co-creators
being, becoming, belonging
hello there,
We are the co-creators of this practice space. A collective of thinkers, designers, coaches and artists — we channel care and creativity into community building. Read more below about our diverse backgrounds and interests.
Jia (Carol) Xu
Grounded in practice, yet not defined by the status quo.
Carol has worn a few hats: academic researcher, startup co-founder, podcast host, and discovery partner for leaders and organizations on their paths of learning and transformation. Her purpose has always remained the same: To help unleash human potential through a deeper understanding of people, work, and technology.
After getting her PhD from Stanford University, she found the tremendous innovation happening in alternative, decentralized ways of organizing an irresistible subject. She is actively involved in global movements and communities where thought leaders explore alternative ways of organizing talent and resources, where company executives experiment with new organizational and cultural DNAs, and where pioneering individuals adopt radically different mindsets and approaches in creating fulfilling work experiences.
She and her collaborators are actively re-imagining livelihood models for purpose-driven individuals, organizations, and society as a whole. Her areas of interest are — cultivating learning communities, living system design, design thinking, contemplative practices, science and art of communication, social permaculture, complexity and emergence.
Learn more about Carol on her LinkedIn page here.
Stephanie Soussloff
Stephanie is a social systems and learning designer bringing theory into practice for the good of leaders and teams. An organizational development practitioner, she began her career supporting entrepreneurs and startups.
Her role is to be a mirror: bringing awareness of the whole system so each individual can see themselves more fully and make decisions from a place of empowerment and alignment. She believes lasting resilience and growth originate from the quality of relationship and community.
A multidisciplinary practitioner, she leverages her knowledge of human-centered design and adult development design conditions & build capacity for peer-to-peer learning, authentic relationships and whole systems transformation, beginning with the self.
Stephanie brings her own healing and learning journey into all that she does. While outwardly leaning into her learning edges and tensions, she opens doors for others to join her in the continual pursuit for alignment in inner work, task work and life’s work, so that together they may find liberation.
Along with many dear friends, mentors and healers who have met her along this path, she often turns to animals (horses, cats, dogs, ants…) as teachers of attunement, embodiment and collective networked leadership.
Her work has been cited in TechCrunch, Fast Company, Fortune, Huffington Post, Poynter, Nieman Lab and Entrepreneur. Learn more about Stephanie on her website and LinkedIn. Or you can schedule a time to chat!
Meg Buzzi
Meg Buzzi is a writer, facilitator, coach and social practice artist dedicated to bringing magic into the dominant culture.
She has focused her career on listening and helping organizations sustain change. Over the past two decades of leading technology projects, Meg’s most valuable learning is about the power of trust and vulnerability when we are committed to a shared purpose.
Meg has worked in museums, schools, and forest laboratories, the "c" suite, in courthouses and caves, cafes, zoos, farms, and playhouses. Her favorite place to work is in crews- where she co-creates immersive social containers that spark vitality, curiosity, relationship and joy.
Her work is centered on disrupting outdated models of working together and using our imaginations to create something irresistible. Currently, she collaborates with leaders and communities to build social fabric through creative problem-solving and collective discovery.
Learn more about Meg on her website here and LinkedIn page here. Schedule an introduction here.
jordan lyon
jordan lyon is a relationship-centered facilitator, consultant, and community systems designer. with an educational background focused on business and community—B.S. in Business Administration from California Polytechnic University, M.B.A. from University of Washington, and numerous different facilitation/consulting trainings, alongside a career spanning the hospitality industry, the technology sector, and civic-focused community development work, his curiosities and passions have always been around supporting the cultivation of relationships that transform, grow, and unleash the potential of teams and communities.
his coaching and consulting work with individuals and organizations focuses on developing leaders and teams that not only achieve goals and reach for the stars, but also tend to the relational soil around them—supporting the growth and development of the whole human each team member is. this foundational focus guides jordan in building relational containers of development, belonging, and personal and team alignment—all by cultivating cultures of trust, collaboration, and authenticity.
Learn more about jordan on his website here and his linkedin page here. Schedule an introductory call here.
Sarah Durlacher
Sarah has spent her career researching, testing and scaling business environments to be emergent, collaborative and human-centered. She focuses on building human connection and visibility into the systems we are operating in.
I am fascinated by how humans interact with one another, create things, build things, destroy things, spark and form relationships of different types, depths and durations within organizational contexts.
My work is centered around fostering environments for the organizations of the future to emerge and thrive today, in the present moment. I partner with teams and organizations to look underneath assumptions and to re-configure how we are approaching this challenge.
Learn more about Sarah on her website here and LinkedIn page here. Schedule an introduction here.
Sam Greenwood
In this group, Sam likes to explore his relationship to money, livelihood, and ways to experiment together with inner work. That is, how do we notice and loosen up stuck patterns internally and interpersonally, especially around money and jobs.
Nourished by these explorations, Sam geeks out about creative cooking, building community around food, facilitating online conversations for leadership, learning, and creativity, staying physically active, and meditating every day. Sam is also an aspiring Slam Poet.
Specifically, Sam offers experiences around Coaching & Systems Design for Food Businesses, Peer Leadership Coaching circles, Internal Family Systems Practice space, Emergent Cooking (a way to experience emergence & tap into creativity together in our kitchens), and most of all, Listening.
Find more of Sam on IG @greenhandsam, LinkedIn, or email greenwood.samuel@gmail.com.