Faculty

Russ Gaskin, Co-Creative Consulting

Russ’s unique strength is creating the conditions and frameworks that support efficient and meaningful collaboration across deep sectoral and cultural boundaries. 

Russ also builds the capacities of others to lead effective collaboration by speaking and teaching around the world on changing complex systems, human-centered design, and leveraging conflict and diversity as sources of strategic innovation. In his guest faculty role, he has taught workshops and graduate courses on leading social innovation, designing collective impact initiatives, polarity thinking, and creating shared value. 

Prior to launching CoCreative, Russ served as the chief business officer of Green America, a national leader in leveraging economic strategies to advance social equity and environmental sustainability; served as managing director of US SIF, the trade association for financial firms and institutional investors doing impact investing; and founded the Green Business Network, the first network of triple-bottom-line businesses in the U.S. 

Russ has served on numerous leadership and advisory boards. He currently serves as a Senior Fellow for the Green America Center for Sustainability Solutions and on the Expert Panel on Social Innovation & Design at the UN Development Program. He has also served on the Leadership Board of the National Education Association, the Good Housekeeping Green Seal of Approval Advisory Board, and the eBay World of Good Advisory Board. 

Heather Equinoss, Co-Creative Consulting

Heather provides process design, facilitation, and training to our client partners around challenges from homelessness to racial equity to non-profit capacity building. 

Heather brings 20 years of meeting design, graphic facilitation, project management and community engagement experience in public, non-profit, private, and community settings. She finds purpose in supporting people and organizations to bring about the positive change they envision in their communities and the world we share. 

Heather’s a visual thinking strategist with a specialty in using visual notetaking tools to inspire people’s innate creativity, capture a group’s wisdom, focus their work, and build alignment around complex change initiatives.  

Sylvia Cheuy, Tamarack Institute

Sylvia is a Consulting Director of the Tamarack Institute’s Collective Impact Idea Area and also supports Tamarack’s Community Engagement Idea Area. She is passionate about community change and what becomes possible when residents and various sector leaders share an aspirational vision for their future. Sylvia believes that when the assets of residents and community are recognized and connected they become powerful drivers of community change. Sylvia is an internationally recognized community-builder and trainer.  Over the past five years, much of Sylvia’s work has focused on building awareness and capacity in the areas of Collective Impact and Community Engagement throughout North America.