Facilitate Change

Dian Killian, PhD, is founder and director of Brooklyn Nonviolent Communication, a Certified Trainer with the global Center for Nonviolent Communication, and co-author of Connecting across Differences: A Guide to Compassionate, Nonviolent Communication. She currently is at work on a graphic novel, Urban Empathy: True Life Adventures of Compassion on the Streets of New York, and has also completed training in the Alternative to Violence (AVP) program. As an NVC trainer, she has worked with diverse organizations, leading trainings, conducting mediation, and providing organizational support; some of the non-profits she has worked with include the 13,000 member Park Slope Food Coop, Connect NY, the AJ Muste Institute, the Peace Alliance/Dept. of Peace campaign and Planetree. She has taught NVC workshops across the US and in Ireland, including at the NY Open Center, Insight Meditation, SUNY Binghamton, LaGuardia Community College, and at the NY Intensive. As a trainer, her passions include NVC for social change and organizational development/support, NVC and creativity, and a kinesthetic/body-based approach to NVC/empathy.

As a social change activist, Killian has been active for more than 25 years in the anti-war, labor, and gay rights movements and in community gardens. She is a graduate of the AFL-CIO Organizing Institute, has organized graduate teaching assistants, worked as Journalism and Senior Organizer for the National Writers Union/UAW 1981, and chaired for several years the New York chapter of Pride at Work, a gay labor organization. In the alternative press, she has written about gay rights, labor, immigration, and other social change issues writing for, among other publications, A Readers Guide to Lesbian and Gay Studies, Sojourner, The Harvard Gay and Lesbian Review, The Sun Magazine, and the Village Voice owned Cleveland Free Times, where she was a contributing writer for three years; her PhD, in the area of critical/narrative theory and cultural studies, focused in its research on the inter-play of colonialism, emigration, and the construction of race and national identity. In 2003, New York City Counsel recognized her for her activism when she was given a Hero Award.

Martha Lasley, MBA, is a Certified Trainer with the global Center for Nonviolent Communication. She is an Executive Coach and founding partner of Leadership that Works, a firm that trains and coaches visionaries. Since 1997, she has been the Director of Training, custom-designing programs to facilitate profound personal and organizational transformation. In 2006, she co-founded Coaching that Works, where she designs and delivers coach training programs to ignite transformation. She wrote the book Courageous Visions: How to Unleash Passionate Energy in Your Life and Your Organization published in 2004.


Martha’s expertise includes:
• Coaching leaders and social change activists to develop a compelling vision, improve interpersonal communications, bring spirit into team building, and mentor others.
• Facilitating strategic planning, dynamic meetings, appreciative inquiry initiatives, and change management.
• Facilitating organizational development, conflict resolution, group process, building relationships, and succession planning.
• Designing and delivering results-oriented leadership development programs and retreats that improve productivity and open the way to exciting opportunities and new perspectives.

Martha’s passion is igniting visionary leaders. She teaches Nonviolent Communication and has presented several programs at the annual conference for International Association of Facilitators, including “Facilitating Difficult Conversations,” “Coaching for Personal & Organizational Transformation” and “Group Coaching for Results.” She contributes to the Appreciative Inquiry field and developed the first AI 360º Feedback Assessment, a tool that inspires radical change in individuals and organizations. In addition, Martha and her team recently designed and delivered programs on Succession Planning, Advanced Leadership Development, and Design Your Future. Since 2002 she has been a faculty member at Capella University where she teaches MBA on-line courses including: Facilitating Change; Leveraging Workplace Diversity; Developing and Coaching Others; Professional Effectiveness; Leading Teams; Negotiating for Results.

Gina Cenciose has been living and sharing NVC intensively as her main profession since 2002. She offers mediation and counseling sessions, training, facilitation and coaching for small groups and large groups, public weekend and five-day intensives all over Canada and in New England, and is currently leading four different one-year NVC integration programs, and 2 two- year NVC programs for people wanting to become trainers themselves. She shares NVC in prisons, hospitals, community organizations, spiritual centers and business and offers NVC and musical conferences as well. She brings her background as a kinésiology therapist, shamanistic practioner and dancer into her work. In many of her intensives she leads varying forms of movement exercises and vocal expression in order to shake what needs to be released from our bodies, and connect with focusing techniques into our inner landscape. She is a new CNVC assessor, supporting people that are joining the vision to spread NVC world wide as certified trainers.

Gina is co-founder of the Québec circle of certified trainers, and works closely with the other certified trainers in her area. Her specialties include deep transformational work that includes changing our inner and outer fear based systems of being into trust based systems of thinking and living. She excels in sharing and being in deep empathy, and has invested much time and energy in exploring intimate relationships, working on our conditioning through belief work, and power dynamics. She is passionate about spreading NVC, especially to those who would not ordinarily have access to it, and has co-founded projects for NVC in prisons, and with young mothers and their children living through violent situations.

Gina says, “It is my deepest devotion to freedom and joy that inspire me to lead movement, dance and vocal expression in my nonviolent communication workshops. Having been a professional jazz singer, and amateur dancer with 25 years of experience with African dance, modern dance, sacred dance and improvisational dance, I truly believe in the healing & transformative power of movement to help us release what needs to be released, and to be cleansed so we can be more alive. I have experimented with many other dance forms such as Shamanistic dance and Gabriel Roth’s Five Sacred Rhythms. Being a singer and drummer, rhythm and movement are natural expressions of life for me and I believe for everyone.”

You can see a video of Gina talking about needs here: http://nvctraining.com/media/GC/TP-key-diffs-200812

Henry Wai has enjoyed practicing NVC since 2000. He is a certified NVC Trainer who has led public introductions, trainings and practice groups in England, Canada and the U.S. He provides trainings, facilitation, and adult education in social service, community, business, university and religious settings. Based in Southern Ontario, Henry delights in supporting individuals and groups to develop and use their capacities for making a difference in our communities.

Henry's first social engagement was as part of the North American co-operative movement in student co-op housing. Later he was active in a consumer food co-op and also worked for the Canadian Co-operative Association introducing youth to co-ops and credit unions as a democratic economic alternative model internationally and locally. Henry's other experience includes coordinating volunteers for various community organizations, counseling and training youth in employment and life skills, doing outreach for a community literacy program and being a part of the first BASE Social Engagement Program of Buddhist Peace Fellowship. As well he was a business partner in a social enterprise linking local organic farmers and other producers with families in the city. While living in England, Henry was very active supporting the growth and collaborations within the UK NVC network including organising the first UK NVC conference in 2004.

Gail Claspell will assist and brings a deep understanding of NVC and Restorative Justice Circles.

Others who have contributed to making this program possible are (I)An-ok Ta Chai, Karen Murphy, Marianne Perez, and Carol Hillson.