Courses
Coaching and Leading Inclusively: Gender, Sex, and the Body

Coaching and Leading Inclusively: Gender, Sex, and the Body builds participants’ capacities to be present to diverse human experiences of our bodies, erotic energies, and relationships to gender.

Building these capacities begins with a reflective turn to ourselves and our own personal experiences and identities. Only by gaining perspective on our own gender, sexual energies and identities, and bodies can we possibly be present to our clients in these dimensions.

This program immerses participants in queer culture. It’s like a virtual study abroad experience in “the land of gay.” Plenary sessions are highly interactive and experiential, bringing in a  diverse set of guest speakers and incorporating reflexive and practical exercises. Small “action learning” groups, meeting in between plenary sessions, allow participants to form small communities of practice in which to explore and apply what they are learning, for example, through coaching in new ways.

To supplement the learning in live sessions, participants can take in a menu of queer fiction, drama, film, and autobiography as well as a few selected professional and scholarly texts.

Coaching and Leading Inclusively: Gender, Sex, and the Body extends and deepens the exploration of gender identity, gender expression, erotic energies, sexual orientation, and sexual identity from the perspective of adult development. Intersections with cultural, racial, religious, class, and other identities are also taken seriously, especially to de-center white, Western, middle-class, and Christian experiences and identities.

The program is open to participants of all genders and sexualities, and aims to meet the learning needs of straight and LGBTQ+ participants alike.

Drawing on the Heroes Journey program from Flourishing Gays, Coaching and Leading Inclusively promises a particularly deep exploration of the developmental journeys of gay, bi, and queer men, as a doorway into gaining new perspective on all gender and sexual identities.

Guest faculty will in particular bring a range of additional identities and perspectives into focus.

This price for this workshop is US$1,999 with an asynchronous rate of $999 for those in time zones that make joining live difficult.

The faculty is committed to making this program accessible to interested participants who have limited financial means. If requesting the Accessible rate, please provide a one-sentence description of your financial circumstances that put the regular pricing out of reach. We have a limited number of spaces at this Accessible rate.

Guest speakers who we have been invited to contribute to this program with their valuable time, knowledge, and stories are also most welcome to participate in the entire program at this special rate. In the Pricing Comment field, for the Special rate, please identify yourself if you are one of our invited guest speakers.

Awale (Wally) Osman’s creative leadership style transforms traditional grantmaking and expands the scope of what is possible in philanthropy. Wally is an Associate Manager at the Best Buy Foundation. He’s collaborative approach to advancing equity clears complexity and pioneers new paths for change. Wally listens and watches; explains and persuades. His brand to deepening equity builds consensus and motivates by doing. Previously, Wally served at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Bush Foundation to expand the boundaries for inclusion.

Wally earned a BA in communications and a minor in Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies from Augsburg University in Minneapolis, Minn. He is a 2019 W.K. Kellogg Foundation Community Leadership Network Fellow, a graduate of the Humphrey Institute Policy Fellowship and the Dr. Josie R. Johnson Leadership Academy. Wally continues to receive multiple accolades including: NAACP’s McGee Youth in Action Award; Interfaith Action of Greater Saint Paul’s Emerging Legend Award; and the National TRIO Achiever Award – to name a few.

Emil Wilbekin is a multimedia maverick who contributes to Architectural Digest and Town & Country. He is the Co-Producer and Writer on the documentary The Remix: Hip
Hip X Fashion (Netflix). Wilbekin also does public speaking centering conversations around culture, diversity, equity, inclusion and LGBTQ+ issues.

He is also the Founder of Native Son, a platform created to inspire and empower Black gay and queer men.

He has appeared On-Air discussing pop culture, fashion/style, entertainment and current affairs on The Today Show, NBC Channel 4 News New York, E! VH-1, MTV, BET, CNN, The Insider, Arise 360, Revolt, and PBS.

Wilbekin has an expertise in editorial creation, content curation and multimedia story telling (print, digital, social, video and live events) having served as Chief Content
Officer at Afropunk, Editor-at-Large at Essence, Managing Editor of Essence.com, Editor-in-Chief of Giant and Giantmag.com, Style Guru at Complex Media, VP of Brand
Development at Marc Eckō Enterprises, Editorial Director/Vice President of Vibe Ventures and Editor-in-Chief of Vibe Magazine. Under Wilbekin’s leadership, Vibe won
the National Magazine Award for General Excellence in 2002.

Wilbekin holds a B.S. in Mass Media Arts from Hampton University, and an M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University. He resides in New York City.

