About Kinship

Kinship is a global community that engages diverse partnerships, grassroots efforts, and art as activism to transform values, policy, and ultimately, culture, in support of a life-centered future.

Our Seed | Purpose Statement

Our Roots | Mission Statement

Kinship is committed to dispelling the destructive story of human separation and superiority, and cultivating through culture a shared narrative of living in balance with the more-than-human world.  We amplify the power of story and artistic expression as emotional touchstones for living in kinship.

We envision a thriving planet where humans live in reciprocity with nature and each other, inspired and activated by a personal and collective remembering of our intimate connection with the web of life.

Our Branches | Vision Statement

Who We Are

Our team is a conspiracy of creatives, strategists, and visionaries from around the world working in grassroots, social justice, art, policy, science and systems change.

Collective Leadership Team

  • Swetha Stotra Bhashyam is the Global South Focal Point of the Global Youth Biodiversity Network (GYBN), a youth network of more than 1 million members, 550 member organizations, and 40 regional and national chapters and the official youth constituency to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Since joining GYBN in 2012, she has been working on policy issues under the CBD and has mobilized a vibrant movement for biodiversity within the youth community, leading the effort to coordinate the creation GYBN’s many regional and national chapters. Swetha is a budding wildlife biologist from India and holds a master’s degree in wildlife biology and conservation. She has dedicated the past 9 years of her life to working with several grassroots and international organizations in helping to conserve biodiversity. In the future, Swetha hopes to channel her energy into working on international projects that are meaningful and impactful on the ground.

  • Kelly McClelland is a bi-lingual Creative Director, Rite of Passage guide, and a Nature-Based Psychotherapist. Infusing earth-connection with business and technology, she collaborates specifically with organizations that actively support social and environmental justice. Kelly has worked over 10 years in the marketing industry, leading global award-winning advertising campaigns, organizational strategy, and branding projects.

    She is in the inquiry of how art, ceremony, land-based practices, and ancestral recovery can tend our earth, our culture, our kin. And help us embody the truth of who we are – divesting from the inherited stories, oppressive systems, and identities prescribed to us by society.

    Kelly serves as a global educator for social and environmental justice programs in Central and South America for Where There Be Dragons. She is on the Justice Council for the School of Lost Borders and the Wilderness Guides Council, an international rite of passage organization. She is on the Board of Wild Mountain Retreats, a retreat center supporting activists and QT-BIPOC (Queer, Transgender, Black, Indigenous, People of Color). She is the Creative Director for Kinship and enjoys studying herbalism, birding, and playing in the surf, snow, and dirt.

  • Andrew Schwartz is an American environmentalist, climate advocate, and community organizer dedicated to building equitable solutions to the climate crisis. With a background rooted in faith and civic service, Andrew’s work spans grassroots activism, interfaith collaboration, and international systems-level change. He holds an Masters of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary, where his early call to ministry evolved into a broader commitment to public leadership and environmental justice. Along with his work as an environmental and conservation consultant, he is the co-founder of FutureFaith and a senior policy advisor for the Common Initiative.

    A Portland resident and proud parent, Andrew is inspired by the natural beauty of the Pacific Northwest. 

Our Board and Advisors

  • Maggie L. Fox is a consultant serving organizations, foundations and communities in the development and implementation of 21st century biodiversity, climate change and clean energy strategies. She is a veteran of numerous local, state, national and international environmental, political, legal and policy campaigns. Maggie is past President and CEO of the Climate Reality Project and the Climate Action Fund, with global campaigns training citizens leaders driving activism on climate change. She was the national President of America Votes as well as the Southwest Regional Director and Deputy Executive Director of the Sierra Club. Maggie currently serves on the boards of the Green Fund, the Alliance for Climate Education, Colorado State University’s School of Global Environmental Sustainability and Mad Agriculture. Maggie began her career as a classroom teacher and community organizer on the Navajo and Hopi Reservations of Arizona and New Mexico. An avid outdoors woman, Maggie worked with the North Carolina and Colorado Outward Bound Schools and participated in numerous mountaineering and other outdoor expeditions around the world. She is the Co-Founder of Kinship.

