Xareni Consulting is a team of people committed to working together to forge a path towards transformation. Along with staff who make Xareni Consulting amazing, we have a network of people who we partner with to make our vision a reality.
Suguey Hernandez (She/Her)
Principal and CEO
Pirinda and P’urhepecha strategist, coach and grassroots organizer, Suguey was raised by a migrant farmworker family in the strawberry fields of the Santa Maria Valley. Her grandfathers were Indigenous milpa farmers who migrated as braceros from Michoacán to California and her parents also followed the migrant trail to escape rural poverty. Her passion for labor rights, environmental justice and Indigenous autonomy was born from this family history and intergenerational struggles. After graduating from UC Berkeley, Suguey dedicated herself to full time labor, environmental and immigrant rights organizing. She gained on-the-ground training from leading social justice, political and Indigenous rights campaigns and organizations. Currently, Suguey is the Principal and CEO of Xareni Consulting LLC where she is bringing together her personal and professional experiences, spiritual practice and evolving understanding of life to help people and organizations grow. Suguey is a Rinzai Zen practitioner and student of Norma Ryuko Kawelokū Wong Roshi, Abbot of Anko-in, an independent sub-temple of Chozen-ji. She is also an active member of Native American Church, teaches dance and currently resides in Huichin Ohlone Territory with her gatito Balam.
Sion Calabretta (She/They)
Strategy Associate
Sion Calabretta is honored to support Xareni Consulting in the work to uplift, transform and align some of the hardest working social justice organizations in California. Sion graduated from UC Berkeley with a B.S. in Environmental Science and Global Poverty and Practice. She has worked in clean drinking water policy, community building at UC Berkeley, SVSH advocacy and prevention work and organizing. Sion finds her calling in doing work for the betterment and liberation of all people. Sion also has the privilege of teaching pole dancing and training under Suguey at Atomic Allure in Oakland. When she’s not working Sion loves to be outside by any body of water with friends and loved ones.
OUR NETWORK
Mariko (Mari) Ryono (she/they)
Consultant Partner
President, Leading Together, Inc.
Mari is a community organizer, alliance-builder, and Zen practitioner based on Tongva, Kizh, Tataviam, and Chumash lands (LA County), who has over 18 years of experience offering coaching and consulting to communities in support of social change. Mari is committed to cultivating wholeness in every aspect of her life and in all the projects she works on with racial and social justice leaders.
Aparna Shah (she/her)
Consultant Partner
Principal, Samaja Sadya Consulting
Aparna Shah (she/they) has worked towards community building and world building for over 30 years. Her consulting practice leads with breath, vision and purpose to cultivate imagination and build power toward collective governance. She was born in Manila, grew up in Mumbai, and lives with her family on unceded Huichin lands, known today as Oakland, California.
Chrysta Wilson, MPA, ACC (she/her)
Consultant Partner
CEO Wilson and Associates Coaching and Consulting, LLC
https://www.wilson-and-associates.com/our-team
Chrysta Wilson, MPA, PCC, is a storyteller, coach, and strategist who has spent the last 25 years cultivating conditions for people to thrive. As the CEO and founder of Wilson and Associates Coaching and Consulting, LLC, she works with leaders to help them build the embodied skills, strategies, and stories that will transform systems to become healed and more just.
Elizabeth Sunwoo (she/her)
Consultant Partner
Managing Member, Mindullae Consulting
Focusing on liberatory practice that integrates strategy, mind-body-spirit wisdom and accessing our cultural and creative ways of being, Liz focuses her work on deepening collaborations through shared long-term vision and deeper relationships. She integrates her love of cooking, laughter and raising liberated little ones into all areas of her life including work.
Gabriela Spears-Rico (she/her)
Advisor + Editor
Dr. Gabriela Spears-Rico is a Pirinda and P’urhepecha cultural anthropologist and Critical Indigenous Studies scholar. She is an Assistant Professor of Chicano Latino Studies and American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. Her scholarship has been published in Feminist Anthropology, Chicana Latina Studies and in the Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology, among other scholarly venues. Upon graduating from Stanford, she received her Ph.D. in Comparative Ethnic Studies from U.C. Berkeley. Spears-Rico is a well-funded scholar with research investments from the Mellon Foundation, the Social Science Research Council and the Institute for Citizens and Scholars, among others. Her scholarly and creative work has been featured on Native America Calling, Indigeneity Rising, the Dallas Morning News and Texas Public Radio. As a consultant, she has trained teachers in Ethnic Studies pedagogy for Minneapolis Public Schools and advised associates in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives in the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Minnesota. Her leadership was visionary and her contributions vital to the drafting and passing of Minnesota Bill SF 2442 Genocide Education mandate for Grades 8-12 in 2023; this state legislation became the first mandate of its kind to include Indigenous genocide in its language in the country.
