We’re doing anti-racism training differently.

White supremacy culture is rooted in the very infrastructure of our institutions, meaning most organizations are not equipped for creating structural equity and fostering true inclusion for BIWOC in the workplace. As a multicultural and multigenerational team, we’re here to help you disrupt harmful dynamics and policies on your way to making meaningful and long-lasting change.

How We Practice

  • MULTIDISCIPLINARY, MULTICULTURAL + MULTIGENERATIONAL

    Our team reflects the communities we serve, meaning we’re not outsiders to the behaviors we aim to weed out. In our practice as a multicultural, gender-inclusive and intergenerational team of facilitators, we center marginalized communities of color living at the many intersections of identity, and mirror the behavior we seek to achieve.

  • CULTURALLY INCLUSIVE + ROOTED IN EMPATHY

    As lifetime learners, we strive to incorporate proven practices from various disciplines into the work we do. However, some of the most impactful lessons we have shared as trauma-informed facilitators cannot be learned in a book. We root our curriculum in our first-hand experiences as survivors of workplace oppression. We can also offer your staff, board, and stakeholders Spanish translation and interpretation services.

  • LEVERAGING POWER IN NUMBERS

    The Melanin Collective works in a cooperative business partnership with Working IDEAL and Redwood Enterprise LLC. Bridging together our unique strengths and expertise, we’re better positioned to offer holistic consultative services that leave no stone unturned in our mission to help you weed out harmful behaviors and oppressive systems in your workplace.

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Meet Our Team of Subject Matter Experts

  • Doris Quintanilla

    Doris Quintanilla is on a mission to educate, empower, mentor, and effect change in the lives of women and gender non-conforming people of color as the co-founder and Executive Director of The Melanin Collective. Doris has led community health education and youth education and leadership development programs in the United States and the Dominican Republic, focusing on building partnerships and recruiting student leaders.

  • Ashley Carter

    As a visionary leader with excellent management skills and a knack for directing agency operations in a growth-minded direction, Ashley Carter has been helping agencies reach their true potential for nearly 12 years. Ashley demonstrates both strong leadership and project management skills, and with a proven track record of effectively managing Operations, Human Resource and Finance Departments, her areas of expertise include organizational development, employee coaching and relations, leadership development, department strategy, and monetary analysis.

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    Yura Sapi

    After years in the corporate diversity world, Yura Sapi (they/them) extends beyond borders and prioritizes anti-racism and decolonization for our globally just futures with their nonprofit LiberArte, working with rural and urban Black, Indigenous, and LGBTIQ+ communities across Latin America. Yura creates liberated spaces described as “centering, calming, and helpful” by participants. They host the Building Our Own Tables Podcast spotlighting creators of color at the intersections of gender, sexuality, disability, and other marginalized identities. Yura holds degrees from Boston University and CUNY Brooklyn College.

  • Dr. Ahmmad Brown

    Ahmmad Brown is a scholar-practitioner who provides educational experiences and consulting services to equip people committed to moving the needle on DEI with the skills to do so. Ahmmad’s approach to DEI work is informed by his academic training in organizational behavior and management and his personal experiences growing up as a low-income Black male with two disabled parents in a predominantly-white suburb in California’s Central Valley.

    As president and co-founder of EBDI Consulting, Ahmmad works with leaders and executives across sectors to conceive and effectively implement sustainable and impactful DEI strategies. Ahmmad also serves as an assistant professor in the masters and executive programs in learning and organizational change (MSLOC and ELOC programs) at the Northwestern School of Education and Social Policy, where he is also the faculty lead for the Leading Equity and Inclusion (LEIO) certificate program.

    His academic work focuses on inequality in organizations, how minoritized people generate and use social capital in organizations and allyship in workplaces.

  • Janice Peña Rosario

    Janice Peña Rosario (she/hers/ella) is a La Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo/The Autonomous University of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic graduate. She has a master's in applied linguistics to teach the English language and is currently an English Professor. Janice has dedicated herself to community development in the Dominican Republic, connecting foreign institutions in the valley region of the island with local organizations like Fundación Tarbiat, Fundación Félix Bautista, and the Foundation for the Development of Azua, San Juan, and Elias Piña (FUNDASEP).

    As an ambassador of Dominican culture and a history buff, Janice has a passion for educating people on the history and colonization of the island of Quisqueya. In addition, Janice is a subject matter expert in the Taíno people and the indigenous people of the Caribbean and works in the community to elevate and celebrate the island's African roots.

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    Educación Contra el Racismo

    Educación contra el racismo A.C. (“RacismoMX”) is a Mexican civil organization and digital initiative whose main objective is to make racism visible in Mexico, denounce, and open the conversation on this problem in our country and region through different educational tools, digital activism, communication campaigns, and legal strategies, in order to contribute in the eradication of racism and other types of oppression systems.