  • Chelsea Congdon is a communication strategist and consultant for non-profits working on   biodiversity, large landscape and river conservation, youth education, and film and video.  As a producer with First Light Films, Chelsea embraced storytelling in film as a transformative experience to invite viewers to search beyond the boundaries of current narratives and discover new ways of living on this planet. She collaborated on environmental documentary films for public television, community outreach, schools, and film festivals.  An expert in western water policy and river management, Chelsea worked with the Environmental Defense Fund in the Southwest US and Mexico and later led local stakeholder  projects to improve river management, stream flows and water accountability in western Colorado. Chelsea serves on the boards of Western Resource Advocates and Blue Rising Together  dedicated to education, advocacy and outreach around fentanyl poisoning, guns and high potency THC, and social media marketplaces threatening the wellbeing of young people.  She is the Co-founder of Kinship.

  • Anita Sanchez, Grandmother, Doctor, Elder, Nahua (Aztec) and Toltec and Mexican American, international consultant, trainer, speaker for decades to Fortune 500 business, education and NGOs, is passionate about leadership, empowerment of women, culture change, diversity and inclusion. Her life work is bridging indigenous wisdom and science for business and societal renewal.  Author of seven books includes international award-winning book TheFour Sacred Gifts: Indigenous Wisdom for Modern Times, Simon & Schuster. Find Anita Sanchez’s podcast “Four Sacred Gifts” on you tube or your favorite podcast app. She sits on Elder Councils: Wisdom Weavers of the World, Fire Circle Earth, The Well Being Project and a member of the Transformational Leadership Council, Evolutionary Leaders, and a Board member of the Bioneers Organization. Recent awards include 2022 Mogul’s Top 100 DEI Leaders, 2020 Conscious Company Media “World Changing Woman” and 2020 World Woman’s Foundation “Woman of the Hour inspiring one million girls to live their dreams and leadership. Anita leads an annual journey into the sacred headwaters of the Amazon.  Dr Anita inspires people to discover and trust their gifts so that they become a life-giving force to all, people and the earth. 

  • Samantha Colli is a Strategist for social transformation, an experienced designer, facilitator, and coach in leadership and systemic constellations. Her practice integrates systems thinking, ecological design, social and gender justice, and indigenous knowledge to holistically support organizations and movements through complex change.

  • Oscar Soria is a global nonprofit executive with 30 years of experience leading international organizations and campaigns focused on human rights, environmental governance, digital accountability, and multilateral policy engagement. He is the Chief Executive Officer of Top Social, an advisory firm working with civil society leaders, multilateral institutions, and philanthropic actors on technology accountability, digital rights, and human rights advocacy. 

    He is also Co-Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of The Common Initiative, an independent think-and-action tank focused on biodiversity-centered economic reform, rights-based approaches and global environmental governance. 

    Previously, Soria served as Campaign Director at Avaaz (2014–2023), overseeing global advocacy and crisis response across 194 countries, Director of Media and External Relations at WWF International (2012–2014), and held senior roles at Greenpeace International (1999–2012).

    He began his career as a journalist and senior editor in Argentina, where his reporting on social and environmental issues was recognized by the Inter American Press Association. He later served in advisory and governance roles with Amnesty International, Oxfam, and the Holy See’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.

  • Ginny Jordan, MFA, is a writer, environmental activist, film producer, and philanthropist. She co-founded Bead for Life and Street Business School, a non-profit organization dedicated to income generation for women in extreme poverty in Uganda. The project is now in 13 countries around the world. She co- produced the award-winning climate change films Chasing Coral and The Human Element.  She also sits on the Board of her family foundation, Cricket Island. The foundation funds youth led social change projects throughout the USA. Ginny is a mother of three and a grandmother of five. She lives in Boulder, Colorado and loves to walk in the foothills and swim in her pond.

  • With around a decade of professional experience, Ramson is dedicated to advancing cultural preservation and advocacy for Indigenous communities. As the founder of My Indigenous Knowledge in Action (MIKIA) Kenya, he leads initiatives to safeguard Indigenous Knowledge, fostering its transmission to future generations. At MIKIA, Ramson guides efforts to preserve Indigenous Knowledge and promote its sustainability in modern contexts.

