Angelique Geehan - Agent

Angelique Geehan works to question and depolarize the many cultural beliefs and practices that can deprive individuals of needed connection with themselves, their families, their clients, and their communities.

She trains and certifies babywearing educators, offers lectures, classes, workshops, and consultations on babywearing (the practice of carrying children in fabric close to their caregivers), consent, cultural awareness, community building, and various parenting topics, all with social justice and transformative justice frameworks in mind. Her goal is to seed communities with as much critical thinking, compassion, and authenticity as possible, while helping families get through their days more easily.

Angelique has worked with retailers and manufacturers, community groups, event organizers, their clients and families, and other educators. She founded Interchange, a consulting group that offers diversity and inclusion support, and volunteers for several organizations, including as president of the board of directors for Baby Carriers Provided, the non-board chair of the Baby Carrier Industry Alliance’s Educator Committee, a board member and community educator with Houston Babywearing Resource, an advisor for the Texas Babywearing Alliance, and a Regional Volunteer for World On My Shoulders.


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[image description: Color photo of my head and shoulders in front of a mottled gray tree trunk. I am a medium-toned East Asian person with a buzzed head of black hair, wearing glasses, smiling and looking off to the right, with my head tilted slightly. Also wearing a black wire necklace with silver metal rings looped onto it and a black tank dress.]

​Alicia G. Lawrence - Agent

​Alicia G. Lawrence is a mother, community organizer, consultant, and voracious reader who excels at listening, researching, and synthesizing information in ways that help others perceive what may be immediately relevant in conjunction with larger-scale contexts.

In her work, Alicia prioritizes “minding the room” — noticing whose voices are given weight and whose are missing or dismissed. She is capable of conveying intellectually complex and emotionally challenging concepts with great sensitivity and in ways that are appropriate to the communication needs of those involved.

Alicia’s commitment to organizing and justice work crystalized in the Spring of 2017, when she — as a brown Mexican-American woman occupying Ohlone land — found a sense of belonging among a community that prioritized equity and justice in her own city: Hayward, California.

Since then, Alicia has spent much of her time organizing with people committed to honest and open communication in pursuit of social justice. She is especially vocal regarding housing justice, and maintains a strong sense of self-awareness.



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[image description: Headshot of Alicia - generically tan with shoulder-length, black-brown wavy hair with blondish highlights - smiling at the camera with her head slightly angled to one side. Wearing a light grey top and beige stucco wall in the background.]

Payshunz Nagashima - Agent

Payshunz is made of adjectives. Among the most known right now: “Half” Japanese and partly descended from colonizers, transgender, nonbinary, queer, MSer.* Some have changed since their birth and may change again. Stay tuned for updates.
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Payshunz started working as an advocate for people who belong to marginalized communities out of personal necessity in 1989, when his father was diagnosed with AIDS. An introvert with a strong opinion, they have a passion for observing and learning and connecting. Payshunz will remember your story, just as he never forgets his own.

Payshunz educates by pairing theory and evidence with a personal connection based on storytelling. Once that connection is established, he’s ready to get to work — reviewing policies and situations and developing practical, effective, and appropriate plans. They’re eager to talk about race, gender, sex, class, ability, and more in protected spaces that allow others to challenge everything they think they know. As Payshunz may say, “Let’s get uncomfortable. Let’s be subversive.”

Payshunz graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor’s in sociology, specializing in gender and sexuality. They are a McNair Scholar who has worked as a data analyst, business analyst, and project director.

*Person with multiple sclerosis


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[image description: Color photo of Payshunz smiling at the camera with elbows resting on a surface (out of frame) in front of them and one hand holding the other bicep. They are wearing a lilac button-down shirt, and the background has a corrugated aluminum wall and some decorative stained glass.]

Willow Naomi Curry - Agent

Willow Naomi Curry is a writer, researcher, and social practice artist based in Houston, Texas. Her creative writing, reporting, and arts commentary have appeared in local, national, and international publications, and she is the 2020 Writer-in-Residence for the Houston Museum of African-American Culture. She also guides activists, public officials, and community leaders through the book writing process as the Narrative Design Director at the Houston writing firm RedShift Writers. Willow's interest in communicating ideas across artistic disciplines and her desire to understand and build socially just systems within communities led her to the field of social practice art. In 2019 as an inaugural DiverseWorks Project Freeway Fellow, Willow created her first social practice artwork, the place-based writing workshop series Letters & Lives. She is currently at work on her second social practice work, the photography exhibition The Fourth Ward Photo Parlour. Willow and collaborating artist Tiffany Smith were selected for the inaugural cohort of We, Women artists for the exhibit, which will debut in Houston in 2020 and tour nationally with all other We, Women projects. 


