I teach political education, organizational and leadership development, and healing justice.
I do both public speaking in front of large audiences and facilitate trainings, workshops, and retreats for smaller groups. I have worked with school districts, companies, community organizers, and nonprofit organizations.
I specialize in diversity equity and inclusion (DEI) trainings, professional development workshops, and social change conversations. I also specialize in facilitating spaces for Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities. Through history, data, and storytelling, I equip your organization with a systems-level understanding of social justice and leave people feeling empowered and inspired to take meaningful and sustained action.
“Sole has a wealth of invaluable knowledge for social justice that is digestible and thought-provoking, while promoting inspired action in the community. [This experience] was the catalyst to igniting my courage so that I can use my voice and challenge my personal biases in a compassionate way. Sole, thank you so much for your dedication to leading a movement to justice and liberation!”
— Alyssa Saquilayan, Nurse + Coach
Political Education
I teach political education by providing folks with the frameworks we need to understand injustice systematically. These frameworks serve as lenses which through we can see the world more clearly.
My political education workshops combine speaking portions and interactive portions and can be delivered in-person or virtually. They are typically 1-2 hours in length, with the possibly of expanding to recurring series and/or multi-day retreats. In alignment with regenerative principles, the cost of these trainings and workshops are on a sliding scale based on your organizational resources. Complete this form or schedule a call to learn more.
My most requested political education workshops include:
-
Understanding Structural Racism
An overview of how racism was created and institutionalized throughout the history of the United States and how this history impacts the lived realities of BIPOC communities today
-
Introduction to Transformative Justice
Understanding transformative justice as guiding principles that direct our attention to underlying conditions that cause injustice and invite us to change these conditions
-
Understanding Interconnected Systems of Oppression
From racism to ableism, from imperialism to colonization, systems of oppression are connected to impact how we are as individual and in relationships
-
Asian American Racialization
An introduction to the construction of the Asian American identity, including the birth of the Asian American political movement, the creation of the model minority myth and racial triangulation
-
Asian American Activism History
Deconstructing the myth that Asian Americans are apolitical by examining a long history of Asian American activism and power-building
-
Contextualizing Anti-Asian Violence
Placing the recent rise in anti-Asian violence in a broader history to understand the systemic forces that have created conditions for violence
Organizational & Leadership Development
I have a decade of experiences facilitating staff retreats, leadership development workshops, and accompanying organizations through change.
My organizational and leadership development workshops combine speaking portions and interactive portions and can be delivered in-person or virtually. They are typically 1.5-2 hours in length, with the possibly of expanding to recurring series and/or multi-day retreats. In alignment with regenerative principles, the cost of these trainings and workshops are on a sliding scale based on your organizational resources. Complete this form or schedule a call to learn more.
My most requested organizational and leadership development workshops include:
-
Navigating Microaggressions
Microaggressions is one way systemic racism shows up in an interpersonal context and navigating its impact requires intellectual, emotional, and somatic approaches
-
Organizational Conflict Transformation
Conflicts often arise in a shared work context, especially in social justice work addressing inequity, oppression, and trauma. Transforming through conflict is essential to achieve shared goals
-
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
The landscape of DEI work is complex and filled with both advancements and co-optations. DEI work requires deep honesty in organizational and institutional spaces
Healing Justice
Healing justice sees each person as part of a larger community and lineage. Healing justice understands harm, violence, and trauma as ancestral, intergenerational, systemic, and pervasive. Healing justice centers connection and joy as fundamental components of a liberatory praxis.
I typically facilitate healing justice experiences at staff retreats. This can be done in-person or virtually. These experiences typically need a more spacious time container, ranging from 3 hours to multi-session or multi-day experiences. In alignment with regenerative principles, the cost of these trainings and workshops are on a sliding scale based on your organizational resources. Complete this form or schedule a call to learn more.
My most requested healing justice experiences include:
-
Getting in right relationships
We often replicate oppressive dynamics we see in society in our small spaces: getting in right relationship invites us to create shifts in the small and large
-
Embodying liberatory worlds
We call in liberation by embodying the liberatory values that we want to see: how we show up is just as important as what we show up to do
-
Grief Circles | Healing Circles
A healing space for when traumatic events happen in our communities: our capacity to love comes from our capacity to move through grief
“Not only have I learned a lot from Sole about the content of the class, but also a lot about how to be an educator. She pushed us to work and think hard to understand concepts that deserve to be thought hard about. I will forever be changed by the knowledge and experiences gained from this class.”
— Bobbie, Mount Vernon School District
“Sole provided a safe and comfortable space for our team to engage, participate, and to learn new concepts. She does a phenomenal job of reading and sensing where the group is and responds to that.”
— Liz Rios, Executive Director, Center for Restorative Justice Works
“Sole is professional, considerate, and truly delved into exactly what our team bonding day needed. [She] helped bring our themes of relationships and mental health with social action together so well. As a supervisor, I appreciated how she cared for the team and brought us together.”
