Karina is passionate about coaching teams as they learn together, question deeply held assumptions, and achieve breakthrough change. Prior to joining August, she worked for ten years with nonprofits, foundations, government agencies, and community networks tackling complex organizational and social challenges - including economic development, public safety, food security, and creative placemaking. At August, Karina is an organizational design consultant who helps nurture more creative, self-managing and productive teams.
Erica is an org designer, strategist and coach to leadership teams that seek purposeful growth and change. Erica founded the organization transformation consultancy August to spark movements toward a new way of working and organizing inside the world’s most ambitious companies. From global enterprises including PepsiCo and Intel to public and nonprofit institutions like Planned Parenthood and NYC’s Department of Education, Erica has guided leaders and teams to design operating models better suited for the 21st century. Her approach is supported by over a decade of experience in organization development, digital transformation, and grassroots organizing.
Jessie has always worked in the field of Organisational Change and is passionate about making organisations a happy place where great ideas come to life! Prior to joining August, Jessie worked at IBM and Undercurrent as an Organisational Change consultant for large global companies across a variety of industries - Financial Services, Energy and Utilities, CPG and Retail. Jessie thoroughly enjoys working with the world's most influential organizations to help them build stellar teams who are capable of greatness. Jessie is a born and raised Londoner who loves getting outside and playing new golf courses.
Sherian is a creative organizational transformation consultant with a passion for helping organizations work through complex challenges. Partnering with teams and leaders to uncover the benefits of responsive ways of working is her passion. Sherian believes work should be equitable, and her number one priority is creating work experiences that work for everyone. Sherian has experience consulting in learning and development, digital transformation, and human-centered design for government and corporate clients alike.
Having worked for major movie studios, a triple-A video games publisher and a Madison Avenue ad agency, Max's previous roles as a project manager and team coach have brought him to August where he is using his experience as a ScrumMaster, community manager and board game nerd to build awesome teams
Tirzah is a mission-driven leader, thoughtful advisor, and experienced facilitator who is passionate about empowering others, especially the most marginalized among us, to become economically secure, fulfilled, healthy, & happy. For over a decade, Tirzah has led work on topics including diversity, equity, and inclusion, organizational culture change, talent development, and staff learning in the public and nonprofit education sectors. At August, Tirzah helps organizations and teams center equity, foster belonging, and amplify their impact to make our world better.
Cassidy is a strategist, facilitator, and organizational culture nerd. In her role with August, she manages People, Business, and Consulting Operations. Cassidy is passionate and curious about how to develop and lead teams to support progressive change for the public benefit. Prior to her work with August, Cassidy led strategic initiatives, organizational development, and EDI initiatives at a national climate change nonprofit focused on leadership development and advocacy. Based in the Bay Area, Cassidy loves to spend time outside and cook elaborate meals for friends.
Keara Mascareñaz focuses on human-centered ways of working and how to scale a culture of inclusion, learning, and innovation in large, complex systems. Keara has supported org-wide change across sectors, working with everyone from agile start-ups to historic, bureaucratic institutions. She believes diverse teams are better teams and that we all deserve joy and choice. Keara is author of The New Team Habits and the toolkit creator for The NEW School Rules: 6 Practices for Thriving and Responsive Schools.
Mike Arauz is a Founding Member at August. Mike is sought out by organizations around the world as a speaker and advisor to inspire organizations, teams, and leaders to change the way they work. Previously, Mike was a Partner at Undercurrent, where he helped executive leaders of global companies to transform how their organizations work and thrive in the 21st century, including GE, Pearson, and The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Mike is also a co-author of the Responsive.org manifesto and a leading contributor to the global self-management and future of work movement.
Levi is a facilitator and strategist who brings a passion for community and collaboration to his work in organizational transformation. He believes that joy, justice, and community are all at the heart of meaningful progress. At August, he supports organizations through finding the motivation, shared understanding, and strategies for effective and lasting change. Prior to joining August, Levi founded and managed a community-focused coworking space, facilitated socially-conscious growth as a DEI/anti-racism consultant, taught communication and entrepreneurship courses as an adjunct instructor, and created games for team building experiences. Levi also enjoys creating and listening to podcasts about identity, culture, and society.
Kawai Lai believes in the power of visuals and finds purpose at the intersection of leadership, equity, and strategy. She is a designer and facilitator partnering with leaders across multiple industries to plan for the future and brings an equity lens and a visual practice to everything she does. She is the co-author of The New Team Habits © 2020, which provides practices for leaders to build better team habits and the creator of the Strategic Planning Playbook, a step by step guide to demystifying strategy for leaders who want to run an inclusive and joyful process.