Dr. Julie Delkamiller is currently an associate professor at the University of Nebraska at Omaha training individuals to be teachers of the deaf/hard of hearing and/or sign language interpreters. She holds a doctoral degree in Educational Leadership, a master’s degree in Learning Disabilities and a bachelor’s degree in Deaf Education/Social Sciences. In addition, Dr. Delkamiller holds national certification in sign language interpreting through the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf. Julie has always had a desire to work with individuals on the margins of society and strongly believes that education is the foundational necessity in which to impact change. Being involved in preparing the next generation of teachers is a passion of hers both in the United States and in Nicaragua. The importance of educating the “whole person” permeates every area of Julie’s personal and professional life.

Heath Focken was born and raised in rural Nebraska. He became deaf at the age of 18 months due to Spinal Meningitis. He went to public school as only deaf student relying on interpreters all of mainstream school years. Heath was very active involved in school activities such as Basketball, One Acts, Speech, Track, and FFA. He went to Rochester Institute of Technology and graduated with B.S. in Biology and a concentration in Deaf Studies. He was involved in National Technical Institute for Deaf Student Assembly, Asian Deaf Club, and a Residential Advisor focusing on improving lifestyle of students on the floor. After graduation, moved back to Nebraska in Omaha, got involved with Nebraska Association of the Deaf as a delegate, Vice President and President on the board. Heath was also an adjunct Professor at University of Nebraska at Omaha teaching ASL for a few years beside Dr. Julie Delkamiller. He was also a residential counselor at Iowa School for the Deaf for students in after school programs and in the dorm. He run the STEAM and WEE program and provided life skills for the students to become successful in their own future. He currently work as Deaf, DeafBlind and Hard of Hearing Community Health Advocate at Family Tree Clinic in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is obtaining his certificate as a Community Health Worker to serve the Deaf, DeafDisabled, DeafBlind, Hard of Hearing and Late Deafened (DDDDBHHLB) Communities to make sure they are empowered to take charge of their health. Heath also do Sexual Health Education and assist with navigating the healthcare insurances for the DDDDBHHLD communities. Family Tree Clinic is only clinic in the US to provide direct support and ASL education on Sexual Health. Heath is working toward to reduce health disparities that DDDDBHHLB faces day to day in the Healthcare by advocating for their full communication needs, providing resources to make informed decisions and assisting the clients navigating the Healthcare system. He hopes to train more Healthcare professionals and Healthcare Interpreters to provide more better trauma informed care for the DDDDBHHLB patients.

Heath is thrilled for this opportunity to share his story and show that no matter the barriers or obstacles in life, don’t let them stop you from being successful and open more opportunities for others.

Emmanuelle Verhagen is a DEI professional, inclusion and trauma coach, intersex activist and theatermaker/playwright. Following a corporate career in media and IT as a portfolio brand strategist in service of companies like P&G, Nokia, and Heineken as well as founding and leading a global marketing advisory practice, they nowadays consult for companies on diversity, equity and inclusion programmes.

As an established certified co-active coach (CPCC) and Deep Democracy trainer and facilitator, they mentor and coach individual leaders and their teams on inclusion and cultural transformation challenges. The latter mostly by sharing their knowledge and expertise on working with Barrett’s Values (CTC).

They also co-lead the Belgian intersex community, are director of the LGBTI+ movement and, design and direct theater performances that spark meaningful conversations around their gender and body experience, healing their intergenerational trauma, and for others to experience aspects of this journey.

Emmanuelle holds an MSc. in Applied Economics and MBA from SDA Bocconi.

They live in Belgium, in a small hamlet next to Brussels together with their wife and cat.

Summer Minerva (she/they) holds a BA in International Studies and Journalism from the University of Miami and an MS in Education. She is a researcher, performer, public speaker, and educator, as well as multilingual (Ital/Span/Port).

Summer currently has a book under contract with SUNY Academic: Italian Trans Geographies- an anthology of trans narratives from Italy and the Italian diaspora. Her feature documentary, Summer Within, is an autobiographical account of her quest for belonging via the femminielli of Napoli. Both groundbreaking works are to be released in 2022.

John Pachankis, Ph.D. is the Susan Dwight Bliss Associate Professor of Public Health and Psychiatry at Yale. As Director of Yale’s LGBTQ Mental Health Initiative, his goal is to bring effective mental health treatments to LGBTQ people in the US and around the world and to identify strategies to getting such treatment to LGBTQ people in greatest need. His NIH-funded studies examine the efficacy of LGBTQ-affirmative interventions delivered via diverse technologies, settings, and community members. These interventions have shown efficacy for reducing the co-occurring mental health risks commonly affecting LGBTQ people (e.g., depression, anxiety, suicidality, substance use disorders) across several randomized controlled trials. He has published 100+ scientific papers on LGBTQ mental health and stigma and co-edited the Handbook of Evidence-Based Mental Health Practice with Sexual and Gender Minorities published by Oxford University Press. He has received several awards for his research, including APA’s Distinguished Contribution to Psychology in the Public Interest award, Distinguished Contribution to the Advancement of Psychotherapy award, and awards for Distinguished Book and Distinguished Scientific Contribution to LGBTQ scholarship.

