These dynamic humans are the foundation of the Facing In community

Kusum Crimmel, LCSW

Kusum is a facilitator of transformational change and generative conflict whose work expands our individual and collective capacity to lean into complexity, nuance, and the necessary messiness of navigating difference.

For two decades, Kusum has worked with teenagers, parents, educators, and community members through mental-health support, crisis intervention, conflict transformation, culture building, facilitation, and training. While her LCSW allows her to move through the mental-health system, her commitments remain deeply rooted in transformative justice and the rigor, creativity, and relational depth it demands.
She brings 10 years of rape-crisis counseling experience and more than a decade of training through Generative Somatics. Her recent roles include Clinical Program Manager with Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth and Clinical Director at the Center for Family Counseling, and is currently supporting Oakland Unified School District’s Extended Learning Program with mental-health crisis support.
Kusum is the founder of Untangling Whiteness (formerly Dissecting Whiteness), an offering for individuals and organizations committed to dismantling white supremacy and healing from racialized harm and conflict. She is the director of an upcoming documentary film, Untangling Whiteness: a path to wholeness, accompanied by a curriculum designed to support a cultural shift—from the harmful embodiment of “white” toward a future rooted in healing, wholeness, and a new emerging identity.

Bushmama Africa

Bushmama Africa is Spiritual Life Coach, Published Illustrator and In Demand Healer helping people enlighten, empower and engage with ancestors to elevate their lives.

She has been an exhibitor, performer and Curator for the “The Indigo Project" at Somarts Cultural Center in San Francisco, California.
As an Oakland native she’s been highly requested to officiate ceremonies for clients including The African American Art and Culture Complex, Oakland’s Pan African Festival, Healing Clinic Collective, The Museum of the African Diaspora, Black Joy Parade, Genesis Healing Institute Life Force Conference, Self Care for Black Women in Leadership Cohort with Compasspoint and The Healing for Black Lives Event. Bushmama Africa consulted and created sacred spaces for Red Bay Coffee, The Matatu Festival, MoAD and The Saint Regis Hotel SF and their events to elevate the energy, honor the ancestors and provide protection for the community.
As a coach, she provides metaphysical healing and spiritual consultation for African-Americans who want to learn how to engage their ancestors for cleansing, clarity and connection. She provides workshops on Womb Healing, Self Care Practices and Mental Health Support for BayArea Women Against Rape. In 2020 she Co-Founded Single Parents Advocacy and Resource Center providing support to our most vulnerable families. https://sparcjoysingleparents.org

Rachel Talasko

Driven by a lifelong passion for learning and creative inquiry, Rachel earned her BA and MA in Sociology from Florida Atlantic University, where she also partnered with community organizations and taught undergraduate courses.

After several years in the nonprofit sector, she felt called back to education and moved to Hawai‘i in 2014 to pursue public-school teaching. She completed an MS in Education at Johns Hopkins University and spent six years in Kailua-Kona as a teacher, coach, and restorative justice coordinator. Trained by Minneapolis-based restorative practitioners, she centers her pedagogy on restorative practices and educational equity.
In 2020, she relocated to Portland to continue teaching during the pandemic, and the following year, she moved to the Bay Area. She joined Life Academy High School in Oakland and later began teaching Sociology at Laney College, where she has offered dual-enrollment opportunities to Oakland students for the past three years. In 2023, she joined the district’s racial healing initiative. This year, she serves on OUSD’s Credit Recovery team, teaching English at McClymonds and Castlemont High Schools.

André Bloodstone Singleton

André Bloodstone Singleton is an Oakland based Sacred healing multi-disciplinary artist born in Kansas City, Missouri. His art celebrates the African Diaspora. He is a thread within a fabric of pioneers on a mission to unite people from an abundance of cultural backgrounds.

Singleton’s work continues to inspire courage, pride, and vulnerability, encouraging people all over the world to respect one another so that our communities might remain enriching for us all. Find out more on the blog: brohogany.tumblr.com.

Ayo Lewis

Ayo is an educator, organizer, and Restorative Justice practitioner rooted in Oakland, California. A product of Oakland Unified School District, he has served local schools as a tutor, teacher, and Restorative Justice facilitator, bringing relationship-centered practices into classrooms and youth spaces.

He earned his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science with a minor in Communications from Oakwood University.
Ayo’s public service foundation includes roles with the Alameda County Board of Supervisors, the Alabama State Democratic Party, and several Congressional offices. His commitment to community engagement and policy work informs the organizing lens he brings to restorative justice.
As a Program Manager at Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth, Ayo taught restorative practices through circle building and trained transitional age youth, educators, and community members in relational skill building, conflict transformation, and community-strengthening strategies. His teachings have been featured in national and international convenings, including the NACRJ Conference, the 2023 Antiracist Research Agenda Conference at UC Law San Francisco, and the 2023 International Institute for World Practices World Conference. His work has also appeared in published anthologies.
Ayo now serves as the Community Engagement Manager at the Guiding Rage into Power Training Institute, where he advocates for the rights of incarcerated people and organizes networks of support for survivors of violent crimes. Across local government, education, and community organizing, Ayo builds environments where healing, accountability, and connection can thrive.

Susan Andrien, LMFT

Susan is a mother, therapist, and community leader with more than 30 years of experience serving children, families, and educators impacted by trauma, inequity, and systemic barriers. Guided by a belief in the healing power of community and nature, she has dedicated her career to creating spaces of belonging, resilience, and possibility for those most often left out of systems of care.

