Past & Present Client Partners
We have facilitated local, statewide, regional, and national learning and change work with community and youth organizers, nonprofits, foundations, coalitions, and capacity-builders focused on issue areas including the arts, educational equity, social and emotional learning, food justice, people-friendly streets, criminal-legal reform, the relationship between health and housing justice, and peer-led mental health and substance use recovery.
Past and present client partners include:
"Compassionate, challenging, incisive, creative, funny, astute, culturally aware, organized, self-reflective, and always professional. These are a few of the many words that come to mind when I think of working with Kai."
Michael Caines, Former Teaching Artist and Curriculum Writer at Free Arts NYC
“Kai is particularly helpful with qualitative methods and analyses — but more importantly, her writing and synthesis of findings is spot on, with a deep sensitivity to context, culture, and equity. And, in our capacity-building work, I can rely on her to create a culture of support that makes evaluation and research more accessible.”
KIM SABO FLORES, CEO at Hello Insight
"Kai takes an even-keeled, asset-based, communication-first approach to her work. She listens first, provides grounding summaries of the questions to be explored, and then links solutions to practical goals and strategies with clear coaching.
Kai has an incredibly strong knowledge of youth-serving programs and how to center youth needs in all practices, including evaluation. When wrapping up our collaboration together, she left us empowered with tools to carry forward our evaluation practices and apply the learning we gather to improving our programs and practices in an ongoing way."
Brooke Bockelman, Assistant Director at The Buddy Program
“When Rise Above Colorado decided to take a hard look at its justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion practices and policies, it turned to Coactive Change and Create Knowledge. Together, they facilitated a process that simultaneously provided knowledgeable and thoughtful guidance while empowering Rise Above to choose the path that fit best with the organization’s mission and stakeholder interests. We would highly recommend both Aisha and Kai for any organization considering a similar journey and analysis.”
Kent MacLennan, Executive Director at Rise Above Colorado + Gina Tincher, Board Chair at Rise Above Colorado
“Evaluation is less scary after walking these steps with Kai, and I just can't get enough. I feel more empowered wearing my development hat, which was not a stated outcome of this project, but a big win for me and the museum.”
Kelly Merrion, Senior Director of Advancement & Patron Services at the Clyfford Still Museum
“Kai’s approach to facilitating my learning and fostering organizational growth was excellent. She brought new tools, resources, and knowledge to every session and we immediately turned it into action with our colleagues.”
Gabe Guindon, Director of College Access at the Denver Scholarship Foundation
“Kai brings an expertise and facilitation style that helped me grow my knowledge and skills. Each session left me feeling excited to implement my new learning.”
Adrian Mendoza, Assistant Director of Advisement at the Denver Scholarship Foundation
“Kai was an enormous resource. She helped us take dense academic and research-based content and craft it into an engaging learning experience for youth development nonprofits. She was responsive to our needs and the needs of our nonprofit partners, organized, and diligent. The value she places on organizational learning and improving our field shines through in every interaction."
Lauren Elicks-McCort, Chief Program Officer at Youth INC
“Working with Kai is a delight. The clarity and incisiveness of her thinking, her compelling written work, and the creativity she brought to our projects were so very valuable.”
Jean Johnstone, Former Executive Director at the Teaching Artists Guild
"Kai cares deeply about engaging those she works with to create meaningful and lasting change. Whenever I've hit a snag in my organization she has been the first person I call to help me think through solutions. She is innovative, devoted, smart and analytic, and beyond fun to work with."
Jennie Smith-Peers, FORMER Executive Director at the National Center for Creative Aging
"I was always impressed with Kai’s ability to manage and distill vast amounts of organizational and programmatic information from across diverse sources into succinct, compelling stories."
— JULIE PONCELET, CO-FOUNDER at ACTION EVALUATION COLLABORATIVE
“Kai is an industry leader of such grace and intelligence. She is fiercely devoted to quality, access, and equity.”
LINDSEY BULLER MALIEKEL, DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION & PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT at THE NEW VICTORY THEATER
now that you've got a sense of our track record...
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