Jennifer Brown (she/her) is an award-winning entrepreneur, speaker, author, and diversity and inclusion expert who is deeply passionate about building more inclusive workplaces where more of us can feel welcomed, valued, respected, and heard. As the Founder and CEO of Jennifer Brown Consulting (JBC), a certified woman- and LGBT-owned firm, Jennifer and her team design and execute inclusion strategies that have been implemented by some of the biggest companies and nonprofits in the world. She is also the bestselling author of two books, Inclusion: Diversity, The New Workplace and The Will to Change (2017) and How To Be An Inclusive Leader: Your Role in Creating Cultures of Belonging Where Everyone Can Thrive (2019), a shortlist winner of the O.W.L. Award, and winner of the 2019 Nautilus Book Awards’ Business & Leadership category. She also recently co-authored a groundbreaking book on diversity, equity and inclusion in society with thought leader and fellow bestselling author, Rohit Bhargava. The book, Beyond Diversity: 12 Non-Obvious Ways To Build A More Inclusive World, was announced as a Wall Street Journal bestseller and also listed in Inc.’s 22 Books to Read (or Reread) in 2022. Jennifer’s podcast, The Will to Change, is downloaded by nearly 15,000 listeners per month, and she is a sought-after keynote speaker and expert for leading research institutions and business schools. She lives in New York City with her partner of over 20 years, Michelle. You can learn more at www.jenniferbrownspeaks.com.

A former Jesuit, William D. Glenn recently retired after a 35-year private practice in clinical psychology. He is currently the chair of the board of trustees of the Graduate Theological Union, an inter-religious gradate university in Berkeley. His spiritual memoir, I Came Here Seeking a Person: Notes from the Interior, will be published by Paulist Press in 2022.

A former educator, Glenn was the executive director of Continuum, an AIDS health care agency in San Francisco’s, serving many of the City’s most beleaguered citizens. He is a co-founder of the Center for LGBTQ and Gender Studies at the Pacific School of Religion, past vice president of the board of KQED, past president of the socially responsible mutual fund Citizens Funds, and past president of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. For nine years, he co-facilitated a men’s group for lifers at San Quentin State Penitentiary and for seven years, led Spirit Group, an inter-religious community of prayer. He is currently a trustee of the Morris K. Stulsaft Foundation in San Francisco.

Glenn did graduate studies that led to three master’s degrees: an MDiv (Pacific School of Religion) and was awarded the Paul Wesley Yinger Award for Distinguished Preaching, an MA in clinical psychology (University of San Francisco,) and an MA in American Studies (Saint Louis University).

Glenn is the recipient of many community awards, including, with his husband Scott Hafner, the AIDS Memorial Grove’s Leading Light Award. A noted speaker and writer, Glenn conducts workshops on the Enneagram and has published in two anthologies. His columns have been collected at www.avoluptuousgod.com.

Gregg Cassin tested positive in the mid-80’s and like many others was told “There’s nothing I can do for you”. Today, a 34 year survivor of HIV, Gregg has been leading retreats and workshops for the HIV, LGBT and queer youth communities for 30+ years. In the darkest days of the epidemic Gregg founded the SF Healing Circle, and the San Francisco Center for Living as well as assisting with the national conference AIDS, Medicine & Miracles. This work honors the scores of friends lost and equally as important those loved ones who remain. “I believe profoundly in the wisdom and healing that comes from our joining together. We grow from the sharing of our personal stories and bearing witness to one another’s journeys.”

Gregg Cassin, a 34 year survivor of HIV, now at Shanti Project created “Honoring Our Experience”, a retreat program addressing the issues of long term survivors of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. He also facilitates retreats for LGBTQ young adults and the LGBTQ asylee/refugee community.

Gregg’s work honors the sacred inner journey each one of us is called to as queer people. Exploring the importance of self-love, connection, belonging and innocence. Story-telling remains the foundation of his work, the power of sharing one’s story and being a witness for others.

His contribution to the HIV/AIDS community has been recognized with the Certificate of Special Recognition from the U.S. Congress presented by Nancy Pelosi in 1990 as well as honors from the City of San Francisco. He is seen in the ground-breaking documentaries “Absolutely Positive” and “That’s a Family!” His greatest joy is the gift of being a parent and now grandparent to 3 amazing humans.

Payment is fully refundable up to 28 days before the start of the event, less a 13% processing fee; it is not refundable thereafter. If the event is under-enrolled, we reserve the right to cancel 28 days prior to the event start date, and refund your registration fee in full.