal of Educa Consulting, a full-service research and evaluation firm. Dr. Harris is a trained economist, specializing in Culturally Responsive and Equitable Evaluation and Research (CREE/R), with more than a decade of research and evaluation experience with government agencies and philanthropic organizations. In addition to publications in journals such as Science Education, Journal of Negro Education, Journal of Managerial Issues, and Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science, she has also co-authored five book chapters. Dr. Harris’s work with the community has included training community members across the country to work alongside her as ‘citizen/community’ researchers and evaluators. She earned undergraduate degrees from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, NC in Economics and African/African American studies. She earned an MBA concentrating in trust and wealth management from Campbell University, and a Ph.D. in Education Research and Policy Analysis, with a concentration in Decision Sciences, from North Carolina State University. She completed postdoctoral work at The University of California in Berkeley, CA.

Alejo Heymo & Natalia Tavera Daza

Herramientas para el cambio sistémico. Postura crítica sobre proyectos de turismo sostenible con recursos de la cooperación internacional. 

El caso de la Costa de Oaxaca-Chiapas, México.

  • El proyecto de Paisajes Sostenibles concluye de manera satisfactoria, resaltando la relevancia de la colaboración con diversos actuantes territoriales y la participación inclusiva. Se destaca el empoderamiento de gestores locales, la definición de un objetivo común y el enfoque del turismo como herramienta de desarrollo. No obstante, persisten desafíos territoriales, especialmente en el ámbito del turismo, como la inclusión de jóvenes y mujeres, la integración de territorios remotos y la promoción de un turismo de bajo impacto. Se subraya la necesidad de humanizar el turismo, involucrando a la sociedad civil desde la concepción del proyecto. Adicionalmente, se enfatiza el papel esencial del facilitador y la capacitación necesaria para promover procesos colectivos efectivos, resaltando la importancia de fortalecer habilidades locales para una cooperación internacional más efectiva. 

  • Historiadora. Maestra en Turismo Sostenible.

    Originalmente de Bogotá, Colombia. Con un amplio interés en la filosofía y las ciencias sociales, decidió estudiar Historia en la Universidad Javeriana de Bogotá. Su fascinación por las culturas y el relato de la humanidad, la llevó a involucrarse en el sector turístico realizando capacitaciones a agentes de viajes que quisieran aprender más sobre culturas remotas. Así, terminó colaborando durante años en la empresa familiar especializada en turismo de experiencias en África y Asia.

    Actualmente Natalia se dedica a la consultoría enfocada en turismo con un enfoque a la apertura de nuevos negocios en América Latina.

  • Ingeniero Agrónomo. Maestro en Turismo Sostenible.

    Nacido y criado en Santa Fe, Argentina. Se formó y trabajó en el sector agropecuario por más de 10 años, acompañando productores mixtos de la llanura pampeana. Viajó, primero a Brasil (2012-2013) y luego a México (2019-2022), para desarrollar herramientas que le permitieran corresponder a su vocación de conservar el capital biocultural de las comunidades rurales.

    Actualmente, se encuentra coordinando diversos procesos y equipos en La Mano del Mono (ONG mexicana) con el propósito de fortalecer empresas de ecoturismo que poseen alto impacto en las áreas naturales de Latinoamérica. Asimismo, colabora en la Universidad del Medio Ambiente como docente y consultor.

Unified Playfulness for Systems Change

Dan Rudolph

Pattern Disruption, NOW!

  • As a catalyst of systems change, Dan bridges the inner and outer transformation through playfulness and mindfulness practice. He has worked in various contexts around the world, hosting workshops and supporting transformational processes with groups and organizations. Dan is the founder of Unified Playfulness.

  • In order to change the rules, we first need to learn how to skillfully break them! This paper explores the urgent need for pattern disruption and systems change amidst the relentless pace of modern life and the looming polycrisis. Rooted in the power of play and mindfulness, Unified Playfulness is an embodied liberatory practice, offering a safe container for individuals and groups to break free from default modes of thinking and engage in an innovative/contemplative form that actively supports pattern disruption. Through principles of connection and beloved community, Unified Playfulness fosters compassionate transformation and supports people to cultivate the skills necessary for shared leadership. As an accessible and creative approach, it bridges mindfulness and playfulness practices, facilitating individual and collective experiences of systems change.

Headshot of Sharon Zivkovic

Sharon Zivkovic

Recognising and Supporting the Systems Thinking and Systemising Capabilities of Autistic People

  • Dr Sharon Zivkovic is the Founder and CEO of the social enterprise Community Capacity Builders. As an autistic social entrepreneur and systems thinker, Sharon has used her bottom-up and associative thinking skills, and her systemising capabilities, to develop and commercialise a number of social innovations.

  • This article challenges the deficit view of autism, emphasizing the need to recognize and celebrate the inherent systems thinking traits and systemising capability of autistic individuals. It highlights the devastating effects of constantly focusing on autistic deficits, such as the significantly reduced life expectancy and higher suicide rates among autistic individuals. Using case studies, it illustrates how autistic individuals utilize bottom-up and associative thinking to construct systems that address societal challenges.