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[image description: A Black woman in her twenties stands in front of a microphone, smiling. The gallery wall behind her is filled with mixed media art. She has natural hair and colorful clothing.]

Luana Da Silva - Agent

Luana Da Silva (she/they) is a multilingual social worker specialized in trauma and bereavement healing with children, youth, and adults who are culturally and/or gender diverse. Her areas of focus are the intersections of cultural trauma (-isms), perinatal and attachment trauma (as gestational parent and/or infant), as well as histories of exposure to interpersonal violence and abuse. As a somatic-based healer, Luana utilizes a "bottom-up" approach to working with trauma drawing from her training as a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, as well as wisdom from her cultural and ancestral lineage (Brasilian: Iberian, African, and Indigenous South American). Luana is also a performing artist and advocate of the power of cultural arts to connect, heal, and promote wellness in the community. Additionally, Luana is a birth keeper, trained as a professional birth coach with the focus of mitigating the effects of systemic -isms on the outcomes of birthing people who are culturally and/or gender diverse. She is an equity and diversity speaker, educator, and consultant passionate about developing and implementing strategies focusing on addressing historical and systemic issues in the mental health field and beyond. 

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[image description: A portrait from the waist up of an olive-skinned, hazel eyed, short- and straight-hared femme person with full lilac tinted lips, wearing a white and purple long-sleeve button down shirt, with a dangly aluminum and gemstone earring visible on their left side where hair is asymmetrically shorter than the right. They are looking in the the camera and smiling.]

Courtney Wilson - Agent

​Even if we cannot remember it now, at some point in our lives all of us thought we were the absolute best at simply being ourselves. Courtney recounts how that feeling was crystallized in her via the arts, specifically the performing arts.

Now, what does any of this have to do with dismantling systems of oppression? Courtney believes: everything, and has experienced first hand how the arts opens us to new perspectives. Art can create unconventional bridges over obstacles.

After working in the Houston Theatre District for the last 7 years, she describes herself in 3 ways; passionate about the arts, passionate about social justice, and lastly as a connector of people.

Courtney graduated with her M.S. in Forensic Psychology in 2006 from the historically Black campus of Prairie View A & M University. She spent 10 years working in the foster care system.  During that time she also volunteered as a programmer for the local Pacifica affiliate. She learned and taught others how to create their own oppression fighting and art loving media.

Since many are not familiar with Houston outside of oil and the Republican Party, Courtney wants to share about the little known creative parts of Houston.  Quiet as kept, Houston is a talented city. Many are trained to act in Houston and an even bigger secret is that Houston musicians are so sought after,  that Houston is where most go to get the best.

For the past 3 years, Courtney coordinated and marketed musical theatre daytime matinees for K-12 students in the region, while also coordinating and marketing group sales. Courtney even had a woman tell her that she “didn’t think they wanted people that look like us at the theatre”. Due to her unique skill set, Courtney is able to connect those interested in experiencing the arts and to help make sure audiences reflect the city.

As the world awakens to a new normalcy, Courtney remains passionate about continuing to make sure everyone enjoys the arts in Houston as the city's newest consultant for helping to make the arts truly inclusive.



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[image description: A smiling African American woman wearing a gray headwrap and black necklace and top.]

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Beth Secrist - Intake Manager

Beth is a healer dedicated to improving the health, welfare, and lives of families, with special attention to mothers, babies, children, and teens. She is an astute clinician who utilizes strengths-based, solution-oriented systems collaboration for effecting change in individuals, families, and communities adversely impacted by social determinants of health.

Beth has worked with nonprofit organizations, community systems and partners, and families, has engaged with multi-marginalized groups to build assets and increase empowerment, and has coordinated local restorative justice initiatives to address youth violence and delinquency in the community, with a focus on reducing ethnic disparity.  

[image description: The face and upper body of a white woman. She is seated facing sideways and her face is looking straight at the camera in front of a charcoal studio portrait background. She has blue eyes, long dark brown hair worn with half in front of her right shoulder, and pink lips that are smiling. She is wearing an indigo sweater, a silver chain necklace, and silver metal elongated double hoop earrings.]