  • Lakshmi Venugopal, is the founder of Inner Climate Academy and an experienced facilitator of Deep Ecology and the Work That Reconnects. Through chronic illness and the discovery of her ancestral past, Lakshmi’s story illuminates how individual health and ancestral healing are deeply intertwined with the health and healing of the Earth.

  • Pooven Moodley, an international human rights and environmental lawyer from South Africa, is a social justice activist and co-founder of the Earthrise Collective, which weaves ancient wisdom, activism, and alternatives. He has contributed to a range of struggles across the globe starting with the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa when he was 14.

  • Gladys Kiplagat is an Indigenous youth leader and climate justice advocate committed to strengthening Indigenous communities through youth empowerment, gender equality, biodiversity conservation, and cultural preservation. She is the Founder and Executive Director of Baringo Indigenous Peoples’ Organization (BIPO), she leads programs that amplify Indigenous voices, promote sustainable livelihoods, and safeguard Indigenous knowledge for future generations. Her work focuses on building resilient communities through locally led, culturally grounded, and environmentally sustainable solutions.

  • Jonah Sachs is a social change advocate, entrepreneur and the author of Winning the Story Wars. 

    As co-founder of Free Range Studios, Jonah created some of the world’s first, and still most heralded, digital social change campaigns. In 2007, Jonah helped launch The Story of Stuff, which was viewed more than 60 million times and marked a turning point in the fight to educate the public about the environmental and social impact of consumer goods. Jonah went on to to lead groundbreaking campaigns for Greenpeace International, The Center for Humane Technology, Action for the Climate Emergency and the ACLU, as well as major brands including Microsoft and Patagonia.

    Jonah’s work and opinions have been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, FOX News, the Sundance Film Festival and NPR. Fast Company named him one of today’s 50 most influential social innovators.

Our Values

  • We practice reciprocity in all of our relationships whether they  be with our human or more kin–all of life. Robin Wall Kimmerer says it best:we can do it through gratitude, through ceremony, through land stewardship, science, art, and in everyday acts of practical reverence.

  • The more diverse an ecosystem is, the more  likely it is to thrive, not merely survive.  We value diversity in all our relationships and work  to ensure  they are mutually beneficial. We open our hearts in conversations and actions to sources of wisdom, knowledge and knowing to deepen our understanding.

  • We embrace practices where humans design, create and participate as nature does, co-evolving as an interconnected system.  We respect the generative cycle of composting what is not serving to give rise to the new. 

  • Our work is to hold space (our hearth) to share moving stories of  change  knowing that  the synergy that arises when beings come together to create is powerful.  Collaboration among humans and our more than human kin is at the heart of our work.

  • Deep listening is the active intentional engagement of mind, body, and spirit, listening beyond the human-centric world. We invite open communication with nature and our more than human kin with humility and reverence.

  • We embrace ritual and ceremony as shared experiences to honor transition and change. Ceremony builds community, opens hearts, and offers opportunities for healing.

How it all began…

Kinship came to life after asking two persistent questions: How do we actually change our behavior in small and large ways? And how does personal change move to societal change to meet the big systemic challenges of biodiversity loss and climate impacts? After many years of  working as environmental advocates in law and policy, grassroots organizing and filmmaking, we journeyed to find some answers.  

With our inaugural Hearth gathering in 2020, we brought together global conservation and indigenous leaders, scientists, youth voices, media and communication experts, philanthropists and system thinkers to probe the combined power of story, art and narrative. We shared the urgent need for a more true story of our profound interconnection and interdependence with the web of life. We studied social science research on human behavior and decision making. We explored the power of language and art to ignite and carry a call for collective action. We realized that the moment for transformative change is here. We leaned into the history of movement building and culture as the river that carries transformative change. 

We honor the many co-creators in this journey, helping nurture Kinship to embrace the challenge of replacing a destructive narrative with one of connection to the web of life—shared and strengthened through creative expression and infused in culture. Welcome to the journey!

- Maggie Fox and Chelsea Congdon (Kinship Founders)