Susan is the founder and CEO of Hope Reimagined, a healing-centered organization that provides school-based mental health services, coaching, and nature connection programs that integrates neuroscience, somatics and nature-based practices. Under her leadership, Hope Reimagined has partnered with schools, nonprofits, and community organizations to bring trauma-informed services and trainings to children, families, and the adults who support them. She holds certifications in the Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics (Phase II), Restorative Justice, Embodied Transformation, Forest Bathing, Nature Connection facilitation, and is currently in training with The Strozzi Institute to become a certified Somatic Coach.

Saun-Toy Trotter

The health of an individual informs and inspires the health of the community. Saun-Toy is a healer and psychotherapist with over 20 years experience serving adults, adolescents and families impacted by interpersonal, community and historical trauma.

She is committed to fostering healthy communities and families by supporting individuals and couples to access healing that reveals wholeness. Regardless of the past, a sense of ease and wellbeing is possible.
Trained in evidence-based practices that address complex trauma, anxiety and depression, Saun-Toy brings a keen awareness of the impact of historical and systemic oppression. She integrates somatic, drama therapy, mindfulness, energy healing and spirituality into her psychotherapy practice in order to foster resilience, joy, wellness and liberation.

Shakur Ross

Tommy "Shakur" Ross was paroled in 2022, after being imprisoned for 37 years. While incarcerated Shakur transformed his life and accomplished many achievements.

Some of those achievements include training and experience as a peer health educator, circle keeper, group facilitator, podcaster, mentor, event planner/organizer and restorative justice practitioner. Shakur is employed by GRIP (Guiding Rage Into Power) where he facilitates a 52-week curriculum inside both San Quentin and Soledad prisons; he is also employed by RJOY as a Restorative Justice Associate, and currently facilitates the Freedom Circle, a circle for formerly incarcerated and system-impacted peoples.

Kamailia

Kamailia brings over 15 years of experience to the counseling field, grounded in community mental health and a deep commitment to trauma-informed care. Her expertise is shaped by both professional training and lived experience, forming the foundation of her compassionate, whole-person approach to therapy.

A relational and somatic therapist, Kamailia integrates movement, dance, music, and expressive arts into her work. She believes in caring for the whole person—emotionally, mentally, physically, spiritually, and socially—and in creating a space where vulnerability becomes a pathway to genuine connection. Her practice empowers clients to speak their truth, reclaim their voice, and rewrite the stories that have kept them from living fully.
Kamailia supports individuals in moving beyond fear, pain, and doubt toward greater ease, balance, and self-love. She helps clients navigate emotional, relational, and systemic challenges, offering practical tools and somatic techniques to release tension and reconnect with themselves. She believes every person deserves a place to be heard, to heal, and to feel empowered.
Outside her professional life, Kamailia finds joy in dancing—what she lovingly calls “soul healing.” She feels most grounded in nature, especially in the woods or by the ocean, and treasures sharing good food and laughter with loved ones, her kids and family.

Ari Tzvia Helfand (they/them)

Ari honors the complex ways their ancestors have carried culture and survived to make their life possible. They offer politicized somatic therapy and mediation centering trans movement organizers, cultural workers and survivors on Lisjan Ohlone land in Oakland.

Ari has been politically shaped through organizing in anti-zionist movements for over a decade with the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), alongside White Noise Collective, a white anti-racist feminist collective. They are a white, trans nonbinary, queer, disabled, Ashkenazi Jew raised on Dakhóta and Anishinaabeg lands in Minneapolis. They learned from their elders who survived the Nazi genocide that never again must mean never again for anyone. Ari cares about coming with reverence and humility for the blessing of being alive, and continuing the legacies of resistance that bring us to this time. To find out more check them out HERE.

Kyle McClerkins

Kyle refers to himself as a son of Oakland, California. He found his passion of working with youth when his children were born. When he saw the fearlessness and creativity young minds hold, he immediately thought about helping youth express their creativity positively. Kyle has worked in a variety of Oakland elementary, middle and High Schools.

In 2009, he started contracting with Oakland Unified School District as a Conflict Mediator and later transitioned to work in the Restorative Justice unit. Since working as an RJ Facilitator, Kyle has been a High School Dean, and taught Restorative justice, leadership, advisory classes. Outside of school he has partnered and consulted with multiple school districts across the United States. Past and current clients include Santa Clara University adjunct lecturer, Los Angeles Unified School District, University of Pittsburgh, Allegheny Intermediate Unit, Great Falls USD, San Antonio USD, St. Charles Parrish Public Schools and St.Louis Ed Plus. Currently Kyle is the RJ Program Manager for Oakland Unified School District where he supports, trains, coaches and consults with RJ facilitators and teachers. He has trained over 3000+ participants in Restorative Practices.

Tiffany Chen

A Holistic Practitioner, medium for the spirit guides, energy healer, fire keeper, medicine maker, and ceremonial facilitator.

I am a trained and initiated lineage keeper, specializing in different healing modalities to help co-create lasting shifts and transformation in the body & soul’s ecosystem. I work with individuals and groups to support their healing journeys, reconnect with ancestral lineages, and cultivate sustainable well-being. My approach weaves together ritual embodiment practices, energy work, and ancestral remembrance to help folks navigate life transitions, deepen self-awareness, and strengthen inner resilience.

Collaborators