Mollie West Duffy is the co-author of the WSJ bestseller No Hard Feelings: The Secret Power of Embracing Emotion at Work and Big Feelings: How To Be Okay When Things are Not Okay. She was previously an Organizational Design Lead at global innovation firm IDEO, and worked as a research associate for the Dean of Harvard Business School. Her writing has been featured in HBR, Fast Company, Quartz, and Entrepreneur, and she’s taught design courses at Stanford and USC. Follow her on twitter @molliewest and on Instagram at @lizandmollie
Viva's professional purpose is to create environments where people feel truly seen and are inspired to be their best and most authentic selves. She brings this to life as a strategic and intuitive people operations + inclusion consultant with 15 years of experience in purpose-driven branding, high-impact DEI work, leadership training & development, and career-focused marketing. Her sweet spot is the intersection of inclusive messaging, driving people-centered strategic outcomes, and facilitating critical conversations with grace. (website)
Marianne designs and facilitates organizational change for culture and innovation. She’s worked with startups, fortune 500, and government agencies across Europe, and The Americas. Marianne’s approach is “if you build it for yourself it will work for you”. In that spirit she enables teams, leaders and founders to discover their purpose and integrate their own vision and values in their work, to own their culture and develop as high performing teams. She has experience facilitating agile transformation programs, as well as human centered design programs. Marianne loves drawing and painting and has published a zine of poems about motherhood.
Michael helps leaders build inclusive, equitable, and anti-racist organizations through practical action. As an expert coach and seasoned consultant, Michael brings out the best in teams as they implement transformative new operating models, systems, and practices. Michael works with clients who want a trusted partner on the journey to making their organizations more participatory, equitable, and joyful. Work shouldn't suck! (And shouldn't reinforce systems that marginalize people!) (website)
Usha is a consultant, writer and speaker specializing in culture transformation, organization design, leadership development and the future of work. She is passionate about equipping organizations to thrive in the complexity of the 21st century. Through her experience both as a senior leader as well as consulting with executive and senior leaders, she champions the power of organizations tapping into the deepest potential of their people and purpose to drive innovation and solve the most pressing challenges of our current times. Usha has led large scale transformation initiatives to equip organizations spanning across the globe and across the corporate, nonprofit and government sectors. She is a certified Coach, Holacracy Practitioner, certified Integral Facilitator and holds a master’s degree in Organization Development. When she’s not working, there’s a 75% chance she can be found in the oceans of New Zealand swimming, snorkeling or scuba diving.
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Britt is the founder of Franklin Street, a learning design studio based in Denver, Colorado. She now works across sectors; however, Britt's career began in education as a sixth-grade teacher. To this day, transforming school and school systems remains her passion and she has led dozens of school design projects in the United States and abroad with a common goal of advancing equitable and bold outcomes. Outside of education, Britt has supported leading companies and public sector agencies in education, technology, healthcare and energy to craft strategy and implement practices to be more innovative, inclusive and effective. Britt’s passion for lifelong learning stems in part from her love of music. She is a dedicated violinist, a “hobby” she picked up as a child and never put down.
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Yvonne is a teacher, school district leader, coach and proud native New Yorker. She believes deeply in the power of people-centered leadership to help individuals, teams and organizations grow. Yvonne joined Franklin Street Studio as Head of Teams after nearly a decade working in large public school systems primarily on early childhood policy and programming. As an executive leader on the team that launched universal pre-K in New York City, Yvonne led a team of 150 frontline staff to navigate complex and drastic change. She brings deep experience in leadership development, teaming, and learning design. She lives in NYC with her partner, two kids, and their patient standard poodle, Herschel.
If our purpose tells us why we exist, and our operating principles tell us how we work, our values tell us who we are. They are at the heart of everything we do.
We believe that the world’s most valuable work depends on teams of people working together to achieve a common goal. Figuring out how to create teams who are capable of accomplishing great things - inside and outside our company – is at the heart of everything we do.
Team even at the expense of flexibility and individual recognition.
We are fiercely committed to creating equal opportunity in the workplace for people regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality, and economic background. When it comes to related policies, actions, and politics, we are inclined toward activism.
Equity even at the expense of fast growth and ease of cultural affinity.
We design our culture and ways of working to maximize the quantity and quality of learning. We measure achievement by the value of the lessons learned.
Learning even at the expense of efficiency or comfort.
In today’s networked world our own achievement is directly linked to the achievement of others with a shared worldview. To whatever extent possible, we will seek to share what we do and invite others to benefit from it.
Public Benefit even at the expense of profit or competitive advantage.
We believe that people do their best when their work brings them joy. We love what we do, and want to help others discover the joy in their work.
Joy even at the expense of being taken seriously
August is a Certified B Corporation®. This means that beyond the impact we aim to make for our clients, we also work to make a positive impact for our employees, suppliers, community, and the environments. Read our B CorpTM assessment.
Headquarters:
68 3rd St
Suite #45
Brooklyn, NY 11231, USA
Remote team members across the USA and in Cambridge, England
Contact: