The TIA Team
All peoples are interconnected, each person has unique value and purpose, and it takes a strong community to reveal and receive our gifts. Meet our founder and team of facilitators.
Yaniyah Pearson, Founder/Facilitator
Yaniyah’s Philosophy
The philosophical basis for Yaniyah’s approach is rooted in a deep sense of spirituality from worldwide indigenous traditions of North and South America, East Asia, and West Africa. All peoples are interconnected, each person has unique value and purpose, and it takes a strong community to reveal and receive our gifts.
Yaniyah’s Bio
Yaniyah formed Transformation In Action in 1996 in response to requests from youth-service organizations wanting a holistic (psycho-social-political) approach to working with youth and their communities. Yaniyah Pearson (she, her) has been working in the fields of youth and human services for over 40 years. As a facilitator and senior manager in the areas of youth development, leadership development, community building, transformative justice, and racial equity, she has crafted transformational experiences for youth and adults nationally and internationally. For 3 summers, she supervised groups of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) youth in an unprecedented cultural exchange program in Russia and Uzbekistan.
She has dedicated much of her career to galvanizing support for urban older youth/young adults. As an appointed member of the Youth Council of the Workforce Investment Board of NYC she co-designed policy and best practices for youth workforce development. For 12 years Yaniyah worked with YouthBuild USA as a T.A. provider and the director of YouthBuild Brownsville advancing youth leadership as a transformational process. She introduced yoga, meditation, and “spiritual” retreats to YouthBuild youth and staff. nationwide. She received a Safe Haven award for her service. As the Human Services director in Newburgh, NY Yaniyah launched a comprehensive community development and violence prevention strategy that brought together faith based leaders, community based organizations, and newly formed neighborhood associations. As the Director of Restorative Justice and Racial Equity Initiatives at Ramapo for Children, Yaniyah worked with Dr. Stacey Alicea to build capacity for whole school restorative justice implementation in New York City, Baltimore and New Jersey. She has presented on racial equity and restorative justice at local and national conferences. She is a MDNFL certified Mindfulness Instructor bringing present awareness practices into her work. She is also a regular guest instructor for the IDEA Educators Antiracism Course for white educators where she applies energetic healing practices to help educators transform internalized patterns of dominant culture. As a cultural activist and performing artist, Yaniyah is often called upon to create community ceremonies to uplift healing and cultural pride. She is a published writer and a 2017 Sinister Wisdom Pushcart-nominated author.
Yaniyah has a master degree in Counseling Psychology specializing in Adolescent Development. She honed her skills in group development and facilitation at the National Training Laboratory (NTL) Institute for Human Development. She has received in depth restorative circle keeping training from Kay Pranis, Erin Dunlevy, and the International Institute for Restorative Practices (IIRP).
Read more about Yaniyah’s experience, click for her resume here.
Stacey Alicea, M.P.H, PhD Principal Consultant/Facilitator
Stacey Alicea (she, her, hers), is a Puerto Rican Bronx native. She is community psychologist with a deep commitment to bridging research and practice initiatives grounded in community participatory action, critical pedagogy, social network, continuous improvement, and systems design frameworks.
To read more about Stacey and her background, please click here.
Christian Rabin, M.A., Principal Consultant/Facilitator
Christian Rabin (he, him, his), is an independent scholar, writer and musician. The unifying thread of his work is an exploration of the “blueing” nature of Black thought, as well as a commitment to his central assertion that “the problem of the color line extends even into the spiritual life.”
To read more about Christian and his background, please click here.
Naomi Lippin, Consultant/Facilitator
Naomi Lippin is an Organization and Leadership development professional who, for over 20 years, has worked with nonprofit organizations to create thriving work cultures that maximize employee engagement resulting in robust, sustainable business outcomes.
Currently Naomi is the Organizational Development and Learning Department Manager at Garnet Health, the premier health system serving the Hudson Valley. Over her 8 year tenure she has been instrumental in incorporating evidence-based and state of the art organization and leadership models. She works with department leaders to increase employee engagement, collaborative team building and goal setting, and professional development. She is the co-designer of a competency-based leadership model and program. She is largely responsible for incorporating the Gallup CliftonStrengths assessment into the organization’s engagement strategy, which is now widely employed by leaders, enabling them to leverage their strengths toward achieving department and organizational goals.
To read more about Naomi and her background, please click here.
Cynthia Zwicky, Consultant/Facilitator
Cynthia Zwicky has been a public school teacher for 30 years, working in elementary and middle school classrooms, and has worked extensively with pre and in-service teachers. She currently teaches at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.
She is a nationally recognized authority on Restorative Measures and has brought her expertise to schools and school districts across the country. Most notably, She supported Baltimore Public Schools in partnering with community agencies to begin looking at Restorative measures to reverse the disproportionality of suspensions for African American students.
To read more about Cynthia and her background, please click here.