— Kristal C, Program Director, Get On the Bus
Past Clients Include
Photo courtesy of Center for Asian American United for Self Empowerment
Upcoming Speaking Engagements
Oct 2024 Eating Bitterness as a Revolutionary Practice Oral History Association Annual Meeting
Past Speaking Engagements
Aug 2024 The History and Future of Asian American Activism Leadership Education for Asian Pacific
July 2024 Fighting AAPI Microaggressions K.W. Lee Center for Leadership & Korean Education Center of Los Angeles
Jul 2024 Our Community is Our Power: Embracing Our Nervous Systems for Mutual Care and Healing Center for Asian Americans United for Self Empowerment
Jun 2024 Accessing Palestine: Awareness, Education, and Advocacy in Library Spaces American Library Association
Jun 2024 Storytelling as Building Blocks Towards Political Power National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development
Jun 2024 History, Myths, and Concepts: The Model Minority Myth and Asian America Highlights for Children & Zaner-Bloser Publishing
Feb 2024 The Battle for Critical Race and Ethnic Studies Xin Sheng Project
Dec 2023 U.S. Imperialism in West Asia Asian Pacific American Librarian Association
Nov 2023 U.S. Imperialism in West Asia: A Community Teach-in on Palestine, Asian American Justice and Innovation Lab
Oct 2023 Asian American and Pacific Islander Movement History, Act to Change
Aug 2023 Cultivating Revolutionary Relationships, Center for Restorative Justice Works
Jun 2023 The Power of Language and the Language of Power, Massachusetts Association of Teachers of Speakers of Other Languages
May 2023 Honor Your Future: Reimagine, Revolutionize, and Radicalize Our Healing, Asian Mental Health Project
May 2023 Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Keynote Speaker, Oxnard Performing Arts Center
May 2023 Affirmative Action Community Briefing, Asian American Futures, Xīn Shēng Project, Chinese for Affirmative Action
May 2023 Introduction to Structural Racism, New York City Department of Education
Dec 2022 Muffling the Voices of Asian American Pacific Islander Language Learners, Illinois Resource Center: Multilingual Illinois
Nov 2022 Language, Power, and Linguistic Colonization, Dual Language Education of New Mexico: La Cosecha Conference
Nov 2022 The Cognitive and Social Power of Standard Language, Dual Language Education of New Mexico: La Cosecha Conference
Sep 2022 Centering Educational Equity for Asian American Students, WIDA and Wisconsin Center for Education Research
May 2022 They Divide We Conquer: forces that have sought to create divisions in Asian America, Asian American Justice + Innovation Lab
May 2022 What if this is the not the darkness of the tomb, but the darkness of the womb (Valarie Kuar), AAPI Stories of Love, Resilience, and Overcoming Hate, The Chicago Women's Association and The University of Chicago Alumni Club of Los Angeles
May 2022 Navigating Personal Connection to Systemic Oppression, Asian Mental Health Project
Mar 2022 Simplifying Industrial Complexes, Asian American Justice + Innovation Lab
Oct 2021 Understanding Fragmentation and Reclaiming Wholeness, Asian American Justice + Innovation Lab
Sep 2021 5-week professional development series on oppression, intersectionality, somatic experiences, and relational healing for educators, ACERO Schools
May 2021 Asian Americans and Social Justice Movements, Love as a Kind of Cure
May 2021 AAPIs in the Workplace: Identity and Belonging, Kapor Capital
May 2021 Language, Power, and Anti-Oppressive Pedagogy, ACERO Schools
May 2021 Asian American Racialization, National Louis University
May 2021 Authenticity in the Workplace: Asian American Experiences, Financial Force
May 2021 Unpacking Microaggressions, PIC Immigration Law
Mar 2021 Community Care, Healing, and Allyship, Brex
Mar 2021 Racialization: The Making of Whiteness and Blackness, Thrive Hive, Nicole Cruz Coaching
Feb 2021 How Capitalism is Failing Our Humanity, Women of Color Summit
Jan 2021 Revolutionary Healing: Investing in Wellness while Divesting from the Wellness Industrial Complex, Roots of South Los Angeles Wellness Center
Oct 2020 HOMAGE: Honoring Our Movement Ancestors through Gratitude and Empowerment, The Cosmos
Jul 2020 How to Build and Inclusive and Accessible Practice, Give Good Care
Jun 2020 This is Water: Introduction to Systems of Oppression, Paridad Educational Consulting
Jun 2020 Mindful Activism: Black and Asian Solidarity, The Cosmos
May 2020 Anti-Asian Violence in the Age of COVID-19, Downers Grove South High School
Aug 2019 Systemic Oppression and Individual Experiences: Indigeneity and Immigration, Paridad Educational Consulting Professional Development in Oaxaca, Mexico
Aug 2019 The Complexity of Identity, Associated Colleges of the Midwest
Apr 2019 Guest lecturer on the history of Japanese internment, guest lecturer on immigration policy, Summit Schools Illinois District 104
Aug 2018 Usos y Costumbres: Indigeneity, Immigration, and Social Justice in Oaxaca, Mexico, Paridad Educational Consulting Professional Development in Oaxaca, Mexico
Feb 2018 How Did We Get Here: History of Global Health Disparities, GlobeMed
Aug 2017 How Did We Get Here: History of Global Health Disparities, GlobeMed
Aug 2017 Harnessing the Power of Grassroots Partnerships, GlobeMed
Jun 2017 3-day retreat for grassroots community leaders on “Changing the Way Change Happens,” GlobeMed Conference in Thailand
Feb 2017 Voices of Grassroots Partnerships, GlobeMed
Feb 2017 Amplifying Voices: Capturing Stories, GlobeMed
Feb 2017 Monitoring and Evaluation: Measuring and Sustaining Social Impact, GlobeMed
Oct 2016 Reciprocal Community Engagement and Community Partnerships, International Service Learning Summit
Aug 2016 How Did We Get Here: History of Global Health Disparities, GlobeMed
Aug 2016 Harnessing the Power of Grassroots Partnerships, GlobeMed
Jun 2016 3-day retreat in Spanish for grassroots community leaders on “Changing the Way Change Happens: Alianzas para el Cambio Radical,” GlobeMed Conference in Guatemala
Feb 2016 Languages as Barriers and Bridges, GlobeMed
Feb 2016 Evaluation of Social Impact, GlobeMed