Surge alum Maraliz Salgado (CHI18) is the founder of Libérate Life Coaching, LLC, where she helps fellow womxn of color evolve through life transitions, role misalignment, burnout, relational rifts and identity shifts, finding it to be a sacred honor to walk her sisters back home to their freedom. She is a liberatory educator, facilitator, and coach with over twenty years of dedicated service to Chicago students, teachers, and families.

As a seasoned racial healing practitioner, Mara has engaged youth, mentors, and school, community and NPO leaders of color through healing circles, racial equity coaching, group coaching/team culture building, post-secondary purpose coaching, and ethnic studies curriculum consulting. Her style is values-based, holistic, and transformational and can include strategic goal-setting, accountability partnership, and decolonial/indigenous healing practices.

Liz brings numbers and creativity to her role as OLAAI's volunteer accountant and operations lead. Armed with a PhD in Economics, she has spent over 15 years analyzing data to evaluate and strengthen public assistance programs. She recently earned a certificate in Community Health Work from Malcolm X College to broaden her perspective on those served by the programs she has studied. Beyond data analysis, Liz is passionate about collage and photography. Her current artivism practice is collaging handwritten get-out-the-vote letters and postcards to send to potential voters in crucial elections. Since 2020, she has also supported democracy by serving as an election judge and coordinator. She's excited to be a part of building up the next generation of artivists who will transform their communities through political engagement and creative expression.

As Chief Curriculum Consultant, Danielle Thompson-Davis brings extensive experience in developing not only culturally responsive, equitable and restorative learning programs, but also those that are impactful and engaging for both youth and adult learners. Her focus is on creating curricula that directly aligns with the OLAAI’s mission and empowers those we serve. She is passionate about fostering educational growth and is excited to contribute to the strategic vision of the OLAAI’s Senior Leadership Team. With a proven track record of successful curriculum development and implementation, She is dedicated to creating opportunities for positive life outcomes for all.

Kaleb’s work is around the design of learning experiences in environments where space and place are central; where youth, communities and ecosystems are actively resisting the hegemonic processes of displacement, gentrification and erasure of sociocultural ways of being and knowledge making. This allows him the framing to focus on the spatial, relational, political and historical dimensions where learning can be tethered and situated to address past injustices to ensure our collective just futures across difference.

Nate Olison founded Optimist Comics in 2020 and enjoys making, teaching, and talking about comics full-time! He is a Chicago resident and a California native. His teaching artist career began in 2010. He coached the slam team at Westinghouse College Prep for 4 years and has created and facilitated many experiences that inspire the moment a young person realizes the power of their own voice. He has served as a mentor, an advocate, a coach, and a confidant for hundreds of students across the Chicago landscape, including pioneering Pitch In, a dynamic social emotional learning program at the middle school level. He is the inaugural facilitator of OLAAI’s Artivism Project of Lawndale youth cohort.